One Of Hey Arnold's Most Emotional Episodes Was Nearly Killed By Nickelodeon
'90s Nicktoons were a special era of animation. Shows like "Rugrats," "The Wild Thornberries," and "Doug" offered colorful, funny stories for kids, but if you watched them long enough, they also occasionally told heartfelt stories with a purpose. Few of those sincere stories have held a place in viewers' hearts and minds decades later quite like "Arnold's Christmas," the "Hey Arnold" holiday special that shared the heartbreaking backstory of one of its characters.
"Arnold's Christmas" aired during the show's first season in 1996, and a simple plot about a Secret Santa gift exchange gave way to one of the series' most emotional scenes. Arnold draws neighbor Mr. Hyunh's (Baoan Coleman) name for the exchange, and when he tries to get to know his Vietnamese neighbor, he ended up learning about the daughter Mr. Hyunh was forced to part ways with before coming to America. We see the pair's story told via a profoundly touching flashback that's simple enough for kids to follow, yet serious enough to leave adults who watch along with tears in their eyes, too.
/Film's Rafael Motamayor recently spoke with "Hey Arnold" writer-producer Joe Ansolabehere, and he revealed details about how the episode ultimately came to be — and how it almost didn't. "Steve [Viksten, who also developed the show] had been pitching this story since the Mr. Hyunh character had been invented about a flashback to Vietnam, but the network kept saying no," Ansolabehere recalled. Though portrayals of American involvement in Vietnam remained controversial even after the war ended, it doesn't sound like the network had concerns about the specific war being portrayed: rather, he says they just didn't think kids would care about a story like this.
A war story kids can understand
The pair, along with series creator Craig Bartlett, managed to get their episode outline approved, but once it was already in production, Nickelodeon rejected it. At that point, half of the episode was animated, concluding with the gutting flashback that shows Mr. Hyunh handing his baby daughter Mai to an American helicopter pilot who had room for just one refugee. The pilot yells the name of the city he'd take Mai to, and Mr. Hyunh has been looking for her ever since. A Nickelodeon executive ended up taking the animatic home, with final say over whether or not it would continue.
"She popped it in and her son, who was like nine, was sitting there and watched it," Ansolabehere shared. "And it got to the end of the Vietnam thing, where he's holding the baby up and the helicopter guys take the baby and everything ... And the little boy turned to his mom and said, 'Mom, is that what Vietnam was all about?'" Apparently, this moment alone — the executive's son's curious and level response to the mature story — led her to approve "Arnold's Christmas" after all. The episode ends with another miracle, as Mr. Hyunh reunites with his daughter after years apart. Decades later, it remains a rare and crucial moment of Asian-American representation in children's programming, one that tugs at young viewers' heartstrings while neither traumatizing them nor sugar coating the realities of refugee stories.
In the end, Ansolabehere says that the success of "Hey Arnold" had to do with writers never underestimating kids, and understanding that they're savvier than they get credit for. "They hear what's going on in the adult world," he says. "I think that was the key to why 'Arnold,' when it was really good, was really good."