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Olga Comes Home
Helga's smart, talented, popular sister Olga is home for Spring Break from college, where Helga has to live in
the shadow of her overachievements - until a B+ on Olga's report card (which was an A until Helga changed
it), her first non-A since second grade, sends her into a deep depression
Written by Steve Viksten
Storyboard Direction by Stark Howell
Animation Direction by Larry Leichliter
Storyboard Artist: Tricia Garcia
Cast:
Arnold - Toran Caudell
Helga - Francesca Marie Smith
Big Bob Pataki - Maurice LaMarche
Miriam Pataki - Kath Soucie
Miss Slovak - Tress MacNeille
Olga - Nika Futterman
- One of the photos of Olga in Miss Slovak's class is in front of P.S. 193; it
appears as if Olga had something to do with its construction, as she appears to be standing in front of a drawing
of it
- Miss Slovak has gray hair in this story; it's brown in other stories (but fans
of The Simpsons know there's nothing
new about a teacher's hair changing color; Lisa's teacher has had brown, blue, and red hair)
- When Miss Slovak writes Olga's name on the blackboard, she uses her left hand,
but she writes it to her right (actually, quite a few cartoon characters write on chalkboards left-handed, so their
bodies won't be in front of what they've just written)
- Up to this point, none of the scenes in Arnold's class had ever shown Stinky
at any of the desks
- If there is a real Wellington College somewhere in North America, it does a very
good job of hiding itself (the other reference to "Wellington": it's Rhonda's middle name, but that's
not mentioned until the second season)
- In "Spelling Bee", young Olga has one eyebrow (like Big Bob and Helga
still do), but now Olga is eyebrowless (like Miriam)
- When Helga and Olga are shown together the first time, Helga appears to be a
lot shorter than she usually is (although she is slouching slightly); Helga appears to be much taller, or Olga
much shorter, in the final scene
- Music lesson: the piece Olga is playing sounds like it's from the first movement
of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major by Bach (which wasn't written for piano, so the arrangement may be
off slightly)
- Looks Like Lisa Simpson Was Here: One of the things on the lunch menu is "Vegetarian
Fish and Chips" (and, like Lisa, Olga is "an overachiever and proud of it")
- Helga tells Arnold "catfish are jumpin' and the cotton is high", which
is almost a line from Porgy and Bess (the actual line, from the song
"Summertime", is "fish
are jumpin'..."), which was originally written as an
opera, but then was converted to a musical; nowadays, it is almost always done
as an opera
- Between you and me, straight A's are not that big of a deal; in my pre-college years, 12 of the 13 report cards I got had at least one
B (or worse...), but it never hurt me any (of course, this is from someone in his mid-30s who not only still watches
cartoons on TV but freeze-frames through them...)
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Sally's Comet
Arnold and Gerald plan to see Sally's Comet, which only appears once every 70 years, but how can they do it if
the city lights are too bright to be able to see even the stars?
Written by Joseph Purdy
Storyboard Direction by Dan Povenmire
Animation Direction by Howie Parkins
Storyboard Artist: Sherm Cohen
Cast:
Arnold - Toran Caudell
Gerald - Jamil W. Smith
Helga - Francesca Marie Smith
Harold - Justin Shenkarow
Stinky, (uncredited) Young Phil - Christopher P. Walberg
Grandpa - Dan Castellaneta
Harvey - Lou Rawls
Oskar, Caesar (listening to Gerald's speech) (both uncredited) - Steve Viksten
Radio DJ, (uncredited) Grandpa's father - Craig Bartlett
- This is the first time Grandpa's first name (Phil) is used
- The tube list the Sunset Arms address as 4040 Vineland, but in "Magic Show"
and "Abner Come Home" it's 4040 Vine Street
- Obviously, Sally's Comet is named similarly to Halley's comet (Halley rhymes
with Sally - "HAL-lee", not "HAY-lee"), which also appears every 70 years or so (it's
actually closer to 80)
- The telescope is larger than the tube it came in, and there was certainly no
room for the tripod
- I know the price of cereal is high, but the telescope is rather good for 50 boxtops
- When Arnold sends the boxtops, the stamp (or at least the space for it) is on
the upper left corner of the envelope
- MJZZ ("M-Jazz") is located somewhere around 900 on the AM dial
- Astronomy lessons:
- "Where does Sally's comet go?" It orbits the Sun, just like Earth does,
but its orbit is very long and quite "thin"
- Comets that are that bright appear for more than one night
- If a comet is close enough to streak by, start worrying!
- The brightest comets can be seen even with all of those lights; that's one of
the reasons they're such a big deal
- When Arnold rips off one of the boxtops, the box has a ragged edge which suddenly
turns into a smooth edge
- When Gerald gives his speech on the street, Monkeyman is one of the people listening
to it
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