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Helga On The Couch
When a new school psychologist notices the way Helga treats Arnold and Brainy, she gets Helga to tell her story
Written by Craig Bartlett
Story by Craig Bartlett and Steve Viksten
Storyboard Direction by Tim Parsons
Animation Direction by Christine Kolosov
Storyboard Artist: Carson Kugler
Cast:
Helga - Francesca Smith
Young Helga - Katie Bartlett
Arnold - Spencer Klein
Young Arnold - Rusty Flood
Phoebe - Anndi McAfee
Harold, young Harold - Justin Shenkarow
Dr. Bliss - Kathy Baker
Principal Wartz - David Wohl
Mr. Simmons - Dan Butler
Big Bob Pataki - Maurice LaMarche
Miriam Pataki - Kath E. Soucie
Olga - Nika
Brainy - Craig Bartlett
- This is the first episode where someone other than Arnold is credited first
- The voice of young Helga is Katie Bartlett, Craig's daughter, but there's nothing
new about the show's creator's daughter being a voice; the voices of Norbert and Daggett's sisters (Stacey and
Chelsea) on The Angry Beavers
are voiced by show creator Mitchell Schauer's daughters (named, not particularly coincidentally, Stacey and Chelsea)
- This is also the first time where Helga uses the term "the Five Avengers"
to refer to her right fist, although it was mentioned in her AOL "biography" as far back as the first
season (she calls her left fist "Old Betsy" in "Downtown as Fruits") and let's keep the fact that everybody on the show has four fingers on each hand between
us (on The Simpsons,
it's the basis of a number of jokes, like "four-finger discount")
- If I was playing with animals attacking each other like Principal Wartz was,
I'd be a little worried too if there was a psychologist in the room
- Helga's shrine is connected to "The Clapper" (one of those things that
turns electrical appliances on and off when you clap twice)
- When Helga is headed for her first session, Phoebe appears to be carrying a string
bass (it could be a cello, but I think it's too big)
-
Dr. Bliss's office is inside
the "Hillwood Medical Center"; there are references to
"Hillwood City" in other episodes that make it sound like
Hillwood City is the name of the city.
- It's not a smart idea to put a dartboard on an office door - what if someone
opens before knocking?
- Helga says Olga goes to Bennington College, but in "Olga Comes Home",
it's Wellington College (there really is a Bennington College; wasn't there a time when it was the most expensive
college to attend in the USA?)
- The black-and-white scene is a takeoff on any number of 1950s-era TV comedies,
although not that many had the audience applaud when the star(s) appeared (of course, Happy
Days did this as well through 1984)
- Young Gerald is wearing his "3" shirt (instead of a "33"
shirt), as he did in "Eugene's Bike"
- Speaking of "Eugene's Bike", this isn't the first time Harold was in
the same pre-school with Arnold and Gerald, but in "Hey Harold!", Harold told Patty that he was "held
back a couple of years" (he's in the fourth grade, yet he's had his bar Mitzvah); was he held back from kindergarten?
- Helga's lunchbox looks like it's a Charlie's
Angels lunchbox (this was before the movie version was released)
- Yet Another Question Even I Didn't Know I Wanted To Ask: it's possible that the
answer to "Why would a fourth-grader like Helga wear a pink bow every day?" is "Because the first
thing Arnold ever said to her is 'I Like Your Bow'"
- Everybody at the pre-school would end up being in Helga's class years later:
Arnold, Gerald, Harold, Phoebe, Sid, Stinky, Rhonda, Eugene, and Brainy
- ...but if Rhonda and Nadine have been best friends as long as Arnold and Gerald,
where's Nadine?
- Whenever they show young Phoebe, they show her by herself
- Brainy's wearing a white bowtie at the end
- "Special Thanks: Franny"
So many people asked for pictures of the young kids that I thought I'd include
a few for once (again, this is NOT a regular feature, so don't ask to include pictures of yout favorite episodes
- besides, Nickelodeon will be showing them over and over again soon enough...)
 When Helga Met Arnold...
 
 
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