Arnold, Helga, and Gerald in their current Nickelodeon incarnation, Hey Arnold! © Nickelodeon.

How We Know Him Now
In the meantime, in the spring of 1994, Bartlett developed a pilot with Nickelodeon called Hey Arnold! Bartlett says, "I think that was quite a stretch for Nickelodeon to believe this could be a series. By then I had three shorts to show them. The second film was called The Arnold Waltz and the third was called Arnold Rides His Chair. All three were for the 22nd, 23rd, 24th International Tournees of Animation. The third one was also for Sesame Street and it played a lot." Bartlett was also able to convince Nickelodeon of the merits of an animated Arnold by showing executives the Arnold comics he had drawn for Simpson's Illustrated. He believes it was "pretty cool of them, based on three little claymation shorts and some comics to think, 'This could be a series.' I am very glad they made that leap of faith."

"In the ten years I have been in L.A. there were several moments when somebody really gave me a chance," he notes. "I think when Klasky Csupo hired me to be a story editor, that was taking a chance. Things that Bob told me to do, like, `Hey, go to Spain and do a live-action film,' even though I'd never done anything like that in my life. And when I brought my films to Nickelodeon and they told me to develop the Hey Arnold! pilot."

A great deal of change and development happened when Arnold went to series. The pilot had to establish not only who Arnold was but also classmates Helga and Gerald. Bartlett sees Arnold as a sensitive kind of daydreaming kid. His best friend Gerald helps him fill that roll while Helga is his nemesis who secretly loves him. For Bartlett, the challenge of the series was trying to figure out who the characters were and getting deeper and deeper into their personalities. "By now I think our characters have really cool layers, especially Helga. She is really complicated. The more you know her, the more you understand her and like her. I don't think she is a heavy at all."

By January of 1995, the Hey Arnold! series was in production, placing Bartlett back in the Nickelodeon family but this time heading up his own series. He has been there ever since. "I don't know how long this thing will go. I suspect it will end up having a seven or eight year run, if you can believe it. It will end up being the major job of my life."

Perhaps. Or perhaps Craig Bartlett will free-fall yet again and land in yet another magical place. If he does, there's little doubt he'll be ready to make the most out of it. "There was no way to know that any of the experiences that I had before would help. But I think they do. I just think that in a way -- maybe in the best way -- all those World's Fair films helped me. They made me think, `Man if I can do this, I can do anything.'"

Joseph K. Bevilacqua, a protege of Daws Butler (the voice of Yogi Bear), is a veteran radio comedy writer, producer, actor, as well as cartoonist. His programs have aired on public radio stations nationwide since 1980 and have been honored by The Museum of Television and Radio as part of their "Contemporary Radio Humor" exhibits. He is currently developing animation scripts with his wife and creative partner, Lorie B. Kellogg. Their comedy can be heard in RealAudio and seen in comic strips on their web site, "Joe & Lorie's Comedy-O-Rama."