Continuing straight away from the last entry we cover those we'll miss who passed on from April-June
Kirsten Bishopric 1963-2014
Veteran Canadian Voice Actress whose credits include Zoicite from Sailor Moon among many others.
George H. Heilmeier 1936-2014
Pioneer of LCD which revolutionized television of whom without would not have gotten close to the HD era.
Bob Hoskins 1942-2014
British Actor whose roles included Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit as well as the live action Super Mario among many other roles.
Efrem Zimbalist Jr 1918-2014
Veteran actor & voice actor whose roles included Alfred from a number of DC universe cartoons as well as Dr Octopus in the 90s Spiderman among hundreds of other roles.
Kouji Yada 1933-2014
Veteran voice actor whose credits include Dr Gero from the Dragonball universe among many others including Zeff from One Piece.
Eric Hill 1927-2014
British Children's Author of Spot the Dog.
Francis Matthews 1927-2014
British Actor who provided the voice of Gerry Anderson's Puppet character Captain Scarlet in the series of the same name.
Casey Kasem 1932-2014
Radio Broadcaster and voice of Shaggy from Scooby Doo, a role he played for 40 years among other voice works including Transformers.
Steve Viksten 1960-2014
Writer for Rugrats, Hey Arnold (as well as voice of Oskar Kokoshka), Recess, Duckman and the Simpsons.
Fresh from her glorious victory against Naru, Helga is yet again the subject of another feature.
In 2000 Hey Arnold creator Craig Bartlett wrote a pilot script for a spin off show named the Patakis. This was meant to serve older audiences and center around Helga and her messed up family but ultimately Nickelodeon rejected it calling it too dark whereas MTV who were also offered it, felt it was too much like of all shows Daria.
The plot goes as follows. Helga is now 15 and ends up breaking up with Arnold after a brief relationship, however she still loves the football head and sends him letters on a regular basis since Arnold has now moved away. Her persona remains intact and is trying her hand at writing. Big Bob is still Beeper King, Miriam is still an alcoholic and Olga is still annoying, this time trying to become an actress.
Hey Arnold was a series littered with hidden meanings and Helga was usually at the forefront of it. It's been implied numerous times during Hey Arnold's run that Helga's family were messed up; well an alcoholic mother, a perfectionist older sister just one mistake away from total meltdown and an angry money obsessed father would explain Helga's behavior towards the world.
In fact to reference an episode I'd watch "Helga on the Couch" for a full explanation on why Helga loves Arnold and why Helga feels the need to be tough in public. It's because Arnold is the first to ever notice her and be kind to her, something that Helga has cherished since pre-school and the fact that she hides these feelings comes from a fear of being rejected; and apart from the episodes that focus on Helga connecting with her family, most of the time they are a really bad family. I mean it's pretty messed up to send your 4 year old daughter to pre-school on her own because the older sister is showing off her talents, in fact I have to wonder if Olga knows more than she's letting on, she has said at least once that she feels like a wind-up doll; but her obsession with perfection comes from the crippling fear of being rejected by her parents. Big Bob comes across as the type of man who's business is seen as his greatest achievement and has nothing but the highest expectations, whereas Miriam is clearly depressed and dependent on alcohol and has mentioned at least once that she made a mistake marrying Big Bob.
All this is good writing material and worth making into a teen cartoon and in this era of kickstarters it maybe worth another look.
