“Hey Arnold! was ahead of its time. When I watch it now, the issues and the things that Craig and Steve [Viksten] and Joe [Purdy] and everyone else who was writing on the show, the things that they were able to deal with and confront, when I watch it now I’m like, wow, that’s social commentary, that’s critique, that’s real stuff. But they were able to do it in such a way that they weren’t pushing issues in your face, they were just talking about life and it just so happens that those are things, if you’re honest, that you don’t typically see in cartoons.” – Jamil Walker Smith, voice of Gerald Johanssen in Hey Arnold!

In honor of Black History Month, our archives team uncovered this original character art for Gerald, one of our first African-American Nicktoon characters, and his first scene in the pilot episode, which premiered October 7th, 1996.