Nickelodeon is developing a new TV movie based on "Hey Arnold!," an animated series on air from 1996 to 2004.
No specific date has been announced as to when the TV movie will be shown but it will pick up where the original series ended and resolve some unanswered plotlines, such as where Arnold's parents are. With the revival of "Hey Arnold!," the network is formalizing the goal of building its future by taking advantage of its past.
Nickelodeon named Chris Viscardi as senior vice president for franchise property content development, tasking the co-creator of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" not only with overseeing creative strategies for key content, such as "Dora The Explorer," "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," but also with mining the network's library of original TV series for developing new shows for the modern audience.
This means that "Hey Arnold!" is not the only one getting a new lease on life, although Nickelodeon has declined to confirm other projects specifically.
"Our library has come to fruition and it's time for it to start coming back to life," said Russel Hicks, content development and production president for Nickelodeon, adding that the kids who grew up to love the network's original lineup are now at the age where they are having kids and families of their own.
Viscardi and Hicks, however, clarified that the network is not aiming to bring back older millenials to its fold. Instead, developing newer versions of Nickelodeon classics is seen as a way to create opportunities for family viewing.
If Nickelodeon is reviving some of its original shows, is there still room for completely new projects? Definitely. As Hicks reiterates, they have a robust pipeline of more than 40 things in development and over 13 new animated projects currently in production.
While it is likely to prioritize rebooting titles it controls, Nickelodeon is still open to considering content owned by others that still ran on the network, like "Doug," which is controlled by Walt Disney.
"Hey Arnold!" creator Craig Bartlett will be onboard for the TV movie project as executive producer and writer. Nickelodeon hopes to work with other creators of older shows as well.
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Photo: Jake Przespo | Flickr
