Helga G. Pataki
Encyclopedia
Helga G. Pataki is a fictional character
in the Nickelodeon
animated
television series
Hey Arnold!
, voiced by Francesca Marie Smith
.
stated that the initial "G." stands for "Geraldine" and is tribute to former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne
. In the series, Helga is apparently named after her older sister Olga Pataki. The names Olga and Helga are variants (respectively, Russian and German) of the same name. Thus Saint Olga
, a princess of Kievan Rus'
, was called "Olga" by her Slavic
subjects and "Helga" by Varangian
ones. Her surname, Pataki, is originally a Hungarian surname, Patak
("brook", in Hungarian
).
, as evidenced by her interest in playing contact sports alongside her male classmates, blatant lack of femininity
and disregard, to near dislike, for stereotypical female behavior, as seen in the episode "Helga's Makeover." She can also be very sarcastic, cynical and bossy, bullying her fourth-grade classmates with an iron fist, and often taking advantage of her best friend, Phoebe. However, Helga also has a much softer side, which becomes apparent mostly when she is alone and in her school work. She is heavily emotional, and as such, able to comprehend a spectrum of emotions such as love
and hate
. Occasionally, Helga has acted in a more selfless manner, the biggest examples being when Helga blackmailed Olga's cheating boyfriend into leaving, knowing Olga would be miserable with him, and when she helped in finding Mr. Hyunh's daughter. During both these events, Helga made sure she was able to cover up her involvement. This emotional extremity is a running joke throughout the series; although Helga is seen as a "tough girl" by her classmates, she is frequently the first to go into hysterics in times of crisis.
Helga is extremely intelligent. In the episode "The Aptitude Test," in which the class takes a standardized exam, it is eventually revealed that she achieved a perfect score on the test and the most outstanding result since her perfectionist sister, Olga Pataki, took the test. Presumably, however, the types of grades she receives on an average basis in school vary from low to high — in the episode "Quantity Time," Helga tells her parents that she failed another Math test at school, though in "A Day in the Life of a Classroom," her teacher Mr. Simmons encourages Helga to help Harold because she received excellent scores on the past two Math exams. Her bad grades are most likely caused by her lack of motivation, attention (from both her family and Arnold) and academic concern. Helga appears to excel academically in literature classes, as evidenced by Mr. Simmons' constant praise of her literary work, though he always withholds her name, possibly out of respect as she gets embarrassed when he reads them aloud. Helga is shown in some episodes to have somewhat severe musophobia: she states she cannot stand rats
. Helga displays a remarkable gift for poetry, creating dramatic soliloquies expressing a situation or feeling with a generous use of vocabulary, especially for someone her age. These instances were more simple in the earlier episodes, but as the series progressed, grew in their intensity. Aside from poetry, Helga exhibits further aspects of cultural experience, being able to identify the work of Edward Hopper
and make reference to George Orwell
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
in "Helga on the Couch."
, despite the fact that she is constantly teasing him and calling him names (usually 'Football Head', in reference to his rather oddly shaped head). She creates many pieces of art to express her love for him, including a shrine in her closet featuring a sculpture
of his head. Various episodes have her going to the extreme to prevent her secret from being exposed. One such example is the episode “Helga Blabs it All” in which, under the influence of nitrous oxide
(laughing gas) from a dental filling, she leaves a love declaration on Arnold’s answering machine. After beating up and taking the clothes of a “Campfire Lass” (equivalent to Girl Scouts of the USA), she pretends to be selling cookies in order to gain entry to Arnold's house and steal the tape before he can hear it. In one of the show's most noteworthy episodes, "Helga on the Couch", she actually discusses her obsession with the school psychiatrist (voiced by Kathy Baker
). Herein it is revealed her limerence
towards Arnold is the result of transference
; where her family relationships were weak, Helga subsequently transferred all feelings of love towards the one person who fulfilled her idea of care, Arnold. This is revealed by a flashback in which during Helga's first day of pre-school, her family seemed to completely ignore her existence, forcing her to make the trek to school alone in the rain and mud. Upon arriving at school, it is Arnold who offers her a helping hand and true kindness.
Helga confesses her love after being caught helping Arnold, by Arnold, in Hey Arnold!: The Movie
though the two both agree afterward that it was in the heat of the moment.
It is also sometimes hinted in the series Arnold has strong feelings for Helga. Events in episodes like "Married," with Arnold's nightmare of married life climaxing with a heartfelt attempt by the dream Helga to express her love, also implies he has as much trouble as Helga has coming to terms with how deep his feelings are. The show's producer, Craig Bartlett, revealed during an Internet chat that had the second movie, The Jungle Movie (which was planned but never produced), been made, Arnold would have realized he and Helga were meant for each other, and finally reciprocated her feelings.
Although Helga has acknowledged her feelings regarding Arnold, she opts to keep them private by publicly denying and rejecting Arnold through displays of verbal abuse. It is suggested in various episodes that Helga treats Arnold as such due to her fear that revealing her true feelings would cause her embarrassment and humiliation. In "Helga On The Couch," Helga also expresses her fear of being rejected by Arnold.
for the series. In one episode, Helga believed she had lost contact with her emotions and simply responded casually to Brainy and left, he became nervous and ended up punching himself, suggesting that Brainy is used to being injured by Helga.
, where she noticed Helga desperately wanted to play Juliet when Arnold was selected to play Romeo. She gets Helga to confess to her of these feelings, which she does, and allows her to take her place as Juliet (which leads Helga to take full advantage of the death kiss scene, kissing him for a full minute). She also helped Helga act more kind towards others, though disregarded this advice after Arnold accidentally called her Lila.
e hair, which she wears in long pigtails without any visible hair ties, and a black unibrow. The color of Helga's eyes was stated to be blue by Arnold in the episode "Married," and there was actually a close up of them in "Helga Blabs it All" in which we get to see that her eyes are in fact, blue.
. Her parents do not pay her any attention in a majority of the episodes. However, two episodes that show Helga getting attention from her parents are "Quantity Time" and in "The Beeper Queen." The only family member that gives her attention is her perfectionist sister, Olga. But Helga feels that her sister is disingenuous. It is heavily suggested that Helga's home situation is the root cause of her anti-social behavior.
), a successful pager salesman who suffers from workaholism, rarely notices her existence, favoring her over-achieving, neurotic college-aged sister Olga, whom Helga rarely gets along with. Helga refers to him as "Bob" or "Big Bob," indicating she does not really see him as her father. Bob generally does not pay attention to Helga unless she is involved in a competition, but only to serve his own competitiveness or to encourage Helga to become a carbon copy of Olga. In "Spelling Bee", Big Bob pushes Helga into winning for the sake of the family name. In most episodes, Big Bob prefers watching his big screen television to listening to Helga, and usually, absent-mindedly calls her "Olga."
Although Big Bob is far more boorish in personality, he and Helga share some similarities that occasionally bond them. Both enjoy wrestling, ridiculing melodramatic theater, bullying, and eating. They also share similar speaking patterns, though Helga possesses a better command of language. Helga is deeply resentful of Big Bob's excessive attention to Olga. He also owns high-end vehicles, a Hummer
and a Lincoln. However, Bob does care about Helga and it is apparent that he has difficulty showing her affection. In the episode "Quantity Time," Helga finally has enough and tells her dad to leave her alone. Initially Bob doesn't understand why Helga is upset. But he eventually realizes that he was being selfish and tries to make it up to Helga. He goes into her bedroom and removes an advertisement that a sleeping Helga left on her bed. He purchases tickets to take Helga to a play not realizing that she was interested in attending a wrestling match that had been advertised on the opposite side. In the end, Helga and Bob enjoy criticizing the play and have a bonding moment.
) was born in late 1951 or early 1952 (she says that the Summer of Love
happened when she was 15). Indicated by the presence of beepers and larger cell phones, the series is set in the mid-1990s, meaning Miriam had her first child, Olga, in the mid- to late 1970s while being in her mid-20s. When Helga was born in the mid-1980s, Miriam would have been in her early to mid-30s. This corresponds closely with Helga's voice actress Francesca Smith's birthday in 1985 when Hey Arnold! premiered in 1996. In "Olga Gets Engaged," Miriam advises Olga not to make the same marital mistake she did, and in "Road Trip", Miriam reveals that she used to be a rodeo queen
. In "Olga Gets Engaged," Miriam mentions to Olga's intended fiancé that she was once an Olympic class swimmer and would have most likely been a contender for the 1972 Summer Olympics
in Munich
had she not married Big Bob.
Miriam often gives off hints of being an alcoholic
: she looks depressed, speaks in a slow, slurred voice, exhibits emotional detachment from her husband and children, is often found asleep in odd places (behind the couch, on the living room table), drinks "smoothies" (some of which have items normally found in cocktails, such as Tabasco sauce and celery stalks) and coffee (in a misguided attempt to stay sober). She also has to do a "community service job" at an animal shelter, indicating she has committed some sort of offense. It's also implied (according to the episodes "The Beeper Queen" and "Road Trip") that Miriam is a horrible driver and has had her license revoked, possibly for drunk driving, which may or may not tie in with the community service job she was sentenced. In the episode "Olga Comes Home," Helga changes one of Olga's grades sending her sister into a tail spin of depression. In one scene when Miriam and Bob look into Olga's bedroom to see her crying in bed, Bob says "She can't just mope around in bed all day. It's not good." Whereby Miriam replies "Why not? I do it all the time." This implies that Miriam suffers from depression which would probably tie into her alcoholism. Helga also refers to her mother as "Miriam" and relates poorly to her.
Though apathetic at home, it is suggested in multiple episodes that Miriam is capable of improving her life, but is stunted by her marriage to an overbearing Big Bob Pataki. In the episode "The Beeper Queen," Miriam's abilities are showcased when she fills in for Big Bob at his Beeper Emporium when he must stay home due to a back injury. Miriam packs Helga an exceptionally nutritious lunch, shares stories and listens to Helga, and helps Helga with her homework.
) suffers from perfectionism
which creates a great strain on her relationship with Helga. She and Helga do not relate to each other well, causing great conflict and resentment on Helga's behalf (Much of the resentment is exerted by Helga, for Olga doesn't seem to resent her little sister at all). Helga is jealous of Olga's image of perfection and the attention she receives from both Big Bob and Miriam. In the episode "Helga on the Couch" she tells the school psychologist Dr. Bliss about her homelife. The viewer is soon taken back in time to when Helga was a toddler and in the scene, Olga is playing a tune on the grand piano for their parents. When Olga finishes the tune, she receives praise from Bob and Miriam. However, when Helga interrupts by tugging on Bob's pants to tell him "I have to go to preschool!" He replies "Not now! Go play or something." Eventually Helga announces that she's leaving for preschool. All the while Bob, Miriam and Olga ignore her as she walks out the door. Soon the episode returns to a 9 year old Helga talking to the school psychologist and revealing once again that she believes Olga hogs all the attention and is insincere. However, through out the series, viewers only see the sibling relationship from Helga's point of view. The viewer doesn't know with any certainty if Olga is intentionally a selfish attention seeker as Helga perceives her to be or in denial and oblivious to the family dysfunction. Over all, Olga is kind to Helga and has good intentions. But Helga does not respond to her kindness because she feels it is insincere, as Olga does not listen to or address Helga's more serious concerns about their family and relationship since she has a tendency to view life through rose colored glasses. Olga condescends to Helga, calling her "baby sister" which Helga finds irksome. However, during one episode, Olga, rather dramatically, retreated to her bedroom for a few days, believing that she had got a B+ grade on her report card rather than her usual straight A's. It turned out that Helga had deliberately changed it to knock her sister down a peg or two and to gain some attention for herself. Later in the episode it is revealed that Olga does feel pressured by their parents, telling Helga that she's lucky that their parents don't notice her, whilst Olga "has to perform all the time like some little wind up doll". This indicates that to some extent, both sister's are envious of one anothers situation.
However, there are times where Helga showed some affection and concern for Olga. In the episode "Big Sis", when Olga becomes Lila's big sis after joining a "Big Sis, Little Sis" program, Helga continually tries to muck up Olga and Lila's plans unbeknownst to them. At the end, she reveals to Olga that she is jealous and envious of the relationship she has with Lila. Helga is reassured by Olga that she will always be her "baby sis" and that they have a strong "bond" that only real sisters have that no one can break. If she really didn't like Olga, she wouldn't have been jealous of her spending time with Lila and wouldn't have exerted all her time and energy into messing things up. In another episode when Olga becomes engaged to a man named "Doug," it becomes apparent to Helga that he is unfaithful. Initially Helga is amused at the thought of Olga marrying Doug and becoming a disappointment to their parents. But at the end of the episode, Helga has second thoughts and intervenes on Olga's behalf which helped end her sister's risky engagement to Doug. Also worth making note of is in the episode titled "Student Teacher" when Olga becomes Helga's assistant teacher. In this episode Helga does everything in her power to make Olga lose her assistant teacher/internship position at her school and urges Olga to become a teacher in Alaska as was Olga's original plan. After Helga has a heart to heart conversation with Olga, she eventually convinces Olga to leave for Alaska. The episode ends with Helga reading a post card she received from Olga and writing a letter in response. Helga initially writes "From" and then looks at a picture she has of Olga. After looking at the picture of her sister, she crosses out the word from and instead writes "Love."
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Hey Arnold!
Hey Arnold!
Hey Arnold! is an American animated television series created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. The show's premise focuses on a fourth grader named Arnold who lives with his grandparents. Episodes center on his experiences navigating big city life while dealing with the problems he and his friends...
, voiced by Francesca Marie Smith
Francesca Smith
Francesca Marie Smith is an American actress. She is best known for the voice of Helga Pataki on Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!.-Private life:Smith graduated in Linguistics at California's Stanford University...
.
Name
Helga's second name never was revealed in the show except by her initial, but in one of the chats Craig BartlettCraig Bartlett
Craig Michael Bartlett is an animator best known for writing for Rugrats and creating the television series Hey Arnold!.-Career:...
stated that the initial "G." stands for "Geraldine" and is tribute to former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne
Geraldine Laybourne
Geraldine Laybourne founded Oxygen Media and served as its chairman and chief executive officer until it was sold in 2007 to NBC Universal. Oxygen was launched in 2000 to fill a void in the television landscape—creating a television network targeted to younger women...
. In the series, Helga is apparently named after her older sister Olga Pataki. The names Olga and Helga are variants (respectively, Russian and German) of the same name. Thus Saint Olga
Olga of Kiev
Saint Olga , or Olga the Beauty, hypothetically Old Norse: Helga In some Scandinavian sources she was called other name. born c. 890 died 11 July 969, Kiev) was a ruler of Kievan Rus' as regent Saint Olga , or Olga the Beauty, hypothetically Old Norse: Helga In some Scandinavian sources she was...
, a princess of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
, was called "Olga" by her Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
subjects and "Helga" by Varangian
Varangians
The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...
ones. Her surname, Pataki, is originally a Hungarian surname, Patak
Patak
Patak may refer to:Afghanistan:* Patak, AfghanistanHungarian language:* Magyarised form from Slavonic word "potok"** Sárospatak , a town in northern Hungary...
("brook", in Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
).
Personality
Helga is something of a tomboyTomboy
A tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...
, as evidenced by her interest in playing contact sports alongside her male classmates, blatant lack of femininity
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
and disregard, to near dislike, for stereotypical female behavior, as seen in the episode "Helga's Makeover." She can also be very sarcastic, cynical and bossy, bullying her fourth-grade classmates with an iron fist, and often taking advantage of her best friend, Phoebe. However, Helga also has a much softer side, which becomes apparent mostly when she is alone and in her school work. She is heavily emotional, and as such, able to comprehend a spectrum of emotions such as love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
and hate
Hatred
Hatred is a deep and emotional extreme dislike, directed against a certain object or class of objects. The objects of such hatred can vary widely, from inanimate objects to animals, oneself or other people, entire groups of people, people in general, existence, or the whole world...
. Occasionally, Helga has acted in a more selfless manner, the biggest examples being when Helga blackmailed Olga's cheating boyfriend into leaving, knowing Olga would be miserable with him, and when she helped in finding Mr. Hyunh's daughter. During both these events, Helga made sure she was able to cover up her involvement. This emotional extremity is a running joke throughout the series; although Helga is seen as a "tough girl" by her classmates, she is frequently the first to go into hysterics in times of crisis.
Helga is extremely intelligent. In the episode "The Aptitude Test," in which the class takes a standardized exam, it is eventually revealed that she achieved a perfect score on the test and the most outstanding result since her perfectionist sister, Olga Pataki, took the test. Presumably, however, the types of grades she receives on an average basis in school vary from low to high — in the episode "Quantity Time," Helga tells her parents that she failed another Math test at school, though in "A Day in the Life of a Classroom," her teacher Mr. Simmons encourages Helga to help Harold because she received excellent scores on the past two Math exams. Her bad grades are most likely caused by her lack of motivation, attention (from both her family and Arnold) and academic concern. Helga appears to excel academically in literature classes, as evidenced by Mr. Simmons' constant praise of her literary work, though he always withholds her name, possibly out of respect as she gets embarrassed when he reads them aloud. Helga is shown in some episodes to have somewhat severe musophobia: she states she cannot stand rats
RATS
RATS may refer to:* RATS , Regression Analysis of Time Series, a statistical package* Rough Auditing Tool for Security, a computer program...
. Helga displays a remarkable gift for poetry, creating dramatic soliloquies expressing a situation or feeling with a generous use of vocabulary, especially for someone her age. These instances were more simple in the earlier episodes, but as the series progressed, grew in their intensity. Aside from poetry, Helga exhibits further aspects of cultural experience, being able to identify the work of Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
and make reference to George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
in "Helga on the Couch."
- In the episode "Quantity Time," it is revealed she is allergic to strawberries and that eating them gives her hives.
- In the episode "Love Potion", Helga's mother, Miriam, yells into her bedroom asking her if she took her constipation medicine in which Helga responds with a yes.
Relationships with peers
Helga is regarded by most of her peers as a bully. She makes rude remarks and does not hesitate to use or threaten physical force to get her way, which intimidates many of her classmates. She even gave her fists names: Ol' Betsy and the Five Avengers.Arnold
Helga is secretly in love with ArnoldArnold (Hey Arnold!)
Arnold is a fictional character and the titular protagonist in the Nickelodeon animated television series Hey Arnold!. His head is shaped like an American football, thus earning him the nickname "Football-Head", by Helga. Throughout the series' run, he was voiced by at least five different voice...
, despite the fact that she is constantly teasing him and calling him names (usually 'Football Head', in reference to his rather oddly shaped head). She creates many pieces of art to express her love for him, including a shrine in her closet featuring a sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
of his head. Various episodes have her going to the extreme to prevent her secret from being exposed. One such example is the episode “Helga Blabs it All” in which, under the influence of nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
(laughing gas) from a dental filling, she leaves a love declaration on Arnold’s answering machine. After beating up and taking the clothes of a “Campfire Lass” (equivalent to Girl Scouts of the USA), she pretends to be selling cookies in order to gain entry to Arnold's house and steal the tape before he can hear it. In one of the show's most noteworthy episodes, "Helga on the Couch", she actually discusses her obsession with the school psychiatrist (voiced by Kathy Baker
Kathy Baker
Katherine Whitton "Kathy" Baker is an American stage, film and television actress.-Career:Baker began her career at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, performing in several of Sam Shepard's plays before getting her break in an off-Broadway production of Fool for Love opposite Ed Harris...
). Herein it is revealed her limerence
Limerence
Limerence is a term coined c. 1977 by the psychologist Dorothy Tennov to describe an involuntary state of mind which seems to result from a romantic attraction to another person combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one's feelings reciprocated...
towards Arnold is the result of transference
Transference
Transference is a phenomenon in psychoanalysis characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another. One definition of transference is "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood." Another definition is "the...
; where her family relationships were weak, Helga subsequently transferred all feelings of love towards the one person who fulfilled her idea of care, Arnold. This is revealed by a flashback in which during Helga's first day of pre-school, her family seemed to completely ignore her existence, forcing her to make the trek to school alone in the rain and mud. Upon arriving at school, it is Arnold who offers her a helping hand and true kindness.
Helga confesses her love after being caught helping Arnold, by Arnold, in Hey Arnold!: The Movie
Hey Arnold!: The Movie
Hey Arnold!: The Movie is a 2002 animated film based on the 1996-2004 Nickelodeon animated television series Hey Arnold!. The film was released in theaters on June 28, 2002...
though the two both agree afterward that it was in the heat of the moment.
It is also sometimes hinted in the series Arnold has strong feelings for Helga. Events in episodes like "Married," with Arnold's nightmare of married life climaxing with a heartfelt attempt by the dream Helga to express her love, also implies he has as much trouble as Helga has coming to terms with how deep his feelings are. The show's producer, Craig Bartlett, revealed during an Internet chat that had the second movie, The Jungle Movie (which was planned but never produced), been made, Arnold would have realized he and Helga were meant for each other, and finally reciprocated her feelings.
Although Helga has acknowledged her feelings regarding Arnold, she opts to keep them private by publicly denying and rejecting Arnold through displays of verbal abuse. It is suggested in various episodes that Helga treats Arnold as such due to her fear that revealing her true feelings would cause her embarrassment and humiliation. In "Helga On The Couch," Helga also expresses her fear of being rejected by Arnold.
Phoebe Heyerdahl
Phoebe Heyerdahl is Helga's confidant. The conflict between Phoebe's quieter, less demanding personality and Helga's more aggressive one occasionally emerges in episodes such as "Hall Monitor", "Preteen Scream", and "Phoebe Breaks a Leg". Phoebe often follows Helga around, taking down notes and appearing more as an assistant rather than a friend to Helga. However, the two do care about each other, as they listen to each other's concerns and help each other out. Phoebe knows about Helga's love for Arnold, and the two refer to him as "Ice Cream" when talking about him (as seen in "Helga's Love potion"). She is also understanding of Helga's rocky relationship with her family. A running gag throughout the series is when Helga says something embarrassing, she orders Phoebe to forget what she just said, which leads Phoebe to cheerfully state "forgetting".Brainy
In contrast to Helga's feelings towards Arnold, she is almost always followed by Brainy in each episode, where he is right behind her breathing very hard (usually after one of Helga's emotional monologues). Though it's apparent that he is in love with Helga, she never returns the feelings as mutual; on scant occasions, she has kissed him due to something going right for her. Usually, every encounter with Brainy has Helga punching him between the eyes, which became a running gagRunning gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
for the series. In one episode, Helga believed she had lost contact with her emotions and simply responded casually to Brainy and left, he became nervous and ended up punching himself, suggesting that Brainy is used to being injured by Helga.
Lila Sawyer
Helga is very envious of Lila Sawyer, who is the object of Arnold's affections in season 3's "Arnold & Lila" and onwards. Unlike Helga, Lila displays indiscriminating compassion, wit, and stylishnes. However, she was able to figure out that Helga was in love with Arnold during the play of Romeo & JulietRomeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, where she noticed Helga desperately wanted to play Juliet when Arnold was selected to play Romeo. She gets Helga to confess to her of these feelings, which she does, and allows her to take her place as Juliet (which leads Helga to take full advantage of the death kiss scene, kissing him for a full minute). She also helped Helga act more kind towards others, though disregarded this advice after Arnold accidentally called her Lila.
- In the episode "Big Sis", it is evident that Lila and Olga have similar personalities and interests. This in conjunction with Arnold's crush on Lila, may also explain why Helga doesn't particularly care for her.
Appearance
Like the other characters on the show, Helga's attire rarely changes: she usually wears a pink dress over a white shirt, a large pink bow in her hair and white shoes. She has bright, blondBlond
Blond or blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
e hair, which she wears in long pigtails without any visible hair ties, and a black unibrow. The color of Helga's eyes was stated to be blue by Arnold in the episode "Married," and there was actually a close up of them in "Helga Blabs it All" in which we get to see that her eyes are in fact, blue.
- In the episode "Student Teacher", in the car on the way home from the airport, Olga comments on Helga's bow and asks her if it's new. Helga promptly replies "I've only worn it since I was four."
Family
Helga has a very dysfunctional familyDysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
. Her parents do not pay her any attention in a majority of the episodes. However, two episodes that show Helga getting attention from her parents are "Quantity Time" and in "The Beeper Queen." The only family member that gives her attention is her perfectionist sister, Olga. But Helga feels that her sister is disingenuous. It is heavily suggested that Helga's home situation is the root cause of her anti-social behavior.
Robert "Big Bob" Pataki
Helga's father (Maurice LaMarcheMaurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...
), a successful pager salesman who suffers from workaholism, rarely notices her existence, favoring her over-achieving, neurotic college-aged sister Olga, whom Helga rarely gets along with. Helga refers to him as "Bob" or "Big Bob," indicating she does not really see him as her father. Bob generally does not pay attention to Helga unless she is involved in a competition, but only to serve his own competitiveness or to encourage Helga to become a carbon copy of Olga. In "Spelling Bee", Big Bob pushes Helga into winning for the sake of the family name. In most episodes, Big Bob prefers watching his big screen television to listening to Helga, and usually, absent-mindedly calls her "Olga."
Although Big Bob is far more boorish in personality, he and Helga share some similarities that occasionally bond them. Both enjoy wrestling, ridiculing melodramatic theater, bullying, and eating. They also share similar speaking patterns, though Helga possesses a better command of language. Helga is deeply resentful of Big Bob's excessive attention to Olga. He also owns high-end vehicles, a Hummer
Hummer
Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...
and a Lincoln. However, Bob does care about Helga and it is apparent that he has difficulty showing her affection. In the episode "Quantity Time," Helga finally has enough and tells her dad to leave her alone. Initially Bob doesn't understand why Helga is upset. But he eventually realizes that he was being selfish and tries to make it up to Helga. He goes into her bedroom and removes an advertisement that a sleeping Helga left on her bed. He purchases tickets to take Helga to a play not realizing that she was interested in attending a wrestling match that had been advertised on the opposite side. In the end, Helga and Bob enjoy criticizing the play and have a bonding moment.
- Bob Pataki has a unibrow which Helga evidently inherited.
Miriam Pataki
As indicated in the episode "Road Trip," her mother Miriam (Kath SoucieKath Soucie
Katherine Elaine Soucie is an American voice actress. She is sometimes credited as Kath Soucie, Katherine Soucie, Kath Souci, Kath E...
) was born in late 1951 or early 1952 (she says that the Summer of Love
Summer of Love
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
happened when she was 15). Indicated by the presence of beepers and larger cell phones, the series is set in the mid-1990s, meaning Miriam had her first child, Olga, in the mid- to late 1970s while being in her mid-20s. When Helga was born in the mid-1980s, Miriam would have been in her early to mid-30s. This corresponds closely with Helga's voice actress Francesca Smith's birthday in 1985 when Hey Arnold! premiered in 1996. In "Olga Gets Engaged," Miriam advises Olga not to make the same marital mistake she did, and in "Road Trip", Miriam reveals that she used to be a rodeo queen
Rodeo queen
A rodeo queen is a female representative and "face" of the sport of rodeo. She represents her rodeo, association, or region for a standard time of usually 12 months and is usually required to wear a cowboy hat, crown, and banner with her title on it. Being a rodeo queen requires skills in western...
. In "Olga Gets Engaged," Miriam mentions to Olga's intended fiancé that she was once an Olympic class swimmer and would have most likely been a contender for the 1972 Summer Olympics
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
had she not married Big Bob.
Miriam often gives off hints of being an alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
: she looks depressed, speaks in a slow, slurred voice, exhibits emotional detachment from her husband and children, is often found asleep in odd places (behind the couch, on the living room table), drinks "smoothies" (some of which have items normally found in cocktails, such as Tabasco sauce and celery stalks) and coffee (in a misguided attempt to stay sober). She also has to do a "community service job" at an animal shelter, indicating she has committed some sort of offense. It's also implied (according to the episodes "The Beeper Queen" and "Road Trip") that Miriam is a horrible driver and has had her license revoked, possibly for drunk driving, which may or may not tie in with the community service job she was sentenced. In the episode "Olga Comes Home," Helga changes one of Olga's grades sending her sister into a tail spin of depression. In one scene when Miriam and Bob look into Olga's bedroom to see her crying in bed, Bob says "She can't just mope around in bed all day. It's not good." Whereby Miriam replies "Why not? I do it all the time." This implies that Miriam suffers from depression which would probably tie into her alcoholism. Helga also refers to her mother as "Miriam" and relates poorly to her.
Though apathetic at home, it is suggested in multiple episodes that Miriam is capable of improving her life, but is stunted by her marriage to an overbearing Big Bob Pataki. In the episode "The Beeper Queen," Miriam's abilities are showcased when she fills in for Big Bob at his Beeper Emporium when he must stay home due to a back injury. Miriam packs Helga an exceptionally nutritious lunch, shares stories and listens to Helga, and helps Helga with her homework.
Olga Pataki
Olga (Nika FrostNika Futterman
Nika Futterman is an American actress, singer, voice artist, and comedienne.She did the vocals "Give it to me, baby" in The Offspring hit single "Pretty Fly ."-Animated Series:...
) suffers from perfectionism
Perfectionism (psychology)
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that a state of completeness and flawlessness can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable...
which creates a great strain on her relationship with Helga. She and Helga do not relate to each other well, causing great conflict and resentment on Helga's behalf (Much of the resentment is exerted by Helga, for Olga doesn't seem to resent her little sister at all). Helga is jealous of Olga's image of perfection and the attention she receives from both Big Bob and Miriam. In the episode "Helga on the Couch" she tells the school psychologist Dr. Bliss about her homelife. The viewer is soon taken back in time to when Helga was a toddler and in the scene, Olga is playing a tune on the grand piano for their parents. When Olga finishes the tune, she receives praise from Bob and Miriam. However, when Helga interrupts by tugging on Bob's pants to tell him "I have to go to preschool!" He replies "Not now! Go play or something." Eventually Helga announces that she's leaving for preschool. All the while Bob, Miriam and Olga ignore her as she walks out the door. Soon the episode returns to a 9 year old Helga talking to the school psychologist and revealing once again that she believes Olga hogs all the attention and is insincere. However, through out the series, viewers only see the sibling relationship from Helga's point of view. The viewer doesn't know with any certainty if Olga is intentionally a selfish attention seeker as Helga perceives her to be or in denial and oblivious to the family dysfunction. Over all, Olga is kind to Helga and has good intentions. But Helga does not respond to her kindness because she feels it is insincere, as Olga does not listen to or address Helga's more serious concerns about their family and relationship since she has a tendency to view life through rose colored glasses. Olga condescends to Helga, calling her "baby sister" which Helga finds irksome. However, during one episode, Olga, rather dramatically, retreated to her bedroom for a few days, believing that she had got a B+ grade on her report card rather than her usual straight A's. It turned out that Helga had deliberately changed it to knock her sister down a peg or two and to gain some attention for herself. Later in the episode it is revealed that Olga does feel pressured by their parents, telling Helga that she's lucky that their parents don't notice her, whilst Olga "has to perform all the time like some little wind up doll". This indicates that to some extent, both sister's are envious of one anothers situation.
However, there are times where Helga showed some affection and concern for Olga. In the episode "Big Sis", when Olga becomes Lila's big sis after joining a "Big Sis, Little Sis" program, Helga continually tries to muck up Olga and Lila's plans unbeknownst to them. At the end, she reveals to Olga that she is jealous and envious of the relationship she has with Lila. Helga is reassured by Olga that she will always be her "baby sis" and that they have a strong "bond" that only real sisters have that no one can break. If she really didn't like Olga, she wouldn't have been jealous of her spending time with Lila and wouldn't have exerted all her time and energy into messing things up. In another episode when Olga becomes engaged to a man named "Doug," it becomes apparent to Helga that he is unfaithful. Initially Helga is amused at the thought of Olga marrying Doug and becoming a disappointment to their parents. But at the end of the episode, Helga has second thoughts and intervenes on Olga's behalf which helped end her sister's risky engagement to Doug. Also worth making note of is in the episode titled "Student Teacher" when Olga becomes Helga's assistant teacher. In this episode Helga does everything in her power to make Olga lose her assistant teacher/internship position at her school and urges Olga to become a teacher in Alaska as was Olga's original plan. After Helga has a heart to heart conversation with Olga, she eventually convinces Olga to leave for Alaska. The episode ends with Helga reading a post card she received from Olga and writing a letter in response. Helga initially writes "From" and then looks at a picture she has of Olga. After looking at the picture of her sister, she crosses out the word from and instead writes "Love."
- In the episode "Helga on the Couch", when Helga has a flashback to when she was approximately between the ages of 3 and 5 years old, Olga is seen playing a tune on the grand piano. Helga interrupts and asks her parent's, "Who's going to take me to preschool?" However, she is ignored and when Olga finishes her tune, Miriam praises her saying to Bob, "Can you believe her! Olga only fifteen years old and already a piano concertist and class valedictorian!" It is assumed that since Helga mentions preschool, that Olga is probably 10 to 12 years older than her.
- Although Helga says Olga attends Bennington College, It is discovered in the episode "Olga Comes Home" that she attends Wellington College. However, in the United States of America (U.S.A.), there is a Bennington CollegeBennington CollegeBennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
located in the state of VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. - In "Spelling Bee" Bob reveals to Helga that Olga did not win the city spelling bee because she misspelled the word qualm since she forgot the letter "l".
- In "Big Sis", it is evident that Olga and Lila have similar personalities and interests.
External links
- Alsace Solamo, "Toontime: Helga Geraldine Pataki," Sun Star Kidsters (March 11, 2007).
- "Helga G. Pataki (and family)", a Hey Arnold! Character & Episode Guide.