Animation of Past Ages

• Bangin' on a trashcan

Who can forget Doug Funnie? Doug, who moves to the town of Bluffington, has an uber-cool dog named Porkchop, writes in a diary and has an underwear-over-his-shorts alter ego.

Doug, which premiered in 1991, is the story of a grade-school kid who has some six strands of hair, wears a sweater vest and goes through some interesting adventures in life with Porkchop and his best friend Skeeter Valentine. He has a major crush on Patti Mayonnaise and is constantly bullied by trailer-trash Roger Klotz. There's an array of characters to even it all out, such as Beebe Bluff (rich girl), Judy (the older sister) and Mr. Dink (the wacky neighbor).

Plus Doug has many alter egos: Quailman, who is based off of Superman; Smash Adams, who serves as a James Bond character; and Race Canyon, who is Doug's Indiana Jones.

Doug is a naïve kid who makes dealing with pre-adolescence not so bad. He uses his diary to write it all out and takes the viewer through his daydreams, which are often convoluted parodies of popular culture. For instance, in one episode, Roger invites everyone over to his house except for poor Doug, who begins to feel left out. Doug later imagines himself as Quailman battling Dr. Klotzenstein, the mad scientist who turns all Bluffington citizens into mindless zombies with his zombie chips. Sound familiar?

More than anything, everyone can relate to Doug; a lot of people have experienced being scared of going to the dentist, having a best friend move away, or having a crush on someone but being too afraid to tell them. Some of us still go through these things. Doug gave kids a new way of looking at things and solving their problems. And he reminded us all of how powerful an imagination could be.

One of the most memorable things about the show is that the characters are all different colors: Doug is cream, Skeeter is blue, Patti is orange, Beebe is purple and Roger is green. It makes it easier to remember who's who but hard to copy for Halloween.

But what most of us remember best are things like the singing group The Beets ("I Need More Allowance") and songs like "Banging on a Trash Can." Or how liver and onions really isn't as bad as you think, or that the big bully is afraid of silly stuff like the neematoad.

Doug has become a cult classic for kids of the '90s. It was innocent, funny, mellow and just out of this world. No matter how old we get, Doug will always be a part of our memories and a part of our childhood.

                                                                       - Ariba Alvi

• Move it, footballhead!

Alright, let's come clean. While growing up, all of us at one point or another wished we could be Arnold. Outwardly, he's nothing special: average looks, smarts and popularity in school. Yet he has a sweet high-tech bedroom, lives with a pet pig and rocks an outgrown blue baseball cap on his odd football head. It is hard to explain why, but Arnold is just an awesome kid.

Nickelodeon really struck gold when they started airing Hey Arnold! in 1996. The show follows the day-to-day adventures of Arnold, his fellow fourth graders at P.S. 118 and the dysfunctional boarders that he lives with in his grandparents' boarding home. Like any kid his age, Arnold encounters many problems while with his friends and family. But unlike most kids, Arnold takes it upon himself to solve these problems. Whether it was getting his classmates to stop picking on the new teacher, helping the city butcher get elected as mayor or forcing a good-for-nothing boarder to get a job, Arnold could fix just about anything. Of course, Arnold's can-do attitude and idealist outlook often created dilemmas too.

The show would be nothing without its diverse cast. Arnold's best friend Gerald is the coolest kid on the block and the keeper of urban legends. Other friends include stylish snob Rhonda, chubby bully Harold, bad luck magnet Eugene, brainy Phoebe and best friends Stinky and Sid. At home, grandparents Phil and Pookie lead the pack as the landlords to Ernie, the short demolition engineer; Mr. Hyunh, Asian immigrant by day and country music star by night; and lazy bum Oscar Kokoshka.

But the true star of Hey Arnold! is angry tomboy and Arnold's secret admirer, Helga G. Pataki. At school, she is the tough girl that orders everyone around. However, when she's all alone, she hides that bossy persona to reveal a sappy romantic side that clandestinely pines for the one boy that treats her nicely. It's easy to pity her when she writes cheesy love poetry in her diary, but then she ruins it by tearing up her poems and turning them into spitballs aimed for Arnold's head.

For a kids' show, Hey Arnold! tackles just about everything. It has the typical school-based plots about cheating on exams and putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet. Yet, it counterbalances those episodes with ones about a school takeover by the class nut-job and a field trip to see Carmen (with a dream sequence twist). It has the usual holiday specials and superhero stories mixed with wacky episodes about Veteran's Day and Monkeyman. Cult classic episodes feature the fictional stars Stoop Kid and Dino Spumoni. When it comes to Arnold and his life, you never know what to expect.