The story behind the iconic Vietnam episode of ‘Hey Arnold!’

On a December evening in 1996, “Hey Arnold!” followers tuned in to the beloved Nickelodeon youngsters present for what was a very heavy, emotion-driven episode. It depicted the 1975 fall of Saigon, in Vietnam, and the pressured separation of a younger Vietnamese woman, Mai, from her father, Mr. Hyunh, a Vietnamese refugee who lived in the identical boarding home as foremost character Arnold.

The episode, entitled “Arnold’s Christmas,” was the primary in-depth look into the world of Mr. Hyunh, a recurring character on the present. It additionally served, for a lot of Asian American youngsters within the Nineteen Nineties, as one of many solely occasions a chunk of their historical past was acknowledged in mainstream popular culture. To at the present time, it stays a compelling tv second for a neighborhood whose tales have lengthy been distorted, ignored or flattened.

For the twenty fifth anniversary of the pilot of “Hey Arnold!” on Saturday, present creator Craig Bartlett talked to NBC Asian America in regards to the storyline {that a} era of Asian People considers forward of its time.

Bartlett stated since there was no social media response on the time, it wasn’t till most of the present’s Asian American followers grew up and talked about their feelings about it that he discovered of the episode’s influence.

“It is so gratifying that it is obtained as such a optimistic,” Bartlett stated.

Within the episode, the present’s very first Christmas particular, Mr. Hyunh tells Arnold about his previous. He revealed how the warfare in his dwelling nation had pressured him to discover a approach to flee his metropolis. Whereas atop the U.S. Embassy, Mr. Hyunh, together with his toddler daughter, Mai, in his arms, made the choice to go away her with a soldier, figuring out it might be the one method to make sure her security.

“Because the helicopter left, the soldier known as out the identify of a metropolis. This metropolis. He stated he would convey her right here,” Mr. Hyunh stated within the episode. “It took me 20 years earlier than I may lastly get in another country. That’s why I got here to this metropolis.”

Bartlett stated the storyline is the brainchild of late author Steve Viksten, who was identified for developing with edgier concepts for the present. He pitched the thought of exploring Mr. Hyunh’s backstory by the traditional Christmas recreation Secret Santa. Whereas Bartlett was already on board, he introduced the thought to voice actor Baoan Coleman, himself a Vietnamese refugee, throughout a recording session.

“And he stated, ‘You understand what, I used to be there,’” Bartlett stated. “That made a giant distinction. I used to be like, ‘Wow, we actually have to inform this story. That is going to be so resonant and so cool.’ And from there, I had that conviction.”

Such agency religion within the pitch was obligatory, as the method to get the episode accepted was “an uphill battle,” the creator recalled.

“The anguish of Mr. Hyunh having to surrender his toddler daughter sounded so heavy to the community execs, and in addition even calling up a selected warfare,” Bartlett stated. “You may discover, he says, ‘There was a warfare in my nation,’ and so we do not even say ‘Vietnam Struggle.’”

As a result of delicate nature of the fabric, Bartlett stated he included Coleman within the course of, displaying him the primary draft of the episode, speaking by the script previous to the primary recording session. Whereas the precise historic occasion was by no means talked about by identify, Bartlett stated the group was dedicated to alluding to the warfare in a “poetic” method by an illustrative animation sequence that was accompanied by a dramatic guitar within the background, composed by Jim Lang.

“That one session, we had Baoan do his entire monologue about giving up Mai,” Bartlett stated. “I simply bear in mind form of huddling down and getting smaller and shutting my eyes and listening to it. And, we cried and cried. … Man, I used to be a wreck.”

There have been, in fact, Christmas facets to the episode. Arnold enlists his greatest pal Gerald’s assist in discovering Mai and efficiently orchestrates a reunion with Mr. Hyunh by the top. Whereas not a lot is proven about how Arnold manages to tug it off, Bartlett stated the sequence of coincidences that happen are an ode to Christmas movie “It’s a Fantastic Life.”

“Magic occurs continuously, and on the finish Gerald simply says, ‘Hey man, it’s a miracle. Take care of it,'” Bartlett laughed.

Bao Nguyen, a Vietnamese American director who remembers feeling emotional in regards to the episode as a child, defined that too usually, tales of the Vietnam Struggle are advised by the lens of a “lack of American innocence.”

“It is all the time, ‘What did America lose?’” he stated. “Vietnam, for half the nation, they misplaced their homeland. And it is by no means advised in that perspective. It turns right into a form of American mythology, the demise of American exceptionalism.”

For years, the usual for Vietnam Struggle depictions was Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 movie “Full Steel Jacket,” which did little to indicate the Vietnamese expertise other than fetishize its ladies, stated Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist and writer of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism.”

The particular, nonetheless, marked a pointy departure from the narratives that People had been so accustomed to seeing relating to the warfare, Nguyen stated. What’s extra, the character felt as if he was on the identical stage because the others within the solid.

“This was actually the primary time the place I felt just like the Vietnam Struggle story was utterly centered across the Vietnamese perspective. It wasn’t diluted in a approach to cater for a white viewers. It was unapologetically the Vietnam perspective,” Nguyen stated.

Among the many most poignant facets of the episode, and Mr. Hyunh’s character usually, was his accent. Many have remarked on how genuine Mr. Hyunh’s accent and method of talking was, which was because of Coleman’s related background to the character. Bartlett revealed that within the recording course of, he would rewrite any traces that felt uncomfortable for Coleman to say, enhancing them on the spot if there have been any that the voice actor felt had been tough.

On the time, many of the Asian accents on tv served as punchlines, and lots of animated characters had been voiced by white actors, just like the Indian character Apu from “The Simpsons,” who was voiced by Hank Azaria, Yuen stated. Azaria has since apologized and stepped down from the function.

Many accents had been additionally imprecise and inauthentic, Yuen added.

“There have been some in ‘The Pleasure Luck Membership,’ however that was completely different as a result of that they had Asian American supply materials, an Asian American director and Asian American actors,” Yuen stated. “‘Hey Arnold!’ is fairly particular, as a result of they did have that. They did not essentially have all of the creators and supply materials; the director needed to create that. And the truth that he did resolve to do issues extra authentically is definitely forward of time.”

Much more compelling was that Mr. Hyunh had the company to inform his personal story, Nguyen stated. To take action in an genuine accent spoke to a power that the refugee and lots of others like him have.

“There is a softness and tenderness in somebody talking about their trauma in a language that is not their native language,” Nguyen stated. “There’s braveness in that.”

Yuen stated she felt the present was efficient in displaying youngsters some truths in regards to the Vietnam Struggle and people it impacted whereas retaining the subject material applicable for its audiences.

“They did not speak in regards to the violence. They didn’t speak in regards to the politics. However they humanized the Vietnamese American character,” she stated. “In my research of tv, the characters that the audiences relate to — the regulars which might be probably the most complicated — must have familial relationships or romantic relationships.”

Yuen stated familial relationships instantly humanize characters, as they’re given improvement past a two-dimensional laundromat employee or nail salon trope.

“It wasn’t simply displaying him, that he had a daughter. It was displaying this very gripping story of him having to be separated from his daughter due to the Vietnam Struggle,” Yuen stated. “I feel it might trigger perhaps youngsters to ask questions, and positively it might make them really feel like, ‘Oh, he has a daughter and that daughter appears similar to me,’ or, ‘The daughter may have been me. What would it not really feel like for me to be separated from my dad?’”

For youths in immigrant households specifically, the separation side of the storyline is common, and Yuen stated it possible seemed acquainted to many Asian People.

“Having the ability to see that by ‘Hey Arnold!’ even when we’re not truly refugees who had that have, it nonetheless resonates,” Yuen stated. “As a result of coming to this nation means some form of separation from the folks you like.”

As heavy because the Christmas particular was, the episode was nonetheless a part of the present’s model. Over time, “Hey Arnold!” — which explored sophisticated household dynamics, the immigrant expertise and the struggles of the working class, amongst different controversial subjects on the time — has been lauded for exposing youngsters to bits of a harsh world in a method they may perceive whereas additionally preserving the sweetness and surprise that got here with being a child.

Bartlett stated his work was largely impressed by “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which got here out when he was Arnold’s age.

“It was actually emotional and it was melancholy. It was about ‘Christmas is right here, and I am depressed.’ And that appeared actually revolutionary,” he stated. “After I received the possibility to make ‘Hey Arnold!’ I needed to try this. I used to be like, ‘Let’s do stuff that is about how childhood is gloomy and form of tousled and as a baby you have no energy and also you’re simply form of making an attempt your greatest.’”

“You’ll be able to’t sort things,” he stated, “however we make them a bit of bit higher.”