The Life and Times of 'Steely' Phil

AN ESSAY....

I have been wondering this for a while now, and so I decided to use some key clues throughout the series to figure out exactly where Phil was throughout his life, and how old when it happened.

Let's start by agreeing on the show's timeline itself. The creator Craig Bartlett stated that if The Jungle Movie was made that the characters would be "aged" to the 5th grade. So based on this we can determine that the show ran as far as the summer just before the gang went in to 5th grade. Since Mr. Simmons was supposed to replace Ms. Slovak, and not just be the new 4th grade teacher, we are to assume Ms. Slovak was their original 4th grade teacher. (I'm pretty sure there's even a class picture with her and "fourth grade" somewhere, but I'll have to double check). Anyway, this would mean that we never saw Arnold or his classmates while they were in 3rd grade. This means - within the show's time-frame itself (I know, it gets a bit wonky with Ms. Slovak teaching for V'day and Mr. Simmons teaching for Thanksgiving...) - the show's episodes and movie take place between the first day of summer after 3rd grade and finish on the last day of summer before 5th grade. This would also typically mean that we see slices of Arnold's life throughout the course of roughly 15 months spread across 2 calendar years.

OK, so now let's try to figure out when Grandpa was born. We can simply take the episode "Grandpa's Birthday" (aired Sept 1998) and subtract 81 years. This gives us 1917. However, since the show continues on in to other years without aging Arnold (for example, he's still 9 when he films the scene for Babe Watch on July 22, 1999), how do we know for certain that Grandpa turned 81 in 1998?

So now we look at the episode "Sally's Comet" (aired January 1997). In that episode, it is stated that the comet goes by every 70 years. Sure, Grandpa states that he was "about" Arnold's age when he first saw the comet, but this doesn't mean that Grandpa was also 9 at the time. If that were the case than we would have Grandpa turn 80 and THEN 81 throughout the 15 months we watch. It IS possible if Grandpa was born in June, July, or August, since these are the cross-over months. Either way, it's not very definitive.

What IS definitive is WHEN Phil watched Sally's Comet. During Grandpa's flashback we hear a radio announcement that Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run. This occurred September 30th, 1927 - which meant Sally's Comet last past the next day: October 1st, 1927. This verifies that Arnold and Gerald watched Sally's Comet in 1997. So we know, at the very least, the show took place either from June 1997 through August 1998, or from June 1996 through August 1997. There is a BIT of a descrepency in this theory, however, since the episode "Summer Love (a Beach Story)" (aired May 2000) did have a shot that pointed to the summer of 1999. At the end of the episode, when Helga and Arnold were shown during their walk-on roles on Babe Watch, there is a shot of the clapboard that stated they were filming on July 22, 1999.

But let's use the Babe Ruth thing to say that the boys saw Sally's Comet in 1997 (when the episode aired). If we DO have Phil at age 80 when he watches the comet with the boys (since it aired before "Grandpa's Birthday") than he'd be 10 in 1927 - which is STILL "about" Arnold's age. This brings us full circle to Phil being born in 1917.

Let's then fast forward to the episode "Veteran's Day" (aired November 1999). In this episode Grandpa Phil tells a story of how he helped win World War II with his heroic act in "January 1945". We know his story is true because he and Arnold find his monument in Washington D.C. So, if we say that Phil was born in 1917, he was 28 (unless he was born in January, in which case he's close enough to 28). If we take the show's air-date (which would then include the 1999 Babe Watch shoot), have Grandpa be 81 (since it's after "Grandpa's Birthday"), we then get that he was 27. Either way, it's pretty close. We know from this episode that he had "adult relations" with that farm-girl Monique, and we also know that he was fantasizing about marrying Hedy Lamarr. Even though Arnold's grandparents revealed (at least to the audience) that Gertie had feelings for Phil ever since grade-school (and that they obviously ended up together), I like to believe this episode demonstrates that Phil and Gertie actually didn't start dating until after WWII. It makes me feel better that Phil isn't cheating on Gertie....

Let's continue with this train of thought and see if there's any proof that Phil and Gertie truly didn't date until after the war. We'll do this by using Dino Spumoni as a tracker. In the episode "Dino Checks Out" (aired December 1999), the woman reporting Dino's supposed "death" states that he was 67 years old. Now, we can track this back two ways. One: simply subtract 67 from "1999" - in this case, Dino was born in 1932 (or 1931 if his birthday hadn't passed yet). If this were true, than Phil (if we hold the belief that he was born in 1917) is about 15 years older than Dino. Option two: subtract Dino's age - 67 - from Phil's age - 81. This gets you 14 years age difference. Close enough to work with.

Now, go to the episode "The Old Building" (aired October 1996). In this episode, Grandma tries to save the Circle Theater because it was where she and Phil went on their first date. Sure, they LOOK like they're about 30 - which proves that they dated after the war (since Phil was 27/28 at the end of the war, and if he WAS born in 1917 they would have had their first date around 1947). However, how can we be sure that they truly WERE in their 30s. I mean, Wolfgang certainly looked older than 10, and Harold did NOT look 13. This is why we bothered with Dino in the first place.

Let's say, at the absolute earliest, Dino was 17 when he performed at the Circle Theater during Phil and Gertie's first date. Even if we have Dino's birth year be 1931, the earliest he could have performed at the Circle Theater would be 1948. If we subtract 50 years from when Dino faked his death, we have 1949. OK, so we have about 1948 or 1949. If we take the 1917 birth year of Phil, he would be 31 or 32 years old. Even if we take the 14/15 year age difference, Phil would STILL be about 31 or 32. So now we know that Phil did NOT cheat on Gertie (yay) and may not have even thought of her remotely romantically. Hell, they didn't start dating until at LEAST four years after his "encounter" with Monique. Honestly, though, if I were to solely go off of the way Dino, Phil, and Gertie were all drawn, I'd shift everything to about 1952 or 1953 - Dino looks at least 20.

Now we go back to Arnold. As mentioned before, sure, he was "supposedly" still 9 when he filmed that Babe Watch scene in 1999, which would mean he was born in 1990. The fact that we never see Arnold's birthday just makes it even more confusing. We know his parents left on October 5th, after Arnold's first birthday, but presumably before his second birthday. We also know that Arnold was born on the 7th of some month. Most people therefore like to think that Arnold was NOT born in October, since that would mean his parents left just TWO DAYS before their son's birthday. However, they just said that his parents "disappeared" on the 5th. So perhaps they left October 1st, thought they'd be back by the 7th, and were declared "missing" on the 5th. Well, Craig Bartlett had commented on the fact that he made Arnold a Libra like himself. Libras are those born between September 23rd and October 22. This would again point to Arnold being born on October 7th, but it's still hard to believe the poor guy has to mourn his parents just days before his birthday.... It's also hard to believe Miles and Stella would leave someone they loved that much just before his birthday. If it was that close I'm sure the Green Eyes could have waited just a few more days so the happy family could be together for Arnold's 2nd birthday. Either way, if you use Craig's comment as Word of God, than Arnold was born in the fall. If we go back to the original premise of the show taking place between the summer after 3rd grade and the summer before 5th, than that means Arnold had only one birthday throughout the course of the show - and he's mentioned as being 9. This would mean, at the very least, if the boys watched Sally's Comet (already established to have passed Hillwood in 1997) over the summer, then Arnold would have been 8 - making him born in 1989. Typically, if you excuse the "July 22, 1999" flub up by the animation crew, most believe Arnold was born in 1988.

**Side note about Helga:
In "April Fool's Day" (aired April 2002), Arnold pranks Helga by pretending to give her a late birthday gift. In this exchange Helga confirms Arnold's statement that her birthday was "last week". This means Helga was born around March 25th. Depending on what Arnold means by "last week" would better determine if her birthday is exactly March 25th, or just a day close by that date. Either way, her birthday is close to the end of the school year, and she is shown throughout the school year stating (mostly correcting her parents) that she's 9. This would mean that the birthday referenced in "April Fools Day" was NOT her 9th birthday, but her 10th. This would mean - if we keep the belief that Arnold was born in September/October - that Helga is about 6 months older than Arnold.
**Side note done....

**Another side note - this time about Harold:
In "Harold's Bar Mitzvah" (aired November 1997) Harold... has... his... Bar Mitzvah (doi!). In the Jewish tradition, boys have their Bar Mitzvah, or Coming-of-age Ritual, when they turn 13. So this meant, while everyone else was 9, Harold was 13! Four years older! Even stranger is the fact that he's seen in both Arnold's ("Eugene's Bike" aired October 1996) and Helga's ("Helga on the Couch" aired December 1999) flashbacks of preschool. So, Helga and Arnold confirm that Harold was in their class since PRESCHOOL! He's FOUR YEARS OLDER! This means, Harold was SEVEN when the rest of the class is THREE! No wonder the poor lug didn't believe in his own potential until "The Aptitude Test" (aired October 1998). If Arnold was born in 1988/1989... than Harold was born in 1984/1985. Which means Harold is the same age as me ^_^
**End of second side note...

So, let's say Arnold was born in 1988/89. That meant Miles and Stella went missing in 1989/90 - perhaps as late as 1991 if you believe Arnold turned one in 1990 and was close to turning two when his parents left. Based on this, you can either put The Jungle Movie when Arnold would have ACTUALLY been 10: 1998/1999 - or you can do what most cartoons do, and put the movie in "contemporary" times and ignore when Arnold was born. I mean, acording to an early-season The Simpsons episode, Bart was born in the mid-80s, and yet that still-10-year-old is using modern technology such as iPads....

I'm off topic. OK, so if Phil is 81 when Arnold is 9, then he was either 71 or 72 when Arnold was born (since we also saw Phil at age 80). This again puts Arnold's birth year at either 1988 or 1989. So let's now try to figure out how old Miles and Stella roughly were. This is trickier since we don't really know much about the couple. Considering their entire courtship right up to the day they disappeared was all in ONE journal doesn't help matters. I mean, Miles may have dedicated a full page to their wedding night (*ahem*), but he also described Arnold's full first year - and at least a few months past - in just a few pages. So, just because the tale of saving the Green Eyes only took a few pages doesn't mean it only took a few months to figure out the cure. And we get pretty much NO description about how Miles and Stella tracked down La Sombra and La Corazon. We'll have to do this backwards.

In "Parent's Day" (aired April 2000), Big Bob mocks about going against the oldest person alive. Phil jokes back that he's only the SECOND oldest - Gertie is the oldest. Grandma then nods acknowledgement. Even though they were joking about being the oldest people alive, this banter can be shown as evidence that Gertie is actually older than Phil. Not too surprising since they went to a one-room school house for elementary school. This coupled with the fact that Phil never graduated from the 4th grade sets up the perfect environment for a class that would hold students ranging from 6 to 14. Just because Gertie and Phil were in the same class did NOT mean they were the same age (hell, Torvald and Harold prove the same thing in a more contemporary way). The trick is to figure out how MUCH older she is. Based on how she was drawn in Phil's flash backs, and given the fact that she was aparently good friends with Phil's twin sister Mitzy, I would guess she was no more than a year older.

So we've determined that Grandma and Grandpa dated at the earliest at age 32/33. More likely, they were 35/36. This would be in the 1950s. Back then the technology to help older women get pregnant wasn't really there, especially since I don't think Phil and Gertie were ever "rich enough" to pay for the "new age" techniques that may have come out. So I would cap Gertie at 42 when it comes to getting pregnant with Miles. True, they could have adopted him, but the way Miles was drawn makes him look like he has Phil's chin and Gertie's blonde hair. In other words, he seems  genetically connected to Phil and Gertie. So, let's just assume Miles was a biological child. If we cap Gertie at 42, and have her be about a year older than Phil (having her born in 1916), then Miles was born in 1958. Even if we have Gertie be only a few months older than Phil, and we push back the late-life pregnancy, at the absolute latest I'd have Miles be born in 1962. Given that range, Miles would be roughly between the ages of 26 and 31 when Arnold was born. I would also, personally, assume that Miles is a year or two older than Stella - simply based on how they were drawn.

Given how knowledgeable both Miles and Stella are - plus the fact that neither are referenced specifically as "doctor" - I would state that they both had their Masters. This would mean they were at least 23 when they met. However, given how late in life Gertie and Phil dated - and consequently got married - we can look back at the above cap and possibly state that Gertie didn't conceive Miles "at the last minute" as it were. We could possibly state that Phil and Gertie got married after a short courtship, and that Gertie gave birth to Miles when she was about 38. If this were the case, than Miles was between 33 and 35 when Arnold was born. This is entirely possible.

So there you have it, my long-winded detailing of the Hey Arnold timeline based on Phil's life. Here's a recap:
1916/1917 - Gertie is born
1917 - Phil and Mitzy are born
1922 - Phil, Mitzy, and Gertie all meet in school.
Oct 1, 1927 - Phil watches Sally's Comet the day after Babe Ruth hit his 60th Home Run.
1931/1932 - Dino Spumoni is born
Jan 1945 - Phil dreams of marrying Hedy Lamarr, sleeps with French Farmgirl Monique, and tricks the Nazis in to eating bad Chum - leading the Allied forces to WWII victory
1948=1953 - Possible year of Phil and Gertie's first date at the Circle Theater
1949=1961 - Possible year that Phil and Gertie got married
1954=1962 - Possible year that Miles was born
1955=1963 - Possible year that Stella was born
1984/1985 - Harold is born
1984=1986 - Possible year that Miles and Stella met
1985=1987 - Possible year that Miles and Stella got married
1988/1989 - Helga is born
1988/1989 - Arnold is born about 6months after Helga
1988/1989 - Miles, Stella, and Arnold move from San Lorenzo to Hillwood
1989/1990 - Arnold celebrates his 1st birthday and receives his trademark blue hat
Oct 5, 1989=1991 - Possible year that Miles and Stella disappear
June 1996-Aug 1997/June 1997-Aug 1998/Sally's Comet in 1997 + June 1998-Aug 1999 = all possible time brackets for the events shown in the series and movie.

And, there you have it!