When I was a kid, I loved "Hey, Arnold!". The show is fantastic, and the blues-esque feel to the series always made it stand-out. Everything from the intro to the ending credits were special, and the show always had more good about it than bad. Always more heart than filler.
There were always two individual, special, nostalgic episodes that I had forgotten about until I bought the complete series in a box set, a couple years ago: the Christmas episode about Arnold and one of the boarding members of his house (which I HIGHLY recommend, if you want an amazing Christmas thing to watch), and this just-over-ten-minutes segment called "The Haunted Train".
I love the urban legend feel this episode has.
I love the atmosphere to it (which, again, "Hey, Arnold!" always did well).
The animation is a little wonky, and that's why I didn't give it a perfect score, but the episode is legendary for children's horror.
It's also a very short-lived thrill that I'm not entirely convinced an adult who hadn't seen this as a kid would feel the same way I feel about it.
The episode premiered the day before I turned two-years-old, and it has stuck with me ever since as a frightening episode. I'm turning 24 in less than two weeks, and I can't beleive this thing still effects me in similar ways, twenty-two years later. It effects me in some new ways, now, too. I love the episode. I think every kid should be allowed to see it, by the parents who grew-up on the eerieness this episode had. I think your kids will thank you, one day, for things like this. This is, again, one of the best episodes "Hey, Arnold!" has EVER had, period.
Even the closing credits blues song about the crazy train engineer is eerie and beautiful. It reminds me of the way I always felt about the episode of "The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy", when the meteor alien lands and sings a song about eating neighbor's brains.
The art style of "Hey, Arnold!" has always amazed me, but the ending of this episode is visually mesmerizing. I can't get over it, after just now re-watching it.
What a wonderful time, the 90s were. I miss old Nicktoons like this.