"Suspended" is an episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.
Synopsis[]
Tired of school and wanting freedom, Harold gets himself suspended from school. However, he realizes that suspension isn't what it's all cracked up to be and now he will do anything to get back into school.
Plot[]
After receiving a D+ on a test, Harold complains that he hates school so much that he wishes that he’d never had to go again after Arnold tells Harold that school isn’t that bad. When he sees Wolfgang causing trouble in the hallway with the fire extinguisher, which results in him getting suspended by Principal Wartz and tells Wolfgang that he’s forbidden to enter the school for one week, Harold concocts a plan to get himself suspended. After initially failing by spraying Principal Wartz with the fire extinguisher, as Wolfgang emptied it, Harold says to himself "That stupid dork" was supposed to suspend him, resulting in Principle Wartz suspending him for a week after Harold tells Principal Wartz that he did call him a "stupid dork". As Harold and Arnold are walking home from school, Harold tells Arnold how being suspended is one of the best things that have ever happened to him, but Arnold tells him that it isn't actually supposed to be fun, though Harold disagrees with him as he gets to stay out of school for a week, much to his enjoyment.
When Harold arrives home, he decides to wait for his parents to leave before enjoying the house for himself, only to find that all the junk food is gone. He then tries to jump on the bed and accidentally breaks the ceiling with his head. When he turns on the TV so he can watch cartoons, movies and "talk shows that throw the chairs around," every channel is broadcasting news coverage for an economic summit over in Japan, which Harold finds boring. He then decides to go shoot baskets out in the basketball court by himself since all of his friends are at school, but when he can't score a hit in the basket (ending with him accidentally tossing the ball out of his yard, and it bounces off several cars offscreen), Harold finally understands the true misery of his punishment, and is desperate to return to school.
At the school, Arnold is playing basketball with Gerald when He is heard from Harold and finds him hiding in the school dumpster telling him that he was right about getting suspended and that he couldn't bear the punishment anymore and that he wants to go back to school. Arnold reminds him that he wanted to get suspended but tells him that he changes his mind and wants Arnold to help him get back to school, Arnold leaves to go back to class as recess ends then a garbage man arrives with a can full of stinky cheese and pours it into the dumpster and onto Harold.
Harold secretly sneaks back to the school again and attempts to climb up to the window of Mr. Simmons’ classroom but falls and ends up being caught by Principal Wartz, who extends his suspension for another week. With that, Harold devises several failed attempts to get back to school (disguising himself as a pizza guy, digging a hole to get himself back to school), but he continuously fails and gets caught by Principal Wartz each time, who extends his suspension even further. During another attempt to return by using a giant slingshot to launch himself into school, Arnold comes to see him and informs Harold that his idea will never work, and that school is already out. But when Principal Wartz sees them, he extends Harold's suspension by yet another week, and suspends Arnold for two days after he argues with Principal Wartz about forgiving Harold and that he was being too hard on him. Wartz suspends Harold for a month and Arnold for two days--persists in asking Wartz why he won't forgive Harold, much to Arnold's dismay.
Disappointed, the boys are about to give up as Arnold realizes that he got suspended for two days and Harold for five weeks when Arnold gets an idea. The two boys then go to the library to look up the school constitution and confront Principal Wartz with 40 pages of a suspension appeal but are informed by him that the copy of the school constitution they have is outdated by 44 years since the late 1950s - 1956 in fact. With all hope seemingly lost, Harold breaks down sobbing and resorts to begging Principal Wartz for mercy, saying that he can't take anymore suspension and that he will do whatever he wants and won't call him anymore names and also says to him that he has learned his lesson. Principal Wartz, seeing the repentance in Harold's face and voice, decides to lift his suspension and also tells Harold that he has to do all the makeup work and let him, and Arnold go back to school. He is then assaulted by Wolfgang with the fire extinguisher and when Principal Wartz chases him, he falls in Harold's hole and yells out for him, ending the episode.