Arnold Ziffel - Situations

Situations

Arnold could do pretty much anything he wanted. He was very talented. He could write his name, change the channels on the television, and play the piano. He was an accomplished abstract painter (dubbed "Porky Picasso"), whose work, such as "Nude at a Filling Station," was banned. Arnold also attended school, carrying his lunchbox in his mouth, where he often played practical jokes on the other students. He was once drafted into the U.S. Army and even worked as a "paper pig" delivering newspapers, although he had a bad habit of throwing copies so hard and so badly aimed that he sometimes broke residential windows doing it.

Arnold was also very lucky, winning a trip to Hawaii in one episode, a prize at the Pixley movie theater for having the most original costume (the theater manager said he had the best looking pig costume he'd ever seen), and a trip to Hollywood. After a screen test, he was cast in a role originally intended for a horse, but after the horse explained to Arnold that, without the job, he'd never be able to send his son to Stanford, Arnold's deliberate bad behavior led to his being fired and the horse getting his job back.

Arnold fell in love with Mr. Haney's prized Basset Hound "Cynthia", but in a scene full of pig grunts and dog barks, subtitles explained that they were realizing that their love could never be. Mr. Haney then threatened to sue Mr. Ziffel, claiming that Arnold had ruined Cynthia for show as she had begun to grunt like a pig too.

One storyline had Arnold inheriting millions of dollars as the sole descendant of the favorite pig of a pork-packing magnate, distinguished by his ability to predict the weather with his tail. There was some doubt to the pig's ability when during the claims process for the money, his demonstration predicted snow in the middle of warm weather. This prediction was disbelieved and Oliver found himself in a difficult situation checking out of an expensive hotel because he had to deal with Arnold's expensive bill. However during that difficulty, Arnold's seemingly impossible prediction proved accurate with a freak snowstorm burying the city and thus the hotel welcomed the pig with open arms again.