Rugrats

Rugrats was one of those cartoons I grew up watching as a kid. Before SpongeBob, Nickelodeon had this show which last for 14 years and it was successful. It was one of the original Nicktoons to be produced. The series follow a group of babies going on adventures by themselves without their parents knowing. As a show itself, its not perfect. I loved the earlier seasons the most especially before the 1998 movie. Come season 6, the quality did became lesser, but it was still good. Seasons 7-9, however, are really boring to watch, since there's recycled stories, and uninspiring writing. It can get repetitive in general, in which most of it have to involved the babies doing something, Angelica try to stop whatever they're doing, etc. Animation wise, it is trippy and art style is unique at the time that it was never on-model. Writing was at its peak during seasons 2-3. Early episodes have its bump, but still had its charm. Seasons 4-6 while weaker in writing still had its Rugrats feel for the most part., even if the latter does become to feel tired. Once you get to the post-Paris movie seasons, the writing fell apart and you'll be disinterested for 70% of the time. The characters are likable for the most part unless we're talking about Angelica and maybe her parents. Voice acting can be obnoxious at times, but they still pull it off during emotional moments. IMO, it's still one of Klasky Csupo's magnum opus. I only recommend seasons 1-6 though and the first movies are classic (avoid the crossover movie with The Wild Thornberrys).

I used to love "The Rugrats". Before they became unbearably popular. Before Dil came. Before David Doyle died. Before the movies. Before . .. you get the picture.

Why? Very simple. The initial Rugrats was a great show.

When the show premiered, in 1991, with "Tommy's First Birthday", nobody could've guess how far it would go. It had a simple premise: what life as a baby was like.

As the show began to climb, the jokes and the show itself began to become polished. The animation was horrid - but who cares? If the show's enjoyable, then I won't hate it for a single quality. Besides, the scribbles that made up the animation added to the whimisical feel of the show.

The show was, at first, intellegent, with jokes and plotlines that both kids and adults could relate to. Media references abounded. For example, in "Showdown at Teeter-Totter Gulch", a Stetson-wearing Tommy faces off against the "Junkfood Kid" (played by Nancy Cartwright), recalling "High Noon" and numerous Leone westerns. In "The Booster Shot", Chucky's doctor is named "Dr. Lecter", a reference to the flesh-eating psychiatrist from "The Silence of the Lambs". The episode with Dean (Angelica's love interest) spoofs James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause". "The Dog Groomer" recalls "The Terminator", "The Mysterious Mr. Fiend" spoofs "Frankenstein", Dr. Lipschitz (Tony Jay) is a Sigmund Freud-esque child psychologist, and numerous others are similarly intellegent.

Also, the characters were well-developed and likeable. At this point, the dialogue was great. Not only the kids, but the adults. The adults were intellegent, had emotions, and were very realisitc. They made many of the jokes, and were interesting, rather than the no-dimensional shells they become.

The show's popularity began to grow in 1992, but it ended abruptly in 1994, when Paul Germaine left the show.

(Continued in Part Two.)

Rugrats is most likely a favorite show for children during the 90's. And who can blame them? This was one of the first "Nicktoons" made and one of the most creative and well-written ones too.

Debuting in 1991, this show had a bit of a slow start, featuring low quality animation, quiet voice acting, simple plots, and so on. Yet this show had quite a charm to get people an idea on how babies that talk to each other live in their lives. The characters were well made, with the cast featuring Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil, and Angelica as "the kids." Then we have their parents, which are also well made and humorous for both kids and adults. Some of the episodes have 2 story lines, one lead by the babies and one led by the adults, and they are created in such a great twist.

Due to the shows increasing audience, Rugrats was picked up for a few more seasons, featuring better animation and better jokes. Many of the episodes were so enjoyable with the mishaps and humorous references that appeared. But then Rugrats got canceled in 1994 by Nickelodeon. It was probably canceled in favor of AHH! Real Monsters that was released by the same production company that gave us Rugrats. However, re-runs stayed on the channel and gave the network high ratings. So the show was brought back to life in 1997.

But when it was brought back, disasters would follow...

The first disaster was when the show was brought back, some of the writers from the first series never returned for the revival. This made a huge difference on how the writing of the future episodes turned out. Now the episodes made featured more gross-out humor and lamer dialog then before.

The second disaster was when David Doyle, the voice of Grandpa Lou, died in 1997. So they hired a replacement, Joe Alaskey. While his voice is okay, it just was not the same, in terms of vocal tone and delivery, as what David brought to Grandpa.

The third disaster was what gave the Rugrats franchise a fatal wound. They released a movie in 1998, introducing one of the most annoying and stupid characters on the show, Dil, Tommy's new brother. While creating a new character is not a terrible idea, Dil ruined the future episodes of Rugrats. All he did is cry, wail, ABUSE the babies, and drool. What's worse is that the babies always take him on their mishaps and adventures, with Dil ruining them by ether getting lost or causing havoc for others. He also took the already gross humor the show was getting to a whole new level.

Then, with Nickelodeon not getting the message, they released another movie for 2000, introducing another character, Kimi, the daughter of Chuckie's new stepmother. The addition of this character is not bad, but not really good ether. She's basically a generic, one dimensional baby that doesn't add much personality for the babies' adventures, but at least she's not as horrible as Dil. Oh, and Spike, the dog that belongs to the Pickles, gets a random girlfriend dog too, Fifi, who also doesn't add much to the show.

After all this, the show basically got more lamer and more uncreative. The last disaster occurred in 2001, the 10 year anniversary of the show. We get a one-hour episode featuring the babies 10 years older, which would later spawn into a side-series in 2003 called "All Grown Up". It's not a terrible concept in of itself, but this episode changed everything about the Rugrats we didn't know before. All the babies now act like wanna-be teenagers. After this, the voice actress of Chuckie, Christine Cavanaugh, retires. I'll respect her for the retirement, but the replacement voice for Chuckie is inexcusable and not how he used to be. Then we saw more movies being made that didn't do much good ether.

Rugrats FINALLY ceased production in 2003, but a couple remaining episodes would air in a year or 2. Finally, no more of this nightmare of a show. But Nickelodeon was SUPPOSED to have left it alone after it was canceled the first time back in 1994. Bringing The Rugrats back has done anything positive for the show's legacy. Towards the end, many people considered it one of the worst shows airing on any children's network channel.

If you are looking for a great, entertaining children's show that adults could also enjoy with their kids, watch the first three seasons of Rugrats (made between 1991-1994). They were the best. If possible, avoid the seasons featuring Dil and Kimi. Nickelodeon cared about quality back in the early 90's when they started making their own shows. But today, they don't.

When Rugrats hit the scene, I instantly loved it. I was 7 years old when the first episodes aired, and it was a great show. I couldn't get enough of Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil & Angelica. It was great and had lots of good episodes. Then something terrible happened. For no apparent reason whatsoever, the creators decided it would be a good idea to give Tommy a brother and make a movie. What a horrible decision. Dill added NOTHING to the plot of the show except being ridiculously annoying and ruining all of the flow of the main characters. Also around this time, the writers decided they needed to take the more adult-type themes out of the show entirely and make this show as if it should be shown on Nick Jr. instead of Nickelodeon. I will never understand why they changed the show so dramatically towards their extremely younger demographic group. Rugrats had plenty of older kids and even teenagers and some adults watching regularly. Why pander to your youngest viewers who would watch the TV no matter what show was on? They lost me when they added Dill. However, I did view the show after the 2nd movie because my mom had in-home daycare and they would be watching it. The character of Chuckie's step sister was even worse than Dill. That series of episodes was even more unwatchable than the ones with just Dill. I was just saddened watching that and seeing how downhill Rugrats had fallen. It's a shame that Nickelodeon and their creative writers, did this to basically every show that was good in the early 90's. Am I right? Look at what happened to their best shows, they were either canceled or changed so dramatically that they no longer resembled that great show you once loved. Doug was sold to Disney and turned into crap. Hey Dude was canceled in it's prime. Rocko's Modern Life was given the boot for no reason. Angry Beavers was given the axe because of a disagreement with the creators wanting to keep the show the funny. Nickelodeon from 1990-1995 was great, then it just fell apart and we got stuck with a bunch of garbage mostly after that that has never recovered into anything watchable. I DVR Rugrats every night at 5:00 and 5:30 AM. Sometimes they are the original episodes and I love watching them now. Other times they are the newer ones and those just suck and I immediately delete those.

Rugrats is one of my favourite cartoons. It has something for everyone. There are cute babies (Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi & Dil), one terrible toddler (Angelica - She's the best!), one lovable & loyal hound (Spike), one kind hearted kid (Susie) and several entertaining adults. Stu & Drew's sibling rivalry is well depicted. The characters are diverse and have different backgrounds & life styles. I like spotting the film references and seeing the world as we know it turned on its head. The show contains plenty of wit and it has jokes for all age groups. (I'm 23.) It has a good theme tune and a quirky look that has developed over time. A classic. 8/10