Rugrats ran on Nickelodeon from August 11, 1991 to August 1, 2004, and it was one of the shows that made the network. Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó and Paul Germain created it, Klasky Csupo produced it, and the idea at its center is the reason it lasted: the world seen from the floor, by toddlers who cannot tell an adult what they know.
Trailer, via Nicktoons.
The Babies
Tommy Pickles, voiced by E. G. Daily, is the brave one. Chuckie Finster, voiced by Nancy Cartwright, is the scared one. Phil and Lil DeVille, both voiced by Kath Soucie, are the twins who eat things they should not. Angelica Pickles, voiced by Cheryl Chase, is the older cousin who can talk to grown-ups and uses that power for evil. Later came Dil, voiced by Tara Strong, Kimi, voiced by Dionne Quan, and Susie Carmichael, voiced by Cree Summer. Their day-to-day lives are the show, and the ordinary experiences of being small, a trip to the store, a new food, a bath, become adventures in their imaginations.
The Adults
The adults are almost always unaware of what the children are up to, which is the joke and the freedom. Stu and Didi Pickles, voiced by Jack Riley and Melanie Chartoff, Grandpa Lou, voiced by Joe Alaskey, and Charlotte, Drew and Chas, voiced by Tress MacNeille and Michael Bell, are affectionate, distracted and frequently wrong, and the show treats them with a kind of amused sympathy. Nobody is a villain except Angelica, and she is three.
Why It Worked
Rugrats understood that a toddler’s logic is a complete system, and it wrote from inside that system without condescending to it. The babies mishear words, misread situations and build elaborate theories about the adult world, and the theories are funny because they are almost right. Klasky Csupo’s scratchy, off-kilter design gave the show a look that was unmistakable and, at the time, unlike anything else in children’s animation.
The Long Run
Thirteen years and more than 300 episodes is a very long life for a show about people who cannot age, and the series managed it by adding characters and widening the world rather than growing the babies up. Angelica’s schemes and Chuckie’s fears never got old because the writing kept finding new small things to be brave about.
Where It Falls Short
The later seasons are broader and louder, and the additions dilute the tight original cast. The formula, imaginative adventure in a mundane place, is a formula, and after a few hundred episodes it shows. The design that looked daring in 1991 looks merely odd in the later years. And a show this long inevitably repeats its best ideas.
The Verdict
Rugrats is a warm, clever, genuinely original cartoon that respected its audience’s intelligence and its characters’ size. Its best seasons are as good as children’s television gets. Its worst are still better than most.
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