“A Baby’s Gotta Do What a Baby’s Gotta Do” – Rugrats: The Original Series Overview

Have you ever wondered what babies do when they aren’t around adults? This is the main question at the heart of the show Rugrats, and what made it become as popular and successful as it became. In the words of Tommy Pickles, “A baby’s gotta do what a baby’s gotta do.”

Rugrats shows the adventures of Tommy Pickles and other babies when they are toddlers, who can’t really talk to adults. The series ran from 1991 to 2004, and it had a break between seasons 3 and 4 that included some specials from 1994 to 1997. During this time, there were also two Jewish specials in 1995 and 1996 about Passover and Chanukah. The core cast, at least early on, consisted of Tommy Pickles who was 1, his cousin Angelica who was 3, his best friend Chuckie who was 2, and the twins Phil and Lil Deville who were 1 ¼ years old. The supporting cast included Tommy’s dog Spike, his parents Stu and Didi, Grandpa Lou, Grandpa Boris, Grandma Minka, his aunt Charlotte and Uncle Drew, as well as Phil and Lil’s parents Betty and Howard, and Chuckie’s dad Chaz.

Main Cast and Setting

One of the main characters is Tommy, who is a baby who wants to explore and see the world, and who is very helpful and morally upstanding for a baby. Tommy’s best friend Chuckie is the opposite of him, since he is easily scared and afraid to do new things, and is also the only person who can talk Tommy out of any bad ideas he might have in mind. Phil and Lil are troublemakers willing to go along with whatever Tommy suggests they do most of the time, and who like being in dirty and smelly places and doing things of that note, such as eating and playing with bugs and worms, among other things. Angelica is the most spoiled character on the show, because her parents Drew and Charlotte are incredibly busy to devote actual time with her and thus, she acts out against the babies. She is also the only one, at least early on, who can talk to adults as well as the babies.

The series is mostly set at the babies’ homes, particularly Tommy’s and Chuckie’s, although Phil and Lil’s and Angelica’s are sometimes featured. However, there are plenty of episodes that take place outside one of their houses, either because their parents took them somewhere or they accidently left their parents sight particularly with Tommy, as well as episodes where everybody goes on a trip with each other. Stu and Didi seem to be the most responsible and understanding parents, even though Stu sometimes gets on Didi’s nerves because he is an inventor. Grandpa Lou who lives with them talks as an ornery old man, but is very much loving towards all the babies, but in particular Tommy and Angelica. Drew and Charlotte come across as very self-centered, egotistical people who don’t understand being around children that much, and they treat taking care of the babies as an unwanted chore they want to get over with, which helps to explain why Angelica is such a spoiled child compared with the other babies on the show. Betty and Howard share a similar purpose with Stu and Didi that Phil and Lil share with Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica. They are very close with the Pickles, but they don’t do that much without one of the other main characters being in the episode and having an important role in it. Chaz, Chuckie’s father, is initially a widower and thus is very protective of him. Like Betty and Howard, he is very close with Stu and Didi and has Tommy, Phil, and Lil over more times than any of the other parents besides Stu and Didi. He is a bureaucrat who, like Chuckie with the babies, is often the voice of reason against the other parents. Later on in season two, the writers introduce their first major characters who aren’t from the well-established pilot group of kids and adults in the episode “Meet the Carmichaels.” The addition of the Carmichaels helps to create a rival with Angelica, Drew, and Charlotte as they are very much the opposite of the family. This is in addition to the fact that they are the first African American family on the show as well. The relationship between Angelica and Susie is incredibly complex, because they are similar characters with very different personalities, and thus they have a natural rivalry between them that is different than any other pairing on the show. In season three’s episode, “Dummi Bear Dinner Disaster,” Susie is worried she will have to move again if the Dummi Bear man who comes over for dinner likes her father, because it happened the last time they had dinner, and they moved as a result.

During the run of the series, as well as the films in most instances, the adults aren’t the best at keeping an eye on the kids, with a few exceptions, which has the kids being in situations they shouldn’t be in because the adults are extremely incompetent at properly supervising their children. In Charlotte’s first episode in “The Santa Experience,” she acted as if she was working and on the phone, and ignored what Angelica and the other kids were doing. By the time Susie and her family were incorporated into the cast, there wasn’t another major addition to the cast until Dil in The Rugrats Movie. The bulk of the storylines revolved around Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, Grandpa Lou, Stu, Drew, Charlotte, and Chaz. Even though characters such as Phil and Lil were major characters, they didn’t really have that much to do that was distinctive. Each character has their distinct personality, which helps set each character up into different roles, some more prominent than others. Despite Lil being female, her gender is rarely a major discussion point, unlike Susie and Angelica or even Kimi in later seasons. It isn’t brought up that much in both Rugrats and the adults especially with her parents. One of the few exceptions to this is “A Very McNulty Birthday,” when Timmy McNulty doesn’t want to be around the girls that come to his party because of “cooties,” and this is one of the few times Lil isn’t thought of as just one of the boys throughout the entire run of the show, as well as All Grown Up. It is implied that Lil has a crush on Chuckie in certain episodes of both Rugrats and All Grown Up.  

Series Overview

When Rugrats premiered on August 11^th, 1991 on Nickelodeon, it was one of the first three Nicktoons alongside Doug, and Ren & Stimpy that same day. The show created by Arlene Klasky and Gabor Cuspo, whose own children gave them inspiration. One person was brought on to help with the show whose relationship with the series would be fraught with tension and complaints from Arlene Klasky: fellow Simpsons writer Paul Germain. It is important to know that they got their start with The Simpsons, which they were a part of until 1992. One of the show’s most popular characters would cause tension between Klasky and Germain throughout Germain’s time on the show writing. The character that caused tension was Angelica, which looking back at it seems odd because of her popularity and success. When the series pilot was submitted to Nickelodeon in 1990, it was tested with children and got positive feedback, however, there was a conflict of what Klasky and Germain wanted Rugrats to be. According to this video, Germain wanted “intelligent stories for intelligent children,” whereas Klasky wanted them to remain as babies. In addition, Klasky and Germain didn’t see eye to eye regarding Angelica. Angelica was based off of a bully Germain had known growing up. With episodes such as “Barbecue Story” and “The Trial,” Klasky just saw Angelica as a villain being mean to the babies and she wasn’t interested in her character development, because this wasn’t something that was going to be in her plans for the show. Klasky didn’t like the bullying from Angelica and since Angelica wasn’t in her original plans, she didn’t feel any connection to the character, unlike Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil who she created the show around. Even though I very much enjoy the episodes Paul Germain did, I have to side with Klasky because that is what the show should be about, and also his writing was a little bit too mature for the show (see this video for more of Germain’s opinion on the show).

The show’s initial voice cast included E.G Daily as Tommy, replacing Tami Holbrook who voiced Tommy in the unaired pilot. Christine Cavanaugh voiced Chuckie up until 2002, when she was replaced by The Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright, better known as the voice of Bart Simpson. Phil and Lil, as well as their mother Betty, were voiced by Kath Soucie. Cheryl Chase voiced Angelica. Susie was voiced by Cree Summer. Didi was voiced by Melanie Chartoff. Stu was voiced by Jack Riley. Charlotte was voiced by Tress MacNeille. Drew and Chas were both voiced by Michael Bell. Howard was voiced by Phil Proctor, and Grandpa Lou was voiced first by David Doyle, and Joe Alaskey took over the role after he died in 1997.

Image Credits:

Feature/Cover Image: https://nerdbot.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/lseuxpzwkntjf0coatv2.jpg

Rugrats Babies: https://www.flickr.com/photos/osca_vb/3364316658

Tommy and Susie: https://thumbnails.cbsig.net/CBS_Production_Entertainment_VMS/2020/05/24/1741873731528/NICKELODEON_RUGRATS_031_198658_1920x1080.jpg