Rugrats

Rugrats is an animated television series created for Nickelodeon network. It shows the daily mischief and mayhem of a group of toddlers, Tommy Pickles(Elizabeth Daily), his timid best friend Chuckie Finster (Christine Cavaugh), twins Phil and Lil Deville (Kath Sourcie), and Tommy’s 3 year old cousin Angelica Pickles (Cheryl Chase) life experiences and interactions with each other and the children in the neighborhood. Most of the adventures the toddlers go on during the episodes are figments of their imaginations with no adult in the series actually realizing what they are up to. The main adults featured in the show most often being Tommy’s parents Stu (Jack Riley) and Didi (Melanie Charthoff).

The show was created by Gábor Csupó, Arlene Klasky, and Paul Germain as part of a line of animated shows called Nicktoons, the series’ first airdate was August 11, 1991. Unfortunately only 65 episodes were aired until 1993 when production on the series stopped with the last episode being taped on May 22, 1994. On April 13, 1995 the final episode “A Rugrats Passover” made the show headlines for becoming the first animated tv series to focus on a Jewish holiday. The success of that episode led to the creation of “The Rugrats Chanukah” broadcast December 4th, 1996. The episode became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed episodes of Rugrats to date. After the success of the two special presentation holiday episodes new Rugrats episodes began airing in 1997 on Nickelodeon.

The following year in November 1998 “The Rugrats Movie” was released nationwide by Paramount Pictures in theaters introducing Tommy Pickles baby brother Dill. The film had voice overs from the original cast as well as guest stars that included: Busta Rhymes, David Spade, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Curry, etc. With success of the film a sequel titled “Rugrats in Paris: The Movie” was released in 2000 followed up by “The Rugrats Go Wild”. In August 2001 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the series Nickelodeon aired the special “All Growed Up” which revealed the lives of the characters and families all grown up 10 years later. The network followed up with two direct to video specials called “Rugrats Tales from the Crib”.

During its 13 year run Rugrats earned some of the highest ratings for the Nickelodeon network to date. Receiving over 20 awards and a star on the Hollywood walk of fame it will always be one of the top rated animated shows of the 90s.

Cast
Elizabeth Daily
Christine Cavaugh
Kath Soucie
Cheryl Chase
Jack Riley
Melanie Charhoff

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