It's official! The Old School Lane YouTube channel has hit 1000 subscribers. It's all thanks to you that we were able to hit this huge milestone. As a special thanks, Patricia will giveaway a copy of Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein and a Nicktoons DVD to 4 people.
To get a chance to win, email us at oldschoollane86@gmail.com to let us know your name, how you got introduced to Old School Lane, and what were your favorite podcast, video, and interview.
The names will be drawn in two weeks from now on January 22, 2017 and if your name is drawn, PM your address so that the book and DVD will be sent to you. Good luck.
Continuing with 3 Original Nicktoons Month, Patricia interviews book authors and pop culture enthusiats Mathew Klickstein and Caseen Gaines discussing about how Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show influence pop culture.
Check out the 4 part oral history of the 3 original Nicktoons that Mathew and Caseen wrote for Decider.
Continuing on with the 3 Original Nicktoons Month, Patricia and Rugrats co-creator Paul Germain discuss about the legacy that Rugrats left behind 25 years after its debut.
It's time for a new themed month of videos at Old School Lane! This time, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 3 original Nicktoons Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. We're going to focus first on Rugrats comparing the original pilot from 1990 to the eventual TV series. Does it still hold up? Let's find out!
A Rugrats Passover is one of the most beloved and fondly remembered holiday specials of all time and what may be most people's first introduction to it. Today it's celebrating its 20th anniversary. In the premiere episode of Old School Lane Commentary, Patricia and Rugrats co-creator and writer Paul Germain look back on the episode and discuss about it. Hope you enjoy!
Happy New Year, everyone! While 2015 with have new content for the blog and YouTube channel, Patricia and Kevin start on a sad note discussing about the late actress Christine Cavanaugh and her iconic characters.
In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia, Kevin, and newcomer Christina do their first double interview by interviewing Rugrats and Recess co-creator Paul Germain and Recess co-creator and Rugrats and Hey Arnold! writer Joe Ansolabehere.
Around 2003, Klasky Csupo were slowly losing popularity with their Nicktoons. While All Grown Up still had decent ratings and reviews, The Wild Thornberrys ended its run a year prior and their magnum opus Rugrats was losing steam and people were getting burned out on watching it. The addition of the newer characters, the other newer Nicktoons such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly Oddparents, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, and more, and the somewhat stale nature of the newer episodes were the main causes of people losing interest in the show. Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo decided to do a TV special simply titled Rugrats meet The Wild Thornberrys to bring up their TV ratings, but the Nickelodeon executives decided to scrap that idea and make the concept into a movie. This would be the first time that two different Nickelodeon shows would come together so it was hyped up to a big hit like Klasky Csupo's previous movies. On June 3, 2003, Rugrats Go Wild was debuted in theaters. In honor of the event, the theater even included scratch and sniff cards to see alongside the movie in homage to Smell-O-Vision back in the 1960s and John Waters' 1981 movie Polyester. The smells included from bananas to smelly feet. This would be the second time that the Nickelodeon executives released a TV special theatrically. Would this time be successful? Let's find out. Here is Rugrats Go Wild!
The movie starts off with Tommy watching Nigel Thornberry on TV discussing about animals. When seeing it, Tommy wishes that he wants to be just like him. Angelica doubts this, but Tommy is still determined. Meanwhile, we see the adults getting ready to go on a big cruise that they've been really excited for. While they dream of getting pampered and relaxing in the sun, Stu surprises them with a tiny little ramshackle boat to travel to the South China Seas for their vacation. The adults, hugely disappointed, decided to go anyway. Things don't go very well when a huge storm hits and the boat gets completely destroyed with a giant tidal wave. Luckily, everyone escapes out of a life boat.
The next day, they arrive at a deserted island and Stu tries to make things better for everyone. Unfortunately, the adults blame Stu for getting themselves into this and decide to make him watch over the babies and appoint Betty as their leader. While the adults go off into getting supplies and food, Stu tries to prove himself to the adults and leaves Angelica in charge of watching them. She tells the babies that they're stuck on the island, but Tommy believes that Nigel Thornberry is at the island. They decide to venture out into the jungle to look around looking for Nigel. Angelica and Spike find out that the babies are missing so they looked around separately. Along the way, Angelica meets up with Debbie Thornberry at the comvee saying that she was a tribal princess and having the best scene in the movie by singing the song "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash, Eliza and Darwin meet up with Spike and talks for the first time (voiced by Bruce Willis), and Chuckie inadvertently meets up and swaps with Donnie.
The next song involves with Spike and meeting the movie's villain in a form of a leopard named Siri. Another song involving with dogs being better than cats called "Big Bad Cat" is sung and in the end, Spike is able to defeat Siri. Meanwhile, Nigel and Marianne are looking around for a clouded leopard for their nature show when Nigel gets lost, falls down, and gets his head hit by a coconut giving him amnesia. The babies found Nigel and he starts acting like a baby around him. Tommy becomes very disappointed that Nigel is not the person he seems to be on TV. Back to Angelica and Debbie, Debbie finds out that Angelica was lying about being a tribal princess and accidentally crashes and sinks the comvee. Nigel and the babies get themselves into the Thornberry submarine. He accidentally bangs his head again and regains his memory. Everything seems to go fine until the sub runs out of gas and oxygen. What happens is one of the saddest moments in Nickelodeon history when Nigel tries to calm down the babies and tells them a story as their inevitable moment of death is coming upon them. But then later on, Marianne meets up with Stu, Drew, Didi, Betty, Howard, Chaz, Kira, Drew, and Charlotte and together with Stu's invention, they free the comvee and bring the submarine up. The movie concludes with all the Rugrats characters and The Wild Thornberrys characters making it on the cruise and having a fun time.
When the movie first came out, it didn't very well on the box office and had mixed reactions with critics and fans. Not only that, but the movie came out around the same time as Finding Nemo which hugely overshadowed it. Overall, this movie is awful! It was a rehashed version of The Rugrats Movie with the babies getting lost in the jungle instead of the forest. Also, it had another forgettable animal villain in the form of Siri, which is hugely disappointing after we got a memorable villain in the form of Coco LaBouche. Also, the addition of the Wild Thornberrys characters were inconsistent with their appearances. Debbie was the only one who was an interesting addition to the movie while everyone else was on the side. The possibility of mixing in these two shows together was a lost opportunity with the Rugrats characters getting more screen time. But that would be fixed one year later with The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour one year later.
Also making Spike talk was so annoying! He had absolutely no purpose in talking other than making bad jokes and witty remarks, which is absolutelynothing like Spike's character in the show. Finally, the movie has way more gross factors than the previous two movies, in fact, this is the only Rugrats movie that was rated PG. You know how I feel about the grossness in the Rugrats movies, so I'm not going to go into too much details. However, it seemed very unneeded and gross for the sake of being gross. It would have been the norm back in the 90's, but since this movie came out in 2003, the humor of things being gross was already done at that point. When I had mentioned that All Grown Up kind of ruined Rugrats for me, Rugrats Go Wild killed the franchise as this was the last movie that Klasky Csupo did for Rugrats and their reputation had dwindled away with the cancellation of Rugrats a year later. I don't recommend checking it out!
That's all for now! Tune in next time as we look at the final cartoon series that originated from Oh Yeah! Cartoons in the form of My Life as a Teenage Robot.
Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading!
Now that Mother's Day is over, it's time to conclude it with a very well known episode pertaining to that subject: the Rugrats Mother Day special.
Debuting on Mother's Day on May 9, 1997, it came out 5 months after the Rugrats Hanukkah special. Does this Mother's Day special make you appreciate your mom even more or is it as hollow as a $1 teddy bear. This is the Rugrats Mother's Day special.
We start out with Angelica making a macaroni sculpture of her head for her mother in honor of Mother's Day. Tommy, Phil, and Lil never heard of the holiday so they decided to look around for gifts to give to their moms. Meanwhile we see Didi treating her mom Minka to a relaxing day at the spa and Stu trying out a new invention to help Didi with the house chores. However, it doesn't go very well. Didi and Minka have nothing in common and Stu's invention keeps breaking down. Betty tries to help Stu with the invention on how to become a mom.
We then cut back to the babies looking for gifts until Chaz and Chuckie come to visit. He tells Didi about keeping a box hidden that contains with former wife Melinda from Chuckie's eyes since he doesn't want him to feel sad. Chuckie greets his friends and wonders why they're looking for stuff. They explain to Chuckie about Mother's Day, but Chuckie doesn't know about it because he doesn't have a mom. Tommy asks him if he remembers having a mom. Chuckie says no, but he does dream about a nice woman whose mostly takes place outside and she's gardening. Tommy then comes up with the idea of looking for a mom for Chuckie.
With no luck, Angelica decides to jump in and offers that she can be Chuckie's mom. The babies refuse, but Chuckie accepts. He helps her make the macaroni head and does Angelica's orders while she bosses him around. She even changes his name to Blaine. With a quick misstep, Chuckie accidentally breaks Angelica's macaroni head and as punishment, she locks the babies in the closet and quits being Chuckie's mom. While looking through the closet, Chuckie finds the box containing his mother's things including a picture of her. The adults come home with Charlotte liking Angelica's present, Didi and Minka getting along, and the invention exploding due to a system overload. Chaz comes to pick Chuckie up until he finds out that he found Chuckie found the picture. Chaz, concerned that Chuckie found the picture, decides to take it away. Didi tells him that now is the time to talk to Chuckie about his mom. Chaz finally agrees.
Chaz explains about his mother and the poem she wrote before she died. The poem is about that even though she's not around, she'll always be there for him in the sky, clouds, flowers, grass, sun, and wind. Chuckie then tells Tommy, Phil, and Lil about it and the episode ends there.
Overall, for most people, this is one of the most saddest episodes from their childhood and hold it very dear in their hearts. As for me, I do really like the episode, but it's not as sad as it used it be. When I found out in the interview with Paul Germain that Chuckie's mom was originally alive and the reason why she wasn't in the show was because her and Chaz were divorced, it kind of was a buzzkill. However, there are a lot of good things about it. Firstly, it broadened Chuckie's character a lot more than just a timid, coward baby and it would be the lead up to Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. Overall, it still holds up and you should check it out sometime.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
The year is 2003. The last Lord of the Rings movie Return of the King, The Last Samurai, Finding Nemo, and Big Fish were released in theaters. Chappelle's Show, TMNT, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Reno 911! debuted on TV. As we mentioned in our last review, Klasky Csupo was the top animation company for Nickelodeon. They had created and/or produced 5 Nicktoons, released 3 critically and financially movies, and had a pristine reputation of quality, creativity, and unique animation. Around July 21, 2001,Rugrats had released a special called Rugrats 10th Anniversary: All Growed Up!
It was a 1 hour special featuring the Rugrats characters as pre-teens. The story was about Tommy borrowing Stu's lucky medallion to give to Angelica after she bragged to her friends that she had it. It turns out that Stu has the same mediallion as Emica, a famous pop star who is going to have a concert in her town. Tommy makes a fake mediallion to confuse Stu and Spike steals it. It's up to Tommy and the gang to find the mediallion before Stu needs it for a disco competition. For many people, it was amazing to see the same babies that they've seen for 10 years grown into pre-teens. The same characters that people saw as kids were already teenagers like they were. It was such a huge success. It was so successful that over 70% of children from 2-11 watched the special. It had ratings that Nickelodeon had never seen before."The ratings compared to Superbowl shares, and I remember I cried,'' said Cyma Zarghami, then executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon. "We have to make that show.'' Even Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo wanted to create a spin-off show based on that idea. "It was always in the back of our minds that we would love to see what these characters were like as they grew," replied Arlene Klasky.
There were also talks from the producers from Nickelodeon that they were excited for a new spinoff on Rugrats. Zarghami approved of it and the people who grew up with the original will love this new show. "''I think the exciting thing about this series is that we'll have the opportunity to tell more individual stories,'' Ms. Zarghami said. ''The greatest thing about aging up is that characters' personalities just get more developed. You can ask a 13-year-old if they still watch 'Rugrats' and in public they say no, but the research shows many of them still do." On April 12, 2003, All Grown Up! debuted on TV.
The show takes place 9 years after Rugrats, but before the Rugrats 10th Anniversary Special. The same characters Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Dil, Susie, Kimi, and Angelica are living their regular lives as middle school students dealing with everyday problems and solving it. There were many changes that the characters went through besides them getting older. Tommy had a love for film and wanted to be a filmmaker, Chuckie was struggling with talking to girls, Phil and Lil loved soccer and were trying to be their own person as oppose to a twin, Angelica is trying to be popular, Susie wants to be a singer, and Kimi is...well, not much went with her that stood out. But the one person who changed for the...weider was Dil. Dil dressed in a very strange getup with a hat with chattering teeth hanging on the side, mismatched clothing and having strange hobbies from speaking with dolphins to looking for aliens. If people thought that Dil was annoying when he was a baby, he's certainly more stranger as a kid.
Not only were there the characters we knew from the original show, there were new characters introduced in All Grown Up! There was Savannah, Angelica's popular friend, Harold, Angelica's goofy friend that knew her since preschool, Rachel, Tommy's on-and-off again Jewish girlfriend, and Z, a "bad" boy that Kimi has a crush on. While there were some new things that were introduced in the Rugrats universe, there were some old things that were brought into the show such as flashbacks from when they were babies and toddlers to bringing back characters such as Boris and Minka to Reptar.
The show lasted for 5 seasons until it ended its run on August 17, 2008. When the show first came out, it had received positive feedback from both critics and viewers alike. For people who grew up with Rugrats, it was an incredible concept for characters that they've known for a decade to be grown up. Very rarely do we see cartoon characters age and develop, but Rugrats was willing to take that risk. For kids who were introduced to the newer episodes of Rugrats, they were able to see All Grown Up! as well and it became one of the most popular cartoons in Nickelodeon. However, just like ChalkZone, it had received a ton of hate over the years. Many people who grew up with the original Rugrats hated All Grown Up! due to the many changes that the show went through.
As for me, I didn't really care for All Grown Up! The majority of the episodes were very boring and very forgettable. The great thing about Rugrats was that it was a very creative concept with talking babies going through many adventures involving with imagination. With All Grown Up!, it lacked the charm and creativity that the original Rugrats had. Also the new characters introduced to the show weren't very interesting. They were very 1 dimensional and bland. Klasky Csupo already had a very well done show about teenager problems with As Told by Ginger and we already had the 10th anniversary special to answer the big question of what the babies would look like if they were older. This was the first indication that Rugrats was growing stale on viewers and the beginning of the end for Klasky Csupo as Nickelodeon's #1 animation company. SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, ChalkZone, and The Fairly Oddparents were already gaining popularity and viewers. As of recently, Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo had officially retconned All Grown Up! from the Rugrats universe. However, the show still has a huge cult following, but it didn't impress me or many other Rugrats fans. I don't recommend checking it out.
That's all for now. Tune in next time as we see Klasky Csupo try to get back on track with their 4 feature film Rugrats Go Wild.
Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
Happy Passover, everyone! While you are celebrating the day of deliverance from Egypt while eating matzo ball soup and beef brisket, it's time to review the only Passover special that Nickelodeon has ever aired. That special is the one and only A Rugrats Passover.
The special was conceived back in 1992 when Paul Germain, Arlene Klasky, and Gabor Csupo pitched the idea of a Hanukkah special to the Nickelodeon executives. As time went on, they decided to do a Passover special that was both informative and fun. Paul Germain and Rugrats storyboard writers Peter Gaffney, Rachel Lipman, and Jonathon Greenberg wrote the script and years later, the special debuted on April 13, 1995. Is this Passover special a miraculous masterpiece or should it be passed aside with the locusts and flies? This is A Rugrats Passover.
The special starts with Stu, Didi, and Tommy driving over to Didi's parents Boris and Minka to celebrate Passover. Stu wasn't really interested in going to Passover dinner since he's not Jewish, but Didi pushes him to go. Meanwhile Drew, Charlotte, and Angelica are driving over to Boris and Minka's house as well. Angelica wants to eat cookies, but learns that she can't because she can't eat any type of baked goods with yeast. Angelica questions on why she has to celebrate Passover since Boris and Minka are Tommy's grandparents and not hers. Regardless, they head over to the house. When they head over to the house, Minka opens the door with tears in her eyes since she can't find Boris. Boris and Minka had a big argument and now Boris is gone. Next, Chaz and Chuckie come over to the house for Passover celebration and it's decided that Stu would be in charge of leading the Passover dinner.
While Stu leads the dinner, Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica leave to wander around and end up in the attic. When Angelica opens the door, she finds Boris in the corner and urges Angelica not to close the door. However, it's too late. Boris tells them to get comfortable since the door can only be opened from the outside. Angelica doesn't see it as a big deal since she says that Passover is a boring holiday. Boris objects and decides to tell them the story of the origins of Passover.
It starts with the Pharoah, played by Angelica, in a big boat being rowed by the Jewish slaves, portrayed as babies, in the Nile River. Meanwhile, she sees something in the bushes and meets up with Moses, played by Tommy. Angelica sees Tommy as a possible assistant and Tommy accepts without knowing that he is a baby. As time went on, he interacts with the other babies and he learns that they're bossed around by Angelica. Tommy doesn't see it to be fair so he decides to talk with Angelica. When he sees an Egyptian soldier, played by a toddler, pushing around a slave, played by Chuckie, Tommy steps up and pushes him. His hat fell off revealing that he's a baby. Eventually, Tommy ran away from Egypt for a long time and later on returned to Egypt with a mission to let all the babies free from Angelica's rule. Later on, Chaz wanders into the attic looking for Chuckie and accidentally closes the door. Chaz, knowing that he's stuck, sits next to Boris and the toddlers and listens to the rest of the story. Eventually, Tommy ran away from Egypt for a long time and later on returned to Egypt with a mission to let all the babies free from Angelica's rule. Tommy encounters Angelica and warns her to let his babies go, but she says no.
Next, Tommy conjures up many plagues such as frogs, flies, locusts, and darkness to make Angelica change her mind. With every plague, she promises to let the babies go and changes her mind just as quickly. Drew and Charlotte find out that Angelica is missing and wander themselves into the attic. But then Charlotte closes the door and find themselves stuck. So they sit down and Boris continues with the story. Tommy releases the final plague which is to get rid of all the first born Egyptians. When Angelica learns that she's a first born, she makes a promise to Tommy to free all the babies in order for her to not being taking away. Tommy agrees. Didi, Stu, and Minka find out that everyone is missing and start to look around and make it to the attic. The adults all reunite and Angelica interrupts saying that she wants to know the end of the story. Boris finishes the story when the babies begin to pack up their stuff and head over to the Promised Land. When they stop at the Red Sea, Angelica and her soldiers charge them wanting to take the babies back to Egypt. Finding themselves trapped, Tommy opens up the Red Sea and they walk the path. Afterwards, the Red Sea closes and Angelica loses her babies. Tommy and the babies celebrate with them being free from Angelica's rule.
Boris concludes the story with the celebration of Passover to remember the Hebrews being free from the Egyptians. Didi says that it's time to finish the dinner, but the wind closes the door. Boris decides to tell another story about how his parents first met.
When this special first premiered, it was praised by many critics and viewers. At the time, there were rare times in which a kids' show would celebrate a Jewish holiday. To this day, A Rugrats Passover is the highest rated show as well as the most viewed holiday special in Nickelodeon history. A Rugrats Passover was the last episode of the 3rd season before the 3 year hiatus and the eventual dismissal of Paul Germain and many of the Rugrats animators and writers. What a way to end, in my opinion, the best seasons of Rugrats. It's a beloved classic that explains the origins of Passover in a way that kids could understand while still keeping the origins of the holiday. It still holds up to this day and I highly recommend checking it out!
That's all for now! Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Happy Passover!
Over the years, there were petitions on getting the classic 1991 Nicktoon being revived. While there were rumors about Rugrats coming back, it wasn't confirmed. Now the Nickelodeon executives have been showing interest as of lately and many people's dreams may be coming true. Is Patricia excited about it? You would be surprised.
Happy Kwanzaa, everyone! Time to celebrate this holiday of
remembering the legacy of the African American people with Nickelodeon’s: A Rugrats Kwanzaa. Debuting in 2001, it
still stands as the only Kwanzaa special that Nickelodeon ever aired. So is
this special as memorable and classic as the Rugrats Christmas and Hanukkah specials or is this holiday too
obscure for the babies to understand? This is A Rugrats Kwanzaa.
We start this special on a rainy night at the Carmichael’s
house where Susie wants someone to play with. However her older sister Alisa is
on the phone and her older brothers Edwin and Buster are busy doing different
activities. Suddenly their Great Aunt T to come visit them for the holidays. The
kids are a little concerned since they don’t know who she is, especially Susie.
She then begins to tell them about Kwanzaa, but the kids don’t know about it.
So she decides that the kids deserve to know about the holiday since it’s a
celebration of the legacy of their ancestors. Afterwards, Great Aunt T gives
them Kwanzaa gifts: Alisa gets an African hat, Buster gets an African beaded
necklace, Edwin gets an African tribal mask, and Susie gets an old photo album.
Susie doesn’t feel special compared to the rest of her family. Tommy and the
rest of the babies visit Susie and she begins to explain about Kwanzaa to them
and tells the babies about her problem. Tommy tells her that Susie is special
no matter what, but Susie isn’t convinced. She tries everything that her
brothers and sister does, but it doesn’t work. She tries creating a vase out of
clay for Great Aunt T, but it fell and looks like a blobby cup. She runs to her
parents room and starts crying. Great Aunt T sees her and cheers her up saying
that she’s still too young to try to pursue things like science and soccer and
that she’s special in her own way. Then the power goes out and Great Aunt T
decides to borrow Susie’s album and tell stories. One story involves with her
and her husband Charles driving fast to reach Washington D.C. to hear Dr.
Martin Luther King’s speech. Charles sees a man struggling to get his car fixed
and he stops to help him. That man turned out to be Dr. King himself. The next
story involves with Lucy, Susie's mom, as a little girl being nervous singing in the choir. The final story involves with Lucy as a young adult crying that she doesn't have enough money to go to medical school. Great Aunt T gives her a check with enough money for her schooling. The special concludes with the lights turning back on and feasting on peanut butter sandwiches and Susie making the Kwanzaa speech. Overall, this special was a tad bit forgettable and the weakest in the holiday specials that Rugrats has aired. It didn't have the same charm that the Rugrats Christmas and Hanukkah specials had. At least with the Hanukkah and Passover specials, they explained the origins of the holidays well enough for a kid to understand. This special didn't explained Kwanzaa well enough or long enough for a kid to grasp. That's a shame too because the Carmichael family aren't shown enough in Rugrats and it would have been nice if they had reenacted the Kwanzaa origin Rugrats style. I could have easily seen Edwin portraying as Maulana Karenga. I don't recommend checking it out. If you want to see a good animated Kwanzaa special, check out The Proud Family Kwanzaa special. It's funny and explains the meaning of Kwanzaa much better. That's all for now. Tune in next time as we look into a forgotten Christmas special called Christmas in Tattertown.
Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Happy Kwanzaa!
Happy last night of Hanukkah, everyone! It's time for our final review right before we go into Christmas! Tonight we're going to review the most well known Hanukkah special of Nickelodeon. The special that many people consider to be the greatest Hanukkah special of all time is A Rugrats Chanukah.
A Rugrats Chanukah was debuted in Nickelodeon on December 4, 1996, almost 1 year after Weinerville's Hanukkah Special. Since Arlene Klasky was Jewish, it made sense for her to conduct an idea for a Rugrats Hanukkah special. The Nickelodeon executives wanted to have this special released in 1992, but eventually, it was changed into The Rugrats Passover Special in 1995. After the success of that special, Klasky decided to revisit the idea of a Hanukkah special once again with the script written by David Weiss and J. David Stem, the storyboard writers of Rugrats. So does this special give us that warm, fuzzy Hanukkah feeling 16 years later or has the oil burned out long ago? This is A Rugrats Chanukah.
We start with Minka reading the origins of Hanukkah to the babies. We see it in their perspectives with them acting out as the characters from the story. Tommy, playing Judah the Macabee, is seeing the new king of Greece forcing the Jewish babies to do what he wants them to do by reading Plato instead of the Torah, wearing togas instead of robes, and worshiping a god that looks like Cynthia. Then afterwards Tommy puts together an army and fight against the evil king and his soldiers.
As time goes on, we then cut back into reality where the real plot begins. Boris is performing a play at the Jewish synagogue, but he's jealous of his old rival Schlomo when he makes it in the front page of the newspaper. Boris always felt that Schlomo was trying to outdo him with the fact that he chose a successful pants business over having a family and is constantly bragging about it. Meanwhile Tommy is confused to what is going on in the household: they're eating pancakes (latkes) at night, he wears a funny hat (yarmarkle), there's a weird candle holder on top of the TV (the menorah), and he gets a present every night. Angelica explains about Chanukkah to them, but not in a good way. She tells them that that's when all the good TV specials are on. She's eager to watch a Cynthia Christmas special, but unfortunately they leave for the play at the synagogue. Stu is working on a menorah for the play and Boris talks about what was the true meaning of Hanukkah. The babies confuse it for the "meanie" of Hanukkah. Chuckie explains about the time he dealt with a mean kid in daycare which ended up with them taking a nap. Tommy comes up with the idea of stopping the "meanie" of Hanukkah by putting him to sleep.
When they get to the play, there's many vendors consisting of latkes and dreidels. Angelica eats and spits out the latke which ends with a man dressed as a dreidel slipping and falling. She tries to find a TV, but with no luck. The man in the dreidel costume finds her and puts her in a nursery as punishment for wrecking his costume.
The babies start to go after Shlomo after he shows up on stage, but eventually end up in the same nursery that Angelica's in. Angelica tricks the babies into trying to get the TV from the janitor's closet in order for her to watch her Christmas special. Meanwhile Boris and Shlomo begin to fight each other and Boris confesses of being jealous of Shlomo due to his successful business. Shlomo confesses to Boris that the business was all he had since his now deceased wife couldn't have any children and wanted some to pass on the heritage to them. Boris feels guilty and gives Shlomo's part as the evil king to an understudy. Back at the janitor's closet, Angelica and the babies finally work together to get the portable TV, but Angelica runs away with it. She bumps into Shlomo and the TV falls down. Angelica begins to cry, the babies sees her with Shlomo so they walk towards him. Boris sees Shlomo surrounded by the babies and tells Shlomo to read Tommy's book of the origins of Hanukkah that was shown in the beginning of the special. So now, the story continues.
After Tommy defeats the Greek king and his soldiers, it left their city, temple, and menorah in ruins. They only had enough oil to light it up for one night. However, it lasted for eight nights. The story concludes with the celebration that happens every year in honor of the events that occured in the temple and the miracle that happened. Stu comes in the giant menorah, it crashes, and the curtains fall to reveal Boris, Shlomo, and the babies. Boris and Shlomo explain about passing on the legacy to the babies, say the prayer, and sing a traditional Hanukkah song. Tommy and Chuckie are glad that Boris and Shlomo are friends claiming it to be a "mirable".
When this special first aired, it was praised by many critics and viewers alike. A Rugrats Chanukah continues to air every December to this very day and with good reasoning. Not only because it's one of the few Hanukkah specials, but it's still really good. It teaches the origins of Hanukkah easy enough for kids to understand, it has a good plot on its own, it's humorous, sad, and heartwarming. Truly a holiday classic. I highly recommend checking it out!
That's all for now. Next time, we go into Christmas with my top 12 Christmas specials. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
With the financial success of The Rugrats Movie, it was high time for a sequel. Two years later on November 17, 2000, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie was released in theaters.
So is Rugrats in Paris just as good as the previous Rugrats movie or has it taken a huge baby step down? This is Rugrats in Paris: The Movie.
The movie starts off with a movie parody such like the first movie. The Rugrats Movie started with the parody of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rugrats in Paris parodied The Godfather. Angelica portrayed as the "Bobfather" who can grant wishes to the babies if they kiss her ring. When it's Chuckie's turn, he doesn't know what his wish is. But before he can think about it, we see Grandpa Lou looking at the janitor's closet where the babies are and brings them out. We then start the movie with the celebration of Grandpa Lou and Lulu's wedding. They finish off their dance until the next dance start which involves the kids and their moms. Everyone goes out to dance with their moms except for Chuckie. He feels sad and alone that he's the only one who doesn't have a mom. With that said, Chaz and Chuckie goes home. Chaz gives Chuckie a teddy bear named Wa-Wa that his mother made him. Chaz knows that Chuckie needs a mom more than ever and he decides to try to find a date again.
Meanwhile in Paris, a corporate businesswoman named Coco LaBouche (voiced by Susan Sarandon) is having a discussion with her boss Mr. Yamaguchi (voiced by Mako) about being the head of EuroReptarLand, a Reptar-themed amusement park. Mr. Yamaguchi is impressed with Coco's reputation and work ethics, but doesn't have the "heart of a child" to run the place. Coco makes up a lie saying that she's getting married to a man with a child and Mr. Yamaguchi considers her for the job. Coco's assistant Jean Claude (voiced by John Lithgow) knows that Coco is never going to find a man with a child at time since she's not a likable person. While Coco follows with an defensive argument, a giant Reptar robot begins to malfunction. Coco is very angry and asks for her assistant Kira Watanabe (voiced by Julia Kato) to call the man responsible for the giant Reptar robot to fix it: Stu Pickles.
Kira calls Stu around 3:00 in the morning asking him to get the earliest ticket for him and his family to Paris on the route to EuroReptarLand. All of a sudden, they play off a Home Alone in which the entire gang consisting of the Pickles, the Devilles, and the Finsters running towards the airport, getting passports, packing their stuff, and riding on the plane. On the plane, Tommy, Phil, and Lil are looking around the plane to see if there are any cool places to explore. They find Angelica in first class listening to music and hanging out, but they tend to mess that up when Chuckie stumbles at the stewardess' cart and crashes into the seats and opens up the luggage compartments. As things begin to calm down, Chuckie looks out to the sky and the song "I Want A Mom That'll Last Forever" sung by Cyndi Lauper begins.
Finally they arrive in Paris and make their way to EuroReptarLand. They meet up with Kira who welcomes them to the theme park. We then see the group looking at a parade consisting of a story about a princess who is loving and kind. She was the one who loved Reptar more than anything and was very sad when her people wanted to get rid of him. She approached the people saying that Reptar is not a mean dinosaur and that he is kind and friendly. When seeing the parade and hearing the story, Chuckie now knows that he wants the princess to be his new mommy.Angelica sneaks off and sees Coco and Jean Claude discussing about where they're going to find a dunce with a baby so that she can get the promotion. While they leave, Angelica makes her way into the office and begins eating her chocolate bon-bons. When Coco returns, she grabs Angelica and threatens her to why Angelica should live. Angelica claims that she knows a man who is a dunce and has a baby whom Coco can marry to get her promotion. Coco smiles and claims that she has made a new friend with Angelica. As the story continues, we find out that Spike runs away from the hotel room and wanders around Paris. Then the song that continues with Spike's journey, "Who Let The Dogs Out?" sung by The Baha Men begins.
That night, we then cut to a Japanese sushi restaurant where the gang is having their dinner. Chuckie tells the gang that he wants the princess for his mommy and Angelica interrupts three karaoke singing sumo wrestlers singing to the song "Bad Girls".
Then all of a sudden, Coco appears and beings flirting with Chaz. She sees Chuckie and tries to be friendly to him, but Chuckie appears scared to seeing her. After they return to their hotel rooms, Chuckie wishes to be brave and Tommy tells him that he will be. We see Chuckie have a dream of him turning into a martial arts expert named Chuckie Chan. Then the song "Chuckie Chan" sung by Isaac Hayes and Alex Brown begins.
The next day, Coco treats the babies to a trip around EuroReptarLand riding all the rides. The first ride is Gooey World. The babies then meet up with a new friend: Kira's daughter Kimi (voiced by Dionne Quan). She tells them that she knows where the princess is and takes them to where she is. They sneak out of the ride and Kimi takes them to a tower that has a robotic replica of the princess.
When Chuckie develops the courage to talk to the princess, Coco's ninja security guards capture the babies and bring them back to Gooey World safely. Chaz starts falling more in love with her, but is skeptical that Chuckie doesn't like her very much. If Chuckie doesn't like Coco, then Chaz will not consider dating her. Coco knows that she cannot do it alone, so she promises Angelica that she will be the leading lady in the parade if she can help her. Angelica then tells Coco that Chuckie wants the princess from EuroReptarLand to be his new mom. Coco then has an idea.
We then cut to Spike meeting a stray poodle named Fifi and they start going out. They walk around Paris, see the sights, and recreate the scene from Lady and the Tramp eating food together. Instead of it being spaghetti and meatballs, it's a slice of pizza from the trash. Spike and Fifi eat the pizza, but the cheese is so sticky that they get stuck.
The next day, the gang see a play about the princess and Reptar. Chuckie smiles as she sees the princess and walks over to the front stage to give Wa-Wa to her. But then Coco steals the stage princess and appears on the stage dressed as her. When Chuckie gives her Wa-Wa, she reveals herself as Coco and Chuckie is shocked. Chaz is so impressed that Coco performed on the show that he knows that Coco is the one. We then cut to the wedding of Chaz and Coco where everyone is getting dressed for the occasion.
Knowing that Chuckie and his friends are not happy about the wedding, Coco and Jean Claude captures the babies and locks them away in a warehouse. She also locks Angelica in the warehouse since she claims that she can stop the wedding by telling the adults. With the babies locked up, Angelica confesses to Chuckie saying that she was the one who tells Coco about her dad and making it so that she can be his new mommy. The babies are shocked saying that this is the worst thing she ever did to them. However, Chuckie knows that he has to go to the church and stop the wedding before it's too late. They steal the Reptar robot and walk all over Paris trying to find the church where the wedding is held.
When Jean Claude sees that the babies escape, he gets into a robot of Reptar's villain Robosnail to stop the babies. What happens next is a really awesome fight between the babies and Jean Claude controlling these giant robots. It's like looking at a battle in a Godzilla movie.
The babies win, of course, and the babies make their way to the church. Just when Chaz and Coco kiss, Chuckie runs into the church yelling "NOOOO!" Chaz is shocked that Chuckie can talk. Angelica then comes in and tells the whole story of Coco using Chaz and Chuckie so she can get a promotion. Mr. Yamaguchi hears the conversation and fires Coco on the spot. Coco couldn't believe it and so she walks out. The babies step on her dress and we see Coco's underpants. Coco runs away in embarrassment and everyone laughs at her.
Kira and Kimi appear with Chuckie's bear. Chaz sees Kira in a new light and begins falling in love with her. A few weeks later back home, we cut into Chaz and Kira's wedding. While they get married, the babies parody The Godfather again, but this time Chuckie is the new "Bobfather". When the game is over due to cake being served, Kimi asks Chuckie if he misses his mom. He does, but he knows that his mom is looking at him up from heaven and now he has a new stepmother. He feels lucky because he has two moms now. Chaz and Kira take their kids and now have their special dance together with the song "When You Love" by Sinead O'Connor.
The movie ends with a huge cake fight by the babies and cake is being thrown on the camera.
When the movie first came out, while it didn't make as much money compared to The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats in Paris was called a much more superior film than its predecessor. I completely agree. This movie is more well-put together, doesn't have as much plot points, is a lot easier to understand, and more funnier. There are some minor gripes, though. First of all, why didn't this movie take place in Japan? You have Reptar, who is originated from Japan, they go to a Japanese restaurant, Chaz marries a Japanese woman, and you have the song "Chuckie Chan". The only times in which I feel that the movie takes place in Paris is when Spike and Fifi are wandering around the city and the wedding taking place in Notre Dame. It didn't use Paris to its full capabilities and that's where the setting fails for me. It should have been in Japan.
Also, the subplot with Spike and Fifi is completely pointless. Do you really need to dedicate 15 minutes of the movie showing that Spike and Fifi fell in love and walked around Paris? No! I don't think that Spike was needed for this movie. I think he should have been left home instead so we can get more development from Kira and Kimi. Don't get me wrong, they're nice, but Kira's a bit bland and forgettable and Kimi is essentially a female Tommy. They should have been developed more and have a more understandable reason why Chaz fell in love with Kira in the first place.
The poop and pee jokes are more prominent in this movie than the series, but it's excusable since they were as well in The Rugrats Movie. Also, the soundtrack is hit and miss with the majority of the songs being updated retro songs like "These Boots Were Made For Walking" and "Bad Girls", but same could be said for The Rugrats Movie. However, the original songs for this movie are actually really good. "Chuckie Chan" is a very fun song and "I Want A Mom That'll Last Forever" is beautiful! Cyndi Lauper did a fantastic job bringing in the emotion and melody to this song. It's actually my favorite song in the whole movie. It's just too bad that this song was hugely overlooked due to The Baja Men's "Who Let The Dogs Out?" Remember when that song was just everywhere in every radio station? It was so popular that it was even the opening for the second season of 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd. That song was one of the most iconic songs of the 2000's. I never really liked it, but I can see why it was loved by so many people.
As I mentioned in my Rugrats review, there were many people who were involved in Pee-wee's Playhouse that did Rugrats at one point. Cyndi Lauper was one of them. I can't believe that the same woman who sung "I Want A Mom That'll Last Forever" sung this song at one point.
Yeah, yeah. I know that she sung great songs like "Girls Want To Have Fun" and "Time After Time". I was joking, okay. You're supposed to laugh! Anyway, bottom line, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie is, in my opinion, a much better movie than The Rugrats Movie. I highly recommend checking it out.
That's all for now. Tune in next time as we go into the year 2001 with the TeenNick teen sitcom Taina.
Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
Now time for the final Nicktoon that started the Nickelodeon golden era. The show that had a combination of creativity seeing a different perspective point of view of toddlers. The show was simply known as Rugrats.
The show was about a group of babies that see the perspective views of adults and explore around their backyard or other various places having adventures with their imaginations. The babies included the following:
Tommy Pickles (voiced by E.G. Daily) was the brave and fearless baby who loves to explore around and have many adventures with his friends.
Chuckie Finster (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh, later replaced by Nancy Cartwright) is Tommy's best friend. He's a very timid, scared, and careful baby who doesn't like Tommy's ideas of sneaking out of the playpen to explore.
Phil and Lil Deville- (both played by Kath Soucie) are identical twin siblings. They're a bit grosser loving to eat bugs and worms. They occasionally argue with one another, but they always stick together.
The show, of course, needed a bully. So, Angelica Pickles, Tommy's 3-year-old cousin (played by Cheryl Chase) would come and boss the babies around, tease them, and would sometimes hurt them. Due to being a spoiled child, she thinks that she could have anything she wants and demands that everyone follows her every demand.
At first, they didn't want Angelica in the show. Arlene Klasky, one of the show's creators, never liked Angelica bullying the babies. But then Paul Germain, the second of the show's creators, convinced the writers to include her in the show because he thought that the character would bring a bit of a realistic edge to Rugrats. Germain and the writers increased Angelica's meanness and the babies' personalities more around the 2nd and 3rd season of the show as oppose to them causing mischief in the 1st season. It became hugely popular, despite Klasky hating the character. Cheryl Chase had difficulty voicing her mean at first, but then Germain described Angelica being kind of like the J.R. Ewing of the show. It made things easier for her.
That was more balance between the toddlers of the show with the introduction of Susie Carmichael (played by Cree Summer), a nicer, kinder 3-year-old toddler who would be the thorn on Angelica's side. They had the classic rivalry on who was the best kid around. While Susie was a very nice edition of the show, for some reason or another, people seemed to like Angelica more. Nonetheless, having Susie in the show was a great decision.
One last thing to mention are the adults in the show. The parents were given as much personality as the babies were.
Stu Pickles (played by Jack Riley) was Tommy's father and a stay-at-home inventor who would be busy inventing toys, baby products, and other things to make a living of.
Didi Pickles (played by Melanie Chartoff) was Tommy's mother and a teacher. She always made sure that the babies were safe and healthy by constantly reading Dr. Lipshitz books for advice on how to raise a baby properly.
Charles "Chaz" Finster (played by Michael Bell) was a timid, scared man who works at an office job raising Chuckie alone since his wife died when Chuckie was a baby.
Howard DeVille (played by Phillip Proctor) was Phil and Lil's father and an accountant. A bit of a pushover, especially if he's around his wife Betty.
Betty DeVille (played by Kath Soucie) was a tough independent stay-at-home mom who has incredible strength.
Charlotte Pickles (played by Tress MacNeille) was Angelica's mother and a busy executive in a high corporate office constantly on her cell phone speaking to her assistant Jonathan.
Drew Pickles (played by Michael Bell) was Angelica's father and Stu's older brother who works at an office. He constantly treats Angelica like a princess, but sometimes scolds her when she's misbehaving.
Grandpa Lou Pickles (played by David Doyle) was Stu and Drew's father and Tommy's paternal grandfather who constantly falls asleep whenever he watches TV or babysitting.
Boris and Minka were Didi's parents and Tommy's Russian-Jewish maternal grandparents who would occasionally babysit.
Rugrats was created by the minds of Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, and Paul Germain. Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo, a married couple who had previously animated the shorts and the first 3 seasons of The Simpsons before creating Rugrats. According to a 1999 interview from Sorris e Canzoni TV, an Italian magazine, Arlene Klasky discusses about the inspiration of Rugrats.
"My babies were my world, they brought lots of fun to my life and I wanted to mix their funny side with my work as an artist. I had the idea of adopting their point of view, how they see the world. Sometime after I asked myself, 'If they could talk, what would they say?' For Tommy, Gabor was inspired by our youngest son Brandon. He had feet obstinately turned on the inside, he was so clumsy when he walked with those tiny, thin legs, a really big head without hair".
The inspiration for Chuckie was mostly by Mark Mothersbaugh, the main composer for Rugrats. "We had thick glasses, we're practically near-sighted, and I had pretty wild hair back then. I didn't have kids yet, so it still had color in it.
The pilot of Rugrats was released in 1990 called "Tommy Pickles and the Great White Thing". The voice actors were all the same, with the exception of Tommy voiced by Tami Holbrook.
They decided that Tommy's voice didn't seem right and instead hired E.G. Daily, who you might know as Dottie from Pee-wee's Big Adventure. According to E.G. Daily's official website, she describes how she got the part of Tommy.
"My agent called me up one day while I was having my carpets replaced in my apartment. He told me to run off to an audition for this little boy voice. "I can't right now," I said , "I have people working here." "Just go" he said. I reluctantly left. I was the first to go in for the audition. The producers showed me a tiny claymation of Tommy. They asked me to read a page, then another, then another. I wasn't concerned about impressing anyone, I knew the voice felt right the minute I saw Tommy. I was more concerned about getting home! The next day I was told that I had the part and here I am still doing it almost 9 years later!"
Long story short, she had gotten her first voice acting role and the rest is history.
Another thing to mention that distinguished Rugrats from any other animated show at the time was its animation. It was something that had never been seen before. It was something that looked like it came from a European cartoon but with an American touch to it.
"Well, it's more Eastern--originally it looked more Eastern European in its original design. Well, not even Eastern European, I shouldn't say that, because we did the original characters, some of it, and then Peter Chung did the original design of the pilot, which was really beautiful. We got a little bit off mark, actually, as we went along with it, we didn't have one designer just watching it like we do now. On all of our shows we have one designer who sticks with it all the way through and keeps it on mark", replied Arlene Klasky in a 1996 interview.
There was also a huge amount of diversity in the show. Didi and her parents Boris and Minka are Jewish, similar to Arlene Klasky. In one of the holiday specials, they celebrated Passover, one of the first times a kids' show did that. Also, there was the Hanukkah special that premiered as well. There hasn't been a been a mention of Hanukkah for a holiday special since 1988's Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special, which made Rugrats a very diverse show for its time. There was also one of the first Kwanzaa specials from one of Susie's relatives. It was truly something to behold.
The last thing that made Rugrats unique was the music. Mark Mothersbaugh discusses the wacky, light hearted music that Rugrats had in an interview by Mathew Klickstein at splitsider.com. The nuttiness of the music was mostly inspired by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley.
“What Perrey and Kingsley did was very time-consuming,” Mothersbaugh said. “I was using a Fairlight to do a shortcut of that kind of thing. And I was employing that in this piece of music, in the score for Rugrats. Some of that stuff stayed throughout the life of the show. It was even incorporated into the music for the feature once I had a hundred-piece orchestra. I still brought in some of those synth sounds.”
Besides being known as the co-founder and lead singer of Devo, he was known as the main composer and music provider of Pee-wee's Playhouse.
“It was kind of one of those things that was really magical,” he said. “To me, Pee-wee’s Playhouse was a really great show that changed the way people thought about television for kids. I think Rugrats was very similar. One of the things that always impressed me about it was that it was early on when people other than Disney were trying to figure out how to carry that aesthetic into the marketplace.”
To be a bit off-topic for just a moment, I have to reiterate on something interesting that I noticed when watching Rugrats again. You probably heard me saying this question on the interview that Kevin and I did for Caseen Gaines, the author of Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse. The main character, Tommy Pickles, was voiced by E.G. Daily. She played Dottie in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The main music composer was Mark Mothersbaugh, who did the main theme and some of the music for Pee-wee's Playhouse. One of the writers of Rugrats was Craig Bartlett (more information about him in another time), who also animated the Penny cartoons in Pee-wee's Playhouse. I'm well aware that Pee-wee's Playhouse had created many opportunities for these people to get other jobs in the world of television, but this is by far a really interesting coincidental mix of people that they were able to get. The thought of that alone astonishes me.
When looking at some more Rugrats stuff, I found out that another person who was involved with Pee-wee's Playhouse was involved with Rugrats at one point. I didn't even realize it until just recently. But we won't get into that until Rugrats in Paris.
The show was an instant success to not only kids, but to adults as well. Kids were able to get into the characters and the developments of each babies' personalities and imaginations. Adults were able to get into it because of the pop culture references that kids wouldn't get like Dr. Lipshitz being a reference to baby expert Dr. Spock, movie quotes, TV quotes, and more.
"In the U.S., cartoons were only for children. In Hungary, cartoons were directed to everyone. With Rugrats, we look for maintaining 2 levels on the script. We communicate with the children above all using the imagination, but we also introduce pop culture references and jokes for the adults."
-Klasky Csupo
As sweet and innocent as the show presented itself, inside the studio, there were some disagreements going on. Besides including Angelica in the show, there were some moments in which the writers were making the babies seem like adults. Klasky and Csupo did not like the direction it was going. A good example of this is the episode "The Trial" in which the babies play a game of court to find out who broke Tommy's lamp.
Around 1993, the show stopped airing due to huge disagreements between Germain and the writers and Klasky and Csupo's vision of how they first presented the show. Many of the writers left including Paul Germain. Germain co-created the show Recess and Lloyd in Space alongside with Rugrats story writer Joe Ansolabehere. You can kind of see the similar style of Rugrats on both of these shows, especially Recess, since it shows us the perspective between a kid's point of view on adults and the world around them.
New episodes started to come again around 1997 with new writers in the mix lasting for around 7 more years ending its run on June 8, 2004. At the time, it was the longest running show on Nickelodeon beating Pinwheel and You Can't Do That on Television. Today, it's #3 on that list. Overall, looking back at Rugrats, there's still an undeniable charm that makes the show still work after over 20 years later. What is it about the show that makes it so captivating? Is it the perspective point of view from a toddler's mind? Is it the creative imaginations and adventures they would get into? Is it the messages they would discuss about subtly like friendship, love, family, and even death? Is it the memorable characters? Is it the unique, wacky, and upbeat music? It's all the above and so much more. Rugrats was truly a show that unique for its time and so lovable and funny to sit through all over again. It would also make Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo a household name in the animation world as a creative couple doing brilliant animated shows for years to come. They were like the Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust of the 90's.
Overall, I highly recommend seeing the show for yourself. It truly brings you into the mind of a child that you will not soon forget.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
