48 Fun Facts About Rugrats

On which channel did Rugrats premiere in August 1991?

It launched the same day as Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show, the original three Nicktoons.

How old is Tommy Pickles?

One year old, and the courageous, adventurous leader; cousin Angelica lords it over the lot of them.

What does Tommy keep hidden in his diaper?

A screwdriver: Tommy keeps a plastic screwdriver in his diaper and uses it to spring the playpen latch so the babies can go exploring.

Which baby is Tommy's bespectacled, red-headed, cowardly best friend?

Chuckie Finster, two years old and scared of nearly everything, is Tommy's best friend; he was raised alone by his widowed father Chas in the show's early seasons.

How old is Angelica, Tommy's spoiled cousin?

Being able to talk to both babies and adults is the whole source of her power over the 'dumb babies'.

What is the name of Angelica's favourite doll?

Cynthia is Angelica's beloved doll, a battered fashion-doll figure with chopped, uneven hair, whom Angelica drags everywhere and defends fiercely from the 'dumb babies'.

What is Dil Pickles' full first name?

Dylan Prescott Pickles was born in the 1998 movie, and Tommy spent much of it wishing he could return him.

On Rugrats, which baby is the good-hearted neighbour of the Pickles family and Angelica's usual rival?

Susie Carmichael out-ranks Angelica on every front: her father Randy writes for The Dummi Bears Show and her mother Lucy is a doctor.

What is Stu Pickles' job?

Stu Pickles is an inventor of toys, tinkering in the basement on gadgets that rarely work, such as the Mr. Friend doll that terrified the babies.

Grandpa Boris and Minka are the parents of which character?

Boris and Minka Kropotkin are Didi's parents, Jewish immigrants from the old country whose bickering and folk tales feature in several holiday episodes.

Which parent is a workaholic forever on the phone to her assistant Jonathan?

Charlotte Pickles, Angelica's mother, is chief executive of MergeCorp and is rarely off her cell phone to her assistant Jonathan, treating parenting as another line item.

What is the name of the Pickles family dog?

Spike, the Pickles' dog, is a fictional 'Siberian Tiger Hound' who later falls for a purple poodle named Fifi in Rugrats in Paris.

Which member of the band Devo composed the Rugrats theme song?

Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo's frontman, wrote the plinking theme on a toy-like keyboard; he had already scored Pee-wee's Playhouse and went on to Wes Anderson films such as Rushmore.

Which actress voices Tommy Pickles?

E. G. Daily voiced Tommy from the 1991 premiere and returned for the 2021 reboot; she also played Dottie in Pee-wee's Big Adventure and was a 1980s pop singer.

Which Simpsons voice actress replaced Christine Cavanaugh as the voice of Tommy's best friend?

Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, took over Chuckie in 2002 after Christine Cavanaugh retired, and kept the role through the 2021 reboot.

Kath Soucie voices both twins and which adult character?

Kath Soucie plays the twins Phil and Lil and their mother Betty DeVille, three members of the same family, a rare hat-trick in voice acting.

Which actress voices the Carmichaels' daughter?

Cree Summer voices Susie Carmichael; she also sang the theme song for All Grown Up! and voiced Penny in the 1983 Inspector Gadget cartoon.

Which company created Rugrats?

Klasky Csupo, the studio of Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó, created Rugrats with Paul Germain; it also animated the early seasons of The Simpsons.

How many episodes of Rugrats were made in its original nine-season run?

Rugrats made 172 episodes over nine seasons, the last airing on August 1, 2004; it was Nickelodeon's longest-running cartoon until SpongeBob SquarePants passed it with its 173rd episode in 2012.

What revived Rugrats after its production stopped in 1994?

A ratings boost from reruns made Rugrats Nickelodeon's top-rated show while no new episodes were being made, so Klasky Csupo restarted production in 1996 and season four arrived in 1997.

Which two Jewish-themed specials premiered in 1995 and 1996?

The Passover and Chanukah specials — A Rugrats Passover in April 1995 and A Rugrats Chanukah in December 1996 — centre on Grandpa Boris and Minka and were rare Jewish holiday episodes in 1990s cartoons.

Rugrats received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in which year?

The star was unveiled on June 28, 2001, for the show's tenth anniversary, making Rugrats the first Nicktoon so honoured.

The Rugrats Movie was the first non-Disney animated film to pass which US box-office mark?

It passed $100 million at the US box office, the first non-Disney animated film to do so, finishing at about $100.5 million domestic and $141 million worldwide on a budget near $24 million.

In The Rugrats Movie, what does Stu invent for a toy competition in Japan?

The Reptar Wagon, Stu's talking toy car that turns into a boat, is commandeered by the babies, which is how they end up lost in the woods with a wolf on their trail.

Which animals kidnap Dil in The Rugrats Movie?

Circus monkeys, escaped from a crashed circus train, snatch Dil in the woods; the film's all-star nursery song features Beck, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Lenny Kravitz as newborns.

Which Oscar-winning actress voices the villain Coco LaBouche in Rugrats in Paris?

Susan Sarandon, an Oscar winner for Dead Man Walking, voices Coco LaBouche, a child-hating schemer who wants to run the Reptar corporation; John Lithgow voices her put-upon assistant Jean-Claude.

Which two characters make their first appearance in Rugrats in Paris?

Kimi and Kira Watanabe debut in Rugrats in Paris; the film ends with Chas marrying Kira, so Chuckie gains a stepmother and a stepsister, Kimi, in one go.

Rugrats Go Wild (2003), which stranded the babies on a desert island, crossed over with which other Nicktoon?

The Wild Thornberrys shared the film, the last theatrical outing for both franchises, which came with scratch-and-sniff Odorama cards.

Which action star voiced Spike the dog in the 2003 crossover film?

Bruce Willis voiced Spike in Rugrats Go Wild; thanks to Eliza Thornberry's gift for talking to animals, it was the first time the dog ever spoke.

Which 2001 special, made for the show's tenth anniversary, led to the spin-off All Grown Up!?

All Growed Up, a 2001 special for the show's tenth anniversary, imagined the babies as preteens; the spin-off proper ran from 2003 to 2008 for 55 episodes, with Tommy an aspiring filmmaker.

How many years after the original series is All Grown Up! set?

All Grown Up! is set ten years on, with Chuckie 12, Tommy 11 and Dil 10; Cree Summer, Susie's voice, sings the theme song.

On which streaming service did the CGI Rugrats reboot premiere in May 2021?

The CGI reboot premiered on Paramount+ on May 27, 2021; the babies' original voice actors all returned, while the adults were recast with new performers.

Which parent was reimagined as a lesbian in the 2021 reboot?

Betty DeVille, voiced by Natalie Morales, is a single lesbian mother to Phil and Lil in the 2021 reboot; her original-series husband Howard does not appear.

Which Spinal Tap actor voices Grandpa Lou in the 2021 reboot?

Michael McKean, Spinal Tap's David St. Hubbins, voices Grandpa Lou; Tony Hale plays Chas and Anna Chlumsky plays Charlotte in the same recast adult ensemble.

Reptar, the babies' favourite monster, is a spoof of which famous movie creature?

Reptar is a green Godzilla parody; he first appeared in the 1991 episode At the Movies and went on to front cereal, candy bars and the Reptar on Ice show.

Which street address appears on screen for the Pickles home?

The address 1258 N. Highland is Klasky Csupo's own studio address on Highland Avenue in Hollywood, slipped into the show; the Pickles' city is never named.

Which Rugrats co-creator left Klasky Csupo in 1993, after the first 65 episodes?

Paul Germain left Klasky Csupo in 1993 after the first 65 episodes; the writers who followed him out went on to create Recess for Disney with him.

Who is Lulu, introduced in the later seasons?

Louise Jonston-Pickles was a nurse; Debbie Reynolds voiced her.

Which voice actress plays Dil Pickles?

Tara Strong voices Dil Pickles and the bully Timmy McNulty; elsewhere she is Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls and Timmy Turner in The Fairly OddParents.

Which of the original three Nicktoons premiered just before Rugrats on August 11, 1991?

Doug aired first on August 11, 1991, followed by Rugrats and then The Ren & Stimpy Show, the three original Nicktoons all debuting the same morning.

What is the name of Angelica's pet cat?

Fluffy is Angelica's pampered pet cat, every bit as spoiled as her owner and a frequent foe of the Pickles' dog Spike.

Which actress, who originally auditioned to play Tommy, became the voice of Angelica Pickles on Rugrats?

Cheryl Chase, who had tried out for Tommy, won the part of Angelica instead and voiced her through the original run, All Grown Up! and the 2021 reboot.

Which Hollywood musical star joined Rugrats in 2000 as Lulu, Grandpa Lou's new wife?

Debbie Reynolds stayed until the series' end; Grandpa Lou himself was voiced by David Doyle until his death in 1997, then by Joe Alaskey.

In which Nickelodeon programming block did Rugrats air from 1997 to 2001?

SNICK, Nickelodeon's Saturday-night block launched in 1992, carried the revived Rugrats from 1997, after production restarted in 1996 with a new writing staff.

Which famous director described Rugrats in 1995 as 'sort of a TV Peanuts of our time'?

Steven Spielberg named it among the best children's programming of the era, when it was cable's highest-rated kids' show.

Which publisher signed a 1997 deal to make Rugrats video games, starting with Search for Reptar?

THQ signed the deal in 1997 and released Rugrats: Search for Reptar on PlayStation in 1998, following it with games tied to both movies, including Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in 2000.

The live show Rugrats Magic Adventure! ran exclusively at which theme park from 2000?

Rugrats Magic Adventure! played at Universal Studios Hollywood, whose theatre was later converted for Shrek 4-D in 2003; an earlier touring stage show, Rugrats: A Live Adventure, had crossed North America.

What was the title of the never-aired six-and-a-half-minute Rugrats pilot?

Tommy Pickles and the Great White Thing, the 1990 pilot in which Tommy confronts the toilet, had Tami Holbrook as Tommy; it finally surfaced on Paramount's 2001 Decade in Diapers DVD.