Rugrats (1991-1998): Introduction

Rugrats is the last of the trifecta that began the Nicktoons brand on Nickelodeon. While Ren & Stimpy and Doug has its fanbases, Rugrats probably got the most mileage. The question of how well that mileage was used, it's a matter of opinion.

This franchise launched at least 3 theatrical releases and has recently gotten a computer animated reboot. Two of the three introduced new characters: Tommy's younger brother Dil, Kimi, Chuckie's step-sister, and her mom (who became Chuckie's stepmom). The other was a crossover with the Wild Thornberries. Other than getting to hear Spike talk (courtesy of Bruce Willis), I really don't get why that movie exists. 

But among those of us who grew up with this series, most say the decline of the series started when Dil was introduced. And the backslide continued after that.
They also did a spin-off series called "All Grown Up" where the babies, Angelica and Susie, were aged to teenagers. I personally thought that was a great idea, but the only episodes I remember were Tommy losing Stu's scorpion medallion, and Susie paying someone to get her singing demos to record companies and he more or less scammed her. 
Another interesting thing was seeing Tommy and Dil grow hair and they clearly got their hair color (however bizarre) from their parents. 

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I may not be as passionate about Rugrats as I was about Doug, but I still have a lot of fond memories watching it as a kid. 

One thing I noticed as I was going down memory lane... it's kinda hilarious how much I'd retained about these shows. I swear it was like breaking open a dam and a flood came spewing out. 
And with Rugrats especially, it was more of an educational experience than I realized as a kid. Not only did I learn about a lot about differnet holidays like Hanukkah and Passover, but it's a show I learned a lot of pop culture references from. LONG before I knew what any of them were. Movie critics talk about animated movies that have jokes for the parents that got dragged there by their kids... I think Rugrats might have been doing that before it became a common thing. 

What I need to figure out now is how to proceed through the subsequent posts. As much as my series of Doug posts was a passion project and I enjoyed doing it, I feel like I might have put too much stress on myself to get it all done in certain window of time. 
The one benefit I have here is that full episodes of Rugrats aren't available on YouTube, just clips. So I'll be going purely from memory.

I'd like to spread out posts talking about different characters, but I also anticipate needing to split the one on Angelica into 2 parts. The fact she's a bully offers up a lot of fodder for conversation. Chuckie being the resident scaredy cat and possibly her most common victim, but with plenty of other issues of his own could also fill up a post or two. 

And there will be a post dedicated to the holiday episodes futher down the road for sure. 

For the moment, I'll start compiling notes per storyline to see what draws the most talking points. 

My memory pretty much ends around the time Dil was introduced so I'll be drawing from seasons 1-5