50 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?

The courageous leader of the babies keeps a screwdriver in his diaper for emergencies.

What does Tommy keep hidden in his diaper?

The plastic tool has opened more playpens than any other object in animation.

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

His full name is Charles Crandall Norbert Finster Jr., which is quite a lot for a two-year-old.

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?

The doll's chopped, uneven hair became such a fan fixation that the network later sold a replica in that condition.

According to the show's lore, how can you tell twins Phil and Lil apart?

Phil's are attached and Lil's are not; failing that, Lil wears the bow.

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.

Which baby is a good-hearted neighbour of the Pickles family and Angelica's usual rival?

Her father Randy writes for The Dummi Bears Show and her mother Lucy is a doctor, so she out-ranks Angelica on every front.

What is Stu Pickles' job?

His toys rarely work, but the Reptar Wagon he built for a Japanese contest carries the whole first movie.

Grandpa Boris and Minka are the parents of which character?

The Russian-Jewish immigrants anchor the Passover and Chanukah specials that made Rugrats unusual among 1990s cartoons.

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

Angelica's mother runs a company called MergeCorp and treats parenting as another line item.

What is the name of the Pickles family dog?

His breed is given as a fictional 'Siberian Tiger Hound', and he later falls for a purple poodle named Fifi.

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

The plinking piano tune was played on a toy-like keyboard, and he went on to score Pee-wee's Playhouse and Wes Anderson films.

Which actress voices Tommy Pickles?

She also played Dottie in Pee-wee's Big Adventure and returned for the 2021 reboot.

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

The voice of Bart Simpson has now played Chuckie for longer than the original actress did.

Kath Soucie voices both twins and which adult character?

Playing three members of the same family at once is a rare hat-trick in voice acting.

Which actress voices the Carmichaels' daughter?

She also sang the theme song for All Grown Up! and voiced Penny in Inspector Gadget.

Which company created Rugrats?

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

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

The last aired on August 1, 2004; it stayed Nickelodeon's longest-running cartoon until SpongeBob's 173rd episode in 2012.

Rugrats went on hiatus after 1994. What revived it?

Klasky Csupo restarted production in 1996 with a new writing staff, and season four arrived in 1997.

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

Both were nominated for Emmys, and the Passover episode drew the highest ratings the network had ever recorded at that point.

Which animated series is tied with Rugrats as the eighth-longest-running American animated TV series?

Both ran 13 years; the record was set before Rugrats' 2021 reboot added more.

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

The June 28 ceremony marked the show's tenth anniversary; it was the first Nicktoon so honoured.

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

It finished around $141 million worldwide on a budget of $24-28 million, and Paramount ordered a sequel immediately.

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

The talking car can turn into a boat, which is how the babies end up lost in the woods with a wolf on their trail.

Which animals kidnap Dil in The Rugrats Movie?

They escape from a crashed circus train; the babies' rescue is soundtracked by an all-star song featuring Beck, Iggy Pop and Patti Smith.

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

Her child-hating schemer 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?

The film ends with Chas marrying Kira, so Chuckie finally gets a mother and a stepsister in one go.

The 2003 film that took the babies to a desert island was a crossover with which other Nicktoon?

The 2003 film was the last theatrical outing for both franchises and came with scratch-and-sniff Odorama cards.

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

Thanks to Eliza Thornberry's gift for talking to animals, it was the first time Spike ever spoke.

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

The spin-off proper ran from 2003 to 2008 for 55 episodes, with Tommy at 11 already an aspiring filmmaker.

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

Chuckie is 12, Tommy 11 and Dil 10; the theme song, All Grown Up with You, is sung by Cree Summer.

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

Natalie Morales voices her, and Howard is now the twins' donor rather than her husband.

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

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?

He first appeared in the 1991 episode At the Movies and went on to front cereal, candy bars and an ice show.

Which street address is given for the Pickles home on an invoice in the episode Tommy's First Birthday?

The show never names its city, though the address matches a real street in Los Angeles.

Which co-creator left the studio in 1993, shortly before the show's original run ended?

The writers who followed him out went on to create Recess for Disney.

Who is Lulu, introduced in the later seasons?

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

Which voice actress plays Dil Pickles?

She also voices the bully Timmy McNulty, and elsewhere Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls and Timmy Turner.

Rugrats was the second of the original three Nicktoons. Which one premiered before it?

All three debuted on the same day, 11 August 1991, with The Ren & Stimpy Show rounding out the launch line-up.

What is the name of Angelica's pet cat?

The Pickles household also has Spike the dog, whose eventual mate Fifi arrives in Rugrats in Paris.

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

Writers joked that Angelica was the show's J. R. Ewing when the actress struggled to play her as mean.

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

Grandpa Lou himself was voiced by David Doyle until his death in 1997 and then by Joe Alaskey.

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

The Saturday-night block carried the revived show 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'?

He named it among the best children's programming of the era, a period 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?

The deal also produced adaptations of both movies, and no standalone Rugrats game followed the 2005 title Totally Angelica for nearly two decades.

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

It closed in 2001 and its space was taken over by Shrek 4-D in 2003; an earlier touring show, A Live Adventure, played 403 North American dates.

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

Tami Holbrook voiced Tommy in the pilot, and the short was finally released on DVD by Paramount in 2001.