15 Things You Never Knew About ‘Rugrats’

If you judge 90s animated classic Rugrats by its premise alone, then you might think you were dealing with a pretty basic kid’s show. The misadventures of a group of infants who carry on in complete sentences when their parents were out of the room doesn’t sound like a slyly adult take on a modern society that was filled with half-fulfilled dreamers and burgeoning neurotics. Whether poor Chucky was enduring abuse at the hands of the nefarious Angelica or twins Phil and Lill were building toward another shouting match, there was something in Rugrats that spoke to everyone, regardless of their age. It was a show about people being confronted daily with things they didn’t understand; that’s something we can all relate to. There was definitely something beautifully subversive about the Nickelodeon hit that ran for fourteen seasons between 1990 and 2006. Behind the scenes, the show certainly provided ample proof of that. Here are some of the things you may not know about Rugrats.

1. Tommy Pickles Was So Adventurous for a Very Good Reason

As the de facto leader of the little quartet at the heart of the show, Tommy Pickles was always sticking up for sad Chuckie and leading the group on new adventures. The show’s writers attributed this quality to the fact that Tommy was a premie — i.e. he couldn’t wait to get going at life.