Fun Friday: Be a 90s Nick Character!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I love that I can catch a bunch of my favorite NickToons late at night! If I'm home alone and bored, I definitely tune in for Rugrats... which I still think is one of the best cartoons of all time. Well, Rugrats, Rocko's Modern Life, Doug, Hey Arnold!, and Ren & Stimpy all make appearances in the latest infographic flowchart that you should totally check out. I know some of you aren't in love with clicking on links, so I've added it below (albeit a little smaller), though credit totally belongs to flavorwire!! Go through and take a look... are you going to be Alex Mack? Little Pete? Bobby Budnick? Clarissa?? Personally, I came up either Clarissa or Olmec, depending on how I interpret the "were you close with your neighbors?" question. Let us know who you are!

Jennifer Lewis, Flavorwire

December 18th Holiday Recommendations

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

We're just a week out from Christmas, you guys! Below you'll find some of our recommendations for holiday programming to watch or DVR for Sunday, December 18th. For a full listing (which is getting long since many networks are really focusing on holiday specials now!), check out our Holiday Programming Schedule. As always, times are Eastern and Pacific to the best of our knowledge (except when noted otherwise), but it's always good to double-check with your own provider.


6:30am: Rugrats "Rugrats Chanukah" (NICK)
- If you're looking for a nice, simple way to learn about Hanukkah, this is a good way to go. Boris & Minka (Didi's parents) tell the babies the story, and they imagine themselves there, with Tommy as Judah, Angelica as King Antonica, and Chuckie as one of the Maccababies. It's done well (not as wonderfully as the Passover episode, though), and you get a little "true meaning of the holiday spirit" as well when Boris and an old rival finally make up.

7am: Rugrats "The Santa Experience" (NICK)
- The families decide that they want the kids to have an old-fashioned Christmas, so they rent a cabin in the mountains for the holiday. Angelica is worried that Santa isn't real, so she connives Phil & Lil into giving her their stuff. But, then she gets worried that if he is real, she won't get any presents. A little Gift of the Magi, but still a cute special.

10am & 11am: Jingle all the Way (Hallmark)
- This is not the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that we all know and love. This is a special that's new this year, made by Hallmark. There's a little dog, Jingle, who doesn't have a home. Kids find him adorable, and eventually he's adopted. It's really extra cute, though, if you have the book and stuffed animal. The dog barks and murmurs and whatnot to certain words in the story. :)

11:30am: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (CartoonNetwork)
- I wasn't introduced to this song until probably 1997 or so (and it's older than I am)... and didn't know it had been made into an animated special until around 2004. While I still prefer just the flat-out song, this is a funny little cartoon that plays up Cousin Mel as a villain, plus Grandma doesn't actually die. If you're a fan of the song it's worth watching once... otherwise it might not really be your cup of tea.

Noon (PT): The Muppet Christmas Carol (HUB)
- I LOVED A Christmas Carol growing up. Chalk it up to the fact that EVERY major cartoon did a version of it (Mickey & Bugs Bunny both did alternatives that aired yearly when I was a child), but the story just really grabbed me. And, I love the Muppets. This is not my favorite Muppet Christmas special, but this is a cute, full-length movie from the early 90s, with Gonzo as Charles Dickens, Kermit as Bob Cratchit, Robin as Tiny Tim, Fozzie as Fezziwig, Statler as Jacob Marley, and more.

8pm: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (CartoonNetwork)
- Truth be told, the Grinch scared me as a child. Just seeing the short clip in Home Alone was enough to make me fear the actual holiday special until I was in high school. Now, it's not the most wholesome cartoon. Nor does it have the oomph that some of the "more traditional" tales boast. But, it's pretty amusing, has some adorable lines, and has some neat ideas. I wouldn't want to pretend my dog was a reindeer... but to each his own.

News Roundup: Breaking Bad, Roseanne's Nuts, Bones, etc.

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
Breaking Bad has come back from the dead, with 13 episodes to air on FOX.

Good Luck Charlie was renewed by the Disney Channel for a third season.

White Collar was renewed for a fourth season.

Roseanne's Nuts is being moved to Fridays at 10pm for the remaining three episodes. Repeats of Dance Moms will take the old Wednesday slot.

FOX has passed on Locke & Key. I guess it's a good thing that I skipped out on seeing the pilot at Comic-Con (it was on my original plan), otherwise I might be among the many who are upset at the moment. 

Cast & Plot Updates:
Ben Savage (of Boy Meets World fame) will guest on Bones.

Did you realize that the new season of House will pick up a YEAR after last season's finale left off? House is in jail, alongside Jaleel White.

OtherFun Stuff:
Want a good laugh? Go read some predictions as to what the Rugrats characters are doing now that they're 20.

Speaking of old NickToons, Hey Arnold! and Rocko's Modern Life have been added to the late night 90s programming block on TeenNick. Look for them starting September 6th.

Did you hear about how Paul Rudd hitchhiked to the airport? He wanted to offer his savior something big, which ended up being a walk-on role during an interview.

Absolutely Fabulous will be doing three specials for its 20th anniversary.

TiVo isn't doing so well. In fact, they lost 33,000 subscribers last quarter, bringing their overall subscriber total to the numbers they had in 2004! I predict we'll see a similar drop next month when Netflix inflicts its price hike.

Throwback: Favorite Cartoons

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Since Comic-Con officially starts today, I thought that I'd do a throwback that features some of my favorite cartoons. And not just those from childhood, either. I totally watched cartoons through high school, haha.Sure, I still catch them on Netflix every now and then, but I haven't regularly followed any (not counting The Simpsons and South Park, since they're not geared toward children anyway) regularly in years.

My mom tells me that I had a Rainbow Brite obsession as soon as I could discern specific programs on television. I remember renting a few at the video store when I was learning to read, but I honestly can't remember watching the show on regular television. I still love Rainbow Brite, and will be rocking a shirt from the show tomorrow! (Today is my Marvel shirt. of course.)

Now, my very favorite from elementary school: ThunderCats. You better believe that I was the only girl in the first grade rocking a ThunderCats lunchbox and thermos! I loved that show, from how cute Snarf was to how cool it looked when Cheetara ran to the Rober-Berbles and how neat it was to have robot pandas around. Mumm-ra was a pretty scary bad guy, but I thought he was unique.

Next, the cartoons that I watched religiously after school as part of the Disney Afternoon years: Gummi Bears, TaleSpin, and Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers. As I've probably mentioned before, Rescue Rangers was what we talked about at snack time in Kindergarten, so I had to be up the latest adventures of Chip, Dale, Monty, Gadget, and Zipper! FatCat was my favorite villain, though Nimnul ran a close second! I thought that the storyline for Gummi Bears was just fabulous, and the characters were quite lovable. With TaleSpin, it was simply the characters. I thought that Don Carnage was a hilarious bad guy, and the idea of "cloud-kicking" blew my mind. The storylines were a bit outrageous (I wasn't the best at allowing myself to have a willing suspension of disbelief as a child) and wrapped themselves up all too quickly, but how could you not love Wildcat, Baloo, Molly, Kit, and the others?

And, on the weekends as a youngin', Foofur and Punky Brewster were my Saturday Morning Cartoons of choice. As a kid who was deathly afraid of dogs, the idea that a bunch of canines lived together (along with Fencer the cat and a few rats) with no real owner was amusing. The constant hiding from the realtor was funny to me, and I just remember laughing at the show all the time. With Punky, I think it was Glomer who first sucked me in. He seemed like such a cool "pet" and I had a fascination with magical creatures and the world of fun that they could create for someone. Sure, Punky and her friends were cool, but Glomer, he was amazing! 

Middle school was pretty simple for me... Rugrats and Doug. I was new to having Nickelodeon, and those two shows were big hits with me and my siblings. While everything that the rugrats ever did was pretty unbelievable, I adored their ability to teach about other cultures and holidays, and thought that the writing was great. Doug was quite a bit more believable (well, not the fact that people were blue, haha), and I thought that most of the secondary characters were well-written and developed... like Judy, Connie, and Mr. Dink. I'll even admit that I actually liked the Disney episodes of The Brand-Spankin' New Doug, which wasn't a hit with a lot of other people. I thought that aging the kids a year did a lot for the show and the way they handled the situations that were faced.

In high school my favorites included The Weekenders, Teacher's Pet, Recess, and Pepper Ann. The first two were Saturday morning shows, the latter two were afterschool shows (though they began on Saturdays, of course). I've written about a few of these before, but in a nutshell, it was the characters that kept me coming back. In The Weekenders, the cast was pretty small, so it was easy to latch on to each of the four, and understand where they were coming from and what they were doing. With Teacher's Pet, the idea that a dog went to school was pretty intriguing, but the fact that his teacher was also his owner (and she didn't realize who the dog was) baffled me to the point that I just couldn't stop watching, waiting for the day that she discovered the truth. My fourth grade wasn't like Recess in any way (we didn't even have cliques yet), but the storylines were incredibly believable to me, and the roles that the kids took in each scheme just made sense. Similarly, although I couldn't directly relate to Pepper Ann, I just "got" the show and her interactions with other characters was just moving for me. 

My college cartoon was totally As Told by Ginger, which I just thought was written well. There were a bunch of characters, the storylines were more pre-teen/teen-oriented, and the depiction of social life at school was a little more believable than a lot of other shows. Plus, there was a special where they went to camp, and I spent two of my summer during college working at a resident camp, so that held a special place in my heart. 

I know you're dying to share... what have your favorite cartoons been throughout life??

My List of the Top 10 Spin-Offs

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

First, an apology to those who got this post early. I upgraded some things last night and wasn't used to some new shortcuts when I began this post this morning. 

This is an area where I have a lot of interest. I'm not really sure where it started, but I've always been curious about spin-offs. The idea that certain characters from a main show become popular enough that they get their own storylines without a crutch is just cool. And, over the years, there have been tons and tons of spin-offs. And, as per my usual, I'm pretty sure that some of my selections will shock readers. I tend to like things that are a bit off, and tend to loathe things that others adore (you will notice that Animaniacs did not make my list, for instance).

10. A Different World, from The Cosby Show. I actually like this show quite a bit, and it did great. But it was created to be a vehicle for Denise Huxtable, who only lasted a single season on the show, which is why I gave it the #10 spot. In case you've never seen it, it's about college kids at (mostly black) fictional school Hillman, and the troubles they deal with.

9. The Simpsons, from The Tracy Ullman Show. This one fell low on the list because a lot of people don't know that The Simpsons is a spin-off. And, I must add that I've never seen The Tracy Ullman Show, aside from the clips of the original Simpsons family that have come up over the past twenty years. Still, the show about an overweight guy and his somewhat average family is certainly a household name! 

8. Quack Pack, from DuckTales. As a child who was in her early elementary years during the height of The Disney Afternoon, I loved DuckTales as much as anyone. And, while I was partial to Webby storylines, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were great characters. So, when I found Quack Pack in middle school, I was delighted to see the threesome appear as teenagers. Only 39 episodes exist, but I think that the essence of the characters continued from childhood into adolescence, making for a very believable show.    

7. Melrose Place, from Beverly Hills, 90210. I didn't know that Melrose Place was a spin-off when I began watching in 1996. It was one of the only shows that my mom ever watched in original run, so that was my draw to it. In fact, I didn't know it was a spin-off until I was in graduate school and working my way through 90210 for the first time. The connection took place in the second season, as Kelly was interested in a guy named Jake, who lived in the eponymous apartment complex. On the whole, Melrose Place was way too mature for a young teenager, but I watched the final few seasons anyway... though it didn't entice me enough to ever go back and catch up on the entire series!    

6. Joey, from Friends. Yes, it failed miserably. People couldn't stand it, and nobody understood why Joey didn't talk about his friends... plus, no guest appearances in 46 episodes! Now, if you're a long-time reader, you may remember that I had a love-hate relationship with Friends until I was almost done with college. I ended up seeing the entire series and enjoying it, and worked my way through Joey in less than a week. I found the show to be amusing, though it was full of issues as the writers struggled to find an audience.

5. All Grown Up, from Rugrats. Rugrats was such a captivating show, as I believe that I have mentioned a few times. It's one show that I can say both of my siblings and I enjoyed together (which was a problem when we got the Playstation game - it was only 1 player!). All Grown Up ran for 55 episodes, and featured the kids aged ten years from the original show. This is another case where I think that the characters were very believable - the traits and personalities really matched what you might think the kids would grow up into. The show didn't really end with any closure, but was a good addition to the Rugrats franchise.

4. The Jeffersons, from All in the Family. A true classic spun from another well-loved show. The Jeffersons is downright hilarious, and my brother and I have many great memories of watching it together on Nick at Nite. Although George wasn't on All in the Family until it had been on a while (Sherman Hemsley was on Broadway at the time), his family was an interesting dynamic on the show, which took place in working-class Queens. The family later moved to a luxury high-rise in Manhattan, during one of the greatest lead-ins in television history - one week you move from the characters on one show, the next you move into a new place on a new show!

3. Daria, from Beavis & Butthead. I LOVED Daria. I thought that it was such a good, funny, clever show. Daria was a recurring character on Beavis & Butthead, a show which I am proud to say I've never seen. But, for a recurring character to go on to have a five-season success and two tv-movies says something. Daria's witty and pessimistic outlook on life amused me to no end, and I just thought that Quinn was the cutest thing ever. I've been waiting for the complete series to go on sale again, because I really must have it!

2. Family Matters, from Perfect Strangers. I loved Perfect Strangers when it ran originally.  I wasn't allowed to watch a lot of night-time television, but I vaguely remember catching it my grandparents' house or something a few times. I can't say that I remembered Harriet Winslow from that show, and therefore wasn't aware that Family Matters was a spin-off when it began (which I did watch by the third season or so). One might argue that Family Matters was far more popular (and much longer-running) than Perfect Strangers, though they were both very different shows. Harriet's character was clearly the same as it was in Perfect Strangers, and Family Matters became a memorable sitcom across the country.

1. Frasier, from Cheers. One of my favorite shows since I began watching it, Frasier is a very long-running show spun from a long-running show. I've seen several dozen episodes of Cheers, and the overall feel of the show is vastly different from that of Frasier. And, although some people gripe about how different Frasier's character is between the two shows, I think that it was addressed throughout Frasier, and the Cheers characters still got along with Frasier for the most part. The storylines in Frasier were also very different (and many ran much longer) from those in Cheers, but both shows' successes certainly define the greatness that Kelsey Grammer embodied.

To end this post, I though I might point out to one of the craziest chains of spin-offs that I've ever come across... Sabrina's Secret Life was a spin-off of Sabrina, the Animated Series, which was a spin-off of the 1996 version of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which was a spin-off of Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies which was a spin-off of The Archie Comedy Hour which was a sequel to The Archie Show. ...yeah.

10 Favorite Best Friendships

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Last Wednesday I was in Florida, having spent just about a week with various friends. The night before I left I had dinner with my two best friends and then we played Phase 10, our mutually favorite game. So, in honor of friendships, today we look at ten great pairs of best friends.

Now, before you look at this list, you kinda have to know that a) I specifically left out trios & ensembles, like Danny-Jesse-Joey on Full House, the six on Friends, the four on Seinfeld, the six/five on Saved by the Bell, the five on How I Met Your Mother, etc. b) there are some famous duos I've never seen, so I can't comment. This includes groups like Laverne & Shirley. c) I also left out shows that only focus on two individuals, like Square Pegs. And d) I didn't consider people who are work-friends only, since we rarely see them in a social setting.

I also struggled to find female-female best friends... and I'm not sure why. I came up with four or five female ensembles, but no one-on-one best friendships of note. Anyone think of any? I'm sure I'm just drawing a blank here, right??

10. Larry Appleton & Balki Bartokomous (Perfect Strangers) These two guys are thrown together by chance, really. Larry isn't thrilled with what's about to transpire, but he powers through and the two end up having a lot of fun over the run of the show. Balki's positive thinking and natural ability to find mischief keeps this pair on their toes. Sometimes you have to wonder what's keeping them together, but they are sure one hilarious pair to watch interact with each other and others!


9. Kevin Arnold & Paul Pfeiffer (The Wonder Years) Being a teenager is tough, and it's important to have a good best friend, especially one with whom you can learn about sex, deal with the woes of studying, rely on when times are tough, and turn to when all hope is lost. Kevin & Paul really go through the whole "coming of age" thing together, and although it's clear early on that their lives are destined for different paths, their friendship is always there. And, while we all know that girls tend to come between buddies as they get older, these two manage to get past the few such occurrences that happen in their lives.

8. Philip J. Fry & Bender (Futurama) Time, space, and species no longer matter in this one-of-a-kind friendship. Fry has a difficult time fitting in when he's fast-forwarded 1,000 years, and so his fellowship with robot Bender seems to come natural. Not to mention the fact that they met in a suicide booth, LoL. Neither of them are particularly bright, and both enjoy a good time causing mischief, so their pairing off fits the show well, and allows for a great number of storylines where their close-knit relationship is apparent but not overwhelming.

7. Hawkeye Pierce & BJ Honeycutt (M*A*S*H) If ever there was a pair who had more fun together trying to make the best of a bad situation, let me know! These two goons are absolutely hilarious together, and are always there for one another around camp. The tricks that they come up with to play on their fellow doctors and nurses are clever, and their banter in any given situation is comical. They may very well be the funniest duo on this list! Thank goodness for their sense of humor, because otherwise the war would have been much less exciting for the 4077th!

6. Michael Westen & Sam Axe (Burn Notice) Sam used to snitch on Michael... and not like you tell the teacher on a copycat. Sam was an informant for the FBI, haha. But, that was a long time ago and Michael is now a free agent, so he and Sam are free to be the best of buds. This is handy, since they can't seem to pull off their antics by themselves, really. The fact that they think fast on their feet is probably the biggest asset to their friendship, as one generally needs to bail out the other at a moment's notice... sometimes even less.

5. Gregory House & James Wilson (House, MD) For most of the series, it's not really known how many other friends these two have besides one another. The friendship is kinda one-sided, in that House mooches off of Wilson in every way one can think of, but Wilson takes it and is generous towards House. Wilson does do nice things for him, even if they're kinda out there... like drugging and kidnapping House to bring him to his father's funeral, LoL. All in a day's work for these doctors.


4. Will Truman & Grace Adler (Will & Grace) These two are just so good together, and have been from the get-go. They need each other to stay sane at times, but have proved that they can also function independently. They are probably the most similar in personality on this list, since they have a lot of common dislikes and hobbies, and are on the perfect wavelength to be one another's partner in games like Tribond (which is good, given hoe competitive Grace can be!). They do things for one another, large and small, time and time again, and it just warms my heart with how much consideration and compassion they have for each other. The fact that they seem to fall out of touch in the look-into-the-future at the end of the series just broke my heart.

3. Kimmy Gibbler & DJ Tanner (Full House) I learned a lot about friendship by watching Kimmy and DJ. There's always a prettier friend, there's always a smarter friend, and there's always a sluttier friend. While it's more often DJ putting her neck on the line for Kimmy than vice versa, their friendship stands out for the realism of it all. Kimmy changes a grade for DJ here, DJ helps Kimmy study for a Spanish test there, etc. Although, DJ does things with Kimmy for at least three of her birthdays on the show, whereas DJ really only has one major birthday on the show, and I always found that to be a bit weird. But, running off to Reno at a moment's notice to stop your best friend from marrying the wrong guy is probably one of the crowning friendship moments for this pair.

2. Tommy Pickles & Chuckie Finster (Rugrats) The adventures that these tiny tots get into are often remarkable, especially considering how fortunate they are that no adult is ever paying attention to them when the chaos is about to start or already in progress. Tommy and Chuckie would never turn their backs on one another, despite Chuckie often being portrayed as the coward of the group. They share everything, there's no adventure too treacherous, and we know that they remain best friends when they are pre-teens (All Growed Up).

1. Cory Matthews & Shawn Hunter (Boy Meets World) These two are the epitome of best friends. From middle school through high school to college, from one relationship to another to one's wedding and the other's constant family issues, no two friends can be closer than Cory and Shawn. I laughed with them, I cried with them, my heart was touched as they stumbled through some of life's biggest moments together. Shawn's continuous search for love and acceptance (through friends, girlfriends, parental figures, the cult...) is always aided by Cory's everlasting dependability, and Cory's always wanting to live more wildly and unpredictably is covered by Shawn's creative and devious nature.

Who's left out? I left out Tucker & Becca on (the old) Flash Forward, since you could argue that they don't do a lot for one another on a regular basis, and both had other "best friends," too.

11 Days til Christmas!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

we're getting down to the wire now, next week is the last cluster of great holiday episodes! But before those, here are this week's five! I've kinda been in a more childish Christmas mood lately, if that makes sense... I think it's because I watched A Muppet Family Christmas yesterday afternoon, and that one makes me smile so wide I can't close my mouth, LoL.

Family Matters: "Deck the Malls." (1997) This episode is of specific significance because it was the final one with the original Harriette, and the last one at all for the Rachel, Estelle, and Ritchie characters. Carl as a mall Santa, Laura as his elf, and Steve and Myra wrapping presents. Here's the warm & fuzzy part, hehe:

3rd Rock from the Sun: "Jolly Old St. Dick." (1996) It's the Solomons first Christmas, and everyone is struggling in their own way. Each character actually has his own storyline... Tommy struggles in finding a gift for his girlfriend, Harry finds out that mall Santas aren't the real thing, Sally starts out gift-wrapping at the mall but ends up trying to help people choose better gifts for loved ones, and Dick can't get into the holiday spirit without overdoing it. Opening clip (you'll probably be hooked, so rest assured that the same user has uploaded the whole thing).


Rugrats: "The Santa Experience." (1992) The families take a Christmas trip together. Angelica doubts in the existence of Santa Claus, and Chuckie is afraid of him. There's a bit of The Gift of the Magi in there with Angelica antagonizing. Didi decides the most beautiful tree in the woods can't be cut down, so they have to get an artificial. In the end, it all works out. Here's a clip of said ending.


Shining Time Station: "'Tis a Gift." (1990) Tanya and Matt can't wait for Christmas. The adults all want to play "Santa's Helper." A man named Mr. Nicholas is waiting for a train that nobody has heard of. An annoying girl named Vicki is stuck at the train station while her mother goes shopping. I love it when Schemer tries to act like other people are dishonest, LoL. The clip is the end of the hour-long special, including the song from the title.


Christmas Eve on Sesame Street: (1978) This is such a good Christmas special. And no, it may not be an "episode," per se, but I couldn't help myself. Skating, The Gift of the Magi, caroling, interviewing kids about Santa, Cookie Monster trying to ask Santa for gifts, Big Bird trying to prove Santa is real, the whole thing is precious. This clip has a little bit of everything (well, except Big Bird, but his plot is kinda being handled by Grover, haha).

The First Five for Christmas!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

So I took a week off last week, and hope that you guys were able to catch up on all of the clips I've included lately, and maybe caught a couple of the episodes in full as well. What did you like the best?

Today we start in on the Christmas/Hanukkah/etc.-themed episodes. Now, since these are much more popular with mainstream television than the other holidays, this will be a very tough list to narrow down. As with the previous holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving), I'll be doing five each Monday until Christmas arrives. There is no set order, so I'm not "saving the best for last" or anything like that.

Okay, here we go!
Frasier: "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz." It starts out with a kindly gesture by a stranger. That leads to Frasier dating a Jewish woman and getting the whole family to play Jews while the woman's mother visits. It's rather hilarious when Niles is dressed as Jesus and there's a Christmas tree in the bathroom (oh, that's because Daphne is putting on the funniest Christmas musical pageant ever). I chose the middle segment here (all three parts can be found on Youtube), it gets most of the "let's try to be Jewish" quirks.


Boy Meets World: "Santa's Little Helpers." (1998) This is the Christmas where Eric, Jack, and Rachel dress up and work as Santa and his helpers. But Eric (as always) takes it too far, and decides to make sure every needy kid gets a gift. He steals stuff from the house and maxes out his dad's credit card getting stuff for the kids. And then one asks for parents, and Eric doesn't know what to do. Meanwhile, Angela and Shawn are having issues, and end up both invited to the Matthews' for the holiday, but all doesn't go so well there, either. The clip below is the Eric storyline spliced together.



Rugrats: "Chanukah." (1996) Kinda self-explanatory, but Grandpa Boris tells the story of Chanukah and the kids imagine themselves acting it out. Boris is also dealing with an age-old rivalry for the lead in the Chanukah pageant. What makes it special (besides the fact that there are very few Jewish holiday specials for young kids in general) are all of the puns that come out, like Lil calling Phil "Philistine" haha. I could not find a clip (Rugrats gets taken down a lot on Youtube), but here is an image.
Full House: "A Very Tanner Christmas." (1992) This is the one where DJ and Steve break up because he's chosen to go to college out-of-state. Stephanie and Michelle are greedy little monsters so Uncle Jesse takes them to a homeless shelter. Becky is homesick for Nebraska's white Christmases, so Jesse makes it snow in the backyard. Here we have the second half (both halves are on Youtube), where the ends are wrapped up and three Santas are surprising.



7th Heaven: "X-Mas." (2005) I love all of the different plots in this one. There's Kevin & Lucy, who have different ideas about a pet for Christmas. There's Rose and Sandy, who know nothing about how Jesus fits in with commercialism and Christmas. There's Annie taking the twins to talk with Sudanese students, Ruthie working at the hospital and reuniting with an old friend, and Eric spending time at the retirement home. I couldn't find a single clip or even part of the script, which is sad. I imagine that is partly because the 10th season has not come to DVD yet, so the only possibilities would be people taping it off ABCFamily or Hallmark or whoever is showing it these days.

When Babies Aren't Cute

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

When I moved to Florida and had cable television for the first time, I discovered Rugrats during a Nickelodeon marathon. My first thoughts were not that positive (it was the episode where the parents lose Tommy and Chuckie in the Toy Store - the first episode in Season 2), but after getting sweaty playing outside, I retreated back to the living room and the marathon. After a few more episodes, both of my siblings and I became fans. The second film premiered a week or so after I got my driver's license, and that was the first movie that I drove to see.

Basically, the show features a bunch of babies and their parents. Tommy Pickles, the main character and the leader of the group, usually ends up in some sort of trouble. Malapropisms abound, and it's quite entertaining that the adults in the show cannot comprehend what the television audience can. I guess that's what you get when you have kids between one and two years of age. Three-year-olds Susie and Angelica can understand and communicate with both the babies and the adults. In almost every episode, the parents never even realize that the kids have gone missing or are doing something they shouldn't, and the babies are able to return to their original destination and activities by the end of the show.

Rugrats has done an excellent job intriguing the eyes of older children and parents, particularly with its well-known Hanukkah and Passover episodes (Tommy's mother Didi is Jewish, while his father Stu is Christian). In the teenage spinoff, Tommy is attending classes in Hebrew to prepare for his bar mitzvah. Perhaps one of the reasons why the show finally died out is that the older viewers could just no longer relate, and the younger viewers were turning to crappy shows like Spongebob Squarepants. Or maybe it's because there are only so many things that babies can do, LoL. But somehow Klasky and Csupo were able to write enough scripts to keep the show flowing for years. I personally don't know how, as the babies were unlike any cutesy toddlers usually seen in shows, and all seemed like misfits in some way. Anywho...

Rugrats ran from 1991-2004, making an impressive fourteen years. It is the longest-running Nicktoon, and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001). It had four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program and four wins for the Best Cartoon at the Kid's Choice Awards. It also had a spinoff (which began as the ten-year anniversary special Rugrats: All Growed Up) and two theatrical-release movies (that each added a new character to the show). In 1998 with Rugrats: The Movie, the group added a three-month old to the how who has no communicative abilities, Tommy's brother Dil. In 2000, with Rugrats in Paris, Chuckie's dad gets remarried, adding a stepsister for Chuckie: Kimi. (There was technically a third theatrically-released film, but it was a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys, which I am not a fan of). From 2003-2008, the spinoff All Grown Up featured the characters as preteens and teens, with a total of 55 episodes. Now, technically there is a second spinoff, which only began about a month ago, but I have yet to see an episode so I don't know that I can really speak to it. If you're interested, it is called Angelica and Susie's Preschool Daze, and apparently runs on Nickelodeon at 6am on Sundays. Four episodes have aired thus far. There were also a bunch of video games... PlayStation's Rugrats: Search for Reptar is definitely a fun game though. The levels were based on various episodes, and you got to play as several different characters, including Spike the dog. And in case you didn't know, Reptar is a green T-Rex that the babies love.

Viacom has removed pretty much every clip of Rugrats on the internet, but here's a few pictures to show most of the main characters.