“Rugrats” Created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, and Paul Germain; Starring Elizabeth Daily, Kath Soucie, Melanie Charoff, Cheryl Chase, Jack Riley, Michael Bell, Christine Cavanaugh, David Doyle, Tara Strong, and Tress MacNeille; Originally aired August 11, 1991; Run time 23 minutes.

“Rugrats” was the second Nicktoon to air, following “Doug” and immediately followed by “The Ren & Stimpy Show.” The series was created for Nickelodeon by husband and wife team Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo with help from Paul Germain and followed the adventures of a group of toddlers through ordinary daily activities that were enhanced by visuals from the kid’s imaginations, similar to “The Muppet Babies.”

Klasky and Csupo were animating for “The Simpsons” at the time and decided to develop their own series when they heard that Nickelodeon was planning on creating their own line up of animation. The series events were loosely based on the antics of their own children who were toddlers at the time.

They enlisted the help of Peter Chung with character design. Chung directed the title sequence as well as the pilot which was never aired. Chung later went on to do “Aeon Flux” with an animation style that feels like it exists in the same family but as a distant cousin whom no one invites to family gatherings.

“Rugrats” held the title for longest running Nicktoon for years until 2012 when it was usurped by “Spongebob Squarepants” though the series remains one of Nickelodeon’s most successful creations. It ran for a total of 172 episodes, spawned two movies including a crossover with “The Wild Thornberries,” a spin-off series entitled “All Grown Up” which showcases the characters ten years later, comic books, video games, and merchandizing.

In each episode the babies get into some sort of adventure, usually aided by the fact that their parents are sort of inept and distracted. These adventures were sometimes aided by inventions created by Tommy’s father Stu who was a struggling inventor. The series also gave us the nested creation of “Reptar,” essentially a children’s version of “Godzilla.”

As recently as September of this year Nickelodeon has floated the idea of resurrecting some of its classic Nicktoons including “Rugrats.” Russell Hicks, president of content and development for Nickelodeon, told Variety “We are looking at our library to bring back ideas, shows that were loved, n a fresh new way.”

Hicks declined to mention specific series but it was implied that “Rugrats” and “Hey Arnold!” are under consideration, though it’s unclear if they would return as full series or as specials or one-offs, if they return at all.

In the meantime you can get your fix right here. See you next week.

This week on Saturday Morning Cartoon we’re doing something a little different. Normally we’d focus on one episode of one particular show, but today I want to talk about someone behind the scenes. A few days ago news broke that the world of animation had lost someone, not only did this person voice some of my favorite cartoon characters, but she’s also a local native of Utah, born not too far from where I sit right now. So instead of highlighting one show in the world of animation, let’s highlight the contributions of an individual so that we may better remember how she touched our lives and influenced our childhoods. Without further ado, the many great works of Christine Cavanaugh, in no particular order.

Cavanaugh was a prolific actor and voice actor but I’m going to focus on the four things she did that meant the most to me, skipping the two episodes of “Salute Your Shorts” only because it wasn’t animated. Thinking about her work, I asked myself which of her characters was most well known, it ended in a battle between Chuckie Finster of “Rugrats” and Dexter of “Dexter’s Laboratory” which resulted in me thinking about a literal battle between a timid toddler and a tiny genius. Just hold on while I stop laughing.

Dexter

“Dexter’s Laboratory” was a favorite growing up, I still watch it sometimes. It appealed because of its seeming absurdity. Why did Dexter have that accent? How did his parents not know he had built a huge lab behind a bookcase? What was Dexter’s end game? Whatever was going on Dexter helped instill in me a love for science at a young age, because who doesn’t want a sweet lab behind a Batman style bookcase? Most importantly, Dexter taught me that every day, is a good day for science.

Chuckie Finster

What is there to say about “Rugrats” that you don’t already know. It was probably the most well known cartoon of its time period, everyone watched it. It was like “The Simpsons” for kids, not necessarily in content, but in its ability to permeate throughout culture. The character of Chuckie Finster was second only to Tommy Pickles and had more personality. While I always wanted to be a Tommy Pickles, the brave adventurer, the “Indiana Jones” of babies, I knew deep down that I was really Chuckie. He was terrified, constantly scared of the situations he was being thrown into but he persevered anyway, even though sometimes he went a little Hannibal Lector about his blocks.

Oblina

“Aaahh!!! Real Monsters” hit at a perfect time in my life, young enough to have not yet abandoned cartoons (before I said eff that, cartoons are awesome) but old enough to start being into darker fare. “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was the perfect combination of funny, creepy, and bizarre for my adolescent mind. Cavanaugh provided the voice of Oblina, the terrifying candy cane with a heart of gold.

Gosalyn Mallard

Though Cavanaugh had a handful of credits prior to this, it seems like “Darkwing Duck” was her big break into the world of animation. She provided the voice for Darkwing’s nine year old adopted daughter  and sometimes sidekick Gosalyn. The character provided the anchor for Darkwing, being both the thing that kept him attached to the real world but also provided him his greatest fear, losing her. Their relationship provided a humanizing aspect. Humanizing? Duckanizing? Whatever… and I think it provides a perfect end cap to our remembrance of Cavanaugh’s work.

Thank you Christine, for making growing up a little bit easier, a little brighter, and a hell of a lot more fun.

Cheers.