TV: Rugrats

Every time the holiday season rolls around, I'm reminded of "Rugrats." It was one of the first truly successful Nickelodeon cartoons, spawning several feature films and a host of related merchandise. "Rugrats" thrived because of witty writing, excellent voice talent (E.G. Daily, who played Dottie in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," stars as Tommy Pickles), and a great soundtrack by Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh. The show is centered around a group of one year old babies who constantly misunderstand the world around them, making for easy comedy.

In particular, "Rugrats" had the distinction of airing one of the best Chanukah-themed episodes I've ever seen, where the babies battle "the Meanie of Chanukah" (a malapropism of "the meaning of Chanukah"). First, some background: I grew up in south Florida and a lot of my classmates were Jewish; Chanukah was a Big Deal around those parts (not so much in the religious sense, but in the practical time-to-get-gifts sense). During elementary school for instance, I think I received chocolate Hannukah gelt at least half a dozen times every December.

Anyhow, I kind of miss those days when December was packed with holiday celebration, and the Rugrats chanukah episode really filled things out between all the Christmas-themed stuff. But I suppose Christmas is good enough on its own.