In the early 90s, Klasky/Csupo were working on "The Simpsons", everybody knows what that show is, no need to go into detail! But they saw that kids could appreciate that kind of humor as well, so they developed a show with similar humor to the Simpsons but for a younger audience, the finishing result was alas Rugrats!
It was one of the very first Nicktoons ever made, and continued to be a success the longest out of all three of them! Of course, I wasn't alive when the show first came on the air, I am almost 16 years old, so that gives you a clue to my age, but that doesn't matter, I still loved and appreciated this show!
The show came back, after a 2-year hiatus or so, due to the success of the reruns and the holiday specials, and to be honest, I loved the newer episodes! What I love about this show is that it has great character development, all the characters are incredibly likeable, and yes this actually means Angelica! (spoiler alert!) She might be portrayed as the mean cousin of Tommy's, but actually, it's because she feels resentful towards them and that she doesn't wanna be treated like a baby, else she does have respect for them, if you watch the show from the beginning!
This ended up with a theatrical movie that added in a new character: Dil! The movie was a success, but some people say the show went downhill when they added Dil to the show, as well as a second feature-length film: Rugrats in Paris(Which actually, is for EVERYBODY! There are some jokes and references for adults in there, believe me!) that introduced Chuckie's stepsister Kimi, and fans believed the show went downhill from there!
I am probably gonna get attacked by this, but I disagree! I know shows go downhill, but this to me, actually turned out better as the series progressed! I do think Dil should've at least spoken to the babies or something more, don't get me wrong, I do agree there, and Kimi was more or less like Tommy, except a girl, but still, shows have taken even worse paths, this didn't take a bad path, in my opinion!
Eventually, there was a movie in 2003 called "Rugrats Go Wild" which was a crossover-between two of Klasky-Csupo's currently-airing shows at that time: Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys! It didn't do as well as the first two, but it was still pretty decent, in my opinion!
However, the same year, they made the spin-off "All Grown Up" with Rugrats alongside it, and they eventually cancelled Rugrats, why?! Klasky-Csupo was being bankrupt and Nickelodeon didn't want them producing most of the Nicktoons and wanted to give others a chance! In 2004, it was eventually canned, and sadly so, as this is the show that put Nickelodeon on the map!
From 2005-present, SpongeBob SquarePants has dominated and continues to dominate Nickelodeon, and what's worse is that the Paul Tibbitt(guy who took over after Stephen Hillenburg left) episodes get more credit, but still, both episodes of the show get more credit than Rugrats, did since 2005, and continues to this day! Now, I love the older SpongeBobs, but isn't that like FOX treating Family Guy better than the Simpsons?! FOX are pretty much doing that at the moment, which is a disgrace!
However, in recent years, I got Facebook and I managed to get in contact with a bunch of Classic Nickelodeon fans and together, we've been trying to fight for classic Nickelodeon to come back! Most of the credit goes to the lovely person that created the "Bring back Classic Nickelodeon" page! If anything, she cares about Nickelodeon alot and it's future, and thus resulting in the 90s are All That block on TeenNick! I also know Cheryl Chase and EG Daily via there and they are really nice people, and if anything, they are interested in seeing new episodes(and believe me, no one wants Rugrats back more, than Cheryl herself), and being a part of them!
I'm hoping the reruns on TeenNick will do this show some justice(the show's end date on here is wrong though, it ended in 2004!), it did alot for Nickelodeon and has had enough fan-support and I know reruns can bring a show back! It happened last time, it'll happen again, just keep being optimistic and someday, this show'll come back! This show is one of the finest cartoons ever made and deserves to be up there along with the Simpsons as one of the greatest cartoons ever made, I hope this show reclaims it's title!