A Rugrats Passover
Encyclopedia
"A Rugrats Passover" is the 23rd episode of the third season of the American animated television series Rugrats
, and its 62nd episode overall. It was broadcast originally on April 13, 1995, on the cable network Nickelodeon
. The plot follows series regulars Grandpa Boris and the babies as they become trapped in the attic on Passover
; to pass the time, Boris tells the Jewish story of the Exodus
. During the episode the babies themselves reenact the story, with young Tommy
portraying Moses
, while his cousin Angelica
represents the Pharaoh of Egypt.
"A Rugrats Passover" was directed by Jim Duffy, Steve Socki, and Jeff McGrath from the script by Peter Gaffney
, Paul Germain
, Rachel Lipman, and Jonathon Greenberg. The episode was conceived in 1992 when Germain responded to a Nickelodeon request for a Rugrats Hannukah special by creating a Passover episode instead. The episode scored a 3.1 Nielsen Rating, making it "the highest-rated show in Nickelodeon's history", and received overwhelmingly positive reviews, including from Jewish community publications. It was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award
, an Annie Award
, and a CableACE Award
. The episode also, however, attracted controversy, when the Anti-Defamation League
compared the artistic design of the older characters to anti-Semitic drawings from a 1930s Nazi
newspaper.
The episode made Rugrats one of the first animated series to focus on a Jewish holiday; its success precipitated the creation of another special, "A Rugrats Chanukah
", which also attracted critical acclaim. A novelization of the episode was in 2007 exhibited at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
in Tulsa, Oklahoma
.
Seder
at the home of Grandpa Boris and Grandma Minka. Following an argument with Minka about the type of wine glasses they should use, Boris storms out of the room; Didi arrives with her husband Stu and son Tommy
and tries to comfort her mother Minka, who believed Boris had run away. Boris has not reappeared by the time Tommy's friend Chuckie
and his father arrive to join the celebration; when the Seder begins the children set off to search for Boris, eventually finding him in the attic. Boris explains that he felt bad about yelling at Minka, and had gone in search of her favorite wine glasses, but had become locked inside when the door closed behind him. Angelica, Tommy's older cousin, tests the door, and inadvertently locks them all in again.
To pass the time Boris decides to tell the children the story of the Exodus
, hoping to improve their understanding of Passover. As he talks Angelica imagines herself as the Pharaoh of Egypt, who commands the Hebrews (imagined in the episode as the other Rugrats and numerous other babies) to throw their newborn children into the Nile River. One Hebrew defies the order, putting baby Moses
(imagined in the episode as Tommy) into a basket and setting it afloat on the river. The basket and baby are discovered by a servant of the Pharaoh; Angelica, as the Pharaoh, shows Moses around her palace and declares him her partner. As Boris explains that the Pharaoh was unaware Moses was a Hebrew, Chuckie's father Chas enters the attic, looking for the children, and becomes locked in with the rest of them. He sits down and listens as Boris continues: years later, Boris says, Moses stood up for an abused Hebrew slave (imagined in the narrative as Chuckie), and was outed as a Hebrew. The episode then pictures Tommy as Moses fleeing to the desert, where he becomes a shepherd and forgets about Egypt and the Pharaoh, until the voice of God
calls to him from a burning bush, telling him that he must free the Hebrews from slavery.
Moses confronts the Pharaoh and demands that she let the Hebrews be free. She refuses and calls her guards to drag Moses away; he curses her kingdom with terrible plagues
until she relents and allows Moses to leave with the enslaved Hebrews. As Boris is explaining how the Pharaoh deceives the Hebrews and prevents them from leaving, Angelica's parents Drew and Charlotte arrive and become locked in with the others. Boris resumes the story: the Pharaoh's treachery causes Moses to curse her once more, this time with a plague on the first-born children of Egypt. The Pharaoh, being a first-born child, bargains with Moses: he can leave if he calls off the divine plague. Moses complies and leads the Hebrews out of Egypt, but the Pharaoh reneges on her promise and leads out her remaining army to pursue the Hebrews.
Minka, Didi, and Stu arrive in the attic to find the group enthralled by the end of Boris's story: Moses, cornered, calls down the power of God to part the Red Sea
, which the Hebrews are approaching. They pass through the parted waters, which then crash back together behind them, engulfing the Pharaoh and her army. With the story over, the family gets up to finish the Seder: only to see the wind blow shut the door, locking them all in. Boris decides to tell them another story, this time about his relatives.
to the Rugrats production staff, pitching the concept of a special episode concerning Hannukah. The crew agreed instead that a Passover special would offer both "historical interest" and a "funny idea," so Paul Germain
—founder of the series along with Arlene Klasky
and Gábor Csupó
—pitched the Passover idea instead.
Germain wrote the episode's teleplay along with regular Rugrats writers Peter Gaffney
, Rachel Lipman, and Jonathon Greenberg; animators Jim Duffy, Steve Socki, and Jeff McGrath directed. While scripting the episode, now entitled "A Rugrats Passover," the writers were forced to audit many elements of the portrayal of plagues
, particularly the third one, so it could still be accessible to children and not too frightening. Though regular episodes of the series comprised two separate 15-minute segments, "A Rugrats Passover" had a special 22-minute format, occupying the show's full network Rugrats slot. The show's voice actors each spent from fifteen minutes to four hours in recording sessions for the episode.
The episode was released in several formats, including DVD
and VHS
. It appears on the video release A Rugrats Passover alongside features "Toys in the Attic," and Rugrats Passover: Let My Babies Go. It is also featured on the Grandpa's Favorite Stories video release, with the episode "The Return of Reptar." Publisher Simon Spotlight in 1998 released a novelization of the episode, entitled Let My Babies Go! A Passover Story
, written by Sarah Wilson and featuring illustrations by Barry Goldberg.
ritual and tradition. Its portrayal of a Seder dinner received press attention as a rare occurrence in children's programming. The episode was also unusual among animated series for discussing the characters' religious affiliations. It revealed Boris, Minka, and Didi's adherence to Judaism, and compared it with the relative non-participation of Stu and his side of the family. Chuckie, his father Chas and the DeVille twins, Phil and Lil, meanwhile, were portrayed as nonreligious yet inclusive and enthused to learn about the customs of the holiday.
As with other Rugrats episodes, "A Rugrats Passover" depicts "the innocence of a baby's perception of the world," emphasizing the young characters' intense, childlike reactions to their environment. Creator Klasky identified the episode's depiction of the Pickles family as "very loving, [and] basically functional" as strikingly different from the prevailing trends in contemporary television programming. Another episode element common to the series' broader themes is its treatment of Angelica's mother Charlotte, who throughout the episode is glued to her cell phone and engrossed in her business life, despite her professed desire to provide Angelica with an educational environment.
episode "The Turkey Who Came to Dinner" attracted 3.7 million viewers (9.4/28).
The episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award
in the category "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)
," but lost to The Simpsons
episode "Lisa's Wedding
." At the 23rd Annual Annie Awards it was nominated in the category "Best Individual Achievement for Writing in the Field of Animation," but was beaten by the episode "The Tick vs. Arthur’s Bank Account" from Fox Kids
' animated series The Tick. In 1995, it was Rugrats' submission for a CableACE award; it received a nomination but did not win.
wrote of the episode "If not a first, it certainly is a rarity." Ted Cox of the Daily Herald called the episode "among the best holiday TV specials ever produced." Other reviews applauded the episode for its treatment of Judaism. Authors Michael Atkinson and Laurel Shifrin, in their book Flickipedia: Perfect Films for Every Occasion, Holiday, Mood, Ordeal, and Whim praised the episode for celebrating "secular Jewishness in the wisest and most entertaining fashion [...] Grandpa Boris regales the kids with an epic, albeit abridged, Exodus story." Halley Blair of Forward Magazine
called the episode "a comical primer for getting children ready for upcoming seders," and Danny Goldberg, in How The Left Lost Teen Spirit, noted that the episode's Jewish themes were "clearly expressed in the context of a mass appeal entertainment." Among many positive reviews of the episode in Jewish community publications, Gila Wertheimer of the Chicago Jewish Star
said that the episode "will entertain children of all ages – and their parents."
Joel Keller of AOL
's TV Squad, on the other hand, noted in 2006 that he "always hated" the episode, and resented that it was one of only two Passover-themed television episodes he could find via a Google
search.
(ADL) claimed that the two characters resembled anti-Semitic drawings that had appeared in a 1930s Nazi
newspaper. Nickelodeon
's then-president Albie Hecht
, himself Jewish, professed himself dumbfounded by the criticism, calling it absurd. The controversy resurfaced in 1998 when the ADL criticized another appearance of Boris, this time reciting the Mourner's Kaddish in a Rugrats comic strip published in newspapers during the Jewish New Year. Unlike Hecht, Nickelodeon's new president Herb Scannell
agreed with the criticism and apologized, promising never to run the character or the strip again.
in which the character Harold Berman prepares for his Bar Mitzvah. Rugrats in turn produced a second Jewish holiday episode, this time to meet the network executives' original Hannukah special pitch. David N. Weiss
, who had recently converted to Judaism, and J. David Stem collaborated to write the script, and Raymie Muzquiz directed. The episode, entitled "A Rugrats Chanukah," was originally broadcast on December 4, 1996 on Nickelodeon and received a Nielsen rating
of 7.9 in the Kids 2–11 demographic. Like "A Rugrats Passover," it was critically acclaimed and became among the most popular episodes in the series.
In 2007 the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma
opened an exhibition of Biblical images in art and pop culture, including a poster for Let My Babies Go! A Passover Story, the picture book based on "A Rugrats Passover". Other items highlighted in the gallery included a promotional poster for The Simpsons
episode "Simpsons Bible Stories
" and a vintage Superman
comic book
entitled "The Red-Headed Beatle of 1000 B.C.," featuring the character Jimmy Olsen
's time-traveling adventures in the Biblical age.
Rugrats
Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....
, and its 62nd episode overall. It was broadcast originally on April 13, 1995, on the cable network Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
. The plot follows series regulars Grandpa Boris and the babies as they become trapped in the attic on Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
; to pass the time, Boris tells the Jewish story of the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
. During the episode the babies themselves reenact the story, with young Tommy
Tommy Pickles
Thomas Malcolm "Tommy" Pickles is the main protagonist of the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!. He is clad in only a T-shirt and a diaper and is bald with big, blank eyes. He translates everything adult into baby gibberish...
portraying Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, while his cousin Angelica
Angelica Pickles
Angelica Charlotte Pickles is a character voiced by Cheryl Chase in the Nickelodeon shows Rugrats and All Grown Up! and is among the series' original characters. She is a spoiled brat and the cousin of Tommy and Dil Pickles, serves as the main antagonist or the tritagonist of the series...
represents the Pharaoh of Egypt.
"A Rugrats Passover" was directed by Jim Duffy, Steve Socki, and Jeff McGrath from the script by Peter Gaffney
Peter Gaffney
Peter Gaffney is an American writer and editor. He is best known for his writing work on The Simpsons and Rugrats. He spent five years as a writer and creative consultant for MTV...
, Paul Germain
Paul Germain
Paul Germain is an American animation screenwriter and producer. Among the shows Germain has written and/or produced for are Rugrats, All Grown Up!, The Simpsons, Recess, Even Stevens, Lloyd in Space, The Tracey Ullman Show, and Beethoven: The Animated Series...
, Rachel Lipman, and Jonathon Greenberg. The episode was conceived in 1992 when Germain responded to a Nickelodeon request for a Rugrats Hannukah special by creating a Passover episode instead. The episode scored a 3.1 Nielsen Rating, making it "the highest-rated show in Nickelodeon's history", and received overwhelmingly positive reviews, including from Jewish community publications. It was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
, an Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
, and a CableACE Award
CableACE Award
The CableACE Award was an award that was given from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming...
. The episode also, however, attracted controversy, when the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
compared the artistic design of the older characters to anti-Semitic drawings from a 1930s Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
newspaper.
The episode made Rugrats one of the first animated series to focus on a Jewish holiday; its success precipitated the creation of another special, "A Rugrats Chanukah
A Rugrats Chanukah
"A Rugrats Chanukah", titled onscreen as "Chanukah" and sometimes called the "Rugrats Chanukah Special", is a special episode of Nickelodeon's animated television series Rugrats...
", which also attracted critical acclaim. A novelization of the episode was in 2007 exhibited at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was founded in 1966 as the Gershon & Rebecca Fenster Museum of Jewish Art. From its inception until 1998, Tulsa's Congregation B'nai Emunah Synagogue housed the museum. Sherwin Miller was the museum's first curator...
in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
.
Plot
As the episode opens, the Pickles family is gathering to celebrate the PassoverPassover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
Seder
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
at the home of Grandpa Boris and Grandma Minka. Following an argument with Minka about the type of wine glasses they should use, Boris storms out of the room; Didi arrives with her husband Stu and son Tommy
Tommy Pickles
Thomas Malcolm "Tommy" Pickles is the main protagonist of the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!. He is clad in only a T-shirt and a diaper and is bald with big, blank eyes. He translates everything adult into baby gibberish...
and tries to comfort her mother Minka, who believed Boris had run away. Boris has not reappeared by the time Tommy's friend Chuckie
Chuckie Finster
Charles "Chuckie" Crandall Finster is a fictional character from the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and All Grown Up!. He is Tommy Pickles' best friend and tritagonist . The character is voiced by Christine Cavanaugh...
and his father arrive to join the celebration; when the Seder begins the children set off to search for Boris, eventually finding him in the attic. Boris explains that he felt bad about yelling at Minka, and had gone in search of her favorite wine glasses, but had become locked inside when the door closed behind him. Angelica, Tommy's older cousin, tests the door, and inadvertently locks them all in again.
To pass the time Boris decides to tell the children the story of the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
, hoping to improve their understanding of Passover. As he talks Angelica imagines herself as the Pharaoh of Egypt, who commands the Hebrews (imagined in the episode as the other Rugrats and numerous other babies) to throw their newborn children into the Nile River. One Hebrew defies the order, putting baby Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
(imagined in the episode as Tommy) into a basket and setting it afloat on the river. The basket and baby are discovered by a servant of the Pharaoh; Angelica, as the Pharaoh, shows Moses around her palace and declares him her partner. As Boris explains that the Pharaoh was unaware Moses was a Hebrew, Chuckie's father Chas enters the attic, looking for the children, and becomes locked in with the rest of them. He sits down and listens as Boris continues: years later, Boris says, Moses stood up for an abused Hebrew slave (imagined in the narrative as Chuckie), and was outed as a Hebrew. The episode then pictures Tommy as Moses fleeing to the desert, where he becomes a shepherd and forgets about Egypt and the Pharaoh, until the voice of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
calls to him from a burning bush, telling him that he must free the Hebrews from slavery.
Moses confronts the Pharaoh and demands that she let the Hebrews be free. She refuses and calls her guards to drag Moses away; he curses her kingdom with terrible plagues
Plagues of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt , also called the Ten Plagues or the Biblical Plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel's God, Yahweh, inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth...
until she relents and allows Moses to leave with the enslaved Hebrews. As Boris is explaining how the Pharaoh deceives the Hebrews and prevents them from leaving, Angelica's parents Drew and Charlotte arrive and become locked in with the others. Boris resumes the story: the Pharaoh's treachery causes Moses to curse her once more, this time with a plague on the first-born children of Egypt. The Pharaoh, being a first-born child, bargains with Moses: he can leave if he calls off the divine plague. Moses complies and leads the Hebrews out of Egypt, but the Pharaoh reneges on her promise and leads out her remaining army to pursue the Hebrews.
Minka, Didi, and Stu arrive in the attic to find the group enthralled by the end of Boris's story: Moses, cornered, calls down the power of God to part the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, which the Hebrews are approaching. They pass through the parted waters, which then crash back together behind them, engulfing the Pharaoh and her army. With the story over, the family gets up to finish the Seder: only to see the wind blow shut the door, locking them all in. Boris decides to tell them another story, this time about his relatives.
Production
The episode's inception in 1992 followed a call by NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
to the Rugrats production staff, pitching the concept of a special episode concerning Hannukah. The crew agreed instead that a Passover special would offer both "historical interest" and a "funny idea," so Paul Germain
Paul Germain
Paul Germain is an American animation screenwriter and producer. Among the shows Germain has written and/or produced for are Rugrats, All Grown Up!, The Simpsons, Recess, Even Stevens, Lloyd in Space, The Tracey Ullman Show, and Beethoven: The Animated Series...
—founder of the series along with Arlene Klasky
Arlene Klasky
Arlene Klasky is an animator, graphic designer, television producer and co-founder of Klasky-Csupo with Gábor Csupó. Arlene Klasky is one of the television industry’s leading advocates for quality animated programming that entertains children. In 1999, she was named one of the “Top 25 Women in...
and Gábor Csupó
Gábor Csupó
Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian-born animator, writer, film director and music producer. He is co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which has produced shows like Rugrats, Duckman, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.-Career:...
—pitched the Passover idea instead.
Germain wrote the episode's teleplay along with regular Rugrats writers Peter Gaffney
Peter Gaffney
Peter Gaffney is an American writer and editor. He is best known for his writing work on The Simpsons and Rugrats. He spent five years as a writer and creative consultant for MTV...
, Rachel Lipman, and Jonathon Greenberg; animators Jim Duffy, Steve Socki, and Jeff McGrath directed. While scripting the episode, now entitled "A Rugrats Passover," the writers were forced to audit many elements of the portrayal of plagues
Plagues of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt , also called the Ten Plagues or the Biblical Plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel's God, Yahweh, inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth...
, particularly the third one, so it could still be accessible to children and not too frightening. Though regular episodes of the series comprised two separate 15-minute segments, "A Rugrats Passover" had a special 22-minute format, occupying the show's full network Rugrats slot. The show's voice actors each spent from fifteen minutes to four hours in recording sessions for the episode.
The episode was released in several formats, including DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
. It appears on the video release A Rugrats Passover alongside features "Toys in the Attic," and Rugrats Passover: Let My Babies Go. It is also featured on the Grandpa's Favorite Stories video release, with the episode "The Return of Reptar." Publisher Simon Spotlight in 1998 released a novelization of the episode, entitled Let My Babies Go! A Passover Story
Let My Babies Go! A Passover Story
Let My Babies Go! A Passover Story is a picture book and children's literature novelization of the Rugrats episode "A Rugrats Passover." The novel was written by Sarah Wilson and featured illustrations by Barry Goldberg. It was published by Simon Spotlight in 1998...
, written by Sarah Wilson and featuring illustrations by Barry Goldberg.
Themes
"A Rugrats Passover" was unusual among contemporary animations in its attention to JewishJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
ritual and tradition. Its portrayal of a Seder dinner received press attention as a rare occurrence in children's programming. The episode was also unusual among animated series for discussing the characters' religious affiliations. It revealed Boris, Minka, and Didi's adherence to Judaism, and compared it with the relative non-participation of Stu and his side of the family. Chuckie, his father Chas and the DeVille twins, Phil and Lil, meanwhile, were portrayed as nonreligious yet inclusive and enthused to learn about the customs of the holiday.
As with other Rugrats episodes, "A Rugrats Passover" depicts "the innocence of a baby's perception of the world," emphasizing the young characters' intense, childlike reactions to their environment. Creator Klasky identified the episode's depiction of the Pickles family as "very loving, [and] basically functional" as strikingly different from the prevailing trends in contemporary television programming. Another episode element common to the series' broader themes is its treatment of Angelica's mother Charlotte, who throughout the episode is glued to her cell phone and engrossed in her business life, despite her professed desire to provide Angelica with an educational environment.
Ratings and accolades
"A Rugrats Passover" was broadcast originally on April 13, 1995, on the Nickelodeon television network. Repeats of the episode began that Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The episode received a Nielsen Rating of 3.1, with a 4.8% share of American audiences, making it the sixth most-watched American telecast of the week. According to Catherine Mullally, Vice President and Executive Producer of Nickelodeon Video and Audio Works in 1995, the episode was the highest Nielsen-rated telecast in the network's history. The episode was supplanted as Nickelodeon's most-viewed in 1997, by another Rugrats special, when the ThanksgivingThanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
episode "The Turkey Who Came to Dinner" attracted 3.7 million viewers (9.4/28).
The episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
in the category "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series which is judged to have been the best...
," but lost to The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Lisa's Wedding
Lisa's Wedding
"Lisa's Wedding" is the 19th episode of The Simpsons sixth season, which originally aired March 19, 1995. The plot focuses around Lisa visiting a carnival fortune teller and learning about her future love. It was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Jim Reardon. Mandy Patinkin guest stars as...
." At the 23rd Annual Annie Awards it was nominated in the category "Best Individual Achievement for Writing in the Field of Animation," but was beaten by the episode "The Tick vs. Arthur’s Bank Account" from Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
' animated series The Tick. In 1995, it was Rugrats
Critical response
"A Rugrats Passover" received overwhelmingly positive reviews and became one of the series' all-time most popular episodes. John J. O'Connor of The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote of the episode "If not a first, it certainly is a rarity." Ted Cox of the Daily Herald called the episode "among the best holiday TV specials ever produced." Other reviews applauded the episode for its treatment of Judaism. Authors Michael Atkinson and Laurel Shifrin, in their book Flickipedia: Perfect Films for Every Occasion, Holiday, Mood, Ordeal, and Whim praised the episode for celebrating "secular Jewishness in the wisest and most entertaining fashion [...] Grandpa Boris regales the kids with an epic, albeit abridged, Exodus story." Halley Blair of Forward Magazine
Forward Magazine
Forward Magazine is a Syrian English-language newsmagazine published monthly in Damascus. It was the first private English-language periodical to be licensed in Syria, since all private media was nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1958, during the short-lived Syrian-Egyptian union...
called the episode "a comical primer for getting children ready for upcoming seders," and Danny Goldberg, in How The Left Lost Teen Spirit, noted that the episode's Jewish themes were "clearly expressed in the context of a mass appeal entertainment." Among many positive reviews of the episode in Jewish community publications, Gila Wertheimer of the Chicago Jewish Star
Chicago Jewish Star
The Chicago Jewish Star is an independent twice-monthly general interest Jewish newspaper based in Skokie, Illinois. It provides news analysis and opinion on local, national and international events of relevance to the Jewish community, with a focus on literature and arts, politics, and the Middle...
said that the episode "will entertain children of all ages – and their parents."
Joel Keller of AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
's TV Squad, on the other hand, noted in 2006 that he "always hated" the episode, and resented that it was one of only two Passover-themed television episodes he could find via a Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
search.
Anti-Defamation League controversy
"A Rugrats Passover," along with other Rugrats episodes featuring Boris and Minka, attracted controversy when the Anti-Defamation LeagueAnti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
(ADL) claimed that the two characters resembled anti-Semitic drawings that had appeared in a 1930s Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
newspaper. Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's then-president Albie Hecht
Albie Hecht
Albie Hecht is the CEO of Worldwide Biggies, founder of Spike TV, and a former president of Nickelodeon Entertainment.Hecht oversaw the development and production of SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, and the live-action show All That at Nickelodeon...
, himself Jewish, professed himself dumbfounded by the criticism, calling it absurd. The controversy resurfaced in 1998 when the ADL criticized another appearance of Boris, this time reciting the Mourner's Kaddish in a Rugrats comic strip published in newspapers during the Jewish New Year. Unlike Hecht, Nickelodeon's new president Herb Scannell
Herb Scannell
Herb Scannell, is the president of BBC Worldwide America.-Early years:Scannell was born in Long Island, New York to an Irish father and Puerto Rican mother as the youngest of four. He received his primary and secondary education in his hometown. His mother taught him Spanish at home helping him to...
agreed with the criticism and apologized, promising never to run the character or the strip again.
Legacy
"A Rugrats Passover" has been Nickelodeon's first programming about Passover; the network went on to broadcast other episodes concerning Jewish traditions, including "Harold's Bar Mitzvah", a 1997 episode of Hey Arnold!Hey Arnold!
Hey Arnold! is an American animated television series created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. The show's premise focuses on a fourth grader named Arnold who lives with his grandparents. Episodes center on his experiences navigating big city life while dealing with the problems he and his friends...
in which the character Harold Berman prepares for his Bar Mitzvah. Rugrats in turn produced a second Jewish holiday episode, this time to meet the network executives' original Hannukah special pitch. David N. Weiss
David N. Weiss
David N. Weiss is an American writer and labor leader. He is a screenwriter of films, including All Dogs go to Heaven, The Rugrats Movie, Shrek 2, Clockstoppers, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie and The Smurfs and has also written for television shows such as Mission Hill...
, who had recently converted to Judaism, and J. David Stem collaborated to write the script, and Raymie Muzquiz directed. The episode, entitled "A Rugrats Chanukah," was originally broadcast on December 4, 1996 on Nickelodeon and received a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 7.9 in the Kids 2–11 demographic. Like "A Rugrats Passover," it was critically acclaimed and became among the most popular episodes in the series.
In 2007 the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
opened an exhibition of Biblical images in art and pop culture, including a poster for Let My Babies Go! A Passover Story, the picture book based on "A Rugrats Passover". Other items highlighted in the gallery included a promotional poster for The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Simpsons Bible Stories
Simpsons Bible Stories
"Simpsons Bible Stories" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons tenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on Easter, 1999. It is the first of The Simpsons now annual trilogy episodes, and consists of four self-contained segments. In the episode the Simpsons all fall...
" and a vintage Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
entitled "The Red-Headed Beatle of 1000 B.C.," featuring the character Jimmy Olsen
Jimmy Olsen
Jimmy Olsen is a fictional character who appears mainly in DC Comics’ Superman stories. Olsen is a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet. He is close friends with Lois Lane, Clark Kent/Superman and Perry White...
's time-traveling adventures in the Biblical age.
External links
- "A Rugrats Passover" at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- "A Rugrats Passover" at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...