From Rags To Riches

Intro

We have all seen it countless times. You watch a show, whether it be a cartoon or sitcom and it goes from humble beginings to monster success. And almost always culminating into a feature length movie. Well have you ever noticed that after the Big Screen Debut the show's popularity usually dimishes? Well I want to examine a few of the Cases in which some of my favorite shows were lost to The Silver Screen....



First lets take a look at Rugrats. Rugrats was firsted aired on Aug 11, 1991. The brain child of Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo. The show follows the exploits and misadventures of a group of toddlers. The main focus of the show was on the courageous boy wonder Tommy Pickles and along with him was his cousin Angelica, best friend Chucky Finster and identical twins Phil and Lil.



Now I'm sure many of you have fond memories of Nickolodean's longest running show of over 14 years. I ask you this, how can a show that lasted that long not even make it an occasional airing? Examine exhibit A


The Rugrats movie was released on Nov. 20, 1998. Thats about 7 years since its original debut. However listen to this; Rugrats was in production from1991 till 1994 then had a temporary hiatus until 1996. I suppose they were just running on the momentum the show had accumulated, seeing how things would turn out. Then with the show winning countless awards and even having a star on hollywoods walk of fame they started to add new concepts with the show to keep viewers interested. I don't know about you but Dill was a blunder to the show. He could not talk with his fellow tots which is odd and Chuckie sister is just a ludicrous addition. To make a long story short Rugrats had their Movie debut in 1998 then in 2001 switched to Rugrats all grown up. Then only 3 short years later was discontinued. Why? If its not broke don't fix it. They had a formula that worked and if they kept with it perhaps we would still be watching it today. My next case involves 6 th grader Douglas Yancey Funnie


Who could forget Nickolodean's first Nickatoon Doug. The show also debuted in 1991 and was created by Jim Jinkins who also had a hand in PB&J otter. Though not as popular as Rugrats or as long lived Doug run for a healthy 4 years...that is until Disney bought Jumbo pictures and started the show again but it was no comparison Nicks version. The differences were horrible the show no longer had the same appeal, from the different voices to the art just look at the Doug art from Disney;


Now look at the old Doug. The colors are less intense and I like it that way Also, Doug on Nick wears shorts on Disney he wears pants;


But back to my main point. After aquring Doug in 1996, 2 years after Nick, Disney released the motion picture Doug 1st Movie which was about Doug finding a monster and trying to keep it safe from some villians. I don't know about you but this movie dosen't even ring a bell. Patties new haircut is plain whack and why did Connie's slimming down. Point in case less than one year after the movie Doug was no longer airing. Goodbye Porkchop




There you have it. 2 examples of once great shows now only a vague memory. It would be nice for once to see a show end right. No movies no changes in animation, just let the show end honorably and move on to the next project. I hope you enjoyed my expose and still take a little time to remeber some of the cartoons of yore