During the 1990s, the creators of the Nickelodeon children’s series, Rugrats, broke the holiday special mold by becoming the first series to draw focus into the Jewish holiday spectrum. After the success of the Rugrats Passover special, the creators decided to focus on Chanukah.
Airing for the first time on Nickelodeon in December of 1996, the story centered around a story told by Tommy’s Grandma Minka. As was popular fashion in the Rugrats universe, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil inserted themselves into the story. With Tommy playing the role of Judas, he must face his arch-enemy, the Greek king “Antonica” (Antiochus,) portrayed by his bratty, older cousin, Angelica. As Tommy, in his imaginary role as Judas, leads his Maccabees in a revolt against Antonica, they discover that there is only enough oil to light the eternal flame for one night, but a miracle keeps the flame burning for eight nights.
In a side story, Grandpa Boris has always played the role of Antiochus in the local synagogue’s Chanukah play, but this year his arch-rival, Schlomo has been cast in his place, and Boris must play Judas.
The family is afraid that the squabbling of the rivals will ruin the play for the community, and set out to try and keep the two from fighting. During a scene in the play, the babies come on stage to light the Chanukah menorah, which re-inspires the true meaning of the holiday for both Boris and Schlomo, who set their differences aside and embrace the spirit of Chanukah.
One of the interesting things about a Rugrats Chanukah special is that for decades, holiday television focused heavily on the Christmas holiday season, seemingly ignoring the other religious holidays that occur within the month. Taking the initiative to introduce Chanukah and Jewish culture to their young audience was a risk, especially during a season filled with Santa Claus and Rudolph, but the episode was a success, earning a slot in TV Guide’s top ten holiday specials list.
Rugrats had a major youth following during the 1990s, and while the imaginary, but sometimes dangerous adventures of the babies in the series might have furrowed the occasional parental brow, it touched on a number of cultural and societal issues in a way that many of its competitor series didn’t dare. So no matter where your religious affiliations lie, you can bet that tuning in to the Rugrats Chanukah special this holiday season with your little ones will be a cultural experience unlike any other.
(Catch a clip of this Rugrats special episode over at Nickelodeon.)
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