This post is made to be published right before the SuperBowl... hold on The SuperBowl ™️ which gives us a great time to look at "Rugrats" episode "Touchdown Tommy" from season 1, episode 11a.
Touchdown Tommy has to be one of the most fun episode of Rugrats to exist. It shows the show's strength to an advantage and just has chaos going to 100. It starts with the simpleness of a season 1 episode, Tommy is playing with a balloon it goes under the coffee table and he bonks his head and reacts with a cry. Stu is right in noticing that Tommy was going after the balloon but Didi calls it a concussion and her reaction is 1000. She tells Stu she's not sure she can leave the dads alone that afternoon for the totally not the SuperBowl because that's copyright game, because Stu was reading a newspaper and not noticing that Tommy was possibly going to bonk his head. (If Didi really cared, she would have removed the under from the table) She is reconsidering going on a shopping trip with Betty (women do be shopping?...on a Sunday?) Also why is she pretending she has an eagle view on the kids?
Stu figures out a way to make he and the other guys won't have to watch the Excellent Pot [hang with here] in shifts. He thinks of an idea-helmets. Why does Angelica scream at her cat? Why does the cat run and not tear her face off? Stu shows his wife his strange helmet on Tommy that it works. (Why didn't they get the balloon) I think it's funny that this episode sets up the idea that the guys won't be really watching the kids because of the game, but the trick is that it won't be anyone bonking their heads, also helmets are the big set up to this.
Why are Stu and Grandpa Lou wearing Houston Oilers shirts? I just wanted to ask that question because I found it funny they picked an Oilers like logo for the shirts. Chaz comes with Chuckie, and also brought a very large TV for the Splendid Dish. This is back when large TVs were cool, expensive [so this man was risking alot] and heavy. (In my day we walked 15 miles to watch at 15 inch TV , for 15 minutes a day) Angelica is with Drew, she needs to be her for this episode to work the way it does. Of note, Charlotte isn't in this episode, she's not even mentioned. A detail that she's not hanging out with the guys or the women. Angelica is with Drew, that woman is working there is no Sunday break for her.
Chaz says he'd rather watch the chess playoffs, he's wearing a chess shirt, and doesn't mean he could just watch the kids? (hmmm big think) This is also Chaz's first episode where he says more words than Chuckie. I will note that Drew and Howard are wearing Dallas Cowboy style star jerseys. Showing both Texas teams, which were a rivalry. The Oilers never played the Cowboys in a Superbowl, neither have their current name the Titans or the Houston successor team The Texans. Would have been funny if their had been one in 1992, a few months after this episode aired. (The Cowboys and Oilers didn't make it to the 1992 SuperBowl : Super Bowl XXVI ) Drew and Stu wearing contrasting team jerseys shows their rivalry. It also shows Lou and Stu seem to be closer, besides the fact Lou lives with Stu instead of Drew. Howard sometimes contrasts with Stu, but not as hard, and there's not much Drew and Howard connections. . Chaz is more neutral and has a 'geeky' chess shirt on, fitting his character.
The guys are ready to watch the Ultra Bowl[ this time their word for it, not my joke] and this one was called UltraBowl XXXVII , way ahead of the Superbowl at the time. All the kids have helmets and Stu really didn't much effoft in this. Tommy's is a bowl with plush turtle and some toilet paper on rolls?, Chukie's is just a bucket with some green sponges, and toilet paper on a roll. Phil and Lil have stuffed bears on top of their bowls with a roll of toilet paper each. Angelica's he just gave up 100% and just stuck a diaper on her head with some string and a roll of toilet paper. Angelica, seems like the one most likely to even bonk her head in ways Tommy would, but that's just a diaper, it's not going to help anything. Stu lost it and is mad.
Grandpa Lou gets up to get more pork rinds and Stu asks if he can give the kids their bottles. He gives one to Angelica who remarks that bottles are for babies and that she is, in fact, not one. (To be fair the diaper on her head doesn't help) Between this and Lou forgetting he had a grand daughter in a previous episode, I don't think he cares much. He goes away, but also for some reason decides to give Tommy chocolate milk, while no one else gets any. This man chose violence and chose to create what happens the rest of the episode, he must be stopped!
Angelica is very jealous and she wants the milk. Then the episode does what makes this silly episode ever better. The football commentary on the game ends up working as the commentary on how the babies try to keep Angelica away from the bottle. (There is more milk in that bottle than their should be) This is really a great scene, no dialogue from the babies and Angelica and just mimicked football with a bottle with brown liquid. There's even a replay like football game broadcasts do, it's amazing.
But of course, it's over and Angelica realizes the bottle is empty and starts to whine. She also gets blamed because Didi comes home and sees the mess made.
To rank a Rugrats episode, this one is one of the top ones. Season 1 Rugrats has very high tier memorable episodes. This one is a pure treat. It's a fun episode. It actually interesting it really holds back it's most memorable part for the last fourth. Everything else is build up, but interesting in its own right. Didi's first time mom overreaction at the start is funny, even more since its not like she also has a firm grasp on watching the kids, herself. Stu's finding the funniest solution that later does nothing to help what really happens, but gives us helmets for football style keep away is great.
Another fun thing about a majority of the episode is how contained it is. It mostly stays in the living room area. There are some small parts that happen in the basement -Stu's Workshop- but the majority of this episode is living room based , but shows Rugrats power to make one spot just the most interesting place. Since this is early early Rugrats, they aren't even showing the Rugrats pretending to be anyone, it's straight forward but you still get a nice match up.
I love the little details in this episode. They didn't have to really go as close as they could do with almost NFL team logos they did. I mentioned the helmets , and mentioned that Stu really was just kind of putting random stuff together, but I do love the effort in these different ideas for all of them. The twins have the same design matching how they look and their clothing as well, Chuckie's not even being a bowl is funny. He probably has the 2nd worse safety one after Angelica. Angelica's is funniest like there was an outright contempt towards her and that felt like a deliberate choice to make her look like that. It also fits her pigtails to stick through. There was a lot effort done in Stu's quick thinking here.
Also, you can't tell me this episode wasn't propaganda for chocolate milk, you know you want some. Top tier Rugrats episode. That's all.
That's it for now , tune in next time, when we see what happens when strawberry milk is involved.
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