“When you're sitting around watching toddlers, you're always wondering: If babies could speak, what would they say?” says Ms. Klasky, who created Nickelodeon's Rugrats 10 years ago with her husband, Gabor Csupo.

ON THE AIR

Rugrats: All Growed Up: 8 p.m. Saturday; repeats 8 p.m. Sunday on Nickelodeon.    Rugrats: 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 p.m. Friday; 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 9-10 a.m. Sunday, Nickelodeon.     Making of the Rugrats: 9 p.m. Saturday, Nickelodeon.

        They had no idea what big babies Tommy, Chuckie and Angelica would become. The Rugrats celebrate their 10th anniversary with a prime-time All Growed Up special at 8 p.m. Saturday after being the highest-rated children's show on cable for eight consecutive years.

        They've crawled their way through 350 stories. They can be found in 150 countries and 30 languages. (They're the Rugrats, Aventuras en Panales in Spanish, and Les Razmoket in France.)

        Their two feature films, The Rugrats Movie and The Rugrats in Paris, have earned almost $100 million.

        They have spawned more than 500 products worldwide, everything from toothpaste to CD-ROMs, and underwear to macaroni and cheese.

        “Early on, we never realized it was going to be like this,” says Ms. Klasky, who conceived Rugrats after she and her husband animated The Simpsons shorts for Fox's Tracey Ullman Show (1987-90). “If we didn't have kids, we wouldn't have come up with this idea.”

        Their baby formula was to look at the world through the eyes of toddler Tommy Pickles; his baby brother Dil; their bossy cousin Angelica; and their best friends Chuckie Finster; twins Phil and Lil DeVille; and Susie Carmichael.

        “In animation, you try to find a unique visual hook, and the obvious one was from their point-of-view, looking up from the floor, and exaggerating that,” says Ms. Klasky, whose sons are now 16 and 13. To paraphrase Tommy Pickles: A cartoonist's gotta do what a cartoonist's gotta do.

        “When we started our company, we just had one small vision. We just wanted to do funny cartoons,” says Mr. Csupo, a Hungarian animator who moved to Hollywood in 1979. The Klasky Csupo Studios also have produced The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, As Told by Ginger and Ahhh! Real Monsters.

        “When Nickelodeon came to us, we said we're going ... to do something different looking, and try to do smart writing,” he says. “Even though the show was for kids only, we thought that we would write it for the parents, as well.”

        Those “dumb babies,” as Angelica would say, have become international icons thanks to the marketing and programming wizards at Viacom, the parent company of Nickelodeon, Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount Pictures and Simon & Schuster. Rugrats premiered Aug. 11, 1991, along with the Ren & Stimpy and Doug cartoons.

        Rugrats caught on because Nickelodeon constantly replayed the original 13 episodes the first year. “It was kind of a stroke of luck that they didn't have as much programming, and they repeated it. And Nickelodeon knew how much kids love repetition,” Ms. Klasky says.

        To celebrate a decade in diapers, the Rugrats star in a one-hour special that sends them 10 years into the future. It's one of three pilots for spin-off series. Also in the works is a cartoon about Susie Carmichael, the African-American character, moving with her family to Atlanta. A third show would feature Susie and her nemesis, Angelica, in preschool.

        “In cartoons, you can do anything you want! Angelica can be in three places at the same time!” Ms. Klasky says. “It looks like the Rugrats can go on and on, because we have the three new ideas for spin-offs.”

        Oh, brother! Sounds like Tommy, Dil and their cousin could be crawling around Nickelodeon for years to come.

       TV critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Television Critic Association's summer press tour.
       
       

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