Tommy Pickles and The Great White Thing is a 6 1/2 minute unaired pilot for the popular animated series Rugrats. It is one of three pilots to the series (two remain unaired). The production for this episode began in 1989 and ended in 1990. Nickelodeon had a choice of airing this or Tommy's First Birthday.
Apart from exhibitions at animation festivals and conventions, this episode was never seen by the public until August 2001, when it appeared on Volume 1 of the Rugrats: A Decade in Diapers video, which was released as part of Rugrats' 10th Anniversary on Nickelodeon.
An infant named Tommy Pickles sneaks into the bathroom, and is intrigued by the toilet, which he calls The Great White Thing. Before he gets very close to it, however, his grandad picks him up and carries him to the playpen. There, Tommy tells Phil and Lil that he'll be going back. Meanwhile, Stu and Didi, Tommy's parents, are having a couple of friends over for dinner. Later, Stu and Didi put Tommy to bed in his crib, only for Tommy to escape using what would become the old "screwdriver as crib opener" trick.
Tommy proceeds to the bathroom, where he makes a big mess, especially when it comes to toilet paper and the toilet plunger. Tommy leaves the bathroom, and enters the living room on Spike's back, with plunger in hand. After they get by Grandpa's side, Grandpa gets up to use the toilet during a chicken commercial on television, only to find out that the bathroom in shambles.
Grandpa calls Stu and Didi to the bathroom, and the three begin to panic. Whilst this is going on, Tommy picks up the remote and changes the channel to a rock and roll video. He and Spike begin to dance along to the beat over the ensuing argument between the three adults.
Tommy, Phil, Lil, Spike, Grandpa, Stu and Didi are featured in this pilot. The voices are the same as the TV series, except that Tami Holbrook was the voice of Tommy. E.G. Daily would not come on board until the series starts.
Grandpa's character's name is "Stu Pickles, Sr.", though he'll later be called "Grandpa" and "Grandpa Lou". Conversely, Stu was listed as "Stu Pickles, Jr."
Tommy wears an orange shirt. He won't begin to wear his trademark blue shirt until Barbecue Story.
Peter Chung animated and directed the Rugrats introduction seen at the start of every episode through 2000.
Stu, talking to his dinner guests, mentions that it would be a couple of months until Tommy starts talking. Of course, since the series started, he never talked to the grown-ups.
A segment from this pilot was used in a station-ID for Nickelodeon (currently being played on The Splat): using the television scene, the Nickelodeon logo pops up on the television screen, as Tommy turns on the television.
Apart from the false TV Guide listing in the October 8, 1991 edition (as well as many newspaper television listings), there were actually plans to televise this episode in another format. In 1992, Klasky-Csupo had plans to expand this episode to the standard 11 minutes, and place it in normal rotation on Nickelodeon in 1993. However, due to unknown reasons, this episode never made it to television.
Tommy's famous Star Ball was also seen for the first time in this series. According to "Helvetica Gold", the Star Ball was originally designed by Pixar for their short, Luxo, Jr.. The ball also appeared in Toy Story in a scene where Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim Allen) bounces off of it after leaping from a bedpost. The Star Ball later appeared in Blue's Clues, another Nickelodeon series.
Chuckie and Angelica do not appear in the pilot , as they weren't created yet. It wasn't until after the pilot that the ideas for Chuckie and Angelica were made and put into the show itself.
Voices: Tami Holbrook as Tommy Pickles, Kath Soucie as Phil and Lil DeVille and the Squeaky Chicken Girl, David Doyle as Grandpa Lou (Stu Pickles, Sr.), Jack Riley as Stu (Stu Pickles, Jr.), Melanie Chartoff as Didi Pickles
Executive Producers: Gabor Csupo, Arlene Klasky
Created by: Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Paul Germain
Producer: Libby Simon
Co-Producer: Paul Germain
Storyboard: Peter Chung
Character Design: Peter Chung, Gabor Csupo
Character Models: Darrel R. Bowen
Layout: Peter Chung, Jim McLean, Linda Rowley, Robert Tyler
Animation: Wesley Archer, Carlos Baeza, Brad Bird, Ken Bruce, Peter Chung, Pam Cooke, Jang Woo Lee, Moon Hwan Choi, David Silverman
Assistant Animation: Carlos Baeza, Bronwen Barry, Anthony Bell, Michael Camarilla, Ruth Elliott, Tim Harringer, Raymond Johnson, Eric Keyes, Jang Woo Lee, Mia Ki Lee, Sallie McHenry, Steve Mealue, Jan Naylor, Joe Russo, Swinton O. Scott III, Cole Shortt, Alan Smart, Eric Stefani, Christi Vitello, Carol Wyatt
Overseas Ink and Paint and Camera: Cuckoo's Nest Studios, Taiwan
Title Design: Tamara Varga, Carol Wyatt
Colour Models: Gyorgyi Peluce, Teale Reon Wang
Animation Checking: Jackie Banks
Ink and Paint: Sybil E. Cuzzort, Marie "Cookie" Tricarico
Production Assistants: David Eccles, Andy Houts, Kerry Young
Sound Effects by: Scott Weber
Animation Camera: WM J. Hedge, Jim Keefer, Karen Shaffer
Executive Producer for Nickelodeon: Vanessa Coffey
© 1990 MTV Networks.
