Chuckie's Wonderful Life

"Chuckie's Wonderful Life" is an episode of Rugrats from Season 3. It's a parody of the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Chuckie
 * Chuckie's guardian angel
 * Phil
 * Lil
 * Stu
 * Didi
 * Drew
 * Angelica
 * Chas
 * Howard
 * Betty
 * Spike (mentioned)

Synopsis
''Chuckie has made of mess of things again, and now he wishes he'd never been born. But with the help of his "Gardening Angel", he learns what life would be like without him: Chas would live in a squalor, watching nothing but C-Span and talking to "Socky," his sock puppet. Phil and Lil would be destructive punks, while Betty and Howard would become totally helpless. Angelica would become a glutton and Stu and Didi would be Angelica's slaves. Tommy would be a waif, with Angelica taking away everything he ever owned. Maybe Chuckie's life isn't so bad after all...''

- Description from Klasky Csupo

Plot
After the babies take Chas' favorite Latvian Folk Dance music CD, Angelica steals it when they aren't looking. Chuckie furiously blames Tommy and the twins for having the idea of taking it, before ranting at them to never speak with him again. As his friends dejectedly leave, Chuckie immediately feels guilty about yelling at his friends. When Angelica tells Chuckie that everyone would be better off without him, he decides to run away from home. But then his guardian angel stops Chuckie and shows him what the world would be like if he was never born:
 * He shows Chuckie that without him having been born, Chas is lonely, because he's no longer married, and all he does is talk to a sock puppet he named Socky while watching C-SPAN. The house is now a mess because without Chuckie, Chas didn't see any reason to clean up. As the guardian angel drives Chuckie through the neighborhood, the streets are messy and broken while kids are causing trouble, because Chuckie was never around to discourage bad behavior.
 * At Phil and Lil's house, the twins have become horrible delinquents who start throwing plates on the floor and tearing down cabinets, while Howard and Betty are crying over their destroyed house. Showing that without Chuckie, Phil and Lil would never be discouraged from bad behavior and act naughty all the time and cause havoc. Soon, Chas comes in and says he hopes that they don't mind if he and Socky can stay because they are in need of company. When they ask what they should do about Phil and Lil, he says they should be lucky to have a kid, and wishes he had one, even one that was like them, then they all start crying. The guardian angel shows Chuckie Tommy's house.
 * When they get there, Tommy is living in poverty and going through the garbage, looking for food. The guardian angel says that one day Angelica came by, threw him out, and took everything that he had (including his parents). Soon, she proceeded to take over his house and the reason nobody stopped her is because she kept on yelling until she got her way. Angelica has also become morbidly obese, forcing both Stu and Didi to bake her cookies constantly while never sharing them with anyone else. Angelica has already devoured several cookies and washed them down with a cup of syrup to drink. When Tommy asks for "just a little crumb of cookie, even if it's already been in [her] mouth", she refuses saying "she'd have to give one to everyone", and takes his rattle. When Chuckie asks why Tommy didn't just stand up for himself, the angel explains that the only reason Tommy's brave is because he's got someone like Chuckie to back him up, and if Chuckie had never been born, Tommy's got no real motivation to stand up to bullies like Angelica, and that it doesn't matter that Chuckie always gets scared. Chuckie's fed up with being in a world without him, and says that running away isn't such a good idea, and asks his guardian angel to take him home.

With the request granted, Chuckie's back in his own room. He looks outside his window and is happy to see that everything's calm and peaceful with no destruction. He then goes into the living room, and is surprised to see Tommy, Phil, and Lil in the playpen. Lil explains that they came over earlier when he was still asleep, and then Tommy explains that they feel really bad about what happened the day before. Chuckie forgives them as Tommy, Phil, and Lil start taking CDs out of their diapers, explaining that their parents weren't using them, so they figured Chas could use them. Chuckie is touched by this.

Just then, the doorbell rings. When Chas answers, Drew and Angelica are at the door (with a furious Drew holding Angelica's left arm very tightly), with the former holding Chas' CD in his left hand. Drew explains to Chas that he caught Angelica tossing a CD around her room -- after noticing that the CD was for Latvian Folk Dance-music, Drew figured that it belonged to Chas (especially since Chas is the only person that Drew knows who would listen to something like that). Chas is glad to have his CD back and thanks them for returning it -- Drew forces Angelica to apologize for what she did and he also punishes her by not letting her have any dessert for an entire week, much to Angelica's shock and dismay.

Chuckie, Tommy, and the twins are surprised that Angelica was the one who had the CD all along, and Chuckie admits that he thought it was his fault, but Tommy assures him it was never Chuckie's fault in the first place. Chuckie looks out the window and sees his guardian angel on a motorcycle. They wave goodbye as he rides into the sun and disappears.

Trivia

 * This episode is a parody of the classic Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life.
 * This episode is Angelica's fourth main antagonist role; the first three were "The Trial", "Sand Ho!", and "Spike the Wonder Dog".
 * Chuckie's guardian angel knocking on Chuckie's head later in the episode and saying "Hello? anybody home?" is probably a reference to Biff from the Back to the Future trilogy.
 * We learn that Chas enjoys listening to Latvian Folk Dance music.
 * In the life without Chuckie, there is a place called "Duffy Toy Company"--Jim Duffy directed this episode.
 * In a part of Tommy's house, when the angel is talking, look down at the right, and you see Susie's house: it's destroyed but with no indication to hers or any of the Carmichaels' fates.
 * Tommy is the only baby in the world without Chuckie where he doesn't cause trouble and that he is very well behaved, but is afraid and easily manipulated.
 * One of the things that Chas does without Chuckie is watching C-SPAN. C-SPAN is a real-life TV station headquartered at the Capitol Hill in Washington DC. It's primary programming mostly involves the US government and politics.
 * This episode shares some similarities to Disney's The Lion King, most notably the scene where Angelica tells Chuckie that everyone is better without him after Chuckie blames himself for losing his father's disc. This is quite similar to Scar telling Simba to run away and never return after Scar blames Simba for Mufasa's death, whereas in actual reality both Scar and Angelica are really to blame for each of the events of what really happens. It's also noted that when Chuckie isn't around or born, Angelica is treated like a queen as the town is in shambles, which is similar to when Scar became king, all of the Pride Lands became a wasteland during Simba's absence.
 * The part of where Angelica was caught and punished for stealing the CD also shared similarities to The Lion King because Scar was also punished after losing the battle to Simba after Simba forced Scar to tell the truth about who really killed Mufasa. Angelica was punished with no dessert for a week and Scar was punished with his life-- when the hyenas attacked him, killed him, and ate him because he tried to pin the blame on them.


 * Morals:
 * Solve your problems either by yourself or with help from a parent, siblings, or a friend not by running away from them. Running away doesn't always fix things. It might make things stay the same if not worse.
 * Don’t run away from home. It doesn't help fix your problems. It makes them stay the same if not worse.
 * Don’t steal things from others, because stealing is a crime no matter the circumstances. Theft of things that cost less than $1,000 is a misdemeanor, and theft of things that cost $1,000 or more is a felony. You could go to jail for theft. Children could be sent to juvenile hall however since they're young. Theft can include fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, embezzlement, robbery, car theft, grand theft auto, carjacking, skyjacking, shoplifting, and burglary.

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