| Baby Commercial | Gallery | Transcript |
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| Season 1 Episode 4a | |
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| Baby Commercial | |
| Original Airdate | September 8, 1991 |
| VHS release | Phil and Lil Double Trouble |
| DVD release | Season 1 |
| Previous Episode | Slumber Party |
| Next Episode | Little Dude |
Baby Commercial is the first segment of the fourth episode of season 1, and the fourth Rugrats segment overall.
Characters Present
Summary
Betty tells the story of how Phil and Lil got placed in a diaper commercial where the twins preferred exploring and destroying the set rather than sticking to the script.
- - Description from Klasky Csupo.
Plot
Tommy, Phil, and Lil are watching a diaper commercial the twins were in along with Didi and Betty. As the two adults leave, Tommy asks the twins how they could be in the television and in the living room at the same time, to which the twins respond that it is a commercial (or "mercial" as Phil pronounces) and they have a flashback of it.
In the flashback, Phil and Lil are seen riding on a stroller an excited Betty pushes into the director room. Betty meets Bob, the assistant director, who introduces them to the clients Mr. Snow, Mr. Steel, and Mr. Trickim. Soon, Jonathan Witt, the director, arrives, and when he takes a look at the twins, he has them go into the trailer and the other employees put make-up on their faces.
When the twins are put on camera, Mr. Witt tells Phil to crawl to the box, look left, and smile at the camera. But as the camera rolls, Phil just stares blankly at it and remains static. So Bob gets Betty (who gives Lil to a fat guy she was having a discussion with) to get Phil to do his act. The camera is rolled once again, and Betty tries to encourage Phil to do his part. But Phil continues to sit without reacting. So Bob decides to get Lil in front of the camera instead, only to find out that she has meandered off (due to chasing after a toy car after the fat guy set her down on the floor). Betty asks the fat guy where she is and the latter responds that she is crawling up an overhead catwalk, much to Betty's shock. As she helps the other workers get the toddler off the catwalk, Phil uses the camera and turns it on. As one of the workers almost reaches to Lil, Phil ends up taking a ride on the camera cart. The other worker finds out and runs to it, tipping the ladder down in the process as Lil ends up hanging from a crane. As the camera heads to the diaper pyramid, Mr. Witts jumps on the camera and narrowly stops it before it hits the pyramid as Lil lands on top of a cloud cushion unscathed. Betty gets her twins back, and Mr. Witts demands the Devilles to leave. Just then, Lil's toy car lightly taps one of the diaper boxes, destroying Mr. Witt's praised pyramid of diaper boxes. Mr. Witt, very grumpy and grouchy at that, cancels the commercial, but when he hears the clients watching the playback, the end result is shown on the television regardless, however, and is a major success.
As Phil and Lil conclude their story, Tommy then knows how they end up in television. Later, Mr. Witt shows up at the Devilles house asking for another commercial. But Betty refuses and slams the door, leaving Mr. Witt pleading incessantly as he asks the toddlers to remind Betty how much fun they had. The toddlers crawl away, leaving Mr. Witt outside begging.
Trivia
- This is the first episode focusing on Phil and Lil.
- This is the first and only appearance of Jonathan Witt.
- This is the third time Chuckie and Angelica are absent.
Goofs
- Phil and Lil are dressed in pajamas at the TV studio but when the scene cuts to them sitting in the stroller, they're wearing their clothes they normally wear almost in any other episode.
- When Phil is crawling towards the camera, his shoes and parts of his pajamas are colored pink like Lil's.