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|Airdate = February 13, 1994
 
|Airdate = February 13, 1994
 
|VHS = [[Chuckie the Brave]]
 
|VHS = [[Chuckie the Brave]]
  +
[[Volume 4]]
 
|DVD = [[Season 3]]
 
|DVD = [[Season 3]]
 
|Prev = [[Mommy's Little Assets]]
 
|Prev = [[Mommy's Little Assets]]
|Next = [[In the Dreamtime]]}}
+
|Next = [[In the Dreamtime]]
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}}
 
'''Chuckie's Wonderful Life''' is an episode of [[Rugrats]] from [[Season 3]]. It's a parody of the 1946 film ''[[Wikipedia:It's a Wonderful Life|It's a Wonderful Life]]''.
 
'''Chuckie's Wonderful Life''' is an episode of [[Rugrats]] from [[Season 3]]. It's a parody of the 1946 film ''[[Wikipedia:It's a Wonderful Life|It's a Wonderful Life]]''.
 
==Characters Present==
 
==Characters Present==

Revision as of 02:40, 6 February 2020

Chuckie's Wonderful Life Gallery Transcript
Season 3 Episode 17b
ChuckiesWonderfulLife-TitleCard
Chuckie's Wonderful Life
Original Airdate February 13, 1994
VHS release Chuckie the Brave

Volume 4

DVD release Season 3
Previous Episode Mommy's Little Assets
Next Episode In the Dreamtime

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

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 and he rants at them never to speak to him again. As his friends dejectedly leave, Chuckie immediatly but then he feels guilty about yelling at his friends. When Angelica tells him that everyone would be better off without him, Chuckie decides to run away from home. But then his guardian angel stops him and shows him what the world would be like if he was never born:

  • He shows him 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 and watch C-SPAN. And the house is 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 without him, he can't tell them to stop or tell them that it's wrong.
  • At Phil and Lil's house, the twins have become horrible delinquents and start throwing plates on the floor and tearing down cabniets, while Howard and Betty are crying over their destroyed house. Showing that without Chuckie, Phil and Lil wouldn’t know the difference between right and wrong 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. Then when they ask what they should do about Phil and Lil, he says they should be lucky to have a kid, 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 took a bite of cookie and 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. Then he looks outside his window and is happy to see that everything's calm and peaceful with no destruction. Then he goes to 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, and 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, and Chuckie's touched by this.

Just then, the doorbell rings, and when Chas answers, Drew and Angelica are at the door (with Drew holding Angelica's right hand very tightly) and holding Chas' CD in his left hand. Drew explains that he was at home when he caught Angelica tossing a CD around her room and he figured that the CD must've belonged to Chas--especially since Chas is the only person he knows who listens to Latvian Folk Dance music. Chas is glad to have his CD back and thanks them for returning it. Drew forces Angelica to apologize to Chas and punishes her by not letting her have any dessert for an entire week, much to Angelica's 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 that 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.
  • 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.
  • One of the things that Chas does without Chuckie is watching C-SPAN [1]. C-SPAN is a real life TV station headquartered at the Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Its primary programming mostly involves the US government and politics. Then again, why would someone like Chas watch trash like that?
  • This episode is considered to be the one of the darkest and most disturbing in Rugrats history.

Morals

    • Solve your problems either by yourself or with help from a parent, siblings or a friend not by running away from them.
    • Don’t run away from home.
    • Don’t steal things from others; because stealing is a crime no matter the circumstances.

Video Clip

Chas_Wishes_Socky_was_Real_NickOrTreat_The_Splat

Chas Wishes Socky was Real NickOrTreat The Splat

It's_a_Wonderful_Chuckie_Rugrats_The_Splat

It's a Wonderful Chuckie Rugrats The Splat

A_Freak_Named_Finster_Rugrats_NickRewind

A Freak Named Finster Rugrats NickRewind