| Louis Kalhern Pickles | |
| Also Known As | Lou Pickles Schmendrick (Boris) Pop (by Stu, Drew, Didi & Charlotte) Louis Lou |
| Gender | Male |
| Birth Date | November 8, 1915 (Rugrats 1991) |
| Age | 76 (Rugrats) 86 (All Grown Up!) |
| Race | Human |
| Occupation | World War II veteran A cook A repairman for small appliances A detective |
| Interests | Playing with his grandchildren and the other babies, watching TV, fishing, sleeping, playing cards, Bingo, and chess (by mail and in person) |
| Relatives | Trixie Pickles (First wife; deceased) Lulu Pickles (Current wife) Drew Pickles (1991) (Son) Charlotte Pickles (Daughter-in-law) Stu Pickles (Son) Didi Pickles (Daughter-in-law) Tommy Pickles (Grandson) Dil Pickles (Grandson) Angelica Pickles (Granddaughter) Sparky Pickles (Brother; deceased) June Pickles (Sister-in-law) Miriam Pickles (Cousin) |
| Friends | Chuckie Finster Phil DeVille Lil DeVille Kimi Finster (1991) Betty DeVille Howard DeVille Chas Finster Kira Finster |
| Enemies | Miriam Pickles (previously) Billy Maxwell Conan McNulty Dummi Bears Dwayne Tickerbacker Sally Payson |
| Voice Actor | David Doyle (1990-1997; original) Scott Weil (Young Adult) ("The Mattress") (Season 4) Joe Alaskey (1997-2008; original) |
| First Appearance | "Tommy Pickles and the Great White Thing" (Rugrats, 1990) |
| Gallery | |
Louis Kalhern "Grandpa Lou" Pickles (born November 8, 1915) is the father of Drew and Stu Pickles, and the paternal grandfather of Tommy, Dil, and Angelica. He is a caring grandfather and loves to spend time with his grandchildren and their friends.
Description
Grandpa Lou Pickles, Tommy, Dil, and Angelica's paternal grandfather, is a charismatic, loving and caring grandfather but is also a kind of cantankerous old geezer at the same time. He lives with his new wife Lulu at a retirement home, but often acts as a convenient baby-sitter for the babies when Stu and Didi are busy. Grandpa is indulgent with the kids. As such, he is almost more of a "Rugrat" than an adult -- functioning as a bridge between the world of kids and the world of the grown-ups. As much as the Rugrats love the old guy, they are never above taking advantage of one of Grandpa's long naps or mesmerizing television marathons to sneak away on an adventure. - Rugrats Description from Klasky Csupo
Grandpa Lou Pickles is still alive and kicking! Not only that, but he drives the school bus that gets Tommy and his pals to school every day. His hearing may not be what it used to, and he may be a bit slower and more wrinkled, but Grandpa Lou still remains active and energetic for a senior as old as he is. Too bad we haven't seen his wife Lulu yet in the All Grown Up! series, but the last we heard (from Lou himself) was that she was traveling around the world! - All Grown Up! Description from Klasky Csupo
Summary
Being the elder patriarch of the Pickles family, and young at heart, he likes to be adventurous. Occasionally, he flirts with women. He is commonly thought of as having a wild imagination from the many exaggerated stories he tells of his earlier years. In these stories, the number 15 is prevalent in various ways. Whenever Lou appears, his usual routine is to fall asleep in the middle of babysitting the kids and telling them a story, etc. He loves his grandchildren deeply, and always enjoys spending time with Tommy and the others.
He shares a rivalry with his cousin, Miriam, but besides his rivalry with Miriam, he's had several other rivals. His bowling rival was Billy "Strike" Maxwell (seen in "King Ten Pin"), however, Lou later regains his honor by beating Maxwell after it's revealed that the latter was cheating the entire time. He also has a recurring rivalry with Conan McNulty, with Conan often lying to him and cheating.
In the past, when his wife Trixie had to go out of town, Lou took care of his sons, and while he loves them, he has a great frustration with their constant bickering. Over the years, Lou has had many jobs, including a soldier in the war, a cook, a repairman for small appliances, and a detective. Lou is also a bit of a schemer, such as when he pretended to be ill to shirk out of doing gardening so he could catch up with the sleep he lost while being out all night in "Grandpa's Bad Bug". He has quite a talent for playing the trumpet, as he was given a solo for the war veterans concert in "Grandpa's Teeth". One of the things he loves to do is fishing and mostly watching TV; he's almost always seen watching a show involving fishing. While Lou enjoys doing new things, he can be very stubborn with trying some new things. He frequently compares the modern day world to the way it was in his day, often bragging on that the way something is done is nothing compared to how he did it when he was younger. He is, however, often thought to be making these stories up.
Looks
Lou Pickles has peach skin and a pair of white eyes with black pupils. He has gray hair and is often shown wearing a purple shirt and a green vest, green pants, and brown shoes. He looked just like his son, Drew Pickles (1991), when he was younger, but as he got older, he now looks more like his other son, Stuart Pickles. In All Grown Up!, he wears a green jacket over a blue vest and white shirt, a blue bow tie, light yellow pants, and brown shoes. In Seasons 2-5, The color of his jacket is changed to red.
Trivia
- Lou often talks about his late brother, Sparky Pickles.
- The Rugrats Movie is the only film where Lou has a major role, as he only makes cameo appearances in Rugrats in Paris and Rugrats Go Wild. He is also the only one to not meet The Thornberrys in person, though he did see Nigel on TV with Tommy.
- In "Aunt Miriam", Lou states that he is actually 76 years old, meaning he could have been born in 1915. Lou's real age is unknown, since he stated in the episode "Chuckie Gets Skunked" that he recalled a childhood memory with his brother Sparky back in 1906, meaning he was alive before 1915.
- This could be another memory slip. If he could recall something back in 1906, that would mean he would be close to 90 years old (since the Rugrats series takes place in possibly 1991 through 1992 before Dil Pickles was born).
- In "Aunt Miriam", Miriam remembers that she and Lou had two friends named Bill and Jill when they were kids. In "Potty Training Spike", Phil and Lil mention having an aunt and uncle named Bill (uncle) and Harriet (aunt).
- In "Touchdown Tommy", Lou stated that he played football at Minnesota State University.
- In "Man of the House", Lou doesn't like low fat foods, and he likes greasy foods, which resulted in him having a cholesterol problem until he watches his health video that convinces him to eat right.
- In "Man of the House," Stu says doctors make Lou cranky when he goes to his annual check-up.
- He is the only character whose original cast member died during the show's 14-year period, as David Doyle died in 1997.
- In "Wrestling Grandpa", Lou is revealed to be a former wrestler known as "Pretzel Maker" Pickles.
- His catchphrase is "In my day..." followed by some fact about his youth.
- He claims he had to walk 15 miles everywhere when he was younger.
- He drives a green 1970s wood-paneled station wagon that resembles a 1971-1974 Ford Country Squire. In "Submarine", he claims to have owned it since Stu was 15 years old and more than likely bought it new. Stu was born in late 1958, which would make the station wagon a 1973 or 1974 model. Lou's car has a vanity license plate that says "OLDTIMR," which means "Old Timer." In another episode, the license plate says "IM OLD."
- Lou was a Private First-Class soldier during World War II and probably fought in the Pacific against the Japanese.
- It is said by Didi that he was present at the Battle of Pearl Harbor, but apparently slept through the whole thing, though he defensively added that he sounded the alarm as soon as he could.
- In "Baseball", he mentions that he played minor league baseball.
- A running gag in the show is Grandpa Lou's liking for the number 15. Almost every time he refers to some fact of his life, he usually uses number 15 in some way.
- It's possible that he exaggerates some of his stories or makes them up as he usually always has new stories to tell, and some of his stories are implausible.
- He is of Scottish descent.
- In Lou's earlier flashback appearances from seasons two and three he looks very similar to Groucho Marx.
- Lou makes a cameo appearance in the The Loud House episode, "Linc or Swim", where he is seen in the first community pool, alongside Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ms. Bitters from Invader Zim, Ms. Fowl from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Phil Shortman from Hey Arnold!.
- Because of the cameo, Lou, Dil and Reptar are the only characters so far to appear outside of the Rugrats franchise. Reptar made a cameo in The Loud House Movie on a newspaper while Dil made a cameo in the Jimmy/Timmy Power Hour comic book Dimension Intervention along with other Nicktoon characters.
- Krumm, Darwin and Donnie also make a cameo in the same comic but they don't count as they are only Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and The Wild Thornberrys characters.
- It is revealed in "Bad Blood" that Lou is from Cleveland, Ohio.
- It is also revealed in "Bad Blood" that Lou was stationed at Area 51 when he was in the military. He claims to know about extraterrestrial life.
- For some reason, Lou is depicted as a conspiracy theorist in the Boom! Studios comics.
- Lou and Susie are the only Rugrats gang to not have met Coco LaBouche.
- He is the only character in Rugrats Go Wild who never met the Thornberrys.
- He claims in "Grandpa's Bad Bug" that when he was an ensign in the corps, he would go without sleep for fifteen days and liked it. Seeing as that is biologically implausible, though, he may have been making it up. It's also possible that he did go several days without sleep but was exaggerating with the number fifteen.
- "Slumber Party" shows that he apparently has a method of treating a sick person that involves putting an old sock on the patient's head, holding them upside down, and feeding them applesauce. It's unknown if this is true, though, since the scene was shown from the perspective of a delirious Tommy, and so Tommy may have been hearing things.
- In "Angelica's Awesome Adventure With Cynthia", he claims that as a child, the only toy he had was a piece of string tied to a stick.
References