>>44594
>Yet for all the milking they put it through we somehow never got a fucking reptar spin off.
Remember one time they did a two-part Reptar episode? That was pretty cool. Definitely one of the better post-Dil episodes. Has almost none of the charm of the original seasons, but I do love Godzilla, so this one stuck out to me.
>Somehow this applies to FOP and Squarepants too, in that they'll spin off just about every fucking character in either series except for the actually interesting in-universe capeshitter or media franchise.
There was the Fairly Oddparents backdoor pilot for Crash Nebula. But yeah, The Crimson Chin was way cooler. And The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy actually would have been a great show.
>That said I will still argue Dil's introduction marked the start of the decline. The series was already getting stretched to its limits prior to his arrival, but once he became a main part of the cast, Viacom basically went into maximum overdrive on Rugrats milking.
This is the conventional opinion, but I disagree. Season 4 was being made at the same time as the movie, and the change in style can already be seen there. Chanukah, Passover, Vacation, an awful episode that ends with Angelica and her deliberately grating voice singing a full length version of Vacation by The Go-Gos. I might agree that it's a bit better than Season 5, and I'd guess it's only because of holdover scripts from Season 3. But the downfall definitely started here, but just became more noticeable once Dil was around to make you immediately realize you were watching a newer season.
>Atleast the subsequent additions you named are so forgettable as to not taint the series in the same way the CGI series has.
Only forgettable because everyone already knew the show was shit once Dil showed up. But Post-Kimi episodes are definitely a lot worse than Post-Dil episodes. And nobody watched much after that. But actually they did watch All Grown Up. It got a bunch of seasons.
Remember the one where it turns out Chuckie is a massive weeb because he actually thought he was Japanese because he has a Japanese mom and a Japanese sister, and doesn't remember the events of the original series, so he thought they were biologically related? Actually, that sounds fucking hilarious when taken out of context, but the execution isn't as funny as it should have been. Actually, it's really sad because fans might remember the Mother's Day episode, by far the best Post-Dil episode, where two-year old Chuckie has only vague memories of his dead mom, and but doesn't remember who the woman in the memories is. Meanwhile the parents see the problem and have to convince Chaz to build his courage, and get over the pain of his own recently dead wife, to explain the situation to Chuckie and make sure he doesn't forget her. But by All Grown Up, he has forgotten her, to the degree that he literally thinks he's Japanese.
But yes, at least they didn't turn Betty into a dyke. What happened to Howard in that new series? Are the parents just divorced now? Come on, Phil and Lil were weird enough as it is. They don't stand a chance now. Is the new series a continuation or a full reboot? They could have just framed it as a continuation, but I guess Betty and Howard not being together contradicts All Grown Up lore, unless she gets back with him after a few years of munching on carpet.
>>44598
>chernobel mutants like Donnie, Eliza, Tommy,
With Donnie it was clearly very intentional. I'd argue it was with Tommy, too. Eliza, though? Yeah she probably should have looked more normal.
>Having said as much, the retooling of Angelica into a "nice" character was the most bullshit retcon they ever did. It's the most jarring aspect of All Grown Up even now.
The thing the people who ruined her didn't get, but even I got as a kid the same age as Angelica, was that she acted that way because of her parents, and that was funny commentary. The spoiled kid acts like a brat. It's pretty simple. And then they actually had more depth to it because while she was spoiled with things like gifts, it was also clear that her parents didn't actually spend much time with her or interact with her in natural or personal ways. That added sympathy. And there were a bunch of episodes where she gets in trouble, but not even for the thing she actually did, which again gives the character some sympathy. Honestly Angelica was a pretty three dimensional villain. The show doesn't get enough credit for that.
Rugrats also doesn't get enough credit for how all the parents essentially exist to explain why the babies act the way they do. Phil and Lil are weirdos because their parents have reversed gender roles. The mom is absolutely in charge but also very masculine so the kids are super dirty and stuff. Chuckie is a little bitch because he has a neurotic single dad, and even he gets later development that essentially implies he's neurotic because his wife recently died and he isn't really sure how to cope with being a single dad. Tommy is more balanced because while his mom goes a bit overboard with trying to do things by the book, always quoting Dr. Lipschitz (a name I can't believe Nickelodeon let them get away with), his dad is more absent-minded and adventurous. So Tommy is smart and brave. But all those parents are shown as good, even if flawed, so the kids are still good kids. While Angelica's parents, always focused on work and only spoiling their kid with money rather than very sincere love, end up with a little devil.
But no, cartoon characters, especially little girls, aren't allowed to be mean. So most conflict gets removed from the show once execs noticed it was actually well written, and decided they had to put a stop to that.
>>44599
>I've always made the case online that early Spongebob felt like a cross between Peanuts and classic Looney Tunes in both humor and its overall tone. It barely feels like a nicktoon at any point.
I'd say it feels a lot like Rocko's Modern Life, where Hillenberg was one of the main writers only a few years before Spongebob. Even the premise of both was largely the same, with a young man who doesn't quite know how to enter the adult world, his big fat friend who is never really openly acknowledged as dumb (but obviously is), his neighbor who fucking hates him, and his feminist quota filling "girl that's good at everything" friend. Spongebob is very close to basically being Rocko but underwater. That's not to say it's exactly the same, but the connections are obvious.
>But like you noted, the sponge makes all the money, so why care about integrity.
Yeah, but part of me thinks the show would have made more money if it was good than if it was bad. Nobody in the world likes Seasons 4+ more than the first three seasons. Surely they'd make more money if they didn't just decide to start making the show bad.