Portal:Cartoon/Selected article/22

"A Rugrats Passover" is the 23rd episode of the third season of the American animated television series Rugrats, and its 62nd episode overall. It was broadcast originally on April 13, 1995, on the cable network Nickelodeon. The plot follows series regulars Grandpa Boris and the babies as they become trapped in the attic on Passover; to pass the time, Boris tells the Jewish story of the Exodus. During the episode the babies themselves reenact the story, with young Tommy portraying Moses, while his cousin Angelica represents the Pharaoh of Egypt. "A Rugrats Passover" was directed by Jim Duffy, Steve Socki, and Jeff McGrath from the script by Peter Gaffney, Paul Germain, Rachel Lipman, and Jonathon Greenberg. The episode was conceived in 1992 when Germain responded to a Nickelodeon request for a Rugrats Hanukkah special by creating a Passover episode instead. The episode scored a 3.1 Nielsen rating, making it "the highest-rated show in Nickelodeon's history", and received overwhelmingly positive reviews, including from Jewish community publications. It was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, an Annie Award, and a CableACE Award. The episode also, however, attracted controversy, when the Anti-Defamation League compared the artistic design of the older characters to anti-Semitic drawings from a 1930s Nazi newspaper. The episode made Rugrats one of the first animated series to focus on a Jewish holiday; its success precipitated the creation of another special, "A Rugrats Chanukah", which also attracted critical acclaim. A novelization of the episode was in 2007 exhibited at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.