PSA: There's a Purim "Rugrats" episode

And Henry Winkler is in it!

Purim, which ends today at sundown, is one of the more genuinely delightful and technicolor of Jewish holidays. We eat hat/ear shaped cookies (hamantaschen or oznei haman)! We give out goodie bags (mishloach manot)! We put on costumes! We tell a story about how the badass Queen Esther saved the Jewish people, sometimes through ridiculously fanciful plays! We’re even commanded to get drunk (OK that last one is complicated).

And yet somehow, outside of Israeli TV, Purim hasn’t gotten the TV representation it deserves (though it does make a most delightful star-studded appearance in the film “For Your Consideration”).

There is one exception, however, and I’m not talking about the accursed “VeggieTales” episode in which vegetables retell the Purim story without mentioning the word Jewish once. I’m talking about the Purim episode from the 2021 “Rugrats” reboot. Yes, the same team that gave us “A Rugrats Chanukah” and “A Rugrats Passover,” two of the best Jewish American children TV specials, also gave us a Purim special you likely didn’t know about.

If you’ve never watched the OG 1991 “Rugrats,” the show is about a group of babies and their adventures which centers on an interfaith Jewish family — Stu and Didi Pickles, whose son Tommy is the show’s main baby and whose Jewish maternal grandparents, Boris and Minka, make multiple appearances in the show. The show’s three creators, Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó and Paul Germain, are all Jewish, and the Jewish representation in the original show was deeply authentic and still very much holds up today.

People have complicated feelings about the “Rugrats” reboot. It’s hard to get accustomed to the new 3D style of animation the show’s creators chose to go with, especially when us millennials have such a visceral connection to the original ‘90s cartoon.

But I personally loved it, and so did my kids. I especially loved the new casting of Zayde Bo, Tommy Pickles' grandfather, who is voiced by Henry Winkler himself (a real life zayde extraordinaire!) and how they reframed his character, originally an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, as a Florida-based retiree. Winkler is adorable in this role, especially in the Jewish-themed episodes. He shares the sweetest blessing in the Hanukkah-themed episode, and he does such a fun retelling of the Purim story in the 2024 Purim episode, written by veteran kid TV writer Rachel Lipman. And yes, of course, Angelica plays the Purim villain, evil Haman, in the retelling.

I also love that Uncle Jake’s food truck serves hamantaschen and there’s even a hamataschen-making session. To me, this episode absolutely holds up to those old “Rugrats” holiday specials and like the Hanukkah episode of the reboot, which pays tribute to interfaith families and the Latin American celebration of Las Posadas, also adds a touch of modern diversity to the show with some fun inventive hamantaschen fillings. The retelling of the Purim story is full of Jewish meaning, it has Yiddish and Hebrew words, but it’s also about embracing your Jewish roots and identity (and food!). It has in it the true message of Purim, beautifully illustrated in a family-friendly package.

The unfortunate thing is that this episode is not currently available to stream for free anywhere, so if you want to watch it, you will have to shell out $1.99 - $2.99 on either YouTube, Prime Video or Apple TV+. I feel like it’s worth it. But if you don’t, well, at least that VeggieTales episode is streaming for free.

Have you watched the “Rugrats” reboot? Are there other Purim TV moments I’m not thinking of? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!