Tommy Pickles

This article is about the Rugrats character Tommy. For other uses, see Tommy.

Thomas "Tommy" Louis Pickles is a fictional character from the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and its spinoff All Grown Up!. Tommy was among the series' original characters, if not its central character.

Rugrats

Tommy's distinct features in Rugrats are a bald head with a few strands of hair and stubble, a blue shirt, no pants over his diaper, and pigeon-toed bare feet. He was the youngest character (although not much younger than Phil and Lil) until his younger brother Dil was born; despite that, he had a reputation for being the "braveliest" baby, and would take the others along on adventures to wherever his imagination took him. These adventures of his usually involved stopping some sort of evil plot. He also stood up to his evil-minded cousin Angelica and idolized Reptar. He appeared in the most episodes of any character (The only episodes he is absent in is "Cuffed", "Pickles vs. Pickles", and "The Unfair Pair").

All Grown Up!

In the spinoff series All Grown Up!, Tommy has purple hair, but in later episodes he (along with Dil) has had it all shaven off (his mother insists from a Lipshiz book). Also, similar to Susie's talent for singing, Tommy also has a newfound talent: making films with his camcorder. A few episodes have been made around this fact: "Truth or Consequences" (first US tx: November 30, 2003), which also revealed he made his first film at the age of 37 months, had him making a negative film about his friends; the main storyline of "Brother, Can You Spare The Time?" (first US tx: January 17, 2004) opened with him mentioning recently winning a young filmmaker's award; and one storyline in "Bad Aptitude" (first US tx: June 4, 2004) was about Tommy's sudden early retirement from filmmaking after making a flop and receiving an unfavorable (for his filmmaking aspirations) result on his career aptitude exam. However, he has not been seen with his camcorder since "The Big Score" (first US tx: April 25, 2005), when he was filming Lil at the soccer field.

As he's grown up, he's not as perfect as he used to be on Rugrats. In "Thief Encounter" (first US tx: December 6, 2003), he was discovered to be stealing goods from around the neighborhood , but that was because he was sleep walking; in "River Rats" (first US tx: December 13, 2003), he was shown to be afraid of water, stemming from an experience during a fishing outing with his grandpa; in "Dude, Where's My Horse?" (first US tx: July 16, 2005), he was the worst cowboy out of the regulars.

Up until early Season 2, Tommy was also either shown or mentioned as being part of the school soccer team, even trying to teach Dil how to play ("Fools Rush In", first US tx: June 5, 2004). Lately (more specifically since "The Big Score"), however, all the focus on soccer has involved only Phil and Lil DeVille.

Fan criticism

A much-promoted storyline was Tommy getting his first kiss in "Fear of Falling" (first US tx: February 14, 2005). Tommy's first kiss was of some controversy, not because of his age (or that he not only got it ahead of Angelica but also interrupted a similar moment involving her), but rather the fact that he got it from a one-time character instead of a regular-like Lil or Kimi, although an apparent replacement girlfriend, Rachel, has taken over as Tommy's crush in the movie "RV There Yet". Whether or not this is a throwaway girl (Samantha Shane, Angelica's friend from the All Growed Up movie, being one them) is uncertain.

Voice actress

When Rugrats pilot was made, Tami Holbrook provided the voice of Tommy. However, since the start of the proper series, E.G. Daily has voiced him.

Trivia

• Tommy has always carried a screwdriver with him in one form or another. Most recently, he had a keychain with a screwdriver on it.
• Tommy possesses a flair for filmmaking, a trait which can be traced back to Rugrats (as implied in "Truth and Consequences").
• Tommy has gained a bit of weight somewhere between Season 1 and Season 2. Francine even pokes fun at Tommy in "Fools Rush In" about this, referring to him as "Porky Pickles".
• Tommy's role model is Martin Costermeris, a famous film director. In "Truth and Consequences", Tommy even had his photo taken with Costermeris. In the episode, Tommy imagines Costermeris talking to him through his wall poster. He also admires his father and (at least as a baby) Nigel Thornberry from The Wild Thornberries.
• Tommy got his first camera in the Rugrats episode "Babies In Toyland" (Part 2), the camera given to him specially by Angelica.