Tommy Pickles

Thomas Malcolm Pickles is the main character from the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and its spinoff All Grown Up!. Tommy is among the series' original characters, if not its central character. The character is voiced by E. G. Daily.

Rugrats
Tommy Pickles, leader of the intrepid band of Rugrats, is intelligent, courageous, curious, compassionate and articulate. He also happens to be one year old, which gives him an endlessly interesting perspective on life. Stu and Didi Pickles do their best to coddle their oldest child, but, as Tommy frequently says, "A baby's gotta do what a baby's gotta do." Under the not-so-watchful eyes of the grown-ups, he leads his Rugrat friends on expeditions to unravel the great mysteries of life -- like "Where does the light go when the refrigerator door is closed?" To Tommy Pickles, the world doesn't always make sense, but it makes an incredible amusement park.

He loves to explore and can be very creative especially when he plans games for his friends. It is revealed during the series' run that Tommy's brave personality developed due to his being a premature baby: he was very scared in the hospital, until his mom came and held his hand. As leader of the Rugrats, he often gets them into trouble; despite this, he's always ready for an adventure. Tommy's hero is Reptar, a movie monster designed as a parody of Godzilla, who he has complete and utter faith in. His "bestest friend" is Chuckie.

Tommy's distinct features in Rugrats are a bald head with a few strands of hair and stubble, a sky blue shirt, a diaper, bow-legs, 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. He appeared in the most episodes of any character (the only episodes he is absent in are "Cuffed", "Pickles vs. Pickles", and "The Unfair Pair").

We learn throughout the series, esepcially in "Rugrats Go Wild" that Tommy wants to be an explorer when he's "growed-up". However, he got a new dream in "All Grown Up": to direct films.



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 at his mother's insistence. 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.

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 celebrates both Jewish and Christian holidays (Hanukkah and Christmas for example), which is due to his Father being Christian and his Mother being Jewish.
 * Tommy gained the nickname "Flyin' Pickles" in episode #34 after he beat Chuckie in a race.
 * 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.
 * While "All Grown Up" was being created there was an argument over whether or not to give Tommy hair.
 * Tommy's middle name is Malcolm, purportedly the director's tribute to Malcolm X.
 * The idea of having Tommy as the main character before Chuckie in Rugrats was inspired by the movie Child's Play 2 which had a Chucky doll look-a-like which was named "Tommy" in it.