Susie Carmichael

Susanna "Susie" Yvonne Carmichael is a character from the Nickelodeon shows Rugrats and All Grown Up!. She and her family were introduced in the Rugrats story titled "Meet the Carmichaels".

Rugrats
During her time on Rugrats, Susie wore her brown hair in three braids with a barette at the end of each, and wore a yellow and purple dress, black leggings, a green bracelet, and red ballet flats. She was one of the few African American characters on the show. Susie was shown as the youngest of her siblings (she was shown to have two brothers, Buster and Edwin, and one sister, Alisa). Susie's dad Randy was established as writing for "Dummi Bears" (which is among the other babies' favorite TV shows), and her mother Lucy was revealed in The Rugrats Movie as being a doctor (she had previously had the occupations of airplane pilot and chef). Although Angelica did not appear in their first story, Susie was soon made as a rival to Angelica, and was shown to be better than her in many things ("Susie vs. Angelica"). However, the Carmichaels' roles were significantly smaller than those of the other characters and their families, as they appeared in fewer episodes. The movies reflected this well:
 * The Rugrats Movie: Susie's brief musical number with Angelica during a baby shower was her entire contribution to the movie, and Lucy was Didi's obstetrician who delivered Dil Pickles. Howard and Betty (Phil and Lil's Mom & Dad) are the only ones shown with lips.
 * Rugrats in Paris: The Movie: Susie appeared in both wedding party scenes, and briefly made fun of Angelica in French, but did not go on the other characters' trip to Paris, France.
 * Rugrats Go Wild!: Susie, with a video camera, tagged along with the other characters on their ocean trip, but unlike the others, was not accompanied by her parents.

Susie did not appear in as many episodes as the other characters. This may be explained by the fact that during the Rugrats years, Susie's voice actress Cree Summer had many roles on several shows.

Although Susie has been voiced by Cree Summer since her debut appearances, two of the 1993-1994 episodes had Cree Summer unavailable to voice Susie, so E.G. Daily (also the voice of Tommy Pickles) filled in the role for those two episodes.

Later in the show's run, there was consideration to give Susie her own spin-off, The Carmichaels, which was slated to have her move to Atlanta, Georgia. However, due to subsequent continuity issues that were raised by the green-lighting of two other spin-offs, it was eventually shelved.

In one of the Rugrats: Tales From The Crib DVDs, she stars as Snow White.

In 1999, it was revealed by the show's producers that Susie was closely modeled after negro activist Stokely Carmichael.

All Grown Up!
When Susie sang at Didi's baby shower in the first movie, it was the first time that she displayed her talent for singing, a talent that would later become the most important part of her character. In fact, the 2001 Rugrats story "And The Winner Is" (first US airing: March 9 2001) featured her singing at a talent show.

But in 2003, when the spin-off All Grown Up! was put into production, a press release for the show announced that "smart, spunky Susie (Cree Summer) &mdash; still a crusader for what's right &mdash; upstages Angelica as a singer with real talent", which implied an increased role for Susie in the new spin-off. Besides her singing talent, it was revealed that she also knows ten languages, as shown in the episode "Runaround Susie".

The very first episode of the regular run, "Susie Sings The Blues" (first US tx: November 29, 2003), concerned Susie and her singing talent. Since then, she has appeared in a majority of the episodes (although still in less than the other characters). This may be explained by the fact that by the time All Grown Up! premiered, Summer had less regular roles on other shows.

Also, while Susie and Angelica still treat each other as rivals (especially at singing, see "Susie Sings The Blues" and "It's Karma, Dude!" for cases in point), the two actually hang out with each other. Angelica has become jealous of Susie's singing. On the other token, Susie has become somewhat of a "best" friend to Angelica. Susie helps Angelica find her doll in "Saving Cynthia".