Rugrats was created in the summer of 1989 by then-husband-and-wife Gábor Csupó and Arlene Klasky along with Paul Germain, at a time when their studio Klasky Csupo was also animating The Simpsons for Matt Groening.

The show's premise was inspired by the antics of Klasky and Csupó's own infant children, along with inspiration drawn from The Beatles.

The unaired 6.5-minute pilot episode, 'Tommy Pickles and the Great White Thing,' was directed and co-designed by Peter Chung along with Klasky and Csupó, and was eventually released on DVD in 2001; in it, Gábor Csupó wanted the babies to look 'strange' instead of 'cute.'

Angelica and Chuckie were not part of the original pilot but were added as characters afterward, once Nickelodeon greenlit the series based on positive test-audience feedback.

Angelica's voice actress Cheryl Chase originally auditioned for the role of Tommy Pickles before being cast as Angelica instead.

Co-creator Arlene Klasky reportedly disliked Angelica's character for much of the show's run, protesting her mean actions, though she later said she loved the character after seeing her in The Rugrats Movie.

Writer Steve Viksten reportedly compared Angelica to J.R. Ewing from Dallas when discussing the character's villainous role, after voice actress Cheryl Chase had difficulty portraying a truly mean Angelica.

Chuckie Finster was originally voiced by Christine Cavanaugh, who left the series for personal reasons and was replaced by Nancy Cartwright near the end of 2001.

Grandpa Lou Pickles was voiced by David Doyle until his death in 1997, after which Joe Alaskey took over the role for the rest of the series.

The Pickles family's home address, 1258 N. Highland, revealed in the season one episode 'Tommy's First Birthday,' was actually the real address of Klasky Csupo's studio in Los Angeles.

The show never explicitly names its setting's city or state, an ambiguity believed to be intentional to reflect the babies' limited understanding of the world, though clues like a fictional 'Eucaipah High School' hint at Yucaipa, California.

In a 1995 interview, Steven Spielberg praised Rugrats, calling it 'sort of a TV Peanuts of our time.'

Rugrats was criticized at one point by the Anti-Defamation League and The Washington Post editorial page for the character designs of Tommy's maternal grandparents, which they accused of resembling Nazi-era depictions of Jews.

The series received its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on June 28, 2001, making it the first Nickelodeon series to be honored this way.

The Rugrats theme song and main score were composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, along with Denis M. Hannigan, Rusty Andrews, and Mothersbaugh's brother Bob.