What do you think 'killed' Rugrats?

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Dil and then Kimi and her mom.

I remember my mom commenting that she didn't like Dil because of what it did to Tommy. Tommy was the youngest of the babies but he was the smartest and the leader. When Dil comes along Tommy is no longer the youngest. He's still the smartest and the leader, but he loses something by no longer being the youngest. You know, the youngest being the smartest.

As for Kimi, her mom, and marrying Chaz, it just added too many characters and changed Chuckie's family. Each family has a dynamic and Chuckie's was that he lived with a single father and they were both scared little boys. Chaz was the mom and dad in the family and would come to Didi with motherly type questions and concerns. That's his character and it helps to make Chuckie who he is. When a stepmother and stepsister are added to the family the roles change and they just aren't the Finsters anymore.
Aside from what they do to Chuckie, Kimi is too much like Tommy. She's a female Tommy, imo. It takes away from Tommy the trusted leader to bring in a female version.

When the show came back. The writing was less creative, less imaginative and more dumbed down.

A earlier episode had Tommy exploring a restaurant kitchen and causing mischief and a newer one had Angelica posing as a psychic (mispronounced as Psycho) just to get the babies to give her stuff.

I would always rather be happy than dignified.

This thread has a very clear answer now that we have all the facts.

It's simple: When the show was brought back after having been in reruns (following the completion of the original 65 episodes), the entire writing staff had departed.

Literally everyone.

Paul Germain (who was also the voice director), Joe Ansolabehere, Steve Viksten, Peter Gaffney, Jonathan Greenberg, Rachel Lipman. Craig Bartlett was also on the staff in season 1 and wrote one episode in season 2.

Even the freelance writers they brought in no longer did anything (I think I saw one of the freelance writers co-wrote exactly 1 script at some point after the revival).

Most of the writers had moved on to new cartoons (basically everyone but Germain ended up writing numerous episodes for Hey Arnold), but I'm not sure whether that in and of itself is the reason they did not write for Rugrats any longer. After all, they probably could have at least freelanced if they wanted to and were welcomed back.

I'm thinking it had more to do with the fact that Arlene Klasky despised them and wanted her baby show about babies, rather than an adult satire written by Simpsons-influenced writers.

I liked Dylan, but loved Kimi the most. I loved The Rugrats for what they were and that's all that matters. The Rugrats' downfall occurred when All Grown Up aired and when The Rugrats Go Wild was a flop. Other than that, their show was still great even in the early-2000s. You can bet on that.

Dil killed Rugrats.

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