The first episode of the eighth season of Rugrats (1991), and a back-door pilot to the short-lived Rugrats Pre-School Daze spin-off that was originally going to be 13 episodes before getting repurposed into 4 episodes and shoved onto the direct-to-video movies as bonuses.
Angelica and Susie start attending preschool, and they compete with each other over who can be a better preschooler. When the two accidentally shatter Miss Weemer's favorite coffee mug in the process, they have to work together to fix it before Miss Weemer notices.
This episode provides examples of:
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: This exchange when Harold accidentally closes the door to the janitor's closet:Angelica: You'd better have the key to that door!
Harold: I'm little, I don't have the key to nothin'!
Angelica: Then go find us some glue right now, or else!
Harold: You're not the boss of me!
(Angelica growls at Harold)
Harold: I'll be right back with the glue, boss. - Blatant Lies: When Angelica and Susie fight over the chair closest to Miss Weemer, Miss Weemer asks them if there's a problem and they need to use their sharing words. Angelica tells Miss Weemer that she gave Susie her chair because she was crying for it like a baby, which Susie knows is not true.
- Class Pet: Fuzzbo is the pet guinea pig in Miss Weemer's preschool classroom. Angelica puts him in Harold's clothes in an attempt to move Harold out of the seat closest to Miss Weemer (besides the one Susie is in). Fuzzbo later finds his way out of Harold's pants and escapes from the classroom, spending the rest of the episode wandering through the school hallway.
- Decoy Getaway: When Miss Weemer puts her students down for nap time, Angelica and Susie sneak out to find a way to fix her coffee mug. Before they leave the classroom, they leave dolls that look like them under their blankets.
- First Day of School Episode: In this episode, Angelica and Susie go to a new preschool, and both compete to be the best student.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Harold sneaks out of Miss Weemer's classroom during naptime and follows Angelica and Susie, Susie tells him to go back to class. Harold is about to do so, but Angelica tells Susie that if he does, he'll wake up the rest of the class and blow their cover.
- Look Behind You: During recess, Susie sabotages Angelica's jump rope record by telling her there's ice cream behind her.
- Malicious Misnaming:
- Angelica calls Corky, Miss Weemer's puppet "Dorky".
- Near the end of the episode, when Harold gets locked in the office where Angelica and Susie found a mug identical to Miss Weemer's, Angelica calls Harold "Hairball".
- Manchild: When the parents are saying goodbye to their children, Clark, the boy who acts like a superhero tells his dad to be strong, who responds by sobbing and whining that he doesn't want to leave, a hilarious reversal of the usual scenario of a parent dropping off their child at preschool for the first time.
- Mondegreen Gag: While attempting to teach the babies the alphabet, Angelica sings a mangled version of the Alphabet song.Angelica: A B C D E F G, H I K K, elephants go pee!
Phil: Wow. They must need a giant diapie. - Mustache Vandalism: A variant; when Susie draws a picture of Miss Weemer, Angelica sabotages it by drawing glasses and a giant nose on it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Angelica and Susie find the Janitor's closet filled with glue and the door to it still open, when Harold follows them. Susie tells Harold to go back to class, but Angelica points out that if he does, he'll wake up the other students and blow their cover. She tells Harold to hold still, and when Harold tries to do so standing on one foot, he accidentally kicks the door to the janitor's closet, causing it to close and lock.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Angelica and Susie find a mug identical to Miss Weemer's in an office, and when they leave, Harold gets left behind when he stops to tie his shoe. The girls realize they left Harold behind. When they find the door locked, Angelica decides to leave Harold behind, but Susie insists they rescue him.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: This episode was meant to serve as a pilot for the Rugrats Pre-School Daze spin-off, originally announced in March 2002 with 13 episodes slated to be made. However, that September when All Grown Up! was announced, the show had been repurposed as a series of four standalone specials to air sometime in 2003-04. But, the specials ended up being included as bonuses on the Tales from the Crib direct-to-DVD films that were released in 2005-06 (2 for each disc). It would be be broadcast on Nickelodeon in November-December 2008... at 6am.
- Race Against the Clock: Angelica and Susie have until nap time ends at 12:00 to fix Miss Weemer's coffee mug.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Angelica and Susie go to the trouble of fixing Miss Weemer's coffee mug from an ex, which they shattered by mistake. After accidentally breaking it further and settling on stealing an identical mug, Miss Weemer decides that she needs to move on and throws the replacement mug in the trash. Angelica wasn't too happy that their efforts turned out to be a waste of time.
- Squirrels in My Pants: Angelica puts Fuzzbo, the pet guinea pig of Ms. Weemer's classroom in Harold's clothes to move Harold out of the seat closest to Ms. Weemer (besides the one Susie is sitting in). This causes Harold to jump and squirm around, which Ms. Weemer mistakes for a Potty Emergency. Fuzzbo later finds his way out of Harold's pants and escapes from the classroom, spending the rest of the episode wandering through the school hallway.
- Sticky Situation: One of Angelica and Susie's attempts to fix Miss Weemer's mug involves them using caramel from a culinary class. Unfortunately, the caramel is so sticky, it sticks to the spoon of a student using it to make caramel apples, and when she is frightened by Fuzzbo, she launches the mug out the open window.
- Teacher's Pet: Angelica and Susie spend most of the first half of the episode sucking up to Ms. Weemer in an attempt to prove that they're the best preschooler.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: After Susie and Angelica accidentally break Miss Weemer's coffee mug, they have to work together to fix it before Miss Weemer notices and kicks them out of preschool.
- Unishment: When Angelica plays school and has the babies be her students, she tells them that children who talk in class get kicked out of preschool. The babies, obviously not enjoying the game, ask Angelica why she didn't say so before and leave.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Angelica, Susie, and Harold sneak into a classroom filled with moms and their babies, and without being noticed, they rip the tapes off all the babies' diapers so they can use them to repair Miss Weemer's coffee mug. When the teacher tells the moms to put the babies on their feet, without the tapes to hold them up, the diapers fall off the babies, leaving them naked.
