The 1980s series takes place in the same continuity as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Chipmunks are mutants. The last animal the boys touched before the mutagen took effect was the kindly songwriter David Seville, who had helped them off the road on which he nearly hit them. They followed him home, and the rest is history.On the other hand, the Chipettes may have mutated the other way like Splinter. Jeanette Miller was a human, but after being exposed to toxic waste, she was turned into a chipmunk. Why else does April O'Neil's friend
in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look exactly like her??
Miss Miller must have some sort of shady connections to the local police department.
How else does that explain her managing to keep her driver's license, let alone managing to avoid being arrested for reckless driving? The whole series is a result of Dave snorting too much coke.
Three foot tall talking chipmunks. Really? The 1980s series takes place in the same continuity as Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
Six human-sized chipmunks that walk around without freaking out everyone they meet? In fact, given the seeming low population of humanoid chipmunks that we see, it's very strange no one finds them to be at all unusual- not in the least. The Chipmunks have all gone through puberty already.
Before their voices changed, only dogs could hear them. In the 1980s series, time travel is responsible for any continuity errors.
In the 1980s series, it is confirmed that seasons 1-4 take place during the boys' 3rd grade, while season 5 (the last in the Ruby-Spears episodes) moves them up to 4th grade.
- In "May the Best Chipmunk Win", an episode from season 1, has Alvin and Brittany running for school president.
- In "Romancing Miss Stone", Alvin talked about how his ninth birthday is coming up.
- In "My Pharoah Lady", Brittany makes a bet with Prudy Snooty that if King Tut was not real by midnight, Brittany would have to resign from the Queen of the Halloween Carnival, implying the events of season 5 take place when the Chipmunks go to 4th grade.
- In "Alvin, Alvin, Alvin!", Alvin does not win Class President that year, also indicating that season 5 takes place during 4th grade, while the past four seasons were during 3rd grade.
- In "Bigger!", Dave mentions that the boys are in 4th grade when talking about signing up for a record deal. This further shows that the Murakami-Swenson-Wolf and DiC episodes (1988-1990 collectively) picked up from the last Ruby Spears season.
The Watsonian explanation for the chipmunks' oddly stilted speech in the Alvin Show…
…Is that they only recently learned how to speak. They used to be very large, very smart, but otherwise normal chipmunks but at some point shortly before or after meeting Dave, became uplifted.