The Paramount+ reboot of the well-loved Nickelodeon animated series "Rugrats" is making some major progressive and liberal changes to the show. The original series aired from 1991 to 2004 and followed a group of toddlers as they discovered the world around them. The 2021 reboot, however, will now feature the mother of twins Phil and Lil, Betty as a single mom who is gay.
Openly gay actress Natalie Morales will lend her voice to the character of lesbian single mom Betty. Morales' voice acting credits include "BoJack Horseman" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." The 36-year-old actress also appeared in "White Collar," "The Grinder," and Netflix's hit series "Dead to Me." The actress is not to be confused with the former "Actress Hollywood" host and "Today" show news anchor of the same name.
"Betty is a single mom with her own business who has twins and still has time to hang out with her friends and her community," Morales explained, as reported by the Christian Post. "I think it's just so great because examples of living your life happily and healthily as an out queer person is just such a beacon for young queer people who may not have examples of that."
Morales, who plays the lesbian single mom, shared that despite Betty being a "fictional cartoon," she believes it would be "hugely influential" for children like herself who is queer to see such examples on television. She explained, "If I'd been watching 'Rugrats' and seen Betty casually talking about her ex-girlfriend, I think at least a part of me would have felt like things might be okay in the future."
In the original Nickelodeon series, Betty was in a heterosexual marriage, but Morales believes that viewers already had "an inkling that Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia." The reboot will see the lesbian single mom as a character who enjoys football, owns a cafe by the name of Betty's Beans, and "cracks jokes about her ex-girlfriends."
Here's a video comparing the opening scene for both the original and reboot:
According to Newsweek, the changes in the Rugrats reboot was already hinted at by actor Melanie Chartoff, who voices Didi Pickles, the mother of Tommy and Dil in the show which featured kids in diapers. She said during an appearance in the "Back to the Best" podcast that the show's characters will have a more diverse background than that of the original.
"Some of the characters are of different minority, ethnic minorities, now. We had some before, now we're going to have more," Chartoff explained. "It's going to be a much more, I'd say, liberally intended show."
But the rewrite of Betty as a lesbian single mom on the Rugrats reboot was not welcomed warmly by some. The New York Post reported that some Twitter users took issue with the reboot of the show with kids in diapers and accused it of succumbing to the "woke" agenda.
"Making Betty gay on Rugrats is just performative wokeness and I'm so tired," Twitter user Mariah shared. "It was already subversive to have a woman who was not traditionally feminine married to more effeminate male/SAHD. Erasing this is not nearly as progressive as making a new openly gay character would be."
Making Betty gay on Rugrats is just performative wokeness and I'm so tired. It was already subversive to have a woman who was not traditionally feminine married to more effeminate male/SAHD. Erasing this is not nearly as progressive as making a new openly gay character would be.
"” Mariah (@grammaticalerer) May 27, 2021
