the best episodes are season 1-3
I’m only guessing, but it may be to boost sales of the actual DVDs for seasons 1-3. I too feel that those were the best seasons and I’ll bet that most fans of the show feel the same way (actually season one was a little formative, but by two and three the show had really hit its stride). Once the show became a big hit in reruns and was brought back the new shows, I don’t know, had just lost their soul. Then it just became a franchise with multiple movies, spin-offs etc. all of which just got worse and worse…
i was quite shocked when i tried to watch an episode of rugrats on netflix. i didn’t recognize half the characters and the voices were all wacky. i guess when i stopped watching it as a kid it changed.
The likely answer is that streaming rights were built into all the contracts from Season 4 on, but were not for Season 1-3 - and going back to get those rights has killed or delayed the release of all kinds of content. Especially trying to get the rights for all the music - which is why some shows release with music changes or cuts as well.
Yeah, this is why the Daria DVDs took for goddamn ever to be released.
But the music in RugRats was all original, made specifically for the show (by** Mark Mothersbaugh** of **DEVO **by the way). I can’t see that having been a problem.
More trivia: The twins Phil & Lil’s dad Howard was voiced by Phil Proctor, one of the original** Firesign Theater** guys.