Author's Note: After rewatching the Rugrats episodes, The Word of the Day from Season 5, and Tie my Shoes from season 6, I noticed how Miss Carol appears in both, but the mysterious question always rang in my mind, how did Miss Carol find a new job, and found it possible to release her new shoe tying video series, after being banned from ever working for a TV station again, after the events of what took place on Miss Carol's Happy House. This is my story on how that all became to be, I hope you enjoy it!
From Kiddy Show Host, to Shoe Tying Expert
Summary: Miss Carol was fired from the TV studio, after saying a bad word on her show, thanks to Angelica, so how did she get into the shoe tying business, with the seminar and video series she released roughly six months later? Read this to find out!
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Rugrats, they're the property of their original creaters. I only own any OC's you don't recognize.
Miss Carol was not the brightest bulb on the tree. While kids adored her, secretly, she hated kids, on account that when she was a child, her mother and father constantly physically abused her behind peoples' backs, and told her she would never get a job, or do anything with her life. Like Miss Carol though, her mother worked as a kindergarten teacher for several years, and later, went on to teach college courses in Early Childhood Education. Her father however was a shoe repair man, and even sold and made his own design of shoes, selling them at shoe stores all over the world.
When Miss Carol became of age after high school to go to college, she studied at Berkly University, double majoring in Early Childhood Education and English Communications, with a concentration in Broadcast Media. After four years, she graduated with her Bachelor Arts degree in both areas, and got a job at the Yucaipa TV Studio, doing her own show called Miss Carol's Happy House, where she'd have kids audition to be her happy helper, and on the show, kids learned about such things as the weather, the alphabet, and other stuff that was important for the development of early educational skills that would be good in the classroom. Of course, Miss Carol was originally planning to do the show without the happy helper part, but her boss insisted on having children be a part of the show, and Miss Carol reluctantly went along with it, as it was either do that, or not be able to do the show at all.
As a result of having to do the show her boss's way, and not in her way, she found the show to be more of a torture than a pleasure, and on the contrary, was quite happy when she got fired on the spot on that last Monday she went to the TV studio, at the start of April. She remembers how everything went down.
Start of Flashback
"But that's what you said, and you said it Miss Carol." Yelled Angelica into a microphone.
Miss Carol remembered how she had said what Angelica had really said in confidence to her lackie Stephanie after the auditions were done two days prior to this event. Stating how that was the real fun phrase. It was obvious that somehow, Angelica must have overheard the conversation, but she wasn't going to lie on television and hide it. She was so looking for a way out of this torturous job, and now, thanks to Angelica, she finally had her chance.
"You know what you're right. I have said it before and I will say it again." Said Miss Carol as she chuckled evily and dropped the microphone she was holding on to the floor.
"You are all, little, bleep!" Said Miss Carol, as everyone in the audience, the directors, Stephanie, and her boss, overheard her say this horrible word.
End of Flashback to the last Episode of Miss Carol's Happy House
Nobody watching on TV heard Miss Carol's saying of this word, because they went to a test pattern at the time, but her boss wasn't going to take any chances. At this point, the TV studio had gone to a commercial after resuming from the test pattern, which gave the directors and TV crew time to restrategize before the show needed to be finished.
"I'm sorry Ashley Wormwood, but you're fired. Clean out your desk immediately!" Yelled Director Puckman from off stage.
Ashley Wormwood was Miss Carol's real name. Miss Carol was only her stage name. Though at work, she had everybody call her Miss Carol, especially on Happy Helper audition day, she didn't wish for any of her viewers and fans to know her real name.
"Yes, of course, right away sir." Said Ashley, as she left the stage.
By this time, Angelica had been escorted off the stage by her parents, so she never heard the director firing Miss Carol.
Ashley went to her office to clean up all of her stuff, while the director had a private word with Stephanie.
"We go back on air in two minutes. From now on, this show is yours. Pick a kid and get out there." Said Director Puckman.
"It would be my pleasure." Said Stephanie, as she walked back to the set of Miss Carol's Happy House, and saw that Timmy and his family were still in the audience at this point. Quickly, she called Timmy to come up on stage, and after talking to him for a couple of minutes, she realized that he was just nervous, and that once she got to talk to him off camera, he wasn't a bad kid.
She instructed him on what to do, and he did what he was asked during the second half of the show. He had so much fun, that Stephanie took over the show, calling it Miss Stephanie's Happy House, and Timmy remained as her happy helper for the rest of the month, before another new happy helper was chosen. Unlike Miss Carol, or Ashley Wormwood though, Stephanie enjoyed the job, and while her work got a bit more difficult, having to prepare the show for each day all by herself, once the writers gave her the new script, she was happy to not have Miss Carol in her life anymore, always being rude to her and bossing her around.
Meanwhile, Ashley had left the building before the show ended, relieved to be out of there. Unfortunately, she was jobless, as thanks to breaking several FCC regulations, no TV studio would ever hire her again, as it's prohibited to say bad words on the TV or the radio, for any reason what so ever. She considered getting a job teaching at a school, but then, she told herself, she never wanted to have to work one-on-one face to face with children ever again, yet though, she had the skills to educate children, so, the question was, what kind of job could she persue that would put this ability to work?
Upon getting home to her large mansion, out in the country side, she went down to a recording studio in her basement, where she sat down at a keyboard, and started playing some tunes. She picked up piano lessons after finishing college, and enjoyed song writing in her spare time. As she tickled the ivaries, a song came to her mind about shoe tying, remembering how her father and mother taught her how to tie her shoes when she was just a little girl, way before the abuse started, as the abuse didn't start until she was in kindergarten, but it was so painful, that it more or less, ruined the five years of her childhood that were good to her, before the abuse started.
She played a few notes and then began to sing her song.
There's issy and sissy so make them flair
Take them by their toes and tails
Tie that not, they're so yummy
Now roll them up inside their tummy.
She sang this song every day whenever she tied her own shoes, and then, it came to her. She would help children improve on shoe tying skills, something that was never covered on her old children's show. However, she wanted to make it fun for them. One day, she went into the Toy Palace, where she found two toy snakes. She took them home and practiced on them to do the shoe tying. It then hit her, these could be Issie and Sissie, and if she released her song, and the snakes as practice aids, surely kids would learn how to tie their shoes. Then, it hit her, they would need to see her do it.
Not the least bit interested in facing children, she recorded the video with a camcorder of her's, tying the snakes together down in her studio. After she recorded the video, she uploaded it to the Youtube Kids channel, where several parents saw the video. Among the many Youtube goers who saw the video, was somebody who worked for Create Space and Amazon, who saw a really good opportunity to market this as an educational item for young children.
The representative emailed Miss Carol, and proposed the idea to her. She agreed to it, as long as she never had to work one-on-one with any children herself. The representative agreed to this, and so, her shoe tying series began, as she called it, though shoe tying was only in volume one of the video series. She would later, release several more videos, teaching about other skills that were important for young children to learn, like how to read, dress themselves, eating with utencils, and more.
The snakes, a popular toy at Toy Palace, soon became known as Issie and Sissie, and were sold by Amazon, as a bonus with the first volume of the video. To Miss Carol's surprise, as she was able to see who all bought the videos off of Amazon, Drew and Charlotte Pickles, the parents of Angelica bought it for her, to help Angelica learn how to tie her shoes.
While it was working out for Miss Carol to record these videos in her private studio, distribute these videos to Amazon, and use the money to pay the TV studio she worked for back for saying that bad word on television, as she was fined a lot of money along with being fired for her actions, once the money was all paid back, Director Puckman offered her a new job. While she could never be on television again, how about a seminar where the children would learn these skills, hands on. Only five children would be allowed into each session at a time, and the sessions would only last for one week in length.
Again, Miss Carol told Director Puckman that she did not wish to work with children face to face, so Puckman talked to several educaters and asked if they would be willing to run this seminar, and help Miss Carol out. Miss Carol would be present, but the volunteer educaters would be the ones working with the kids, Miss Carol would only give instructions on what to do.
Agreeing to this, she set up the first week long shoe tying empowerment seminar, which, to her surprise, Angelica was attending, after facing a shoe tying potentiality block at her aunt and uncles the previous weekend, during a barbecue gone bad, thanks to Drew trying to cook the burgers on the edge of the grill, rather than in the middle, but not once did she speak to Angelica, thanks to one of the educaters, Miss Crofford helping her to learn how to tie her shoes.
Everyone passed the week long seminar with flying colors, and Miss Carol was happy, as now, she could help kids more so from a far, and finally got to do things, her way. She released several more videos over time, and she went from being seen as a mean woman who said bad words, to being a heavily respected educator to most children and parents, as time went on.
The End