Capitol Critters Starring NPH

There was a show I remember watching as a kid. If I recall correctly, Burger King even had kids meal toys for it, which I played with in the sandbox and made sandcastles with. Then I looked it up recently and found out it only lasted thirteen episodes because it couldn't compete with The Simpsons let alone the children's fare at the time.
Capitol Critters' original run was in 1992 on ABC (yes, the Disney-owned ABC. This comes as a shock on top of the shock you get when realizing what some of the content was). Apparently it was re-run a few years later on Cartoon Network. The main character, Max, was voiced by *drumroll please* Neil Patrick Harris. It was either close to or after the Doogie Howser days, but nevertheless he is the moral compass for this series. His family home in the midwest gets gassed by exterminators, and his mother (voiced by B.J. Ward) with her dying breath tells him to go to the nation's capital to live under the White House with his cousin Berkely. The White House is not only home to her but many other rodents. Berkely was voiced by Jennifer Darling, who you may remember as the voice of Irma from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Their sort of landlady, Trixie, was voiced by Patti Deutch, who you may recognize from the Emperor's New Groove movies/TV series. Max has to room with and be chaperoned by her son Jammet, who is none too happy about it. He too should sound familiar because he was voiced by Charlie Adler, who voiced Buster Bunny in Tiny Toon Adventures. There is also an escaped lab rat/resident scientist named (are you ready for this?) Muggle, who has a tendency to randomly explode (but not die) because of all the tests that had been done to him over the years. He was voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait. Fittingly, he's also voiced one of the Experiments from Lilo and Stitch the series.
The rodents' main goal to stay alive is to avoid the gas a second time (wow, this show really likes to scar its main characters for life) in addition to the traps and the cats (one representing/belonging to President Bush and one for Vice President Quayle; you may also recall them being the butt of several jokes in Tiny Toons as well). In doing so they normally steal food from the kitchen, but they aren't the only ones living under the White House. There is also a large colony of roaches, and it's in this way that the show deals with racism. Oh boy. While of course there isn't overt use of curse words or real-life racial slurs, it's still a bit heavy-handed with violence (and not just in matters of race). My favorite episode is called "Hat and Mouse," in which the issues between the rats and the roaches would seem to be somewhat resolved for the first time but really aren't. It also features Jim Cummings. You'll find a lot of episodes have guest stars that also voiced characters in many mainstream series (like Rugrats).
The show didn't just tackle racism in its short run, though. It also covered issues like mortality (it manages to kill off another one-shot character which in turn sparks an issue about guns and retaliation against one's enemies; said character was eaten by a cat), sexuality (Jammet as well as background characters are often seen looking at porn, and even Max points out that the only things Jammet cares about are food and sex), drug addiction (scariest episode ever), corruption in politics (why hello, Tim Curry, I didn't recognize you without your British accent), and activism (Berkely is a hippie who regularly attends protests and in one episode attempts a hunger strike). If I had to pick favorites, I'd have to say I liked Berkely and Muggle best. With all the heavy adult content going on, they were the ones to explain things or provide lighter moments of comedy relief. If you're a Neil Patrick Harris fan, though, it's definitely worth checking out for him too. It's probably as good as watching that new movie he's in with the Smurfs. All I know is that if Max ever got turned evil, it would have been so much better than Secret of NIHM 2. Speaking of sequels, word is that there will be a Dr. Horrible 2.
Capitol Critters episodes: http://www.youtube.com/user/honestwolf

(Looking back on it, though, without Capitol Critters and after my grandmother and aunts banned me from watching Tiny Toons, I still got by with watching Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. My favorite episode of that was "Robocat.")