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The Ren & Stimpy Show
The Ren & Stimpy Show, commonly referred to as simply Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable and psychotic chihuahua dog; and Stimpy, a good-natured and dimwitted Manx cat. Originally produced by Spümcø, the series aired on Nickelodeon from August 11, 1991 to December 16, 1995, with its last episode airing on MTV on October 20, 1996, spanning a total of five seasons and 52 episodes. The third to be aired of the original three Nickelodeon animated series known as "Nicktoons", alongside Doug and Rugrats, it is one of the progenitor series of the brand.
The series received widespread critical acclaim for its visuals, animation, and surreal nature. However, it generated significant controversy for its dark humor, sexual innuendos, adult humor, violence, and shock value, contributing to Kricfalusi's termination in 1992, due to altercations with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices and production delays. Games Animation produced the show's remaining three seasons, which received criticism for a perceived decline in quality.
An adult animated reboot, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", was produced by Kricfalusi and Spümcø and aired on Spike TV in 2003, being canceled early due to production delays. On August 5, 2020, Comedy Central announced a second adult reboot of the series without Kricfalusi's involvement.
The series centers on Ren Höek (voiced by John Kricfalusi in seasons 1–2; Billy West in seasons 2–5), a hot-tempered, psychotic, "asthma-hound" chihuahua, and Stimpson J. "Stimpy" Cat (also voiced by Billy West), a dimwitted and happy-go-lucky Manx cat. The duo fill various roles from episode to episode, including outer-space explorers, Old West horse thieves, and nature-show hosts, and are usually at odds with each other in these situations. While the show was sometimes set in the present day, the show's crew tended to avoid "contemporary" jokes about current events. The show extensively features off-color and absurdist humor, as well as slapstick akin to animated shorts of the 1950s.
The show features a host of supporting characters. Due to the nature of the show, they do not have consistent appearances or even designs; those who do appear repeatedly have different roles in each appearance, being either a part of the storyline or making cameo appearances with little bearing on the plot. Some, such as Mr. Horse, are exclusively cameo-based, spontaneously appearing as a running gag. George Liquor makes his first appearances in the show through cameos or as a supporting character, as demonstrated in "Dog Show" and "Man's Best Friend".
According to animator Bill Wray, John Kricfalusi created the characters Ren and Stimpy in 1978 for "personal amusement" while studying at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. He was inspired to create Ren by an Elliott Erwitt photograph, printed on a postcard, called "New York City, 1946", showing a sweatered chihuahua at a woman's feet. Stimpy's design was inspired by a Tweety cartoon called A Gruesome Twosome, where the cats in the animation had big noses.
When Nickelodeon approached Kricfalusi, he presented three shows, among them a variety show titled Your Gang or Our Gang with a live-action host presenting different cartoons, each cartoon parodying a different genre. Ren and Stimpy were pets of one of the children in Your Gang, serving as a parody of the "cat and dog genre". The network's vice president of animation production Vanessa Coffey was dissatisfied with the other projects but liked Ren and Stimpy, singling them out for their own series. Production of the series' pilot episode began in the summer of 1989 after Kricfalusi pitched and sold The Ren & Stimpy Show to Nickelodeon. The pilot was produced by Kricfalusi's Los Angeles-based animation company, Spümcø, and screened at film festivals for several months before the show was announced in Nickelodeon's Nicktoon line-up.
The series premiered on August 11, 1991, alongside Doug and Rugrats as the original Nicktoons. Spümcø continued to produce the show for the next two years while encountering issues with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices department. The show was known for its lack of early merchandising; according to Wray, the initial lack of merchandise was "the unique and radical thing" about The Ren & Stimpy Show, as no toy company planned for any merchandise for the show, and Nickelodeon did not want to use "over-exploitive" merchandising.
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The Ren & Stimpy Show
The Ren & Stimpy Show, commonly referred to as simply Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable and psychotic chihuahua dog; and Stimpy, a good-natured and dimwitted Manx cat. Originally produced by Spümcø, the series aired on Nickelodeon from August 11, 1991 to December 16, 1995, with its last episode airing on MTV on October 20, 1996, spanning a total of five seasons and 52 episodes. The third to be aired of the original three Nickelodeon animated series known as "Nicktoons", alongside Doug and Rugrats, it is one of the progenitor series of the brand.
The series received widespread critical acclaim for its visuals, animation, and surreal nature. However, it generated significant controversy for its dark humor, sexual innuendos, adult humor, violence, and shock value, contributing to Kricfalusi's termination in 1992, due to altercations with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices and production delays. Games Animation produced the show's remaining three seasons, which received criticism for a perceived decline in quality.
An adult animated reboot, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", was produced by Kricfalusi and Spümcø and aired on Spike TV in 2003, being canceled early due to production delays. On August 5, 2020, Comedy Central announced a second adult reboot of the series without Kricfalusi's involvement.
The series centers on Ren Höek (voiced by John Kricfalusi in seasons 1–2; Billy West in seasons 2–5), a hot-tempered, psychotic, "asthma-hound" chihuahua, and Stimpson J. "Stimpy" Cat (also voiced by Billy West), a dimwitted and happy-go-lucky Manx cat. The duo fill various roles from episode to episode, including outer-space explorers, Old West horse thieves, and nature-show hosts, and are usually at odds with each other in these situations. While the show was sometimes set in the present day, the show's crew tended to avoid "contemporary" jokes about current events. The show extensively features off-color and absurdist humor, as well as slapstick akin to animated shorts of the 1950s.
The show features a host of supporting characters. Due to the nature of the show, they do not have consistent appearances or even designs; those who do appear repeatedly have different roles in each appearance, being either a part of the storyline or making cameo appearances with little bearing on the plot. Some, such as Mr. Horse, are exclusively cameo-based, spontaneously appearing as a running gag. George Liquor makes his first appearances in the show through cameos or as a supporting character, as demonstrated in "Dog Show" and "Man's Best Friend".
According to animator Bill Wray, John Kricfalusi created the characters Ren and Stimpy in 1978 for "personal amusement" while studying at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. He was inspired to create Ren by an Elliott Erwitt photograph, printed on a postcard, called "New York City, 1946", showing a sweatered chihuahua at a woman's feet. Stimpy's design was inspired by a Tweety cartoon called A Gruesome Twosome, where the cats in the animation had big noses.
When Nickelodeon approached Kricfalusi, he presented three shows, among them a variety show titled Your Gang or Our Gang with a live-action host presenting different cartoons, each cartoon parodying a different genre. Ren and Stimpy were pets of one of the children in Your Gang, serving as a parody of the "cat and dog genre". The network's vice president of animation production Vanessa Coffey was dissatisfied with the other projects but liked Ren and Stimpy, singling them out for their own series. Production of the series' pilot episode began in the summer of 1989 after Kricfalusi pitched and sold The Ren & Stimpy Show to Nickelodeon. The pilot was produced by Kricfalusi's Los Angeles-based animation company, Spümcø, and screened at film festivals for several months before the show was announced in Nickelodeon's Nicktoon line-up.
The series premiered on August 11, 1991, alongside Doug and Rugrats as the original Nicktoons. Spümcø continued to produce the show for the next two years while encountering issues with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices department. The show was known for its lack of early merchandising; according to Wray, the initial lack of merchandise was "the unique and radical thing" about The Ren & Stimpy Show, as no toy company planned for any merchandise for the show, and Nickelodeon did not want to use "over-exploitive" merchandising.