From: gmkoenig@acsu.buffalo.edu (Gerson V Koenig)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.ren-n-stimpy
Subject: Re: Ren & Stimpy to appear on Krusty The Klown Show?
Keywords: not quite right in the head
Date: 4 Oct 92 01:38:43 GMT
Organization: UB

bates@spica.ucsb.edu (Bates) writes:
>    Okay, enough of the 'kind words'.  Now, for what I've been waiting to 
>say for a while: WHAT A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES!!!!    A month ago, everyone on
>this group was saying, "Come on!  You fat bloated eediots at Nick!  WHere
>are all the new episodes!!?!!??"  And you wonder why John K. got fired for
>not delivering them.  Now everyone is saying, "I'd rather have a few good
>episodes then a bunch of bad episodes"...you should have thought of that a
>month ago!  I believe I posted something at the time saying we should pretty
>much be happy with what episodes we have. Nick isn't a bunch of money-grubbing
>jerks; they want product, just like YOU do!  And they don't even want it for
>themselves, they want it because YOU want it.  So for all of you whiners out
>there, take it easy.  You brought this on yourselves.  

Yes, he's right, Nickelodeon was reading this board and they said, "well, we
really gotta' get out new episodes. What do we do? We could give Spumco the
money to hire enough people so they can speed things up a little. No, that 
would be stupid." (This proves they're not money-grubbers, because then they
might understand the principle of putting out monet to make even more money.)

Or they could have said:
"Well, we could air those George Liquor episodes after 10pm on MTV. Naww, 
they're grosser than Space Madness, and the show will survive as a whole and
come out according to schedule if we just trash anything that goes beyond our
tastes." 
Yes, I recognize the trick John K. played there, but if he could pull
that then Nickelodeon is not paying enough attention to expect to keep R&S in
reign and on schedule. i.e. If you see a storyboard and say, "Oh, ok" and 
forget about it until the episode is completed and then say, "this wasn't in
the storyboard and we don't like it, take it out" you're gonna end up tossing
out a fair amount of completed animation and/or putting a lot of creative
constraints on the production. If you want to keep a show like R&S within
limits, you have to set WIDE boundaries and work with Spumco to make sure
they don't overstep 'em. If you build an environment where the writers and
animators have to look over their shoulders with every fart and booger joke,
you're gonna' have trouble.

Or, they might have said:
"We know, we'll wait another month, see how things go, and if he hasn't shaped
up yet, we'll fire him and see wich one of his employees has little enough
loyalty to finish production for us. That way we'll be assured of a delay while
we change over and a good shot at a massive drop in quality and viewrship next
season!"
The obvious choice of the non-money-grubber. (Provided they're also a little
funny in the head.)

If by some miracle there was a new episode tonight, I'll have to rethink that
last bit, but I'm guessing it will be another few weeks at least.

In short...People were whining for new episodes of "Ren and Stimpy", not "Ren
and Stimpy Lite" which is what I think we can expect once the semi-completed
ones run out. Firing John K. was not a smart response to the slowness of new
episodes. If Nick thought this was gonna' make the true "the rest of the week
was worth it if there's a new R&S" fans happy, they're incredibly mistaken. If
they think it's gonna' make the "oh-yeah, I love that show, I even got the
poster, now which one is Ren?" fans happy, maybe they're right.

>        Andy Bates.

Gerson Koenig
gmkoenig@acsu.buffalo.edu