The Ren & Stimpy Show (Johnsonverse)

The Ren & Stimpy Show (also known as Ren & Stimpy) is an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. Originally produced by Spümcø for Nickelodeon, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to October 11, 2004, with a total of ten seasons and 130 episodes. The series follows the adventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable and sociopathic dog; and Stimpy, a good-natured yet dimwitted cat.
The Ren & Stimpy Show is the third of Nickelodeon's original animated series—known as "Nicktoons"—alongside Rugrats and Doug. In contrast with other shows on the network, it has generated controversy for its dark humor, sexual innuendos, adult humor, violence, and shock value. This controversy contributed to the production staff's altercations with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices department.
Nevertheless, The Ren & Stimpy Show received very positive reviews during its original run and has since developed a cult following. It is considered by many to have had a long-lasting influence on television animation. Its 13-year run ties The Ren & Stimpy Show with fellow Nicktoon Rugrats and King of the Hill as one of the eighth-longest-running American animated television series.
A revival on Cartoon Network has aired since 2017, while a spin-off, George Liquor, American, has aired on Adult Swim since 2018. Three feature films based on the franchise have been released in 1999, 2003, and 2020, with a fourth set for a 2024 release.
== Premise ==
See also: List of The Ren & Stimpy Show characters (Johnsonverse)
The series centers on Ren Höek (voiced by John Kricfalusi), a short-tempered, psychotic, "asthma-hound" Chihuahua Dog, and Stimpson J. "Stimpy" Cat (voiced by Billy West), a dimwitted and happy-go-lucky 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.
The show features a host of supporting characters. Some appear only in one episode, while others recur and occasionally appear in different roles. They may either be part of the storyline or make cameo appearances with little bearing on the plot. Some, such as Mr. Horse, are exclusively cameo-based, spontaneously appearing as a running gag.
== Development and history ==
=== Conception ===
According to animator William 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 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 1991 cartoons line-up.
=== Original run ===
The series premiered on August 11, 1991, alongside Doug and Rugrats. Spümcø continued to produce the show 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 ahead for any merchandise for the show, and Nickelodeon did not want to use "over-exploitive" merchandising.
Kricfalusi described his early period with Nickelodeon as being "simple", as he got along with Coffey, the sole executive of the program. When another executive was added, they wanted to alter or discard some of the Ren & Stimpy episodes, but Kricfalusi says the episodes stayed intact since he did a "trade" with Coffey: he would have some "really crazy" episodes in exchange for some "heart-warming" episodes. Kricfalusi also said that the program was the "safest project [he] ever worked on" while explaining the meaning of "safe" as "spend a third of what they spend now per picture, hire proven creative talent, and let them entertain." He estimated The Ren & Stimpy Show cost around $6 million to produce.
=== Revival ===
On August 24, 2015, Cartoon Network purchased the rights to Ren & Stimpy, and immediately announced that they would revive the series with Kricfalusi and Spümcø's involvement. This move came after the successes of the 2013 short Cans Without Labels (which starred Ren & Stimpy character George Liquor) and It's Our House Now!, a Ren & Stimpy short produced as a companion piece for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. Kricfalusi and West reprise their respective roles as the titular characters.
== Production ==
=== Process ===
The animation production methods used in The Ren & Stimpy Show are similar to those found in Golden Age cartoons of the early 20th century, where a director supervises the entire process. These methods are in contrast with animation production methods in the 1980s, where there was one director for animation and a different director for voice actors, and the cartoons were created with a "top-down" approach to tie in with toy production.
Animator Vincent Waller compared working on Ren & Stimpy and SpongeBob SquarePants in an interview: "Working on Ren and Stimpy and SpongeBob was very similar. They're both storyboard-driven shows, which means they give us an outline from a premise after the premise has been approved. We take the outline and expand on it, writing the dialogue and gags. That was very familiar."
=== Animation ===
The show's aesthetics draw on Golden Age cartoons, particularly those of animator Bob Clampett from the 1940s in the way the characters' emotions powerfully distort their bodies. The show's style emphasizes unique expressions, intense and specific acting, and strong character poses. One of the show's most notable visual trademarks is the detailed paintings of gruesome close-ups, along with the blotchy ink stains that on occasion replace the standard backgrounds, "reminiscent of holes in reality or the vision of a person in a deep state of dementia". This style was developed from Clampett's Baby Bottleneck, which features several scenes with color-cards for backgrounds. The show incorporated norms from "the old system in TV and radio" where the animation would feature sponsored products to tie in with the cartoon, but in lieu of real advertisements, it featured fake commercial breaks advertising nonexistent products, most notably "Log".
Kricfalusi cited Carbunkle Cartoons, an animation studio headed by Bob Jaques and Kelly Armstrong, for beautifully animating the show's best episodes, improving the acting with subtle nuances and wild animation that could not be done with overseas animation studios. Some of the show's earlier episodes were rough to the point Kricfalusi felt the need to patch up the animation with sound effects and "music bandaids", helping the segments "play better, even though much of the animation and timing weren't working on their own". KJ Dell'Antonia of Common Sense Media describes the show's style as changing "from intentionally rough to much more polished and plushie-toy ready."
Animation for the revival is split between Carbunkle, Snipple Animation Studios, Wang Film Productions, and Rough Draft Studios.
=== Voice acting ===
Kricfalusi voices Ren, styled after a demented Peter Lorre from the film The Maltese Falcon. Billy West voices Stimpy, basing the voice on an "amped-up" Larry Fine. Some notable artists and performers who have voiced incidental characters on the show are Frank Zappa, Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, Gilbert Gottfried, Whitney Houston, Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell, Annie Lennox, Fergie, Ray Bumatai, Dom DeLuise, Phil Hartman, Mark Hamill, Soleil Moon Frye, Kirk Douglas, Ben Schwartz, and TBA.
=== Music ===
The Ren & Stimpy Show features a wide variety of music, spanning rockabilly, folk, pop, jazz, classical music, jingles, and more. The opening and closing themes are performed by a group of Spümcø employees under the name "Die Screaming Leiderhôsens". Three Ren & Stimpy albums have been released. In 1993 a compilation album, You Eediot!, was released as a soundtrack album. The album's front cover is a parody of The Beatles' 11th studio album Abbey Road.
Stimpy's rousing anthem titled "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy" was composed by Christopher Reccardi and written by Charlie Brissette and John Kricfalusi. A cover of this song, performed by Wax, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.
Grunge icon Kurt Cobain wanted to write a song for the show and proposed the idea to Billy West and John Kricfalusi, but was ultimately turned down. This was thought to be around 1992 when Cobain's band Nirvana was just breaking into the mainstream. Ever since fans have heard about the story, they wonder if the song might be one of the home recordings released on Montage of Heck in 2015. When asked on Twitter if he knew what happened to the song West replied, "I don't think the song exists. As far as I know it had yet to be written and remained a proposal."
== Controversy and censorship ==
The program's staff did not want to create an "educational" series, a stance which bothered Nickelodeon, leading to the series being criticized by parent groups. Some segments of the show were altered to exclude references to religion, politics, alcohol, and tobacco. The episode "Powdered Toast Man" had a cross removed from the Pope's hat and the credit was changed to "the man with the pointy hat". The same episode had a segment featuring the burning of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights which was removed, while in "Dog Show", the last name of the character George Liquor was removed, being changed to "George American". Many other episodes included someone smoking a cigar, pipe, or a cigarette.
Several episodes had violent, gruesome, or suggestive scenes shortened or removed, including a sequence involving a severed head, a close-up of Ren's face being grated against a man's stubble, and a scene that was shortened where Ren receives multiple punches to the stomach from a baby. One episode, "Man's Best Friend", was banned by Nickelodeon for its violent content. It would later air on Comedy Central in 1999.
== Episodes ==
The series ran for ten seasons, spanning 104 episodes. The show was produced by Kricfalusi's animation studio Spümcø throughout its run. The episode "Man's Best Friend" was produced for season two, but the episode was shelved and debuted in 1999 on Comedy Central. Another episode, "Sammy and Me / The Last Temptation", aired on Comedy Central on October 20, 1996.
== Reception ==
The Ren & Stimpy Show received widespread critical acclaim. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, praised the show for its outrageousness and called it "the only good cartoon on TV" other than The Simpsons. Terry Thoren, former CEO and president of Klasky Csupo, said that Kricfalusi "tapped into an audience that was a lot hipper than anybody thought. He went where no man wanted to go before – the caca, booger humor". Jonathan Valania of The Morning Call called it "high voltage yuks and industrial-strength weirdness", John Lyttle of The Independent described it as "a gooey media meltdown, absolutely grotesque and instantly recognisable" and did not consider it a children's cartoon. The first season of the show currently holds a rare 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews from critics, though the remaining seasons have not been rated.
The show came to garner high ratings for Nickelodeon, having double the viewership of the other Nickelodeon cartoons for its first season and later averaging three times their viewership. The show for a time was the most popular cable TV show, with several airings being the most-watched scripted cable TV show in 1993 in the United States. The show quickly developed a cult following in college campuses, and was included in the launch of Nickelodeon's Snick, a late-night block for shows that appeal to both children and adults.
== Legacy and influence ==
The immediate influence of the show was the spawning of two "clones": Hanna-Barbera's 2 Stupid Dogs, in which Spümcø employees including Kricfalusi had some limited involvement after their departure from Ren & Stimpy; and Disney's The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show. However, the show had a wider influence on the future of animation. Mike Judge credits MTV's willingness to commission Beavis and Butt-Head to the success of Ren & Stimpy on the network. Writer Larry Brody credits Ren & Stimpy for leading a new golden age of animation, as other networks followed Nickelodeon and invested in new cartoons, opening the way for more adult-oriented satirical shows like Beavis and Butt-Head. David Feiss, an animation director of the show, went on to create Cartoon Network’s Cow and Chicken. John Kricfalusi became a teacher of sorts for Fred Seibert, and was the first person Seibert called while looking for new talent for the project, What A Cartoon!. Writer/animator Allan Neuwirth writes that Ren & Stimpy "broke the mold" and started several trends in TV animation, chiefly the revival of credits at the beginning of each episode, the use of grotesque close-ups, and a shift in cartoon color palettes to richer, more harmonious colors. A direct influence can be seen in the series SpongeBob SquarePants with the physically extreme drawings that contrast with the characters' usual appearance, the "grotesque close-ups".
The characters became a cultural touchstone in the mid-1990s, and were featured in works such as the films Clueless (1995), The Cable Guy and Jack (1996). Ren & Stimpy placed 31st in TV Guide's list of "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" in 2002. The cover story of the October 2001 issue of Wizard, a magazine for comic book fans, listed the 100 Greatest Toons ever as selected by their readers, with Ren & Stimpy ranked at number 12. Other entertainment journals similarly hold Ren & Stimpy as one of the best cartoons of the '90s and cartoons for adults.
== Revival ==
On August 24, 2015, Cartoon Network purchased all rights to the series and announced three new seasons with Kricfalusi and Spümcø's involvement; it began airing on November 15, 2017.
== Home media ==
=== VHS, LaserDisc, UMD ===
=== DVD ===
=== United States ===
=== Europe ===
== Other media ==
=== Films ===
Nickelodeon and 20th Century Fox signed a two-year production deal in May 1993 for the development and production of animated and live-action family films, based on new or existing properties. Ren & Stimpy was mentioned as a possible property for development, along with Rugrats and Doug; however, the show's "cynical and gross humor" was a poor fit for a conventional, "warm and fuzzy" family film. The deal expired with no movies produced. Nickelodeon would later start its own film studio after parent company Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures.
In 1999, The Ren & Stimpy Movie was released. Its worldwide gross was $TBA million against a $TBA million budget and received positive reviews from critics. A sequel titled Ren & Stimpy Get Lost was released in 2003. It was also a box office success and garnered a positive reception. In 2020, a third film, Ren & Stimpy: On the Loose!, was released on Netflix, having been planned for a theatrical release but moved to Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A fourth film is set to be released theatrically in 2024.
=== Theatrical short ===
A theatrical short titled It's Our House Now! was produced in 2014 to accompany The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which released on February 6, 2015.
=== Video games ===
Seven action games based directly on the television series were released between 1992 and 1995.
* The Ren & Stimpy Show: Space Cadet Adventures was developed by Imagineering, published by THQ and released for the Game Boy in November 1992. The game's premise centers on Stimpy attempting to rescue a stranded Ren, who is simultaneously traversing alien worlds attempting to return to their ship. The game received middling reviews and was praised for its faithful humor and visuals but was criticized for its repetitive and unimaginative gameplay.
* The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! was developed by Gray Matter, published by THQ and released for the SNES and Game Boy in October 1993. The game is composed of four stages based on episodes from the television series. Both versions of the game received middling reviews. The SNES version was praised for its faithful visuals and audio but was criticized for its repetitive stages, standard gameplay and sluggish controls. Nintendo Power commented that the Game Boy version had good graphics but poor controls and challenge.
* The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Invention was developed by BlueSky Software, published by Sega and released for the Sega Genesis in November 1993. The game's premise follows Ren and Stimpy as they travel through their neighborhood and collect scattered pieces of Stimpy's latest invention, the Mutate-O-Matic. The game features a two-player mode in which each player controls one of the two titular characters. The reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's faithful and humorous visuals and audio but derided the two-player mode as "more aggravating than fun" and "twice as hard as a one-player [game]".
* Quest for the Shaven Yak Starring Ren Hoëk & Stimpy was developed by Realtime Associates, published by Sega and released for the Game Gear in November 1993. It was also released for the Master System in Brazil in 1995. The game's premise centers on Ren and Stimpy's mission to return the hooves of the Great Shaven Yak. Scary Larry of GamePro praised the music as "worth the price of admission" and the graphics as "very good by Game Gear standards".
* The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckeroo$ was developed by Imagineering, published by THQ and released for the NES in December 1993, and for the SNES in April 1995. The game features three levels based on the television episodes "Space Madness", "Out West", and "Robin Höek". Nintendo Power's review noted that the NES version's graphics "capture the artistic flavor of the cartoon series" but criticized the poor controls and unengaging game elements. Conversely, the SNES version was commended for having more gameplay variety than previous Ren & Stimpy titles, but the graphics were described as "[not] very Ren & Stimpyish".
* The Ren & Stimpy Show: Fire Dogs was developed by Argonaut Games, published by THQ and released for the SNES in March 1994. The game is split into two distinct parts; in the first part, the player controls Stimpy, who must traverse through a firehouse and gather all the equipment for a firetruck in a limited time while avoiding the Fire Chief, while the second part puts the player in control of both Ren and Stimpy, who must catch items that are thrown out of a burning building. Nintendo Power commended the game's graphics, humor, audio, and inclusion of a password feature but criticized the lack of variety, limited time allotted for collecting items and repetition of the two levels.
* The Ren & Stimpy Show: Time Warp was developed by Sculptured Software, published by THQ and released for the SNES in October 1994. The game's premise centers on Ren and Stimpy's efforts to navigate through time and stop Muddy Mudskipper from ruining history. The reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's animations and various attacks but stated that the controls "could be tweaked up a little more". Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it one star out of five.
*The Ren & Stimpy Movie was developed by TBA, published by THQ and released for the PlayStation and Game Boy Color in July 1999. The game is adapted from the feature film of the same name.
*Ren & Stimpy Get Lost was developed by TBA, published by THQ and released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Windows, and Game Boy Advance in October 2003. The game is adapted from the feature film of the same name.
* Ren & Stimpy: When Kittens Attack! was developed by Big Red Button, published by Johnson Games and released for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Windows, and Mandatum in November 2018. Its premise centers on Ren and Stimpy trying to save the world from a race of evil kittens for a shot at fame. It was commended for replicating the look and feel of the series, as well as its gameplay and voice acting.
*Ren & Stimpy: On the Loose! was developed by Big Red Button, published by Johnson Games and released for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Windows, and Mandatum in October 2020. The game is adapted from the feature film of the same name.
Aside from these dedicated titles, Ren, Stimpy, and other characters from the series make appearances in the Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker, Nicktoons Racing, Nicktoons MLB, and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix. A Ren & Stimpy game by Acclaim Entertainment was planned for the Atari Lynx but never released.
=== Comic books ===
Marvel Comics optioned the rights to produce comic books based on Nickelodeon properties in 1992. The initial plan was to have an anthology comic featuring several Nicktoons properties. Marvel produced 44 issues of the ongoing series, along with several specials under the Marvel Absurd imprint. Most of these were written by comic scribe Dan Slott. One Ren & Stimpy special #3, Masters of Time and Space, was set up as a "Choose Your Own Adventure" and with a time travel plot, took Slott six months to plot out in his spare time. It was designed so that it was possible to choose a path that would eventually be 20 pages longer than the comic itself. Issue #6 of the series starred Spider-Man battling Powdered Toast Man. The editors named the "Letters to the Editor" section "Ask Dr. Stupid", and at least one letter in every column would be a direct question for Dr. Stupid to answer. This comic series lasted from December 1992 – July 1996.
=== Spin-off ===
In 2016, a spin-off series focusing on the character George Liquor was announced by Cartoon Network and Spümcø for Adult Swim. This series, titled George Liquor, American, debuted on June 19, 2018. Liquor previously appeared on the web series The Goddamn George Liquor Program, which ran from 1997 to 1998, though it didn't have Nickelodeon's involvement as they had allowed Kricfalusi to keep the character upon leaving Ren & Stimpy.
Category:Johnsonverse