Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon

***Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon*** (also known as ***Ren and Stimpy: The Lost Episodes***) is an American adult animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for the cable network Spike TV. The series was developed as an "extreme" revamp and spin-off/reboot of *The Ren & Stimpy Show*, which previously aired on the American cable network Nickelodeon, and is known for being significantly more vulgar and inappropriate than the original series. The series originally ran from June 26 to July 24, 2003, and was abruptly removed from the network after just three episodes. It received negative reviews from both fans and critics. [https://nickelodeon.fandom.com]

## History

The original *Ren & Stimpy Show* premiered alongside *Rugrats* and *Doug* as one of the original Nicktoons on children's network Nickelodeon in 1991. The show's creator, John Kricfalusi, had many altercations with the network, eventually culminating in his termination. In 2002, about a decade after Kricfalusi's termination, Viacom (which owns Nickelodeon) contacted him to produce a new version of his series for an updated version of TNN, Spike TV, which was devoted to programming for male audiences. Kricfalusi said that TNN wanted an "extreme" version of *The Ren & Stimpy Show*.[5] TNN gave Kricfalusi greater control of the writing and contents of the episodes, and he produced six new cartoons aimed at adult audiences. Some of the head storyboard artists, screenwriters, and animators returned from the original *Ren and Stimpy*series, such as Vincent Waller, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Jim Smith, but most of the animation and writing team were a new team of artists, specifically instructed and headed by Kricfalusi himself. In a similar vein to the original series, Kricfalusi ran into problems with meeting production deadlines, with only three out of the nine episodes ordered by the network being completed on time.

Some of the original voice cast members returned, with the notable exception of Billy West, original voice of Stimpy and second voice of Ren and Mr. Horse, who turned down the role, as he did not consider it funny and that participating in it would damage his career. Eric Bauza was hired to replace West as Stimpy, while Kricfalusi reprised his roles as Ren and Mr. Horse. Cast members Harris Peet and Cheryl Chase also returned, and Kricfalusi's father Mike Kricfalusi and long-time childhood friend Tom Hay provided some voices.

All of the episodes were animated at Carbunkle Cartoons, in association with Big Star Productions. Kricfalusi had previously relied upon Carbunkle during the Nickelodeon years, and he subcontracted animation of many original series episodes (including "Space Madness", "Black Hole" and "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen") to that studio.

The new series began airing in June 2003 as part of an animation block also featuring *Gary the Rat*, *Stripperella*, and digitally remasteredepisodes of the original *Ren and Stimpy* series, subtitled "Digitally Remastered Classics". Kricfalusi wrote the first episode, "Onward and Upward", based on requests from fans from the Nickelodeon era. The episode portrayed the characters as bisexual. Advertisers objected to some of the new show's content, particularly that of the risqué episode "Naked Beach Frenzy" which did not air in the show's original run, causing trouble with scheduling. The show stopped airing after three episodes when TNN's animation block was "put on hold".

The remaining episodes were set to resume in August 2004 along with the premiere of Spike's new animated series *Immigrants* but both shows were pulled and never aired again.

Kricfalusi shut down Spümcø shortly thereafter following a lawsuit filed by Carbunkle for failing to pay the animation studio for their services. In 2005, he announced that all of the *Adult Party Cartoon* cartoons that were fully produced were coming to DVD, which was released on July 18, 2006.