The Ren & Stimpy Show
From The TV IV
| The Ren & Stimpy Show | |
| Premiere | August 11, 1991 |
| Finale | November 14, 1996 |
| Airs | |
| Creator | John Kricfalusi |
| Network | Nickelodeon |
| Style | 30-minute animated comedy |
| Company | Spümcø (seasons 1-2), Games Animation (seasons 3-5) |
| Episodes | 52 |
| Seasons | 5 |
| Origin | USA |
The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991-1996) is an animated comedy series created by John Kricfalusi about a neurotic chihuahua named Ren Höek and a fat simpleton cat named Stimpson J. Cat. The series was one of the animated programs which Nicktoons were founded on, alongside Doug and Rugrats.
Although the series was a product of Nickelodeon, a children's network, the Ren & Stimpy Show was well known for its use of extremely low-brow humor and was one of the first animated shows to truly push the boundaries until Beavis and Butt-Head came along in 1993. The series thrived on making the audience (as well as network executives) uncomfortable, often using themes of extreme violence, animal abuse and use of bodily excretions to punctuate its more sophisticated social commentary.
However, there were limits to the program's grossout humor and the network often attempted to get John K. to clean up episodes and remove offensive dialogue and situations. A famous, and final, example of this was on the episode Man's Best Friend which was deemed unairable because of its brutal violence and animal cruelty at the hands of George Liquor. John K. was fired from the show he created after the second season. Upon his departure, Billy West took over the voices done by John and George Liquor was removed entirely from the series.
Many critics saw the removal of Spümcø as the point at which the series jumped the shark because of the marginalization of its edgy content. The new production studio didn't fight nearly as hard for the type of humor that Spümcø pushed for and, as a result, fell into a rut of censorship by the network. The series was cancelled on November 14, 1996, but has since been resurrected in the form of the short lived Spike TV series, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon".
Contents |
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Character | Duration | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Cast | ||||||
| John Kricfalusi | Ren Höek | 1 | 2 | |||
| Mr. Horse | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Billy West | Stimpy | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Ren Höek | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
| Mr. Horse | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
| Svën Höek | ||||||
| Mr. Pipe | ||||||
| Hey, It's That Guy | ||||||
| Mr. Stevenson | ||||||
| Cheryl Chase | Mrs. Pipe | |||||
| Gary Owens | Powdered Toast Man | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Michael Pataki | George Liquor | 2 | ||||
| Harris Peet | George Liquor | 1 | ||||
| Muddy Mudskipper | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Alan Young | Haggis MacHaggis | 4 | 5 | |||
[edit] Seasons
| Season | Premiere | Finale | # |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickelodeon | |||
| Season One | August 11, 1991 | February 23, 1992 | 6 |
| Season Two | August 15, 1992 | May 23, 1993 | 12 |
| Season Three | November 20, 1993 | June 4, 1994 | 10 |
| Season Four | October 1, 1994 | April 1, 1995 | 13 |
| Season Five | September 5, 1995 | November 14, 1996 | 11 |
[edit] In-Depth
- At a Glance: Additional information about the series
- Characters: A listing of recurring characters from the series
[edit] DVD Releases
| Title | Release Date | # | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season Sets | |||
| The First and Second Seasons | October 12, 2004 | 3 | |
| Seasons Three and a Half-ish | June 28, 2005 | 3 | |
| Season Five and More of Four | September 20, 2005 | 3 | |
| Best Of Sets | |||
| The Best of Ren & Stimpy: Set 1 | September 15, 2003 | 3 | |
[edit] External Sites
- RenAndStimpy.org
- Members of the Loyal Order of Stupids
- The Ren & Stimpy Show at the Internet Movie Database


