Comedy Central orders a revival of The Ren & Stimpy Show

[TMC]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...entral-1306011

Nickelodeon's five-season 1991-96 acclaimed animated series is being "reimagined" for Comedy Central, which is already further pushing into adult animated series with a reboot of Beavis and Butt-Head and Daria spinoff Jodie. ViacomCBS is also rebooting MTV's Clone High, which doesn't yet have a network attached. "We are excited to reinvent this iconic franchise with a new creative team and our partners at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio," said ViacomCBS' Chris McCarthy, who oversees Comedy Central. "Ren & Stimpy joins our rapidly expanding roster of adult animation including South Park, Beavis and Butt-Head and Clone High as we continue to reimagine our treasure chest of beloved IP for new generations." As The Hollywood Reporter notes, "Ren & Stimpy was created by John Kricfalusi and followed the adventures of Ren, a temperamental Chihuahua, and his dim-witted sidekick, Stimpy. The series launched in 1991 as part of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons push that included Rugrats and Doug. While the series became a pop culture phenomenon and cult favorite, the network took heat for the show's adult content and lack of educational value. Multiple segments were edited to remove references to religion, politics and alcohol. The original series ran for five seasons and nearly 100 episodes and led to a spinoff geared to more adult audiences, Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, which aired on the former Spike (now Paramount Network). Six episodes were produced as part of the animated programming block, but only three aired." Ren & Stimpy was last in the news in 2018 when Kricfalusi was accused of sexually abusing underage girls in the 1990s. Kricfalusi worked on the two first two seasons of Ren & Stimpy, up until Nickelodeon terminated his contract in 1992.

[Dresdendoll45]

I will avoid this at all cost nothing would beat the original Nickelodeon version I think comedy Central's going to screw this over and make it into a woke circus.

[jimpickens]

Like they did with South Park.

[Dresdendoll45]

In this day of PC culture shows like Ren and Stimpy wouldn't make it on tv and I think to myself why beat a dead horse putting it on today they're going to tame it also get rid of that retro feel to it that 50s feel of the game's version of Ren and Stimpy and make them whip a smartphone out or listen to trap music which I not picture Ren' and Stimpy they lived on vintage music stock music and polka so in my honest opinion leave this one in the past.

[TMC]

Comedy Central's revival of The Ren & Stimpy Show is a bad idea -- not just because of its creator's sexual misconduct scandal

ViacomCBS says Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who was accused of underage sex abuse in the 1990s, won't have anything to do with the Comedy Central reboot. But, says Garrett Martin. "you can’t have Ren & Stimpy today with Kricfalusi, but the problem is you also can’t really have it without him—at least the Ren & Stimpy that people might be nostalgic for. The first two seasons of its original run were the episodes that built its reputation, and they all bear Kricfalusi’s trademark absurdity and love for the grotesque. The series ran for three more seasons after he was fired in 1993, but they weren’t well-received at the time and aren’t fondly remembered today. Kricfalusi himself had an opportunity to return to his show in the early ‘00s, but even with the original creator on board the Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon revival was a notorious disaster that was cancelled after only three episodes aired. So here’s a show that’s heavily dependent on the vision of a creator who’s now completely toxic and already proved almost 20 years ago that his creative tank for new Ren & Stimpy episodes was utterly dry." Martin adds that "even the once-popular and supposedly good episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show absolutely do not stand up today. Kricfalusi’s vision might’ve turned the show into a phenomenon at the time, but today it mostly feels like empty shock value. It’s gross for the sake of being gross, and its characters are little more than loose collections of obnoxious traits that exist solely to set up jokes. Kricfalusi was inspired by the old irreverent shorts of Bob Clampett, and it shows; Ren & Stimpy lacks the character development and commitment to storytelling that cartoons have cultivated from the ‘90s on, which wouldn’t be a problem if its jokes were funny enough. They aren’t. The Ren & Stimpy Show is a great example of a short-lived fad that doesn’t really work outside of its specific moment in time. Does that mean a new Ren & Stimpy is destined to fail? Not at all. Perhaps a genuinely talented and creative mind will be put in charge of the revival, and recalibrate it into something that somehow fits the current culture without completely disregarding the spirit of the original. Still, of all of these nostalgic remakes coming to Viacom networks in the upcoming months, this is the one that makes the least amount of sense—and one that, in turn, makes the other ones lose a bit of their luster."

[TMC]

I’m pretty lucky, I have lived through some major pop culture events. The Tim Burton Batman films changed comic book media, the birth of Image comics, seeing how Star Trek The Next Generation birthed a new fandom. But one of the biggest events was seeing how, in a few short years, animation would change forever. The Simpsons is one example of how cartoons started to break new ground. Yet there was one cartoon that broke the world of American animation. It was gross, it was crass, it was unlike anything we had ever seen. If the Simpsons were an explosion, Ren & Stimpy were the atomic bomb. Today many popular cartoons can all trace their origins back to an insane Chihuahua and a stupid big-nosed cat. It is undeniable Ren & Stimpy changed the face of animation. However the story behind the genesis of the show is full of rebellion, arrogance, and sadly…. pain. It’s a long and fascinating tale, so put on your Stupamatron helmet and get ready to learn about the origins of Ren & Stimpy in this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten.