Ren And Stimpy Reboot For Comedy Central

[AllenJ]

I read the Harpy Gee comic every week. I always thought it would make a good animated cartoon. After seeing the pilot, I knew that I wasn't wrong.

Same with Camp Weedonwantcha.

I personally think it would be incredibly fitting and cathartic if this reboot were canceled in favor of a "Camp Weedonwantcha" series. Too bad that probably won't happen.

 

[Light Lucario]

I saw the pilot for Camp Weedonwantcha. It felt rather charming and I could see it working as a series, but I'm not too surprised that Nickelodeon passed up on it. I'd much rather see that become a series or for them to make a brand new series as opposed to making more Ren and Stimpy at this point.

 

[Rhaynebow]

The response to this seems to be a mix of reboot hate and John K hate and I don’t really get it. Reboots are like...150% NOT new and while it’s tiring to see decades old franchises constantly get reheated, it’s hard not to blame the big cheeses to fall back on prepackaged content. You have the basic designs and the basic characters, all you need is some updates and your cartoon is finished. Again, it sucks that networks don’t want to hear from new voices, but it’s still a business at the end of the day and they’re gonna go for the products they know will make them a profit.

And John K won’t be seeing a penny of that. He can continue to scrape for cash by selling doodles he makes on phone calls while better artists and writers reboot a show he screwed over tons of people on and turn it into something worth watching. Reboots are touted as fixing problems with the original and R&S certainly has plenty of things that can be fixed.


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[Darkdawn]

OK... I have complicated feelings about all this.

On the one hand, I'm not sure I can trust ViacomCBS' intentions. It's not-at-all surprising but still disheartening that now that the two separate companies are back together (saddling the media landscape with yet another questionable mega-merger), they're going full tilt with the easy route. AKA reboots of past successes. I trust them even less so knowing that this has really alienated a lot of aspiring animators/showrunners whose ideas have been passed over in favor of endless reboots taking advantage of nostalgia.

And unlike Daria or even Clone High, a Ren & Stimpy reboot isn't going to benefit much from nostalgia or good will. Aside from the obvious matter of John Kricfalusi's reprehensible actions, Ren & Stimpy is noted for being crass and vulgar and meanspirited... and I'm not sure how much audience demand there is for those specific things in the media landscape of 2020. Or to be more specific, demand for it from professionally-made media productions. If people want "vulgar" or "meanspirited" nowadays, they can simply scroll down the timeline of any trending topic on Twitter or subscribe to any number of YouTube "personalities".

On the other hand (and a lot of people are going to disagree with me here, and that's perfectly okay), I see a prevailing consensus in this thread that Ren & Stimpy as an IP should just be buried and forgotten forever because of who Kricfalusi is and what he has done... and I don't agree with that. There are a lot of good reasons why Ren & Stimpy probably shouldn't be brought back, such as the ones I mentioned above (lazy exploitation of nostalgia, denying opportunities for fresh ideas and IPs, outdated tone and value proposition).

But I don't think "Kricfalusi is a bad person" is one of them. The Loud House wasn't wiped off the face of the earth because of Chris Savino's abusive behavior; not only is it still a major IP for Nickelodeon, it even has a spin-off series (Los Casagrandes). Everyone seems to be perfectly fine with Pixar's continued existence/success even after we learned the truth about John Lasseter. In those cases, people have generally accepted that The Loud House as a show and Pixar as a company have grown far beyond their disgraced creators. And so it goes for similar recent and current situations elsewhere in the entertainment world (it's happening right now in many sectors of the Harry Potter fan community).

I know a lot of people feel R&S shouldn't be brought back out of respect for Kricfalusi's victims. I get that and I totally respect that. I agree that bringing it back only a few years after the Buzzfeed expose is tasteless; however, I don't agree that R&S should be buried forever because of it's creator.

Tasteless timing aside, I actually see an inkling of potential in a new version of Ren & Stimpy. If the new creative team can somehow harness the manic energy and expressiveness of the 90's series in service of a new tone and format that would be appealing for the 2020s (instead of trying to do a rehash of what the original series was), if they go out of their way to pair talented new artists with (non-scumbag) Spumco veterans, if they manage to nurture a healthy work environment that respects both human dignity and creative integrity, then... honestly? It might work. It might be a hit. It might even be something I want to watch.

(Just in case you're wondering, I'm not a fan of the original Ren & Stimpy. At all. But notwithstanding my personal distaste (and Kricfalusi being a complete scumbag, ofc), I do respect the show's overall legacy and have recently become morbidly fascinated with all the behind-the-scenes lore about the show's production.)

 

[DonTrashRoom]

OK... I have complicated feelings about all this.

On the one hand, I'm not sure I can trust ViacomCBS' intentions. It's not-at-all surprising but still disheartening that now that the two separate companies are back together (saddling the media landscape with yet another questionable mega-merger), they're going full tilt with the easy route. AKA reboots of past successes. I trust them even less so knowing that this has really alienated a lot of aspiring animators/showrunners whose ideas have been passed over in favor of endless reboots taking advantage of nostalgia.

And unlike Daria or even Clone High, a Ren & Stimpy reboot isn't going to benefit much from nostalgia or good will. Aside from the obvious matter of John Kricfalusi's reprehensible actions, Ren & Stimpy is noted for being crass and vulgar and meanspirited... and I'm not sure how much audience demand there is for those specific things in the media landscape of 2020. Or to be more specific, demand for it from professionally-made media productions. If people want "vulgar" or "meanspirited" nowadays, they can simply scroll down the timeline of any trending topic on Twitter or subscribe to any number of YouTube "personalities".

On the other hand (and a lot of people are going to disagree with me here, and that's perfectly okay), I see a prevailing consensus in this thread that Ren & Stimpy as an IP should just be buried and forgotten forever because of who Kricfalusi is and what he has done... and I don't agree with that. There are a lot of good reasons why Ren & Stimpy probably shouldn't be brought back, such as the ones I mentioned above (lazy exploitation of nostalgia, denying opportunities for fresh ideas and IPs, outdated tone and value proposition).

But I don't think "Kricfalusi is a bad person" is one of them. The Loud House wasn't wiped off the face of the earth because of Chris Savino's abusive behavior; not only is it still a major IP for Nickelodeon, it even has a spin-off series (Los Casagrandes). Everyone seems to be perfectly fine with Pixar's continued existence/success even after we learned the truth about John Lasseter. In those cases, people have generally accepted that The Loud House as a show and Pixar as a company have grown far beyond their disgraced creators. And so it goes for similar recent and current situations elsewhere in the entertainment world (it's happening right now in many sectors of the Harry Potter fan community).

I know a lot of people feel R&S shouldn't be brought back out of respect for Kricfalusi's victims. I get that and I totally respect that. I agree that bringing it back only a few years after the Buzzfeed expose is tasteless; however, I don't agree that R&S should be buried forever because of it's creator.

Tasteless timing aside, I actually see an inkling of potential in a new version of Ren & Stimpy. If the new creative team can somehow harness the manic energy and expressiveness of the 90's series in service of a new tone and format that would be appealing for the 2020s (instead of trying to do a rehash of what the original series was), if they go out of their way to pair talented new artists with (non-scumbag) Spumco veterans, if they manage to nurture a healthy work environment that respects both human dignity and creative integrity, then... honestly? It might work. It might be a hit. It might even be something I want to watch.

(Just in case you're wondering, I'm not a fan of the original Ren & Stimpy. At all. But notwithstanding my personal distaste (and Kricfalusi being a complete scumbag, ofc), I do respect the show's overall legacy and have recently become morbidly fascinated with all the behind-the-scenes lore about the show's production.)

I am conflicted about this too.

While I am overjoyed that John K. will have zero involvement, it's a little concerning that they didn't let Bob Camp know the show would be coming back, and there's also a lot of baggage surrounding the IP. Besides, I feel like ViacomCBS is going overkill on shows based on pre-existing properties/reboots of their past successes.

But I'd be willing to give this new incarnation of Ren and Stimpy a fair chance. If I end up not liking it, I'll just not continue to watch, that's all.

 

[Light Lucario]

The response to this seems to be a mix of reboot hate and John K hate and I don’t really get it. Reboots are like...150% NOT new and while it’s tiring to see decades old franchises constantly get reheated, it’s hard not to blame the big cheeses to fall back on prepackaged content. You have the basic designs and the basic characters, all you need is some updates and your cartoon is finished. Again, it sucks that networks don’t want to hear from new voices, but it’s still a business at the end of the day and they’re gonna go for the products they know will make them a profit.

It isn't surprising that they're relying more on established properties and it does make sense business wise, but it's still a bit disappointing. Putting the John K issue on the side for the moment, this just feel like a weird choice for a series to get the reboot treatment. Ren and Stimpy is one of the first Nicktoons, but even before the John K article came out a couple of years ago, I don't think it was that popular or beloved. I certainly wasn't seeing much, if any, desire to see the property get revived. Reboots are still typical in this day and age, but the choices usually make sense. In this case, it almost feel like Comedy Central wanted a quick and easy way to have another adult animated comedy on their lineup.

OK... I have complicated feelings about all this.

On the one hand, I'm not sure I can trust ViacomCBS' intentions. It's not-at-all surprising but still disheartening that now that the two separate companies are back together (saddling the media landscape with yet another questionable mega-merger), they're going full tilt with the easy route. AKA reboots of past successes. I trust them even less so knowing that this has really alienated a lot of aspiring animators/showrunners whose ideas have been passed over in favor of endless reboots taking advantage of nostalgia.

And unlike Daria or even Clone High, a Ren & Stimpy reboot isn't going to benefit much from nostalgia or good will. Aside from the obvious matter of John Kricfalusi's reprehensible actions, Ren & Stimpy is noted for being crass and vulgar and meanspirited... and I'm not sure how much audience demand there is for those specific things in the media landscape of 2020. Or to be more specific, demand for it from professionally-made media productions. If people want "vulgar" or "meanspirited" nowadays, they can simply scroll down the timeline of any trending topic on Twitter or subscribe to any number of YouTube "personalities".

On the other hand (and a lot of people are going to disagree with me here, and that's perfectly okay), I see a prevailing consensus in this thread that Ren & Stimpy as an IP should just be buried and forgotten forever because of who Kricfalusi is and what he has done... and I don't agree with that. There are a lot of good reasons why Ren & Stimpy probably shouldn't be brought back, such as the ones I mentioned above (lazy exploitation of nostalgia, denying opportunities for fresh ideas and IPs, outdated tone and value proposition).

I think that this situation is kind of complicated. Like I mentioned before, more time wouldn't change what John K said and did, but it kind of feels like Viacom waited the bare minimum amount of time for the PR poison to die down so that they could do something new with the property. I don't know if there would be necessarily a better time for a Ren and Stimpy reboot, but two years between the accusations coming to light and announcing this reboot feels too short to me. I'm not saying that the property should be buried and forgotten exactly. It would be pretty difficult for a number of reasons for Ren and Stimpy to be forgotten, but I don't think it's really necessary to bring it back. If John K wasn't such a terrible person who sexually groomed children, this wouldn't be much of an issue.

But I don't think "Kricfalusi is a bad person" is one of them. The Loud House wasn't wiped off the face of the earth because of Chris Savino's abusive behavior; not only is it still a major IP for Nickelodeon, it even has a spin-off series (Los Casagrandes). Everyone seems to be perfectly fine with Pixar's continued existence/success even after we learned the truth about John Lasseter. In those cases, people have generally accepted that The Loud House as a show and Pixar as a company have grown far beyond their disgraced creators. And so it goes for similar recent and current situations elsewhere in the entertainment world (it's happening right now in many sectors of the Harry Potter fan community).

I know a lot of people feel R&S shouldn't be brought back out of respect for Kricfalusi's victims. I get that and I totally respect that. I agree that bringing it back only a few years after the Buzzfeed expose is tasteless; however, I don't agree that R&S should be buried forever because of it's creator.

As terrible as Chris Savino's own behavior was, I think that The Loud House being in production when those accusations came out made it a bit of a different situation. Cancelling the series because of his sexual harassment would have put a lot of other innocent people out of a job. The women John K sexually groomed as children didn't speak out until well after the show had wrapped up production. Plus, he was already fired from Nickelodeon during Ren and Stimpy's run too. John Lasseter was also a different case since despite being heavily involved at Pixar, I don't think he is as associated with specific movies as John K is with Ren and Stimpy. I honestly forget that he was the executive producer for a lot of Disney/Pixar movies until I get to the credits.

Honestly, I'm still processing this news and how I feel about it myself. I don't know if I'll skip it, but I'm also not really into too many adult animated shows anyway. My Dad was excited about it when he saw the news, so I'm sure that he'll watch it at least.

 

[TheVileOne]

The reason its happening is because Ren & Stimpy was a popular, trailblazing trendsetting show in the 1990s. Now, it's very much a product of its time. But major companies are fixated on selling things that either have an established name or were once successful before. That's easier to sell and finance than a brand-new original show, like say Mao Mao, which look how its treated by its parent company.

In this digital era, it's tougher to sell these new shows to tell your streaming services. Can anyone name me those top original Apple TV shows? But if you're trying to sell a sub service or a line of streaming shows, saying you are doing brand-new episodes of Beavis & Butthead and Ren & Stimpy is probably easier because it gets instant recognition. It's an easier sell.

Not saying I agree with the practice. That's just how it is.

I can't say I hate it all the time. At the very least we were able to get a final season for Samurai Jack that finished the story. There are plenty of shows I honestly wouldn't mind revivals or continuations for. Ren & Stimpy isn't one of them. Don't get me wrong, I watched and enjoyed Ren & Stimpy when I was younger. Didn't love it and it's not like something that really captures my imagination like say Invader Zim. And at least we got that awesome Invader Zim animated movie.

And quite frankly, I'm still suspicious about the Animaniacs revival since the creators were not involved at all and had no idea it was happening. It's a bit sketchy if you ask me.

The reason I feel differently about say Samurai Jack and Invader Zim is that Genndy Tartakovsky and Jhonen Vasquez spearheaded those revivals and were involved at every step.

It isn't surprising that they're relying more on established properties and it does make sense business wise, but it's still a bit disappointing. Putting the John K issue on the side for the moment, this just feel like a weird choice for a series to get the reboot treatment. Ren and Stimpy is one of the first Nicktoons, but even before the John K article came out a couple of years ago, I don't think it was that popular or beloved. I certainly wasn't seeing much, if any, desire to see the property get revived. Reboots are still typical in this day and age, but the choices usually make sense. In this case, it almost feel like Comedy Central wanted a quick and easy way to have another adult animated comedy on their lineup.

The show was a juggernaut and incredibly popular for its time. It was a phenomenon. No revisionist history is going to alter how popular Ren & Stimpy was. I remember my family taking me to Universal Studios in Orlando in the 1990s and the Nick Studios area was filled everywhere with Ren & Stimpy merch of all sorts.

Not to mention a whole generation of cartoons that followed the show were following its examples and borrowing from its style. The show was hugely popular and influential. I doubt shows like Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, SpongeBob SquarePants, and probably many other beloved shows don't exist without Ren & Stimpy.

Also to people who aren't happy with this, this is why you should watch and support the new shows that are original, ie Amphibia, Owl House, Mao Mao, et al.

But I don't think "Kricfalusi is a bad person" is one of them. The Loud House wasn't wiped off the face of the earth because of Chris Savino's abusive behavior; not only is it still a major IP for Nickelodeon, it even has a spin-off series (Los Casagrandes). Everyone seems to be perfectly fine with Pixar's continued existence/success even after we learned the truth about John Lasseter. In those cases, people have generally accepted that The Loud House as a show and Pixar as a company have grown far beyond their disgraced creators. And so it goes for similar recent and current situations elsewhere in the entertainment world (it's happening right now in many sectors of the Harry Potter fan community).

I will definitely echo this sentiment Spaceman.

 

[Perla Magica]

I have mixed feelings about this reboot... I understand and agree with the people and animation industry on Twitter who are against the idea of rebooting "Ren and Stimpy" because of what John K. did, but I think Comedy Central had no other ideas (outside that "Loafy" cartoon) to be relevant again.

The show itself is a cult classic and inspiratular influence to every cartoon in the 90's/early 2000's that was made by the guy who is now known for his sexual harassment, we can hate him but we can't hate the cartoon. Of course "Ren and Stimpy" had some issuses and had the infamous adult spin-off, but it's still a popular show.

I wonder what the reboot is gonna be like. Something new and fresh that the original show never was or "Adult Party Cartoon 2: Electric Boogaloo"? Or maybe both?!

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

The reason its happening is because Ren & Stimpy was a popular, trailblazing trendsetting show in the 1990s. Now, it's very much a product of its time. But major companies are fixated on selling things that either have an established name or were once successful before. That's easier to sell and finance than a brand-new original show, like say Mao Mao, which look how its treated by its parent company.

Okay I don't want to totally deflate and totally switch gears on the topic but... how is Mao Mao Heroes of Pure Heart being treated badly by Cartoon Network? Like they constantly played that ad for it's last run of new episodes of season one for a month straight and announced a season 2 that's obviously coming to the main network either later this year or next as Mao Mao is a show they are still showing... granted only like a half hour of it a day but to CN "we literally only play seven shows per day" logic that's actually still pretty good for something still not in it's second season yet so it's doing fine and working well on CN.

More on topic it's pretty clear with the new creative team even if we don't know who that is being pumped front and center it's clear they are making a Ren and Stimpy totally NOT ASSOCIATED with John K and just using the name and infamy of what the show was. Which honestly no matter how terrible a guy he is you can't take away the fact he did make such a popular beloved show that did so well for awhile that had an audience. And that there are going to be people in the animated industry who created works who also had disgusting personal lives but that shouldn't really affect the works themselves. Heck look what happened with Skylar Page on Clarence or Chris Savino on Loud House as those shows were going: they were just taken off those series but they were still allowed to continue because the series itself wasn't doing anything wrong. So honestly so long as there are decent people working on this revival we shouldn't just instantly associate this with John K's sins and hate it on that level. I will agree more on again there not being as much a need NOW for a Ren and Stimpy series or how a revival could work but again, Comedy Central sans South Park is betting on nostalgia and the success of old series for their new cartoons and since sans SP they didn't have any big beloved franchises they could revive (I guess you could argue maybe Dr. Katz but I don't see that one happening. And Drawn Together flushed any good will it might of had down the drain with that awful revival movie) it's going with shows of older eras it can get the rights to use.

You know though thinking about it I do realize one thing odd about all of this: wasn't Nick really annoyed and ticked off at the idea of Doug and then later Ren and Stimpy having their shows go to other networks and made a promise to never let that happen again? So why is it happening here since shouldn't they still own the Ren and Stimpy IP? Did CC give them a big amount of cash for it for this revival series or something?

 

[Lex The Bookworm]

I'm glad Ren & Stimpy is getting a reboot without John K's involvement and as long it doesn't used George Liquor and stays faithful to original cartoon from 90's unlike adult party cartoon the reboot will redeemed itself.

 

[TargetmasterJoe]

I wonder what the reboot is gonna be like. Something new and fresh that the original show never was or "Adult Party Cartoon 2: Electric Boogaloo"? Or maybe both?!

Given how not so well it turned out, I'm pretty sure the last thing they'd want to do is try their hand at another Adult Party Cartoon. Best case scenario, if the universe insists that we have a new Ren and Stimpy, then it should lean more towards the absurd, a la Cartoon Network's Uncle Grandpa. And on that note, this should just reach TV-PG. TV-14 and higher would be overkill.

 

[Rhaynebow]

I have mixed feelings about this reboot... I understand and agree with the people and animation industry on Twitter who are against the idea of rebooting "Ren and Stimpy" because of what John K. did, but I think Comedy Central had no other ideas (outside that "Loafy" cartoon) to be relevant again.

The show itself is a cult classic and inspiratular influence to every cartoon in the 90's/early 2000's that was made by the guy who is now known for his sexual harassment, we can hate him but we can't hate the cartoon. Of course "Ren and Stimpy" had some issuses and had the infamous adult spin-off, but it's still a popular show.

I wonder what the reboot is gonna be like. Something new and fresh that the original show never was or "Adult Party Cartoon 2: Electric Boogaloo"? Or maybe both?!

This 100%. I don’t understand why some people are saying R&S wasn’t popular, it was one of the original Nicktoons for Pete’s sake. It put Nickelodeon on the map and pulled animation as a whole out of the toyetic dark ages where the products came first and the toons were an afterthought.

My biggest worry though is that the animation that made R&S so good is gonna be too expensive to make in today’s time. To go as off-model as this show did would have to be hand-drawn.


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[hobbyfan]

Comedy Central, remember, is a sister network to Nick, MTV, & Paramount Network (formerly Spike). So having the new Ren & Stimpy airing there isn't as much of a problem, and neither was the Adult Party Cartoon being on Spike in '03. Neither fits with Nickelodeon's programming schematic.

 

[kanc]

I haven't watched the original Ren and Stimpy at all, so I could care less about the new revival anyways

 

[Light Lucario]

The show was a juggernaut and incredibly popular for its time. It was a phenomenon. No revisionist history is going to alter how popular Ren & Stimpy was. I remember my family taking me to Universal Studios in Orlando in the 1990s and the Nick Studios area was filled everywhere with Ren & Stimpy merch of all sorts.

Not to mention a whole generation of cartoons that followed the show were following its examples and borrowing from its style. The show was hugely popular and influential. I doubt shows like Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, SpongeBob SquarePants, and probably many other beloved shows don't exist without Ren & Stimpy.

Also to people who aren't happy with this, this is why you should watch and support the new shows that are original, ie Amphibia, Owl House, Mao Mao, et al.

Maybe I was just too young at the time, but I honestly don't remember Ren and Stimpy being that huge. To be clear, I'm not saying that it was never popular. I do remember seeing merchandise for the show and I enjoyed it when I was little, but I don't think it put Nickelodeon on the map. I always thought that was Rugrats since that was a much bigger hit. It was basically Nick's first Spongebob in terms of having hugely popular and financially successful franchise.

Part of the issue could also be how whenever the original three Nicktoons come up in conversation, it's usually about Rugrats and maybe Doug, but not so much Ren and Stimpy. I can see how it left an impact that could have influenced other series, but I just don't think that there was a noticeable demand for more Ren and Stimpy despite all of that. For the record, I do watch new shows like Amphibia and Owl House too.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Ren & Stimpy was big back in the day. I was a little kid in the early ‘90’s and I didn’t watch Nick, but I knew who those guys were. I had a few older cousins who were fans and I knew kids at school who watched it. I’m not entirely sure, but I think Ren & Stimpy was the main reason why my parents preferred Disney and CN for me when I was little.

I think it was a “flash in the pan” type show. It was incredibly popular in its heyday, but then it fell off the radar. At the time it was so different and unique, people flocked to it. Gross out and surreal humor is a dime a dozen in cartoons now, so people have a lot more choices.

 

[Classic Speedy]

There are any number of ways this could go right, but just as many that it could go wrong. I'll hold off on judgement until we at least get a sense of the crew involved (though the lack of Bob Camp sucks). The timing of this announcement is horrendous, though, coming right off the HHJJ doc.

I'm glad Ren & Stimpy is getting a reboot without John K's involvement and as long it doesn't used George Liquor and stays faithful to original cartoon from 90's unlike adult party cartoon the reboot will redeemed itself.

I'm pretty sure they can't use George Liquor anyway, since that character is owned by John Kricfalusi.

EDIT:

Maybe I was just too young at the time, but I honestly don't remember Ren and Stimpy being that huge. To be clear, I'm not saying that it was never popular. I do remember seeing merchandise for the show and I enjoyed it when I was little, but I don't think it put Nickelodeon on the map. I always thought that was Rugrats since that was a much bigger hit. It was basically Nick's first Spongebob in terms of having hugely popular and financially successful franchise.

Nobody tried to imitate Rugrats, though. R&S inspired quite a few cartoons, at least in the superficial sense. From that vantage point, it was a bigger hit than Rugrats, even if its popularity was comparatively short-lived.

 

[ToonJay723]

This 100%. I don’t understand why some people are saying R&S wasn’t popular, it was one of the original Nicktoons for Pete’s sake. It put Nickelodeon on the map and pulled animation as a whole out of the toyetic dark ages where the products came first and the toons were an afterthought.

It was popular for a few years but it quickly fizzled out and was cancelled in 1995 after 52 episodes, even though they originally planned to make 65 episodes. And Ren & Stimpy wasn't the first cartoon that wasn't specifically made to sell toys. DuckTales, Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers, The Simpsons, and Tiny Toon Adventures came out before it, and Doug and Rugrats came out the same day as Ren & Stimpy.

Maybe I was just too young at the time, but I honestly don't remember Ren and Stimpy being that huge. To be clear, I'm not saying that it was never popular. I do remember seeing merchandise for the show and I enjoyed it when I was little, but I don't think it put Nickelodeon on the map.

Like I said above, it was huge in '91 and '92 but it faded, and Rugrats would become bigger in '95, then SpongeBob became bigger than that in the 2000s.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

I was thinking, and it might actually be a better idea to just make a Powdered Toast Man spinoff series. You could do a lot with that concept, and with Superhero movies and tv being dominant, it would be relevant to 2021.

 

[Light Lucario]

It was popular for a few years but it quickly fizzled out and was cancelled in 1995 after 52 episodes, even though they originally planned to make 65 episodes. And Ren & Stimpy wasn't the first cartoon that wasn't specifically made to sell toys. DuckTales, Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers, The Simpsons, and Tiny Toon Adventures came out before it, and Doug and Rugrats came out the same day as Ren & Stimpy.


Like I said above, it was huge in '91 and '92 but it faded, and Rugrats would become bigger in '95, then SpongeBob became bigger than that in the 2000s.

This would probably explain why I don't remember Ren and Stimpy being that huge. I was barely old enough to watch TV back at its peak of popularity. There is a good chance that I didn't watch it, or at least don't remember watching it, until after it was already canceled. I have much clearer memories of watching new Rugrats and Doug episodes too.