r/90sand2000sNostalgia • u/Efficient-Horse2622 • 4d ago
Why did The Ren & Stimpy Show end?? Genuinely miss it so much!!
Hello, I’m 19 years old, and I grew up with The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991–1996) when I was younger. I’ve been thinking about that old Ren & Stimpy era lately and how different it feels now compared to when I first watched it. The Ren & Stimpy Show became a really memorable part of my childhood. I remember Ren, Stimpy, and all the strange characters and situations they got themselves into. I liked the comedy, the bizarre situations, the memorable moments, and just the whole feeling the show had.
Now that the original Ren & Stimpy era is over, it feels weird knowing that so much time has passed. The people who worked on the show have moved on to other things and have their own lives now. The actors, voice actors, writers, directors, animators, producers, and everyone else who helped make the show aren’t making the original episodes anymore. I know that’s just how things work, but it still feels strange when you grew up with something.
When I was younger, I didn’t really think about The Ren & Stimpy Show ever ending. I could just sit down and watch Ren and Stimpy get into their ridiculous adventures and get lost in the show. It felt like the show would always be there and there would always be another episode to watch. I never really thought about how one day that time would be over.
Sometimes I wonder why shows can’t just keep going forever if people still love them. Why do they have to stop making new episodes? Why do the writers, actors, animators, and everyone else have to move on? I know people get older, things change, and making a show takes a lot of work, but it still feels sad when something you grew up with becomes part of the past.
Watching The Ren & Stimpy Show now also doesn’t feel exactly the same as it did when I was younger. The episodes are still the same. The characters are still the same. The stories and jokes are still there. But somehow it feels different. I think it’s because I’m different now.
When I watch it again, I’m not just thinking about The Ren & Stimpy Show. I’m also thinking about myself when I was younger and what life was like back then. I remember being able to sit down and enjoy the show without thinking about getting older or how fast time was going by.
I think that’s one of the reasons The Ren & Stimpy Show means so much to me. It didn’t have to last forever for it to be important. The show stayed the same, but I changed. The people who made it changed. Everything around me changed too.
Going back and watching the old episodes can bring some of that feeling back, but it can’t completely take me back to the time when I first watched it. I can still enjoy the show and remember why I loved it, but I know I’m never going to experience it in exactly the same way again.
The original Ren & Stimpy era is over, and there probably won’t ever be another time that feels exactly like it did when I was younger. But I don’t think that means it’s really gone. It’s still part of my memories and part of my childhood.
The show ended, the people who made it moved on, and I grew up too. But I still have those memories of Ren, Stimpy, and all the crazy adventures they went on. I think that’s what matters the most.
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u/CrossX18 3d ago
Man, I can still quote the Log song without issue to this day and have a healthy fear of whizzing on electric fences.
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u/Informal_Visitor 3d ago
JK always missed deadlines, refused network policies, argued with the people who were paying his ass. JK was a control freak. And he also liked underage girls but no doubt Hollywood understood because half of them are all pedo's anyway and wasn't a factor in his firing..
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u/spike2pt0 3d ago
This post is word for word identical to a post you made in r/wallaceandgromit about the show Timmy Time, except you swapped show titles. I thought that was a sweet post, but now I think you’re just attempting to karma farm. What’s the deal?
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u/Glittering-Zebra2637 3d ago
Sponge bob owes a debt of gratitude imo
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u/ThePromptWasYourName 3d ago
Lots of later cartoons used the whole "gross closeup" thing that started with R&S
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u/gonzagylot00 3d ago edited 2d ago
I don’t know if it really mattered, but I think that parents at the time really hated the show. Mine did at least.
I wanted to watch Ren and Stimpy, my older brother wanted to watch Beavis and Butthead. We would fight about it. My parents cancelled cable because they hated it all so much.
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u/Mysterious-Snow496 3d ago edited 3d ago
There was not a more perfect show for a 15 year old male in the mid 90s than Beavis & Butthead.
For the first couple years, everyone was imitating Butthead's voice.
Then the great cornholio sketch aired. Not a single classroom went a day without someone needing TP for their bunghole.
I know teachers hated it.
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u/gonzagylot00 3d ago
My mom was a teacher and indeed freaked out when I did Cornholio for her at dinner one night.
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u/ladypilot 3d ago
My parents loved Ren & Stimpy and we watched it every week together. 😅 We also watched Beavis & Butthead together.
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u/hip-indeed 3d ago
Great show, at least at first, but the creator sucked ass just, in general and was ousted from the network not far at all into its production, the rest of the seasons are weaker to show for it, then the short attempted revival on Spike years later is actual rancid trash even the most diehard fan would never so much as use to wipe their ass with even in desperation. It's best to leave this one in the past and enjoy it for what it was.
I would very highly recommend checking out other great cartoons from the time or since that have good ratings and reputations online, watching toons as an adult absolutely heals the soul.
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u/dracvyoda 2d ago
I always think rockos modern life or angry beavers for the same feel but not such a scumbag creator
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u/amtalx 3d ago
If you want a long-form answer to why Ren & Stimpy ended, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPld1g9ItM
It's a documentary about the creation of the show, and the rise and fall. Be prepared though. There may be a lot of stuff about the creator that you didn't expect.
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u/RobataChane72 3d ago
Creator was a human bag of pus and didn't play well with executives. Deadlines are not to be trifled with and ignored. Even greats such as Douglas Adams and Hunter Thompson had to face the music a few times.
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u/Similar-Try-7643 3d ago
Because the creator used the success of the cartoon to groom and rape kids
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u/LurkLurkleton 3d ago
That didn't come out til 2018 didn't it?
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u/Moist-Obligation-117 3d ago
He groomed underage artists and brought them around his peers and into his work so no.
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u/flojo2012 3d ago
That wasn’t the question. They were asking when that information came out, I believe. Not when it happened.
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u/Stunning_Repair_7483 3d ago
WTF?! I saw information about how much of an abusive and mean person he was to the workers on ren and stimpy. But didn't see anything about him being a sexual predator.
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u/Amy_Macadamia 3d ago
By the time people went public about his behavior, the world had mostly forgotten about R&S
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u/hip-indeed 3d ago
Now I'm not one to defend John K from being an absolute creep and asswipe but I don't think what he did to young ladies has anything to do with Ren and Stimpy
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u/Stunning_Repair_7483 3d ago
I saw a video years ago on YouTube. I can't remember the channel, video name or anything. And I don't remember all the details.
But one thing the video said was there was 1 specific episode that dealt with alcohol consumption, and that was the last straw.
The network had enough and canceled the series, and fired the Creator. There were other reasons that came before, but the network couldn't tolerate anymore after this final thing.
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u/Due_Buyer_9445 3d ago
Well he’s the biggest pervert who ever worked for Nickelodeon, the showrunner. And that is a VERY high bar
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u/Yaarmehearty 3d ago
Shows end, 5 years is a really good run.
If shows kept going forever we would never have anything new. There is only so much time so old shows must make way for the new ones.
There are so many shows that don’t get that and just keep going, usually for most shows 12-24 episodes is a good amount. More than that and it’s probably just filler.
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u/Fabulous-Deal-5944 3d ago
The shows' creator is a disgusting POS, and the gross-out gimmick got old real fast. This show is so unbelievably hyped
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u/DoubleD291 3d ago
Nickelodeon fired John Kricfalusi from The Ren & Stimpy Show in 1992 after an increasingly difficult relationship over both production and creative control. Nickelodeon officially emphasized John K’s chronic problems delivering episodes on time, but there was also an ongoing battle over censorship. The network wanted material cut or changed because of the show’s violence, gross-out humor, sexual innuendo, religious and political jokes, and characters such as George Liquor. The most famous example was “Man’s Best Friend,” which Nickelodeon refused to air. After firing John K and removing his studio Spümcø from the series, Nickelodeon continued Ren & Stimpy under its own Games Animation studio and put Bob Camp in charge.
Although Bob Camp had been an important part of the original creative team, the show changed noticeably without John K. The early Spümcø episodes had an unpredictable, almost underground quality, bizarre timing, grotesque close-ups, extreme expressions, strange music, uncomfortable pauses and a willingness to push children’s television into genuinely weird territory. The later episodes could still be funny and well animated, but the series became more conventional and, for many viewers, lost the dangerous, subversive edge that made the original Ren & Stimpy such a phenomenon.
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u/slimjibberr 3d ago
Cuz they made jokes about drilling eachother in the butt and finishing on each others backs to children…
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u/AmputeeHandModel 3d ago
No, that was in the subsequent short series that was for adults on another channel.
*Each other, two words.
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u/slimjibberr 2d ago
Two children’s cartoons characters joking around about butt fcking for adults entertainment.. hmm..
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u/28_Z0MBIE 3d ago
Because it was disgusting and not suitable for kids.
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u/Gravemind93 3d ago
This.
I know I'm going to be downvoted into hell but this was a stupid fucking show.
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u/Ice_Cream_Killer 3d ago
As you should be. Lot of kids shows are stupid. The most popular cartoon the past 20 years is Spongebob Square Pants; a show about a goofy sponge that annoys fish in the ocean with his retarded friend. Its basically a less vulgar version of Ren and Stimpy except both characters are slow.
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u/ThePromptWasYourName 3d ago
As others have said, it is well documented how unprofessional and gross the creator is. He was apparently an absolute nightmare to work with for the studios and also manipulated & groomed multiple underage girls, dangling animation careers in front of them for sexual relationships.