Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 87: Interview with Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia interviews Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood, the men behind an upcoming documentary titled Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story.

Check out Ron and Kimo's links below and learn more information about the Ren & Stimpy documentary.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ha...
https://www.facebook.com/renandstimpydoc
https://twitter.com/RonCicero
https://www.instagram.com/kimopix

Top 10 Ren & Stimpy Episodes

Rounding out this themed month dedicated to the 3 original Nicktoons, Patricia counts down her top 10 favorite episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show. Which episodes of the series are your favorites and why? Leave a comment down below.

How the 3 Original Nicktoons Influence Pop Culture with Mathew Klickstein and Caseen Gaines

Continuing with 3 Original Nicktoons Month, Patricia interviews book authors and pop culture enthusiats Mathew Klickstein and Caseen Gaines discussing about how Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show influence pop culture.

Check out the 4 part oral history of the 3 original Nicktoons that Mathew and Caseen wrote for Decider.

http://decider.com/2016/06/14/the-oral-history-of-nicktoons-part-i-how-the-storied-animation-block-came-to-be/

Check out Mathew's links down below

http://www.mathewklickstein.com

https://www.facebook.com/NickOralHistory/?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/NickOralHistory

Check out Caseen's links down below

http://www.caseengaines.com

https://www.facebook.com/caseengaines/?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/caseengaines

What the Original 3 Nicktoons Mean to Patricia

Continuing with 3 Original Nicktoons Month, Patricia discusses on what Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show mean to her...on a boat in New Jersey.

Old School Lane's Not-Nickelodeon Tribute Week: Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon

Now we come to the 2000's. While we have been discussing that some of the 90's Nickelodeon shows were hugely innovated and groundbreaking when they first came out, nothing could be more given that recognition than The Ren & Stimpy Show. Back in the 80's when cartoons were either based on a toy, movie, or reboot of a cartoon from the 60's, The Ren & Stimpy Show was an homage to the classic cartoons while giving it a zany twist. The animation was eye-popping and in-your-face, the humor was off color, the jokes had a edge that both kids and adults could enjoy, and the characters were very kooky and over-the-top, but memorable and charming. The Ren & Stimpy Show was a huge game changer for animation in general and many shows from the 90's would copy its formula such as Cow and Chicken, Rocko's Modern Life, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Like it or not, The Ren & Stimpy Show was very ahead of its time and still garnered a huge amount of fans to this day.



During the 2nd season of the show, Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi was fired from Nickelodeon and the show took a slightly different town throughout the rest of the show. In 1996, Ren & Stimpy was finally cancelled from Nickelodeon, but the impact that the show left would not go away. For years, many fans were petitioning on renewing the show, but no such luck. John K. would go on to animate Flash shorts cartoon series such as The Goddamn George Liquor Show, Weekend Pussy Hunt, The Ripping Friends, and even a Ranger Smith short on Cartoon Network. But they didn't come close to been as successful as Ren & Stimpy. Around 2001, Ren & Stimpy aired on VH1 in a block called Ren & Stimpy Rocks and brought in huge ratings and big fanfare to the teens who grew up with it as kids as well as a new generation of viewers. This got the new network Spike TV interested in bringing in a new Ren & Stimpy Show for a more adult audience. John K. accepted and on June 26, 2003, Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon debuted.




Some of the episodes that was originally going to air on Nickelodeon aired on Adult Party Cartoon and a good number of the people who worked on the original show came back except Billy West. Similar to Brand Spankin' New Doug, West felt that the show wasn't as funny as the original and refused to voice Stimpy. Although West didn't bash the show as much as Disney's version of Doug, he still to this day says that the revival sucks. Instead they hired newcomer voice actor Eric Bauza as Stimpy. Once again, just like Doug and Roger on Brand Spankin' New Doug, while Bauza does a decent job as Stimpy, it's not the same and West has that talent that only he can do. Kricfalusi returns as voicing Ren and it is somewhat awful. It seems that Ren's voice changed from a impression of Peter Lorre to a person trying to impersonate Peter Lorre. It doesn't sound the same as the original and kind of disconnected me from watching it.



But the one thing that a lot of people noticed when seeing the revival was the tone and humor. If you thought that the original Ren & Stimpy was gross and vulgar, Adult Party Cartoon cranks that up by 11. It's way too vulgar and crude for its own good and tries way too hard to cater to its audience. For a lot of people, they felt the same way and the show was quickly cancelled two months after its debut on August 21, 2003. There were some moments in which I felt that Adult Party Cartoon was having crude moments just for the sake of having crude moments. The original show, while it did have its disgusting moments, had a quirky charm to it with the commercials of selling cereal made of grass, logs as toys, and powdered toast made it seem like a 1950's interstitial brought in the 90's. It had a timeless charm that anyone could appreciate with the characters going through various adventures and funny scenarios that were classic in its own right. Adult Party Cartoon does not and to many people, it's one of the worst animated shows of all time. As for me, it's hugely disappointing and a lost potential to bringing a classic show for a new generation. I don't recommend checking it out.

Tune in next time as we conclude the not-Nickelodeon tribute week with a Cartoon Network show that had a pilot short on Nicktoons Network, but was rejected to being a series. None other than Adventure Time!

 

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading!

-Patricia 

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Interview with Thad Komorowski

At some point in our lives, we see a movie, play, or TV show that's a standalone compared to all the others. On August 11, 1991, Nickelodeon debuted its first three Nicktoons: Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. While each of these cartoons was unique compared to all the other cartoons that were showing at the time, one of them would be an influence to hundreds of other cartoons even to this day. The Ren & Stimpy Show was a benchmark to cartoons with its classic animation mixed with fast paced comedic humor, bodily humor references, and off-color jokes. It was one of the most popular cartoons of that year and had gained a huge following for kids, teens, and adults. To this day, The Ren & Stimpy Show is not only one of the most greatest cartoons of Nickelodeon, but one of the greatest cartoons of all time. 

Author Thad Komorowski is currently writing a book called Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story which features the story of how one of the most influential cartoons of all time came to be. Interviewing over 60 people including writers, animators, producers, and voice actors behind the cartoon. Sit back, relax, grab your Happy Helmets and Powdered Toast, and enjoy our interview with Thad Komorowski.

Patricia- What made you decide to write a book about The Ren & Stimpy Show?

Thad- In some ways, it's the TV cartoon that will never die. It was an extremely important part of animation history, one that single-handedly changed industry and audience standards. The story of its rise and fall has been direly needed for years. When I was younger, I'd been corresponding with Bob Jaques about the styles of various Golden Age animators. I didn't realize he was the same Bob Jaques who worked on Ren & Stimpy until he started telling me random anecdotes about the series. Some of his stories about directing the animation for the show were absolutely insane - the tribulation of actually animating R&S is one aspect of the saga that's never been given proper coverage. Bob is the one who suggested I use my energy and skill to research the show and write about it.

Patricia- What made Ren & Stimpy a standout compared to the cartoons that were coming out in the 80's and early 90's?

Thad- There's a certain timelessness to it that the others don't have. I hate that word, given the saccharine attached to it, but that's really what it is in a nutshell. Ren & Stimpy embodies all of the aesthetics of classic animation, however different it is in writing and drawing. There's nothing dated about energy or solid character acting, drawing and animation, which is why the best episodes hold up as well as they do.

The Disney feature people (THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN) did a great job of capturing past standards, but, being Disney, they couldn't really transcend what had been done before. 

The new Warner shows (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs!) tried too hard to be trendy; those are definitely top-drawer shows on their best days, but this huge wave of nostalgia for animation of that era keeps them alive more than their merit does.

By comparison, Ren & Stimpy not only transcended creative standards, but the concept of "target audience." The Disney movies were aimed at families and the Warner shows at kids. The Simpsons made the leap from adults to tweens, but that's typical of any popular sitcom (Seinfeld, etc.). Since the show's creators basically did the cartoons for their eclectic selves, here was a studio product that was able to appeal to an unbelievably broad audience: children, teens, stoner college students, and hardcore animation geeks. Nickelodeon hated the show for that reason, as it caused all kinds of problems finding the right advertisers.

Patricia- What were some of the most shocking stories you've heard when working on this book?

Thad- There really isn't anything shocking in the story of Ren & Stimpy if you understand the kinds of personalities involved. What I found most intriguing was the naivety of it all - both on the part of the network and creators. Things happened in the production that any seasoned pro would see as danger signs, but they let them happen anyway. Naivety played a huge role in the existence of Ren & Stimpy.

Patricia- Besides John K., who else should be credited for how the show turned out?

Thad- This is hard to keep brief, and I'm sure some people will be mad at me, but I'll cover myself by saying that everyone's job on that show was important. The cartoons were simply too hard to make to allow anyone to give any less than 110%.You can't understate John Kricfalusi's role in making the show what it is. Without him, Ren & Stimpy wouldn't exist. He's the one who rallied everyone together and captured that lightning in a bottle at Spumco for a brief period of time. Whatever you think of him personally, the fact that John K. changed animation for the better is undeniable.

Lynne Naylor was probably the other most important artist. She fleshed out the characters' personalities with Kricfalusi (along with Jim Gomez and Felix Forte), as well as the design work. Stimpy was actually based in part on one of Lynne's cats. I daresay her influence on the TV animation industry is as big as John K.'s.

Jim Smith and Bob Camp were also very much involved with the characterizations, stories, designs - really, everything. There's an awful lot of Jim and Bob's sweat and blood in those shows. I know when Jim left the series it was as big a blow as John K.'s departure was, since his drawing and example could solve just about anything. Bob's sense of comedic writing, drawing and timing were inseparable from the show's flavor. His absence really affected how those later Adult Party shows came out just the same as John K.'s absence affected the ones at Games.

Chris Reccardi is a vastly underrated artist and was a shining light throughout the entire run of the Nickelodeon series. Vincent Waller was another brilliant draftsman and writer; the episode BIG BABY SCAM is basically all him. Mike Kim did layout on some of the best Spumco scenes and really came into his own directing at Games. Tom McGrath didn't work at Spumco, but he really gave a lot of vigor to the episodes at Games. His sole directorial effort, I WAS A TEENAGE STIMPY, is easily one of the best R&S cartoons ever done. Bill Wray is almost singlehandedly responsible for the profusion of good color styling and painting in modern animation. Billy West's voice acting was, and is, the gold standard for the entire voiceover industry. Other R&S greats were Don Shank, Mike Fontanelli, Carey Yost, Charlie Bean, Rich Pursel, Elinor Blake, Glenn Barr, and Scott Wills.

Bob Jaques, Kelly Armstrong, and their crew at Carbunkle Cartoons are also unsung heroes of the series. They're the reason why any of the animation hangs together. There are great cartoons without their involvement, absolutely. But all of the ones that are tour de forces (STIMPY'S INVENTION, SPACE MADNESS, MAN'S BEST FRIEND, SVËN HÖEK) are so largely because they animated them.

And Vanessa Coffey. She's the one who believed in John K., let him make the show that he wanted, and gave him as much rope as she could possibly give him. Her green-lighting of not just R&S but the entire Nicktoons lineup has had more of a positive influence on animation than any other single act I can think of.

Patricia- What was the hardest thing to accomplish when writing this book?

Thad- Other than actually writing it, probably dealing with my own maturity - or lack thereof. As everyone knows, John Kricfalusi wasn't involved with this book, due in part to my own immaturity and online brickbats with the man. In retrospect, I wish I'd have learned that keeping your mouth shut is often the best response, but I highly doubt John K. would approve of any history of the show that wasn't under his direct control. He had his own art book coming out, which would have been a welcome addition to any animation library (my book has very few illustrations), but that exploded for the same reasons his show did.

There was also the fact that a lot of the R&S history isn't very pleasant and people are often reluctant to talk about it in the first place. But I was able to find a sizable assortment of people involved with it (over sixty), and saw that there was great corroboration to their recollections. Some people will obviously argue otherwise, but this is a far more balanced account of what happened than anything else has been.

Patricia- How do you feel about Mathew Klickstein's upcoming book Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age talking about the early years of Nickelodeon?

Thad- I think it's a great idea for a book, and I'm looking forward to reading it. That period of the network was unlike any other in television history and an account of how everything came to be could be utterly fascinating.

Patricia- What are your favorite episodes and characters?

Thad- Characters: Ren and Stimpy, first and foremost, of course. George Liquor was brilliant in MAN'S BEST FRIEND and DOG SHOW, but unfortunately, he hasn't really gotten the opportunity to shine since (though I hope CANS WITHOUT LABELS changes that). I also have a soft spot for Ren's cousin Svën, Kowalski the seven-year old convict, and Wilbur Cobb too. And the Salesman!

Episodes: STIMPY'S INVENTION is easily one of the best cartoons ever made, period. It's so compelling I needed to give it its own chapter. SVËN HÖEK, MAN'S BEST FRIEND, and SPACE MADNESS would be next. Spumco-wise, I also love OUT WEST, MAD DOG HÖEK, BIG BABY SCAM and SON OF STIMPY.

From the Games era, my favorites are STIMPY'S CARTOON SHOW, HARD TIMES FOR HAGGIS, REN'S BITTER HALF, DOUBLE HEADER, REN'S BRAIN, I WAS A TEENAGE STIMPY and REVEREND JACK. From the Adult Party series, REN SEEKS HELP has some of the finest moments in the whole R&S canon.

Patricia- Looking back on Ren & Stimpy, do you think that the show has held up well 22 years later?

Thad- Absolutely. As I stated earlier, it's "timeless" (ugh). It's kind of a shame, though, that the history is the Shakespearean tragic story it is. Ren & Stimpy really deserved the opportunity to evolve for an extended run like The Simpsons, SpongeBob Squarepants, South Park and even Rugrats did. But better a show to have been short-lived and mostly awesome than long-lasting, briefly brilliant and suck for more than half its run.

Patricia- Besides Ren & Stimpy, what are your favorite Nickelodeon shows?

Thad- Rocko's Modern Life had some truly brilliant moments (Heffer the cow's trip to hell, Rocko's nudity being the subject of an avant-garde film, Wacky Delly, doorbell ditch) and voice acting. SpongeBob Squarepants, the show Nickelodeon always wanted Ren & Stimpy to be, was very funny in its early years. I liked and watched most of the 90s Nickelodeon lineup as a kid, but I can't say I've had any desire to revisit the others.

Patricia- What do you hope to accomplish with this book?

Thad- To give balance and perspective to one of the most important stories of twentieth century animation. To inspire others to write about animation of the early 1990s, because there are still tons of untold stories out there, and those involved deserve to have their recollections recorded and put to good use. And to get opportunities to write even more on animation! I should also hasten to add there's an extensive episode guide in this book, which includes credits, air dates, plot descriptions and notes on censorship. Since the current R&S DVDs are the biggest con job on the market ("UNCUT", with edits!), I hope whoever assembles the next R&S video release uses my notes carefully to ensure that kind of vandalism (not just censorship, but time-compression and fake fade-outs/fade-ins) is never perpetrated again.

Patricia- What are your upcoming projects?

Thad- I just started seriously working on another animation history book, but it's far too early to reveal what it's about. It involves almost entirely dead people, so the animation community can rest easy that this writer is not going to feast any further upon their livelihoods.

For more information about Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story, check out Thad's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/SickLittleMonkeys. 

Are you looking forward to Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story? Did you liked The Ren & Stimpy Show when you were a kid in the 90's? What were your favorite episodes? Post it in the comments below! Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Take care!

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Ren and Stimpy

When discussing about classic Nickelodeon cartoons, everyone has their own opinion on which were the best and which were the worst. But the one that immediately comes to mind as one of their absolute favorites is actually one of the first original cartoons, Ren and Stimpy.

The cartoon about a crazy, bad tempered, scrawny chihuahua named Ren and a lovable, stupid, disgusting cat named Stimpy living together and getting themselves into insane scenarios. Some of these scenarios could be from joining the army, getting jobs as firedogs, reading bedtime stories that remind me of a crazed up version of Fractured Fairy Tales, or inventing a happy helmet. You never know what kind of crazy situations they would get themselves into. It was always fun to see that in every episode.

The main reason why kids loved it so much was because of all the gross humor that it had. If Double Dare started the gross, slimy reputation of Nickelodeon shows, Ren and Stimpy multiplied it by a million. In one episode, Stimpy is looking for his fart that he raised as his own son.

There are also moments in which you would see Stimpy's cat litter covered with stink lines to emphasize how smelly it was. There were also moments in the show in which you would get a close-up look into the characters and you would see hair, zits, sweat, bulging eyes, and discolored cheeks. It was always disturbing to look at at times.



Not to mention, the adult humor that would ride off of kids' heads the first time they would see it. Looking at this show again years later, I can't believe some of the jokes they would get away with. You can never do this for kids' shows today. Oh, the times that we used to live in.

The voices of Ren and Stimpy were John Krifauski, the creator of Ren and Stimpy, and Billy West. This was one of Billy's first voice acting roles before he would be known for other animated shows like Futurama. The voice of Stimpy was inspired by Larry Fine from The Three Stooges.

Not to mention all the merchandise that came out of the show. You have the fake ones like Log, Powdered Toast, and Sugary Frosted Milk. West would also voice the announcer voice for the fake merchandise.

Then you have the real ones like the video games and the dolls. I remember wanting a Stimpy doll when I first went to Nickelodeon Studios as a kid. I begged my mom to get it, but she said next time. That next time never happened. Nowadays, those Stimpy and Ren dolls are worth a lot on eBay, but I know that I will get one someday. If I can get the original He-Man action figure still in its box, then I can get a Ren and Stimpy doll.



The show was very unique and groundbreaking for its time of putting out gross, adult humor for kids. It was one of the most popular cartoons in the 90's. Other cartoons would copy off from Ren and Stimpy such as Rocko's Modern Life, Aaahh! Real Monsters, Beavis and Butthead, South Park, and so much more. Ren and Stimpy set the bar for kids' shows for adults. 20 years later, Ren and Stimpy is still odd, gross, and funny to look at. This show has actually gotten better with age with today's kids looking at it and still having just as much fun to watch as kids watching it when it first came out in 1991. I highly recommend watching this show if you haven't seen it. This is truly one of the shows that started the Nickelodeon era.

That's all for now. Hope to see you at Old School Lane.

-Kevin