Comedy Central orders a revival of The Ren & Stimpy Show

The Hollywood Reporter

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.