10 Resurrected TV Shows That Should’ve Stayed Dead
8. Ren And Stimpy
In the early '90s, Nickelodeon unveiled a Sunday morning programming block called Nicktoons built around Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren and Stimpy Show. They were three very different shows: Doug was sort of designed for tweens, with characters and plots being more typical of a show about young teenagers: Crushes and dating, obsessing over your favorite band, etc. Clever with a nice moral center, it was probably the most beloved of the three shows out of the gate. Rugrats was the show designed for all ages, with babies and toddlers as the central characters and clever writing that could literally entertain anyone. It became the longest-running and most popular of the three by far. Ren and Stimpy was the weird one. It was the biggest hit in the short term, but it was too offbeat and risque to sustain its popularity, especially once creator John Kricfalusi (usually known as John K.) got combative with Nickelodeon, stopped turning in episodes on time, and was eventually fired from his own show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wW6rENTfaU Being a Ren and Stimpy fan was a unique experience in that you had no idea when new episodes were going to come along. Long before South Park, it was a show that was clearly too adult for its time slot and audience, but kids got away with watching it because it was a cartoon. It completely fell apart with all of the behind the scenes turmoil, though. The original run on Nickelodeon and sister network MTV ended in 1996. In 2003, to coincide with the launch of Spike TV, Viacom (parent company of Nickelodeon and MTV) brought the show back with John K. at the helm. Dubbed Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon," the announcement was met with much rejoicing until more details came out, including teaser clips. It was revealed that the show would be built around it being explicitly stated that Ren and Stimpy were a gay couple, something sort of implied in the original series. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7vj5v_gross-ren-and-stimpy-moment_fun As soon as the first episode aired, it was perfectly clear that John K. no longer had it. The new show consisted entirely of cheap gay jokes and gross-out humor without any of the cleverness of the original show. Spike pulled it after less than two months.
Formerly the site manager of Cageside Seats and the WWE Team Leader at Bleacher Report, David Bixenspan has been writing professionally about WWE, UFC, and other pop culture since 2009. He's currently WhatCulture's U.S. Editor and also serves as the lead writer of Figure Four Weekly and a monthly contributor to Fighting Spirit Magazine.
In the early '90s, Nickelodeon unveiled a Sunday morning programming block called Nicktoons built around Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren and Stimpy Show. They were three very different shows: Doug was sort of designed for tweens, with characters and plots being more typical of a show about young teenagers: Crushes and dating, obsessing over your favorite band, etc. Clever with a nice moral center, it was probably the most beloved of the three shows out of the gate. Rugrats was the show designed for all ages, with babies and toddlers as the central characters and clever writing that could literally entertain anyone. It became the longest-running and most popular of the three by far. Ren and Stimpy was the weird one. It was the biggest hit in the short term, but it was too offbeat and risque to sustain its popularity, especially once creator John Kricfalusi (usually known as John K.) got combative with Nickelodeon, stopped turning in episodes on time, and was eventually fired from his own show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wW6rENTfaU Being a Ren and Stimpy fan was a unique experience in that you had no idea when new episodes were going to come along. Long before South Park, it was a show that was clearly too adult for its time slot and audience, but kids got away with watching it because it was a cartoon. It completely fell apart with all of the behind the scenes turmoil, though. The original run on Nickelodeon and sister network MTV ended in 1996. In 2003, to coincide with the launch of Spike TV, Viacom (parent company of Nickelodeon and MTV) brought the show back with John K. at the helm. Dubbed Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon," the announcement was met with much rejoicing until more details came out, including teaser clips. It was revealed that the show would be built around it being explicitly stated that Ren and Stimpy were a gay couple, something sort of implied in the original series. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7vj5v_gross-ren-and-stimpy-moment_fun As soon as the first episode aired, it was perfectly clear that John K. no longer had it. The new show consisted entirely of cheap gay jokes and gross-out humor without any of the cleverness of the original show. Spike pulled it after less than two months.