The Ren & Stimpy Show
What Could Have Been in this series.
An early version of Ren with BIG mouse like ears.
- Ren and Stimpy were originally just going to be background characters for a different show John K. pitched to Nick called Your Gang (initially called Cartoon Cavalcade). After Nick refused to let him keep the rights to the show if they bought it, he decided to just do one with the two background characters, as he felt losing the rights to two characters he only kind of liked was better than losing the rights to the other characters he was very attached to.
- The small bumpers in-between episode were supposed to advertise real-life products to help fund the show, but FCC regulations put a kabob on that. The idea was still kept in the final series for fictional products, like LOG, Powered Toast in a can, and Gritty Kitty cat litter. A LOG toy was eventually made, though.
- Before John K. decided to take on the role, some of the voice actors who auditioned for Ren included Joe Alaskey, Frank Welker and a pre-Rocko's Modern Life Carlos Alazraqui.
- Word is that season 3, had Spumco been kept on, would've mixed in more dramatic outings (similar to "Stimpy's Fan Club" and "Son of Stimpy") with the comedic shorts. Given how good they got at visual acting towards the end of their work on R&S, that would've been interesting to see.
- Episodes like "A Visit to Anthony", "Fake Dad" and the aforementioned "Stimpy's Fan Club" were only partially finished when Spumco was fired and were mostly completed by Games. How differently these episodes would have turned out if John K. had been able to finish them is unknown.
- In 1993, Nickelodeon was planning on making a Ren and Stimpy movie, along with a movie of Rugrats and Doug. Only the Rugrats and Doug ones were made (albeit the Doug movie being made after it was bought by Disney), with the Rugrats one being successful enough for a string of sequels. Ren and Stimpy would have no movie.
- Apparently, around the same time that that rumored Nicktoons movie was pitched
, a standalone Ren and Stimpy movie was pitched to Paramount by Bob Camp. However, according to him, the terrible reception of Adult Party Cartoon did enough damage to the property for Paramount to reject it. - Billy West was supposed to be the voice of both Ren and Stimpy when the show first started. He ironically got his wish when John K. was fired.
- According to Billy West, the show's opening was going to be a song written and played by Kurt Cobain. Sadly, John K. rejected the music sheet (by tossing it in the trash just after Cobain submitted it to Spumco Studios) and decided an instrumental was better.
- This story is most likely totally apocryphal.
- This story is most likely totally apocryphal.
- Had Spumco remained on the show, Wilbur Cobb's role in "Stimpy's Cartoon Show" would have been taken by Raymond Spum, a sort of Walt Disney-type figure. Also, Stimpy's cartoon was originally going to be animated and designed like a short from The Golden Age of Animation.
- George Liquor had been an intended part of the show from almost the very start. However, due to an alleged dislike of the character by Nickelodeon, he was limited to cameos in Season One and only fully utilized in two episodes of Season Two (one of which ended up being banned). After John K. was fired, Nickelodeon was more than willing to let him take the rights to use Liquor with him, effectively retiring the character from the series. He was intended for a return in Adult Party Cartoon past the first episode (which was merely a rebranded airing of "Man's Best Friend"), but due to the show's premature cancellation, this never came to fruition.
- Craig McCracken was offered a job on the show during its first season, but had to turn it down because he was still in school.
- According to Sick Little Monkeys, Robin Williams personally asked the staff if he could be a guest voice on the show. John K. declined the request on the basis that Williams was "a fucking fag."
- A new Ren and Stimpy short was going to be made to play in front of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, but for some unknown reason, it didn't happennote . An animatic of the short is included as bonus content on the DVD for Cans Without Labels.
- "In the Army" originally had a scene where Stimpy blows his top and chews out Ren for getting them in trouble. John K thought it was funny, but quickly realized that this was completely out of character for Stimpy, since it's very difficult to actually get him mad.
- Acording to the What a Cartoon podcast, Bob Jaques revealed that Carbunkle Cartoons was approached to do timing direction for "Ren's Bitter Half", but he declined as his studio was busy with The Baby Huey Show at the time.
- When doing "Stimpy's Invention", John K. didn't even consider trying to get Burl Ives to perform the voice of the Ives-parody Stinky Whizzleteats, but when the two crossed paths later, Ives reportedly said he would have loved to have done it.
- The inside joke with the Games Animation logo depicting Stimpy as a milkman was originally going to be taken even further with Stimpy holding a bloody knife◊, as a reference to John K. calling them backstabbers.
