The original
Ren & Stimpy Show premiered alongside
Rugrats and
Doug as one of the original
Nicktoons on the children's network
Nickelodeon in 1991. The show's creator,
John Kricfalusi, had many altercations with the network, eventually culminating in his termination the following year. The series continued until 1995 at Games Animation, with issues prevalent during Kricfalusi's tenure still present; it eventually ended with a single episode airing on
MTV in 1996. In 2002, about a decade after Kricfalusi's termination, Nickelodeon's parent company
Viacom (which is now
Paramount Skydance) contacted him to produce a new version of his series for an updated version of sister network
TNN/Spike TV, which was devoted to programming for male audiences. Kricfalusi said that TNN wanted an "extreme" version of
The Ren & Stimpy Show. TNN gave Kricfalusi greater control of the writing and contents of the episodes, and he produced six "new" episodes aimed at adult audiences; of the episodes, "Altruists" was not a leftover from the original series, being an original idea from
Eric Bauza. As in the original series, Kricfalusi ran into problems with meeting production deadlines and budgetary limits, with three out of the nine episodes ordered by the network being completed on time at the cost of the entire nine-episode budget initially allocated by Spike. Several alumni from the original series returned to work on the new episodes, most notably co-developer
Jim Smith, director and writer
Vincent Waller as well as production assistant and writer
Richard Pursel. Animation studio Carbunkle Cartoons returned to provide animation services, with
Bob Jaques serving as animation director. Most
Ren & Stimpy alumni who had joined
Games Animation in the wake of Kricfalusi's 1992 firing, including series developer
Bob Camp, had become estranged from Kricfalusi and thus were not involved with the revival; Vincent Waller, having joined the studio after the original series ended, was an exception. Some of the original voice cast members returned, with the exception of
Billy West, the original voice of
Stimpy and second voice of
Ren and Mr. Horse, who turned down offers to reprise his role as Stimpy as he did not consider the series to be funny and felt that participating in it would damage his career.
Eric Bauza was hired to replace West as Stimpy, while Kricfalusi reprised his roles as Ren and Mr. Horse. Cast members Harris Peet and
Cheryl Chase also returned, and Kricfalusi's father Mike Kricfalusi and long-time childhood friend Tom Hay provided some voices. Pursel, who worked on the series as a storyboard artist and writer, despised the work experience, considering it to be his worst; Kricfalusi refused to communicate with him directly and would add shock value to his stories. The new series began airing in June 2003 as part of an animation block also featuring
Gary the Rat,
Stripperella, and
digitally remastered episodes of the original
Ren & Stimpy series, subtitled "Digitally Remastered Classics". Kricfalusi directed the first episode, "Onward and Upward", based on requests from fans from the Nickelodeon era; Vincent Waller wrote the episode for the original series' second season but was rejected by Nickelodeon story editor
Will McRobb. "Fire Dogs 2", a sequel to the original series episode "
Fire Dogs" featuring
Ralph Bakshi, was similarly rejected by McRobb before being remade in
Adult Party Cartoon. The remaining episodes were set to resume in August 2004 along with the premiere of Spike's new animated series
Immigrants (developed by fellow Nickelodeon partner
Klasky Csupo), but both shows were pulled and never aired. Kricfalusi shut down Spümcø shortly on July 18, 2005, thereafter following a lawsuit filed by Carbunkle Cartoons for failing to pay the animation studio for their services. In 2005, he announced that all of the
Adult Party Cartoon episodes that were fully produced were coming to
DVD, which was released by
Paramount Home Entertainment as
Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes on July 18, 2006. ==Episodes==