The early 1990s animated Nickelodeon series The Ren & Stimpy Show will be rebooted by Comedy Central, according to TV Line. Created by John Kricfalusi (The Ripping Friends, The Simpsons), the series premiered in 1991 and ran for five seasons, totaling an episode count of 52 half-hour episodes. The animated series developed cult following status despite being considered a controversial show due to issues with dark humor on the children’s television network. The original series was executive produced by Mary Harrington (Rugrats, Doug) and Vanessa Coffey (Rocko’s Modern Life, Rugrats). The announcement of this reboot joins a long list of Comedy Central rebooted series such as Beavis and Butt-Head, the Daria spin-off series Jodie, Clone High, and the co-production of new season of Reno 911! with mobile streaming service Quibi.
The Ren & Stimpy Show follows the exploits of the often-psychotic and neurotic Chihuahua Ren and the unintelligent cat named Stimpy as they navigate different settings within their universe while infusing absurdist themes and humor. The show’s voice cast included Kricfalusi as Ren before transitioning the voice role to Billy West (Doug, Space Jam) who also voiced the other lead of the animated series in Stimpy. The series featured different villains each episode in addition to including some guest voice actors in the likes of Gilbert Gottfried (Aladdin), Randy Quaid (A Streetcar Named Desire, National Lampoon’s Vacation), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Phil Hartman (The Simpsons), and Rosie O’Donnell (The View) to name a few. Commenting on the newly rebooted series is President of Content for ViacomCBS Nina L. Diaz who stated she “want[s] to thank our partners at Nick Animation as we re-imagine these iconic characters with a new creative team” via TV Line.
Currently, this series’ revival of Ren & Stimpy does not have an announced voice cast nor premiere date. There is also no information about the return of the original voice actors for the upcoming reboot series. Check out the documentary trailer on the original series’ below: