An Abe Divided

"An Abe Divided"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 6
Directed by	Jim Gomez
Story by	Jim Gomez Ron Hauge
Production code	RS-310
Original air date	December 18, 1993 (1993-12-18)
Guest appearance
Jack Carter as Sergeant Bigbutt
Episode chronology
← Previous "Ren's Pecs" Next → "Stimpy's Cartoon Show"
List of episodes

An Abe Divided is the fifth episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 18 December 1993.

Plot

Ren and Stimpy are in Washington D.C. where they are hired as security guards to safeguard the Lincoln Memorial. Ren learns about a rumor that there is a fortune in gold hidden in the head of the Lincoln Memorial and decides to steal it. Ren closes the Lincoln Memorial and along with Stimpy saw off the head of the Lincoln Memorial. Instead of gold, Ren and Stimpy find caramel corn. Fearful of losing their jobs, Ren and Stimpy try to replace the head of Lincoln, but all their attempts fail. The ghost of Abraham Lincoln appears to kick both Ren and Stimpy for all the destruction they have wrought. Sergeant Bigbutt learns of the head of the Lincoln Memorial has been smashed and replaces it by dressing up Ren and Stimpy as Lincoln.

Cast

• Ren-voice of Billy West
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• Sergeant Bigbutt-voice of Jack Carter
• Street bum-voice of Billy West
• Pigeon-voice of Billy West

Production

An Abe Divided was the second episode directed by Jim Gomez. ^[1] Unlike Circus Midgets , Gomez was far more interested in An Abe Divided. ^[1] The story for An Abe Divided was a homage to the Laurel and Hardy films. ^[1] The lay-out for An Abe Divided were done by Michael Kim assisted by Donald Shank, Tom McGrath and Steve Loter. ^[1] Many of the cartoonists who worked on An Abe Divided were novices and the production suffered because of their inexperience. ^[2] Kim stated: "It was actually a bigger struggle to rectify that. We had a crew of layout artists that were really green; they'd just be pouring in, and our schedules would be really tight because of that. The thing you learn is that it is a business and there's no infinite budget. So when you have a lot of these artists that are soaking in the budget, your schedule gets tight". ^[3] Jim Ballantine stated that An Abe Divided was "a schedule disaster" due to the inexperience of many of the artists, and that An Abe Divided took 12 weeks to complete the lay-out stage in the summer of 1993. ^[1] An Abe Divided was completed in six weeks by the Rough Draft Korea studio in Seoul in what was by all accounts a rushed production. ^[1]

Reception

The American journalist Thad Komorowski gave An Abe Divided three stars out of five, and wrote that the episode was a "fan favorite". ^[4]

Books and articles

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1593931100.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1629331836.

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 246.
2. Komorowski 2017, p. 247.
3. Komorowski 2017, p. 247-248.
4. Komorowski 2017, p. 385.

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