| "Haunted House" | |
|---|---|
| The Ren & Stimpy Show episode | |
 | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 6a |
| Directed by | Ron Hughart |
| Written by | John Kricfalusi Bob Camp Jim Smith Richard Pursel |
| Production code | RS5-6A |
| Original air date | November 21, 1992 |
"Haunted House" is the seventh episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show . It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 21, 1992.
Ren and Stimpy arrive at a mansion, where they decide to spend time at, not knowing it is a haunted house. A depressed and homicidal ghost decides to make their experience at the mansion miserable. He tries to scare them with a grimace, only to be nonsensically injured when the duo kick the door down.
The duo start to be unsettled by their surroundings. Stimpy mistakes a suit of armor for a stove; the ghost tries to kill him with the axe, only to split Stimpy's firewood in half. Grateful, Stimpy throws the firewood into the armor and lights a fire, ironically making the armor function properly as a stove; the ghost is roasted into the form of a sausage.
The ghost hides in a piece of bread, when a hungry Ren and Stimpy decides to make a sandwich. Stimpy adds peanut butter, marmalade, premature roe from a fish and the fish itself to the sandwich. He prepares to eat it, but Ren stops him and gives it to a spontaneously appearing yak, which punches the sandwich before he decides to eat it; the ghost leaves the sandwich offscreen, tortured by the assault.
Ren and Stimpy go to bed upstairs, where Ren is amazed by the quality of the bed. However, he is appalled by Stimpy's unhygienic back, forcing him to take a shower. The ghost tries to assault him during his shower, but is mistakenly used as a towel by Stimpy.
Ren and Stimpy continue to sleep. The ghost puts a bloody severed head on Ren's head, only for the Bloody Head Fairy to collect it à la tooth fairy, and gift Ren some dimes. Ren is bewildered and ultimately pleased by this surprise, after which the ghost pummels himself in disappointment.
The ghost finally snaps and attempts to kill the duo while wearing a mask and wielding a chainsaw, only to be confused for a harmless trick-or-treater. The ghost reveals himself and nonsensically attempts suicide by hammering a nail into his head; Stimpy convinces him to consume poison instead, which actually kills him but causes him to reincarnate as a naked African-American musician (retroactively named Rudolph the Jazzman). Having found purpose in life, he drives away in a red car much to Ren and Stimpy's bewilderment.
The story that became "Haunted House" was written for Tiny Toon Adventures in 1990 under the title "Hi-Spirits". [1] The story had featured Hamton Pig and Gogo Dodo visiting a haunted house where a ghost tries to scare them. [1] The story had entered the storyboard phrase at Warner Bros. Animation and the actor Don Messick had recorded the dialogue for the ghost. [1] The producers of the show, especially Steven Spielberg, rejected the story, despite its relative tameness compared to The Ren & Stimpy Show, and replaced it with a segment made by the original production team. Spümcø did not sell the rights to the story. [1] John Kricfalusi decided to turn the story into an episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show for the second season. [1] The drawings done in 1990 were used for the story, and Richard Pursel simply inserted Ren and Stimpy in place of Hamton Pig and Gogo Dodo, with the story mostly intact. [1] "Haunted House" was scheduled to premiere in October 1992 close to Halloween as fitting its ghost theme, but production was so far behind that in July 1992 Kricfalusi hired Ron Hughart to take over production of "Haunted House" and move the story forward to meet the October deadline. [1] Hughart stated that he took the job of directing "Haunted House" "to help Kricfalusi out of a spot more than anything else". [1] Production on "Haunted House" picked up speed after Hughart took over, and by August 1992 the episode was shipped out to Color Key Studios in Taipei to be animated. [2] After Spümcø lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show on September 21, 1992, Games Animation continued post-production and added in a new scene of the ghost trying to kill Stimpy in the shower, as a homage to the 1960 film Psycho . The Bloody Head Fairy, intended to be George Liquor in a tutu, was replaced by a parody of Doug Funnie from Doug , much to Kricfalusi's displeasure. [3]
The episode was censored on the home media release of the first two seasons, with the scene where the ghost places a severed human head on Ren's bed being removed. [4]
Critics such as Stephen Wilds criticized the episode for the amount of violence involved, such as the scene where the ghost uses an axe to try to behead himself. [5] Thad Komorowski gave the episode three-and-a-half out of five stars.
Spümcø, Inc. was an American animation studio that was active from 1989 to 2005 and based in Los Angeles, California. The studio was best known for working on the first two seasons of The Ren & Stimpy Show for Nickelodeon and for various commercials. The studio won several awards, including an Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject for the music video of the song "I Miss You" by Björk.
Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" is an animated television series created and directed by John Kricfalusi and produced by Spümcø for TNN / Spike TV. The series was developed as a more "extreme" revamp and spin-off of Nickelodeon's The Ren & Stimpy Show, which Spümcø produced the first two seasons. The series premiered on June 26, 2003, and was removed from the network on July 24, after airing only three episodes; the remaining episodes were released on DVD. During its run, Adult Party Cartoon was heavily panned by critics, audiences and fans of the original series. It has been referred to as one of the worst animated series of all time.
George Liquor is a cartoon character created by John Kricfalusi. Liquor is most famous for his appearances on The Ren & Stimpy Show. He is considered Kricfalusi's signature character and was a mascot for Kricfalusi's defunct animation studio, Spümcø. Kricfalusi portrayed George Liquor as a patriotic, outspoken, politically conservative blowhard. Kricfalusi described Liquor as his favorite character to animate.
"Stimpy's Fan Club" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 24, 1993.
"Man's Best Friend" is an episode from the second season of the American animated television series The Ren & Stimpy Show. It was originally intended to air on Nickelodeon on August 22, 1992, as the second half of the second episode of Season 2, but was pulled before airing and replaced by a censored version of "Big House Blues". It eventually aired on the soft launch of Spike TV on June 23, 2003. In the episode, Ren and Stimpy learn about obedience after George Liquor takes them home with him and swears to make them "champions".
"The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" is the nineteenth episode and season finale of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on May 23, 1993, and is the final episode to be aired with input from Spümcø.
"Jimminy Lummox" is the seventh episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on February 19, 1994.
Lynne Rae Naylor is a Canadian animator, artist, designer, director, and producer for television. She is best known for co-creating DreamWorks' The Mighty Ones, co-founding the animation studio Spümcø with John Kricfalusi, Bob Camp, and Jim Smith, and co-developing The Ren & Stimpy Show for Nickelodeon. She also worked on Batman: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Wander Over Yonder.
"Svën Höek" is the sixth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 7, 1992.
"Space Madness" is the fifth episode of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 8, 1991. Along with "Marooned" and "Black Hole", the episode is part of a loose trilogy in the first season known as the "space episodes", centering around the show-within-the-show, a parody of Star Trek-like science fiction shows titled The Adventures of Commander Höek and Cadet Stimpy.
"Jerry the Bellybutton Elf" is the twelfth episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 9, 1994.
"Monkey See, Monkey Don't!" is the thirteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on February 13, 1993, much earlier than originally intended due to production difficulties in later episodes.
"Fake Dad" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on February 27, 1993.
"The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 3, 1993.
"To Salve and Salve Not!" is the first episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 20, 1993.
"Ren's Pecs" is the fifth episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on December 18, 1993.
"Bass Masters" is the eighth episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on February 19, 1994.
"Eat My Cookies" is the fourteenth episode from the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on June 4, 1994.
"Magical Golden Singing Cheeses" is the eighth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 11, 1994.
"Pixie King" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on January 14, 1995.
