Stimpy's Big Day

"Stimpy's Big Day"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	John Kricfalusi
Story by	John Kricfalusi Vincent Waller
Production code	RS-01B
Original air date	August 11, 1991 (1991-08-11)
Episode chronology
← Previous "Big House Blues" Next → "The Big Shot!"
List of episodes

Stimpy's Big Day is the first episode of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 11 August 1991.

Plot

In the first of a two-part story, Ren and Stimpy are living together in a trailer park. Ren berates Stimpy for spending too much time watching cartoons on television and in particular The Muddy Mudskipper Show. Stimpy enters a poetry contest for the Gritty Kitty Litter where he declares his love of kitty litter. Stimpy's inane poem wins the first prize. As a result, Stimpy wins $47 million and an appearance on The Muddy Mudskipper Show. Stimpy leaves for Hollywood while Ren becomes lonely in his trailer park. The story concludes with the next episode The Big Shot! .

Cast

• Ren-voice of John Kricfalusi
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• Muddy Mudskipper-voice of Harris Peet
• Pool babe-voice of Cheryl Chase
• TV announcer-voice of Darrin Sargent
• TV Announcer-voice of Jim Smith
• Pillow-voice of Vincent Waller.

Production

Production started in October 1990 in order to meet the scheduled premiere in August 1991. Much of the episode was drawn by the couple John Kricfalusi and Lynne Naylor. ^[1] Naylor simplified the design of Ren and Stimpy from their look in their debut in the 1990 pilot episode Big House Blues under the grounds that it took too much time and was too expensive to draw the characters in frame by frame as was done in style of the Big House Blues. ^[2] Naylor argued that a simpler design was needed to save money and time. ^[2] Naylor redesign of Ren and Stimpy became the norm for the rest of the show, though Kricfalusi has expressed preference for the original look of the duo in the Big House Blues. ^[2] The production was greatly hindered when Naylor broke up with Kricfalusi in March 1991, which marked the end of her involvement with The Ren & Stimpy Show. ^[1] Working on Stimpy's Big Day imposed serious strains on their relationships as Naylor was far more committed to reaching the deadlines imposed by the studio than was Kricfalusi. ^[3] David Koenigsberg of the Spümcø studio recalled: "She was building up with all this tension because she felt the deadlines much more oppressively than John did." ^[3] Koingsberg recalled that the other animators would laugh and joke while working, but Naylor "was like the uptight librarian reminding everyone 'we have to go back to work now'. She was serious, it was not a joke. I remember talking to her one day about how we should laugh at this, and she really couldn't". ^[3] Naylor had completed the lay-outs for Stimpy's Big Day when she broke up with Kricfalusi. ^[3] However, despite the break-up, Naylor played a major role in Stimpy's Big Day as she drew the opening scene where Ren criticizes Stimpy for watching cartoons too much, which established a dynamic that continued for the rest of the show. ^[4] Both Kricfalusi and Naylor had been born in the 1950s, and as result the couple set Stimpy's Big Day sometime in the 1950s as a tribute to the world of their youth. ^[4]

Reception

The American journalist Thad Komorowski rated Stimpy's Big Day favorably, giving the episode three stars. ^[5]

Books

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN   1593931107.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1629331836.

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 85.
2. Komorowski 2017, p. 85-86.
3. Komorowski 2017, p. 87.
4. Komorowski 2017, p. 88-89.
5. Komorowski 2017, p. 352.