"A Visit to Anthony" is the penultimate episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that aired on the Nickelodeon network on May 8, 1993.
Plot
Continuing the theme began in the previous episode "Stimpy's Fan Club" that Ren and Stimpy are stars of their own television show, the duo receive a letter from one of their fans, Anthony, asking them to come and visit him. Ren and Stimpy are depicted as living in Hollywood, Yugoslavia, whose portrayal reflects popular American stereotypes about Eastern Europe as a backward, snowclad place. After swimming across the Atlantic ocean, Ren and Stimpy arrive in America to see Anthony. Anthony and his mother welcome Ren and Stimpy into their house. Anthony hyperventilates at the sight of Ren and Stimpy using the bathroom, and Anthony's stern father warns the duo not to upset his son again. Ren and Stimpy play ball with Anthony outside. Victor the schoolyard bully punches out Anthony. Anthony's father blames Ren and Stimpy. The duo are marched inside and it is implied that Anthony's father is about to kill Ren and Stimpy. Stimpy coughs up hairballs and throws up over Ren, which causes Anthony's father to laugh. Anthony recovers from the beating and explains to his father that Ren and Stimpy are innocent. Ren and Stimpy embrace with Anthony's family.
After the first two episodes aired on August 11, 1991, the showrunner John Kricfalusi received a fan letter from a child in Virginia, Anthony Raspanti, that read: "Dear Ren & Stimpy, I hope you can come visit us in our country-the United States of America. And please bring your costumes. I like you very much. I really enjoyed your show tonight, especially when Ren and Stimpy found each other again".[1] Raspanti's letter inspired Kricfalusi to do an episode where Ren and Stimpy would visit Raspanti, and Rasapnti would voice his cartoon counterpart..[2] Kricfalusi stated that his intentions were to "involve the audience more with the cartoon, so the kids will feel like the characters are their friends".[2] The Nickelodeon network approved of the idea, but grew more nervous as the production continued.[2]Will McRobb of the Nickelodeon network approved of "A Visit to Anthony" as a "classic" and "genius" episode.[3]
Bill Wray, a cartoonist with the Spümcø studio complained that "A Visit to Anthony" was another episode that was "John's primal scream against his father".[2] Kricfalusi was the son of Michael Kricfalusi, a serviceman with the Royal Canadian Air Force who had raised his family in an extremely strict and authoritarian manner. The American critic Nick Schager noted that a recurring theme in The Ren & Stimpy Show during Kricfalusi's time as showrunner was his working out his rage over his upbringing by his authoritarian father in his native Canada as many episodes featured overbearing patriarchal authority figures as the antagonists.[4] The strict, overbearing and implicitly violent father in "A Visit to Anthony" was based very closely on Kricfalusi's own father.[2] All of the dialogue for "A Visit to Anthony" had been recorded except for Anthony's father when the Spümcø studio lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show on 21 September 1992.[2] The Games Animation studio took over making the episode afterwards, but the switch from one studio to another greatly delayed the production, which aired much later than what it was intended to be.[2] The episode was finished in late 1992-early 1993.[5]
In a bid to revive ratings, which had gone into a sharp decline after Kricfalusi was sacked, the actor Randy Quaid provided the voice for Anthony's father.[2] Kricfalusi criticized Quaid's voice acting, saying that it sounds like Quaid was "reading the dialogue for the first time, so he didn't give it the meaning that the drawings conveyed. Whoever directed him was afraid to actually give him any direction. And also he didn't know my dad".[2] Kricfalusi insisted that only he could draw Anthony's father correctly and provided his voice properly.[2] Kricfalusi had intended Anthony's father to sound like Michael Kricfalusi.[2] At the Games Animation studio, the character of Anthony's father was considered very difficult to draw, and only Bob Camp, Chris Reccardi and Michael Kim were allowed to draw that character.[2] The budget for "A Visit to Antony" spiraled out of control to $1 million U.S. dollars.[2] Initially, the task of drawing in "A Visit to Anthony" frame by frame was to assigned to the Carbunkle studio in Vancouver, but to save money A Visit to Anthony was sent to the Rough Draft Korea studio in Seoul instead.[6] It was reported that Bob Jaques of the Carbunkle studio had a "not so nice conversation with Jim Ballantine" over the broken promise.[6] The network executive Will McRobb said of the scene in front of the fireplace where Ren and Stimpy quiver in fear as Anthony's father berates them that it was "genius if you're of the right age, but if you're eight, terrifying".[7]
Reception
The American journalist Thad Komorowksi gave A Visit To Anthony three and a half stars out of five, writing: "overlong at some points, this episode has the making of a classic".[8]
Books and articles
Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1593931100.
Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1629331836.
