MIKE WALLACE (60 Minutes):
"I met Camp for this interview in 2002. That of course was during production of the Ren and Stimpy revival. I also met with Peter Schneider, the former Disney executive who took over at Nickelodeon during its darkest hours."
"Peter, given the seriousness of John Kricfalusi's crimes, why would you put Nickelodeon's image on the line in bringing Ren and Stimpy back?
PETER SCHNEIDER (CEO of USA Network Group):
"After talking with Bob Camp extensively, I was slow to recognize that the original Ren and Stimpy was a huge draw for Nick while I was at Disney. I joined Nickelodeon and the USA Network Group during the trial. But keeping the show off the air after Kricfalusi's conviction backfired on us. We found out the hard way that Ren and Stimpy was the sole reason many folks - particularly the 18-49 bachelor demographic - tuned in to Nick. We even had people refusing to watch Nick until we brought the show back."
WALLACE:
"But for the cynics who feel that you're choosing nostalgia for a TV series over the well being of [Blair], what is your message to them?"
SCHNEIDER:
"Nothing we can do to convince those people no matter how hard we try."
WALLACE:
"Now, lemme backtrack a little bit. There have been rumors for a while that Walt Disney was fully aware of the original Ren and Stimpy. Is that true?"
SCHNEIDER:
"That is true. When Walt came to New York City ahead of his 90th birthday, that's when Donald Trump showed him the Invention and Toothache episodes. I was told long after the fact that it was the latter that made Walt cringe and he did indeed kick Trump out of his hotel room. Vanessa Coffey, one of my predecessors at Nick told me only recently that she had high hopes of featuring Walt on a marketing campaign for the show that featured other animation legends that praised it. Vanessa then said that when she learned that Walt vehemently disliked what he saw, she was extremely devastated."
BOB CAMP:
"I was probably the only person at Trump Manhattan that was actually NOT surprised that Walt reacted to the show the way he did. I met him twice before when I first broke into comic books at Harvey in the early 80's. While I was there I did the graphic novel adaptation for The Secret of NIMH. John had delusional expectations of Walt admitting our show was good. Chris Savino took it much harder, because when he was 16, he actually got to meet Walt at the opening of Motor Kingdom. The icing on the cake were the tears in Donald Trump's eyes. In fact, we found out later that Donald numbed the pain of Walt's disapproval for about two weeks straight, going nowhere else for lunch but the Taco Bell where Harvey Weinstein used to work."
WALLACE:
"Now, of course, you had left Trump Manhattan to work for Gemini in 1993. After buying the rights to the property, have you gotten a chance to look at the episodes that were made in your absence?"
CAMP:
"I have, but it wasn't till after the revival launched. However, it was the movie that was off my radar for the longest time. All I previously knew was that it was a bunch of shorts cobbled together with live action wraparounds that had Kevin Spacey trying to be like Deems Taylor in the original Fantasia, tuxedo and all. So basically, I had pretty much ignored the movie till fairly recently.
*Fast forward*
WALLACE:
"On Shrek, was it your intention all along to pattern Farquaad after John K?"
CAMP:
"I had wanted to do that almost since the day of the chase. While I was at Gemini, my idea of a John K-based villain didn't fit the stories, so I had to wait till after I got to DreamWorks and Shrek got the green light. At first, I did not expect Steven Spielberg to give me his blessing, so I was surprised when he actually said yes to my idea. I did not learn until later the extent of John's adversarial attitude towards the material Steve co-produced with Warner Bros in the early 90's."
WALLACE:
"So far, the Ren and Stimpy revival has become the ultimate comeback story in show business. Bob Camp says the DVD's of the original series will be released this coming September, along with a special edition release of the 1996 movie. I'm Mike Wallace for 60 Minutes."
Will there be a part 3 or our moving on to something else
