To Salve and Salve Not!

To Salve and Salve Not! is the first episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 20 November 1993.

Plot
The Salesman keeps pushing Stimpy to buy his useless products while Stimpy has no sales resistance. After Stimpy spends a fortune on the Titan 4000 Vacuum Cleaner, Ren becomes angry and tries to stop Stimpy from spending all of his money on the products offered by the Salesman. The Salesman returns at the door to try to sell Stimpy a product called Salve, which Ren stops him from buying. Ren keeps chasing away the Salesman who keeps returning, going so far as to disguise himself as a piece of bread. Ren uses the toilet and discovers that he is out of toilet paper. The Salesman appears and offers to sell Salve, which he assures Ren is an effective substitute for toilet paper. Ren agrees to buy Salve, but finds that Stimpy has already purchased all of the Salve, which he is willing to share with Ren.

Cast

 * Ren-voice of Billy West
 * Stimpy-voice of Billy West
 * The Salesman-voice of Billy West

Production
The script for To Salve and Salve Not! was written in late 1991 and it was intended that the episode would be part of the second season. The script had been approved by the network, and when the Spümcø studio lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show on 21 September 1992, To Salve and Salve Not! was assigned to the new Games Animation studio. Production on the second season was so erratic and late that To Salve and Salve Not! was held over for the third season. During the Spümcø era, there were two types of stories, the "psychodramas" where one of the characters would be put through an emotionally wrenching experience, and the "gag reels", which were just a collection of gags built loosely around a thin plot. In January 1993, the network forbade any more "psychodramas", and henceforward there would be only "gag reel" stories such as To Salve and Salve Not! by the Games Animation studio. Therefore, this episode marked the beginning of what is referred to as the "Games era", which was felt to be a decline in quality compared to the "Spümcø era". It was only occasionally that the Games Animation studio attempted "psychodramas" such Hermit Ren in 1994.

Reception
The American journalist Thad Komorowski praised the work of Bob Camp as the director, whose "conscious sense of self-restraint" kept the more grotesque elements of the plot at bay..