South Park

Series history

South Park got its start in 1991 when Parker and Stone, then film students at the University of Colorado, created an animated short called Jesus vs Frosty. The crudely made film featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called "Kenny", bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat. The baby Jesus then saves the day by decapitating the monster with a halo.

Related Topics:
1991 - University of Colorado - Jesus vs Frosty - Prototypical - Jesus - Halo

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Executives at the Fox network saw the film, and in 1995 executive Brian Graden commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film to send to friends as a video Christmas card. Entitled The Spirit of Christmas, it closely resembled the style of the later series, and featured a martial arts duel (and subsequent truce) between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in an episode of South Park in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, Mr Hanky and his family "save" Christmas. The video was a hit and was quickly shared, both by underground duplication and over the then-burgeoning Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with Fox, then with Comedy Central, where the series premiered on August 13, 1997.

Related Topics:
Fox network - 1995 - Brian Graden - Christmas card - The Spirit of Christmas - Martial art - Truce - Santa Claus - Christmas - Internet - Premiere - August 13

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The show's provocative, frequently offensive, and unquestionably adult-oriented material quickly drew howls of protest from various conservative (as well as liberal) spokespersons, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places in a manner similar to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Comedy Central defended South Park by noting that the show is given a "Mature Audiences" TV rating (TV-MA) and that it only airs the show during nighttime hours and never during the day when children may be more likely to see the show.

Related Topics:
T-shirt - Public school - Day care center - Bart Simpson - 1990s - The Simpsons - Juvenile delinquency - TV-MA

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In February 1998, one episode of South Park posed the question of who Eric Cartman's father was. The episode ended with the announcement that it would be revealed in four weeks' time. Four weeks later, the airing of an episode about Terrance and Phillip (two Canadian comedians the main characters idolize) prompted outrage, and also prompted Comedy Central to push the true season premiere up earlier than expected. It was apparently a well-planted April Fools Day gag, meant to poke fun at season-ending cliffhangers.

Related Topics:
1998 - Terrance and Phillip - April Fools Day - Cliffhanger

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The following year, the full-length animated feature film ' was released to generally enthusiastic reviews. The film managed to satirize both itself and the anticipated reaction that it engendered from moral conservatives. It also presented a twisted but seemingly sincere tribute to the film musical with a number of songs, including "Uncle Fucka" and "Blame Canada." The latter was nominated for an Oscar and was performed by Robin Williams during the awards show. It has often been said that "Blame Canada" was chosen from other Oscar-worthy songs in the movie on the basis that it was the only one that could be performed on live TV with its lyrics relatively intact as the song contains only two swear words (while it is true that "Up There" by Satan contains no swear words at all, it would most likely have created far more controversy on religious grounds given its sympathetic portrayal of Satan and his justification of evil in the lyrics).

Related Topics:
Feature film - Film musical - Oscar - Robin Williams - Satan

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On November 11, 1999 shortly after the U.S. theatrical release of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, actress Mary Kay Bergman, who had provided all of the female voices on the South Park television series and in the full-length movie, committed suicide in her suburban Los Angeles, California home. After her death, it was revealed that she suffered from a severe form of clinical depression. Her husband, Dino Andrade, founded the Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund at the Suicide Prevention Center of Greater Los Angeles in an effort to help and educate people with the same type of depression that his wife suffered.

Related Topics:
November 11 - 1999 - U.S. - Mary Kay Bergman - Voices - Suicide - Suburb - Los Angeles, California - Clinical depression - Dino Andrade - Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund

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In the episode "It Hits the Fan," South Park broke the swearing record by saying the word "shit" a total of 162 times. (In a 22 minute episode, this means that it averaged one "shit" every 8 seconds. There was even a counter throughout the episode showing the number of times it was said. An example of how it was used was Mr. Garrison's song that went, "Hey, there, shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?" and repeated this for four verses. This was meant as a satire on a NYPD Blue episode released shortly before this episode where one of the main characters said the word "shit" without being censored, and the American public discussed this for weeks.(In an additional gag in this episode, homosexual characters were allowed to use the word "fag" freely, while heterosexual characters were bleeped when attempting to use the same word.)

Related Topics:
It Hits the Fan - NYPD Blue - Homosexual - Heterosexual

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