South Park is one of the most influential and downright intelligent shows ever made.
On its surface, the show appears to be about a bunch of kids with childish senses of humor who adore swearing... But each episode of the show is really a microcosm for what's going on in the world around us. A lot of the time, this can be triggering for people. This fact may be one of the reasons why the South Park Pandemic Special was met with mixed reviews.
However, South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker set out to create a show that dissected racism, social conventions, organizations, movements, religions, politics, celebrities, and every single value we hold dear... And they did this through edgy animated comedy.
No wonder so many networks rejected the show... But here's exactly why it took so long for a network to pick the show up...
Their College Films Caught The Attention Of The Networks
The truth is, there are many things about South Park that fans aren't aware of, especially the origins of the show and how hard it was to get made. In a fantastic oral history on the creation of South Park by Entertainment Weekly, Trey Parker and Matt Stone went into detail about why exactly so many networks turned their brilliant idea down.
Eventually, Comedy Central picked up the show, but beforehand, Matt and Trey endured a very long development process. The idea for South Park stemmed from a pair of college animated shorts that gained the attention of a Hollywood executive named Brian Graden. Brian was able to get Matt and Trey some seed money to redo their shorts so that the animation was of higher quality. These re-dos went 'viral' (via VHS tapes) and suddenly every single network wanted to meet with them.
However, most executives were highly skeptical of the cartoon kids with foul mouths and a proclivity for getting into satirical conflicts that many find offensive. In particular, they didn't think it could be a weekly show.
The Networks Didn't Think Adults Would Continuously Tune In
The main reason why networks turned down the South Park idea was that they didn't think adults would continuously tune into the show. Sure, the two Christmas shorts were funny, and adults love them, but there wasn't a way to make that concept into a TV show that would maintain older viewers... So, they thought.
"[Network executives] were saying, "You could never repeat this as a TV show, because you couldn’t be this dirty on TV and so it wouldn’t be funny," Trey Parker explained. "We started coming up with the idea of Mr. Garrison and Mr. Mackey and we had drawings of them, and they’re like, “It’ll never work because adults don’t want to watch a show about kids. They want to watch a show about a family.” We knew it wouldn’t have to be this dirty to be funny; you just have to push the envelope. Plus, we thought there was more to it than that."
But networks weren't convinced. Ultimately both MTV and Fox completely turned the South Park boys down, missing out on a multi-million dollar opportunity... Little did this know.
However, then-Comedy Central president Doug Herzog thought differently. He was introduced to Matt and Trey's animated short films by his development executive, Debbie Liebling, who dragged him into a conference room to show him. Immediately, Doug knew he had to work with the South Park boys.
Enter Comedy Central
"We [flew] them to New York for some meetings," Doug Herzog explained in the Entertainment Weekly interview.
Doug claimed that he wasn't just impressed with the boys' work, but also with their strange, crazy, and out-going personalities. Eventually, he told them to take some money and go make a pilot for their TV show.
With a little dough, Matt and Trey went and made the pilot for South Park, an episode entitled, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". However, Comedy Central was disappointed with it. But they weren't sure, so they went and did a focus group with a bunch of adults.
Not surprisingly, some people were very offended and even cried when they saw the kids swearing... Ultimately, the focus group rated the show VERY low.
However, Comedy Central gave Matt and Trey another chance by asking them to re-do the ending of the episode. While it turned out to be a lot more work than they thought, they fixed a couple of things and Comedy Central went ahead with the show even though the focus group hated it.
"That takes more bravery than people know until they’ve had those jobs," South Park producer Brian Graden said.
When South Park debuted in 1997, nearly a million viewers tuned in. This was huge for basic cable at the time. And ratings grew continuously from there.
"I came from MTV, and South Park took off quicker, faster, and with more impact than any sort of rock band or music act that I’d ever seen," Doug claimed. " It took off like a rocket. And it got an immediate, incredible critical response."
South Park is still enjoying high-viewership and critical acclaim more than 20 years later, making it a bonafide hit... But clearly, only one network had any foresight to see what it could be.
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