As summer draws to a close, we’ve made it to my favorite time of the year: new fall programming is upon us. But before we dive into the Big Network’s schedules (that’s coming later this week), let’s take a quick look at some of cable’s anticipated offerings premiering this September. Jump after the break for the rundown. Continue reading TV reminder: 5 series to look out for in September
South Park returns for its 18th season on Wednesday, September 24 at 10PM on Comedy Central. Mysteriously Matt and Trey have no released any information pertaining to the season premiere, but in typical fashion I’m sure they’ll upload a bite-sized clip previewing the episode before the 24th. If they do, this post will be updated with it included inside. For now, eye the super-sized South Park “Back” poster above hyping next week’s premiere.
Update (9/21): Jump after the break to watch a quick preview (I promised!) of the season premiere. The episode will tackle the Washington Redskins trademark debacle. Continue reading TV reminder: ‘South Park’ returns Sept. 24 at 10pm [Update: Preview clip inside]
Here’s some fascinating news. Today, for the first time in its 17 season run, South Park has missed its deadline and will not air a scheduled episode on Comedy Central in its designated time slot.
As die-hard SP fans know well, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone take six days to produce an episode of the show; they come up with the story and the script and the animation and everything in-between in under a week leading up to the episode’s airing so that they can be as culturally current as possible. Parker and Stone gave fans an inside look at their fast-paced, time-crunched process in the 2011 documentary 6 Days to Air: the making of South Park.
So what happened? Two words: power outage. A press release tells the tale: “On Tuesday night, South Park Studios lost power. From animation to rendering to editing and sound, all of our computers were down for hours and we were unable to finish episode 1704 “Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers” in time for air tonight. Trey Parker said, “It sucks to miss an air date but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen.” Methinks it is time to install a generator, eh? Click here to view images from the dark studios taken last night.
“Goth Kids 3” will be way ready for air next Wednesday, October 23. Tonight Comedy Central will fill the void with a repeat of the classic installment “Scott Tenorman Must Die.”
South Park takes on the NSA in the season 17 premiere episode titled “Let Go, Let Gov.” The logline goes like this:
When Cartman manages to get himself behind the doors of the NSA, he doesn’t like what he finds in his personal file. He thinks it’s time he told everyone the truth. Meanwhile, Butters finds someone new to listen to his prayers.
Watch two clips, one featuring Cartman and the other Butters, after the break.
South Park returns tonight (Wednesday, 9/25) at 10PM on Comedy Central. Continue reading TV reminder: ‘South Park’ season 17 premieres tonight (9/25) at 10PM on Comedy Central
The second half of South Park season 16 premiere tonight at 10PM on Comedy Central. The episode is called “Sarcastaball” and if the logline has anything to say it’s that Randy Marsh is in the middle of it.
Randy’s attitude toward new safety rules in the game of football CHANGES THE SPORT IN A BIG WAY. As a concerned parent, Randy radically changes the way football is played at South Park Elementary. The new version of the game quickly becomes the nation’s most popular sport. One gifted student emerges as a star athlete in Sarcastaball.
In a preview embedded above, Randy has a hard time with sarcasm. This is lining up to be a good’un.
They’ve made it this far. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have completed (or are probably still in the process of completing) the 224th episode of the crude animated series to air on Comedy Central. The episode to kick off season 16 is titled “Reverse Cowgirl” and the log line goes something like this:
After a South Park citizen meets with an unfortunate accident, the TSA steps in to prevent it from happening again… One of the boys had been told time and time again about leaving the toilet seat up after he goes to the bathroom, but he didnt listen. His actions have consequences and ultimately result in an unimaginable catastrophe.
Embedded above is a thirty second preview featuring the one and only Randy Marsh. Might this be a Randy-centric episode? If so, it’s got classic South Park written all over it.
South Park premieres tonight (3/14) at 10PM on Comedy Central. The show will continue to air Wednesday nights at 10 for an additional six weeks, and then take its usual extended hiatus and return with the second half of the season in October.
Less than four months after renewing South Park for two more seasons, Comedy Central is assuring fans of the crude comedy that Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny will stay put at least until the year 2016. That’s right: today the network renewed South Park for three more seasons! This means that original episodes will continue to be pumped out for years to come and the show will hit a major milestone, 20 seasons on air. Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless said, “The collective genius of Matt and Trey knows no bounds. Week after week and season after season they continue to surprise and delight South Park fans.” The creative minds behind the cultural phenomenon had this to say following the exciting announcement. “Comedy Central has been our home for 15 years and we love working there. South Park is a blast and we can’t wait to make more.” And we can’t wait to see more.
South Park‘s 15th season comes to a conclusion tonight at 10PM on Comedy Central.
[Via EW]
Tonight (10/9) Comedy Central is airing a South Park documentary called “6 Days to Air: the making of South Park.” Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone allowed documentarian Arthur Bradford to sneak a peek behind the scenes at the making of a full 22-minute episode. The doc was shot over the course of three months at the South Park Studios in Los Angeles. According to the press release, “Viewers will get a look at Parker and Stone’s thought process as they approach a new episode and the 24/7 grind they subject themselves to each time the show is in production. The documentary also includes in-depth interviews with Parker and Stone about their working partnership and reflections on highlights from their careers, such as the making of the original short, “The Spirit of Christmas,” as well as their memorable appearance at the 2000 Oscars when they walked the red carpet in drag.”
“We wanted to make something that would appeal to both the hard-core fans and the casual viewers,” said Bradford. “Trey and Matt are two of the most interesting people I know and the way they make ‘South Park’ is completely fascinating and inspiring.”
Hop after the break to watch Parker and SNL player Bill Hader voice characters from the recent episode “You’re Getting Old” (it’s a riot!) and click here to watch some more previews.
6 Days to Air: the making of South Park airs tonight–that is Sunday October 9 at 10PM on Comedy Central.
[Via SouthParkStudios] Continue reading ‘South Park’ docu goes behind-the-scenes with creators Parker & Stone
Last year I posted my Fall TV Preview. This time around I’m breaking that idea in pieces with a new kind of post called This week in NEW TV. Essentially they will serve as expanded versions of my usual TV Reminders. These posts will crop up through October as new TV shows premiere this fall. I will recommend new shows to watch and remind you when returning favorites are coming back. If you want a broader overview of all the new series airing on the big four networks, check out 2011-12 Upfronts coverage.
Note: This week contains only 1 new program, so I thought I’d take the time to comment on some fan-favorite returning series, too.
::SUNDAY::
How To Make It In America — HBO — 10:30PM
Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rasuk) are back to make the big dream come true in NYC. In the season 2 opener the boys return from a successful business trip in Tokyo with CRISP-branded jeans in tow. We’ll also check in with Cam’s overbearing cousin Rene Calderon (Rene Calderon) and his Rasta Mansta energy drink empire, Domingo Brown (Kid Cudi) will become a more familiar face on the show this year, and Lake Bell’s Rachel still isn’t over ex-boyfriend Ben. Now, you’re going to want to look after the break for some HTMIIA goodies: a Luis Guzman-inspired music video, a season 1 recap, a mixtape, and more! For now, look in the gallery below for some stills.
::MONDAY::
House — FOX — 9PM
In the season 8 premiere, we find Dr. Gregory House in jail. Why? Because in last season’s finale he recklessly drove his car into Cuddy’s house and nearly killed her, her daughter, and other guests. While in lockup, House meets Breaking In star Odette Annable and quickly takes a liking to her. Is it because of her looks, her brains, or both? We’ll have to tune in to find out. Rounding out the Hugh Laurie, Jesse Spencer, Omar Epps, Peter Jacobson, and Robert Sean Leonard-led cast is newcomer Charlyne Yi, a comedian best known for her Knocked Up role as the spacey Jodi. It’ll be interesting to see how she blends in with this veteran ensemble cast. It will be equally interesting to see who fills in Cuddy’s shoes to become the new Dean of Medicine; Lisa Edelstein is out (as is movie star Olivia Wilde) and word has it that the new Dean will be selecting internally. I was leaning towards Leonard as my top pick, but now I’m imaging Omar Epps in the position. We shall see… Also note that this may very well be the final season of House. Everything is up in the air for now, and we should receive word from FOX executives in the months ahead. Journey below to view some key art and stills from the premiere.
::WEDNESDAY::
American Horror Story — FX — 10PM
Here’s the new show worth checking out this week. American Horror Story comes from Nip/Tuck and Glee collaborators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk and it’s being billed as the scariest project developed for TV in quite some time. Dylan McDermott (The Practice) and Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) headline a stacked cast that find themselves mentally trapped inside a haunted house. Described as a psychosexual thriller, [the show] centers on a therapist and his wife who, dealing with the aftermath of the husband’s adultery, move along with their kids into a new house that seems to know all about their fears and plays on them. The promotional campaign for this show has been nothing short of bizarre, and the trailer snippets that have leaked are oh-so-intriguing to say the least. You can read more about the development of American Horror Story in a previous post, and check out stills from the spooky series below.
South Park — Comedy Central — 10PM
The second half of South Park season 15 begins Wednesday night. The network hints that “everything must change” following the cynical finale that last aired. In the episode titled “You’re Getting Old” it seemed like creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker were taking a stand against their recent material by calling it stale. So they decided to make at least one major change: Stan’s parents are getting divorced. Whether or not this new development will remain canon as the new season unfolds is still up for discussion. Stone and Parker might just pull their usual and “restart” everything–who knows. When the mid-season premiere passes, let’s just hope that the material is fresh. No matter what, though, South Park has been renewed through 2013 so the pop culture icon is staying put for at least a little while longer. Continue reading This week in NEW TV: ‘American Horror Story’
For those of you who were worried that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were ready to call it quits at the end of the latest South Park episode “You’re Getting Old,” please allow me to quell your fears. Comedy Central has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that South Park will return for at least two more seasons. This means that the creators will continue to spit out new episodes through 2013, so South Park isn’t going anywhere just yet. In a recent interview with Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, the duo reassured fans, “We love South Park, that’s still our thing.” But now that they’ve acknowledged their exhaustion with the show and they will have had a long summer break, let’s hope that the second half of season 15 kicks off in grand South Park fashion. Another set of seven episodes begins October 5 at 10PM on Comedy Central.
[Via EW]
HUMANCENTiPAD
The boys of South Park return tonight! For the season fifteen premiere, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have something quite disturbing in store for us. What do you get when you bring together Apple’s iPad and the Dutch horror film The Human Centipede. Well, um, the “HUMANCENTiPAD” of course! And that is the title of tonight’s episode. It’s bound to be a riot. Watch a cartoony Steve Jobs introduce the revolutionary new product in the preview above and tune into Comedy Central at precisely 10PM for the goods.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, aka the creators of South Park, are writing a musical…for Broadway! The plot does not revolve around Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny. Stone and Parker are finalizing a story “about a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get.” This is an elaborate musical they’ve been working on for the last five years. And if you’re a fan of the brilliantly raunchy duo you should know that they hold a special place in their hearts for musicals. Their very first feature film was Cannibal! The Musical (1993), and this was followed by Orgasmo (1997) which they say “should have been a musical”–they wrote it that way. And although South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999) and Team America (2004) were not billed as musicals, Stone and Parker admit that they not-so-subtlety injected tunes into them because they just couldn’t help it. If you’re an avid South Park fan I’m sure by now you’ve picked up on the creators’ passion for musicals. With all that said, it shouldn’t come to a surprise that these guys are living their dream by actually making a live musical for Broadway.
Josh Gad (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) and Andrew Rannells (Jersey Boys) are set to play the two male leads. Other cast members include Nikki M. James, Rory O’Malley, and Michael Potts. The Book of Mormon‘s music and lyrics are by Stone, Parker and Robert Lopez, the showrunner for Broadway’s long-running puppet show Avenue Q. Stone and choreographer Casey Nicholaw will direct. Preview performances begin February 24, 2011 in New York at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and opening night is expected to roll around in late March. Get your tickets now before they go on sale to the public at large! Look after the break to hear Stone and Parker talk about the show. You know it’s gonna be pure adulterated gutbusting insanity.
[Via SouthParkStudios] Continue reading South Park creators are doing a Broadway musical