South Park

GregX · August 12, 2021, 08:38:50 PM

What else does Comedy Central have at this point? The Daily Show hasn't been the powerhouse it was since Jon Stewart left; they no longer have Colbert. Trevor Noah is good but he doesn't bring in those numbers...

No way are they getting rid of their only remaining golden goose.

Dr. Insomniac · August 12, 2021, 10:27:04 PM

If nothing else, I envy the deal they have with Viacom. CC throws them near a billion dollars just to keep doing what they've always been doing, and they can just keep pushing for more because they know the network needs them more than the other way around.

Daxdiv · August 13, 2021, 01:27:56 PM

Let's see, they also got rid of Drunk History, which caused it to trend on Twitter for a while. I know they're trying to do another adult animated comedy block with the revival of Beavis & Butt-Head, along with a Daria spin-off about Jodie. There was supposed to be a Ren & Stimpy revival, but I think that might have got canned. honestly forgot about those shows. There's also a new season of Crank Yankers & some other show called Nora from Queens. But yeah, most of CC line up is just syndicated shows. Hell, I looked at the schedule for today & it's mostly The Office & Schitt's Creek airing with SP later at midnight.

Dr. Insomniac · August 13, 2021, 01:30:17 PM

At least it's still scripted shows. Better than MTV's predicament. CC could've easily become an abyss of Tosh.0 reruns if they weren't careful. Though it speaks so dismally of MTV's current state that remakes of MTV shows were/are meant to air on CC instead. Reminds me when The Expanse only started getting attention as soon as it left Syfy and became an Amazon show, because the stigma of Syfy was so poisonous that otherwise good shows were getting bad reputations. And that appears to be the same thing with all these revivals. They don't want you to look at them and think "Fuck no, not another MTV show. I hate that network".

LumRanmaYasha · August 13, 2021, 09:45:30 PM

Trey and Matt deserve massive props for knowing what they're worth and retaining so much creative ownership and control of their work. The sheer quantity of South Park to come in the years seems daunting - it's hard to imagine they'll be making 14 movies on top of 7 more seasons - but considering how inventive these last few seasons have been and knowing Matt and Trey I'm sure they'll come up with some interesting and funny stories to keep the show fresh for a while longer.

Dr. Insomniac · August 13, 2021, 10:20:46 PM

I saw someone on Twitter the other day call it a "Faustian deal", and I was like "How?" They have creative freedom to do whatever they want for as long as they want, tons of money, so much critical acclaim that they're one Oscar away from being EGOT winners, decades-old friendships with each other, and the position to make executives submit to them instead of the other way around. Any cartoon creator would kill for just one of those things. And they've had success in other fields like Book of Mormon, so they're not pigeonholed as just the South Park guys.

Daxdiv · August 14, 2021, 12:03:49 AM

I remember seeing a dude say that Trey & Matt didn't want to work on South Park forever. I mean, it's not like CC forced them work on SP & the duo has even said that they'll continue to make SP as long as CC allows them to do so. Considering this deal, doesn't look like that gravy train is running dry.

Dr. Insomniac · August 14, 2021, 12:12:58 AM

Heard in an interview that Trey mostly likes keeping the show around to filter his thoughts, and he said during hiatuses he hears too much Cartman in his head and needs the show to flush that out. Besides, they did once say they didn't want to work on the show forever, but that was ages ago back when South Park was in its 8th or 9th season. And those times they assumed the show would only last a couple seasons, or that the movie would be the series finale, and so on.

LumRanmaYasha · August 14, 2021, 12:34:28 AM

I think in recent years Trey and Matt have been able to use the show to break the show's format and status quo in freeing ways, especially with the shift towards more serialized storytelling and the shift in focus to Randy through the Tegridy Farms storyline. I think so long as they have the freedom to use the show to say and do whatever kinds of stories they want making the show will remain fun for them and not feel as burdensome as it has been in their past slumps.

Avaitor · August 14, 2021, 03:30:02 PM

Yeah, I still see people say that either this or The Simpsons will likely end soon, while all signs are pointing to otherwise. Family Guy, though, I could see Seth want to move on from at some point, especially with his recent deal with Universal.

But this brings up a good point, Matt and Trey have been very smart and lucky, and now they're worth more than Matt Groening. Who would have thought?

Dr. Insomniac · August 14, 2021, 03:45:02 PM

Family Guy will keep going on until the end of time. Seth's been talking about moving on for years, and often mentions how ashamed he is if working for Fox due to Fox News, but he's never done it even when he's in the financial position to do so. I think if he genuinely desired to leave the show, he could've waited out one of his contracts and left ages ago, and then watch as the show scrambles to find soundalikes for all his characters.

Just remembered listening to an old Matt Stone interview, I think it was with Lloyd Kaufman, and he said thanks to shady Paramount movie accounting, they've made more profit from Cannibal the Musical than Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. And that probably convinced them to lawyer up and demand a better deal on their show.

GregX · August 14, 2021, 08:39:03 PM

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on August 14, 2021, 03:45:02 PMJust remembered listening to an old Matt Stone interview, I think it was with Lloyd Kaufman, and he said thanks to shady Paramount movie accounting, they've made more profit from Cannibal the Musical than Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. And that probably convinced them to lawyer up and demand a better deal on their show.

Well, yeah... and "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" didn't make a profit so Weta Workshop never got paid in full for the work they did on it.

If there's a fire on a sound stage in India that a studio owns, they'll knock that against another movie's profits.

Dr. Insomniac · August 14, 2021, 09:02:25 PM

Yeah, they've been burnt by the film industry too much that we sadly haven't gotten projects they've talked about like their own kaiju movie, a That's My Bush movie, their take on a high school comedy. And instead, the next time Trey showed up in movies was Despicable Me 3 of all things. Though they set up their own film studio some years back, so tides might be shifting.

LumRanmaYasha · August 15, 2021, 11:58:03 PM

Matt and Trey have become very business savvy after years of being burned, and thanks to their profit-share deal on streaming rights on top of numerous creative successes under their belts, I think they've definitely accumulated enough wealth and influence to make whatever they want at this point, and even self-fund projects if they really need to.

Daxdiv · August 16, 2021, 03:13:16 PM

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on August 14, 2021, 09:02:25 PM
Yeah, they've been burnt by the film industry too much that we sadly haven't gotten projects they've talked about like their own kaiju movie, a That's My Bush movie, their take on a high school comedy. And instead, the next time Trey showed up in movies was Despicable Me 3 of all things. Though they set up their own film studio some years back, so tides might be shifting.

They've also been burnt by the video games as well. It took them a while for them to reconsider that thanks to the success of Stick of Truth & Fracture But Whole, before that they had some games on the Xbox Live Arcade. Apparently they also set up a studio to over see game production, which is I also guess they have a mobile app despite that one episode talking about how predatory a bunch of freemium mobile apps are.

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South Park