The first season of the animated television series South Park aired on Comedy Central from August 13, 1997 to February 25, 1998. The creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote most of the season's episodes; Dan Sterling, Philip Stark and David Goodman were credited with writing five episodes. The narrative revolves around four children—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick—and their unusual experiences in the titular mountain town.
South Park originated from Parker and Stone's 1992 animated short, The Spirit of Christmas (also known as Jesus vs. Frosty). The low-budget, crudely made film featured prototypes of South Park's main characters and was followed in 1995 by another short film of the same name, generally referred to as Jesus vs. Santa, which became popular and was widely shared over the Internet. The short's popularity caused Parker and Stone to develop a series based on it, and the project was first considered for purchase by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Fox ultimately passed on the show, and Comedy Central signed on to produce the series instead. South Park debuted on August 13, 1997 on Comedy Central with an initial run of six episodes; due to its success, an additional seven episodes were quickly produced. The complete season was released on DVD on November 12, 2002.
The first season was a ratings success for Comedy Central. The Nielsen ratings rose from 1.3 to 6.4 from the first to the tenth episode. Several episodes received award nominations, including for a 1998 Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)" and a GLAAD Award in the "Outstanding TV – Individual Episode" category for the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride". During the season, South Park won a CableACE Award for "Best Animated Series" and was nominated for a 1998 Annie Award in the "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime or Late Night Television Program".
The show was a financial success for Comedy Central and helped the network transform into "a cable industry power almost overnight".
Voice cast
Main cast Trey Parker as Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Randy Marsh, Mr. Garrison, Clyde Donovan,Tolkien Black, Mr. Hankey, Mr. Mackey and Phillip Matt Stone as Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, Gerald Broflovski, Stuart McCormick, Jimbo Kern, Terrance, Pip Pirrup and Jesus Mary Kay Bergman as Wendy Testaburger, Liane Cartman, Sheila Broflovski, Shelly Marsh, Sharon Marsh and Carol McCormick Isaac Hayes as Chef
Guest cast George Clooney as Sparky ("Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride") Michael Buffer as himself ("Damien") Natasha Henstridge as Ms. Ellen (credited as "The Chick from Species") ("Tom's Rhinoplasty") Robert Smith as himself ("Mecha-Streisand") Jay Leno as Mr. Kitty ("Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut")
Episodes
Development The idea for South Park originated in 1992 when creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone met in a film class as students at the University of Colorado. They discussed filming a three-minute short film involving a boy who befriended a talking piece of feces named Mr. Hankey. Although such a short was never made, Parker and Stone created a Christmas-related animated short commonly known as "Jesus vs. Frosty". The crude, low-budget animation featured prototypes for the main characters of South Park, including Cartman, Stan and Kyle. Fox executive Brian Graden saw the film and in 1995 sent a check of $1,200 to Parker and Stone asking them to create a second short film that he could send to his friends as a Christmas video card. Titled The Spirit of Christmas, but also known as "Jesus vs. Santa", the short resembled the style of the later series more closely. In 1997, The Spirit of Christmas won the Los Angeles Films Critics Association award for "Best Animation", thus further bringing the two filmmakers to the attention of industry representatives.
The "Jesus vs. Santa" video was widely copied and shared over the Internet. George Clooney was reported to have made 300 copies for his friends, and the short was subsequently regarded as likely the first viral video. The popularity of the short led to Parker and Stone to develop an adult-animated show concept with four children as main protagonists and the fictional town of South Park in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Through Graden, the duo persuaded Fox to buy their series due to its reputation with primetime edgier shows such as Cops, The Simpsons, and The X-Files. Fox set up a meeting at its office in Century City to discuss with Parker and Stone on how the show would proceed. It did not go well; Fox hated Mr. Hankey being included in the show, as they felt a talking stool character would not fly well with its viewers. Parker and Stone refused to honor Fox's requests to remove the character and completely severed ties with the network as a result.
Later, Comedy Central executive Doug Herzog saw the Jesus vs. Santa short and considered it to be "literally the funniest thing [he]'d ever seen," and requested Parker and Stone to develop a show for his network. During the negotiations, Parker and Stone brought up the idea of a Mr. Hankey episode, with Parker claiming to have asked that "one thing we have to know before we really go any further: how do you feel about talking poo?" The network's executives were receptive to the idea, which would be one of the main reasons Parker and Stone decided to sign on with the channel. At the time, Comedy Central had just lost the rights to their first hit series, Mystery Science Theater 3000, to the SciFi Channel and the only animated series on the network at that point was Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. The first episode of the series, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", debuted on Comedy Central on August 13, 1997, while Mr. Hankey debuted a few months later in the ninth episode, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".
The pilot episode received poor results from test audiences. Parker later conceded that regarding the language, he and Stone felt pressure to live up to their previous two shorts and "tried to push things ... maybe further than we should [have]." In contrast, they allowed subsequent episodes to "be more natural", focusing more on making fun of topics considered taboo "without just throwing a bunch of dirty words in there." After the poor results from the test audience, Comedy Central executives were unsure whether they wanted to order additional episodes after "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". However, when buzz began to generate on the Internet about the two original shorts, the network commissioned Parker and Stone to write one more episode without committing to a full series until they had seen the script. While working on the 1997 film Orgazmo, Parker and Stone wrote the script for what would later become the episode "Weight Gain 4000". The duo sought to give Comedy Central executives an idea of how the series would be and how each episode could differ from the others. The network liked the script, and when Parker and Stone refused to write another script before signing off on at least six episodes, the executives agreed to commit to a series.
Comedy Central originally ordered only these six episodes, but when the show proved successful, they requested an additional seven, which Parker and Stone had to produce quickly. "Pinkeye", the first of these new episodes, would air on October 29, 1997, only two and a half months after the show's premiere. There were three holiday episodes—"Pinkeye", "Starvin' Marvin" and "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo"—which aired at intervals of three weeks, while the remaining four aired later in February 1998.
"Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" was the only episode animated almost completely with traditional cut paper, stop-motion animation techniques. All subsequent episodes would be fully computer-animated using Power Animator or Maya. By the eighth episode, "Damien", much of the drawing and animation responsibilities handled by Parker and Stone were now being delegated to a team of animators. This would be the only episode aside from "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" to receive a TV-14 (unsuitable for children under the age of 14) rating instead of the show's customary TV-MA (unsuitable for under the age of 17). Parker and Stone credit the fourth episode, "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", with helping to raise the ratings during the early part of the season. They felt that the show's first official Christmas special, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", brought South Park to a new level of popularity, and Parker said this episode "just vaulted everything."
Reception
Ratings South Park's first season was a ratings success for Comedy Central. "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" earned a Nielsen rating of 1.3, translating to 980,000 viewers, which was considered high for a cable program in the United States at the time. It increased slightly by the third episode, "Weight Gain 4000", and by the sixth episode, "Death", the show had reached a rating of 1.7. In the releases of "Starvin' Marvin'", "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" and "Damien", three consecutive episodes, the Nielsen ratings rose: 4.8, 5.2 and 6.4, respectively. Changes in ratings of episodes from "Pinkeye" to "Mecha-Streisand" corresponded to an increase to 5.4 million viewers in 3.2 million households. The season finale, "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut", received a Nielsen rating in the 8.0 range and gained over 300,000 viewers when first aired in Canada in August 1998.
South Park became one of the first television series to be bootlegged via the Internet, just as The Spirit of Christmas had been before it. College students digitized many episodes from the first season and streamed them online for friends who were unable to receive Comedy Central.
Critics Despite high ratings, reviews from television critics for the season were mixed. Both The Washington Post and The New York Times had three articles mentioning the show, usually in terms of "class-based taste arguments." "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", the first episode of the series, received generally negative reviews after airing. Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly thought poorly of the writing and characters, lampooning that "if only the kids' jokes were as fresh as their mouths" and that "it might help if the South Park kids had personalities, but they're as one-dimensional as the show's cut-and-paste animation." Calling the series "sophomoric, gross, and unfunny," Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel reckoned that the episode made "such a bad impression that it's hard to get on the show's strange wavelength." Tom Shales of The Washington Post considered that "most of the alleged humor on the premiere is self-conscious and self-congratulatory in its vulgarity: flatulence jokes, repeated use of the word 'dildo' (in the literal as well as pejorative sense), and a general air of malicious unpleasantness."
When "Weight Gain 4000" aired, many writers in the mainstream media were still debating the longevity and the overall quality of South Park. With the series still in its earliest stages, the episode continued to shock many due to the characters frequent use of profanities. Nevertheless, several reviewers felt "Weight Gain 4000" was a significant improvement over "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" and felt that it went in a much more satirical direction. Several media outlets described the fifth episode of the season, "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", as one of the most popular early episodes. Tom Carson of Newsday said it was the most outrageous South Park episode until "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" aired three months later. Many reviewers also said this mere title demonstrated the crudeness and originality of South Park.