Before South Park, Matt Stone And Trey Parker Almost Made A Children's Show For Fox
The humble beginnings of Matt Stone and Trey Parker's "South Park" are nothing short of inspiring, with two friends crafting a stop-motion short film that would evolve into one of the most popular and longest-running shows in television history. "The Spirit of Christmas" was first released in 1992 (colloquially referred to as "Jesus vs. Frosty") and again in 1994 as a Christmas card (colloquially known as "Jesus vs. Santa" to differentiate) Fox executive Brian Graden had commissioned to send to his friends. Parker and Stone then developed the characters and the mountain town setting into what would become "South Park," and the rest is history.
This timeline certainly makes "South Park" sound like one of those dreamy Hollywood Cinderella stories in which two unknown comedy animators were plucked from obscurity to become billionaires and one award shy of earning EGOT status (I'm serious, they're only missing an Oscar). However, this narrative ignores the countless other projects — both realized and scrapped — that led to Parker and Stone's success. For one, there's "Cannibal! The Musical," a comedy retelling of the real-life story of Alferd Packer and his trip from Utah to Colorado, where five of his fellow travelers died and were found partially eaten. There's also "Orgazmo," their NC-17 superhero sex comedy that was in production around the same time as "South Park" and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival less than a month after "South Park" first aired on Comedy Central.
Parker and Stone have continued to work on controversial, boundary-pushing projects after all these years, but before they found fame with "South Park," there was a very real possibility that the folks behind an animated series that had (and continues to have) parents up in arms about their children watching the show could have become the showrunners of a live-action musical history show for children.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Time Warped
"Time Warped" was supposed to be, as the introductory narration says, "a musical romp through time." Stone and Parker starred alongside "Cannibal! The Musical" actors Dian Bachar, Toddy Walters, Ian Hardin, and Jason McHugh, but used fake names like "Imon Welfare," "Peeny Bunslinger," and "Ichabod Jones" as part of the Time Warped Players. McHugh uploaded the pilots to his personal YouTube account and put the story of how the pilots came to be in the description:
"After having just been literally offered peanuts for our first film 'Cannibal! The Musical' — this crazy Fox exec named Pam Brady thought we should do a weekly episodic series about Alferd Packer being lost with a group of guys who sing and dance. Having just endured months in the cold Rocky Mountains — Trey said, 'What if we just take the style and structure of "Cannibal" and create a '50s-styled time-traveling musical adventure show?' And that's exactly what we did back in 1995! We thought we had bagged a series deal — but a year later it turned into another 'Timewarped' pilot for Fox called 'Rom and Jul' — which was basically the story of Romeo and Juliet set in One Million BC Africa."
The show was originally pitched to Fox as a series for adults, but executives saw potential in turning it into an edutainment show for children. Shows like "Wishbone" were all the rage, so if they could create something that would appeal to young viewers, the Fox Kids channel could have a new hit on their hands. The second episode, "Rom and Jul," was a retelling of "Romeo & Juliet" that doubled as an educational explanation of evolution for children.
Can't top Cannibal! The Musical
According to McHugh's book "Shpadoinkle: The Making of Cannibal! The Musical," there were folks at Fox rooting for the show to be a success, but it never came to be. "The show got a great initial response from Pam Brady, which was key because we highly respected her opinion and she was great to work with, but sadly, her opinion had no bearing on us actually getting picked up or not," McHugh wrote. Fans can still watch "Rom and Jul" via McHugh's YouTube page, where he also wrote that the episode tested well with kids under 10, but Fox Kids wasn't willing to take the risk. They were already crushing it with shows like "Power Rangers" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," so an educational show with silly songs and a troupe of actors wasn't a priority.
I've written before about how, for all of its criticisms, "South Park" has been years (and sometimes over a decade) ahead of the curve regarding cultural and political conversations, and while Fox might not have been ready for "Time Warped" at the time, it's a show format that has only increased in popularity. "Drunk History" was a web show turned TV series where celebrities and comedians would get drunk and retell historical moments from memory while a troupe of actors performed the events, which feels like the evolutionary step following "Time Warped." From there, other shows emerged like "Another Period," which sees Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome as socialites in 1902 in a mockumentary style show not unlike "Keeping Up with the Kardashians"; the Andy Daly starring "Review," which sees him as a fictional critic reviewing everything from glory holes to eating 30 pancakes; and "Documentary Now!," where celebrated documentaries are spoofed using similar filmmaking techniques of the source material.
All great ideas, and all children of the Mel Brooks school of satire.