Given how many toes its four swear-jar-filling school kids from Colorado have stepped on over the years, it’s no surprise that some networks initially rejected backing Matt Parker and Trey Stone’s animated sitcom, “South Park.” Targeting U.S. presidents, world leaders, and A-list celebrities in some of its most offensive episodes, “South Park” cuts close to the bone with surgical precision. However, there was a time when the creators of this “quiet, little mountain town” actually took a step back to focus on a character who wasn’t one of the F-bomb-dropping foursome of Kyle, Stan, Eric and Kenny, but their fiber-infused festive friend from the sewer.
“Before ‘South Park’ started, when we did ‘Spirit of Christmas,’ and people first talked about doing a series, we wanted to make a series called ‘The Mr. Hankey Show,’ and basically the whole thing would be centered around this piece of s**t,” Stone recalls in the first season’s DVD commentary (via Cracked). “And we would have Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, but it would all be sort of centered around Mr. Hankey and his view of things.” Sadly, the idea didn’t go down well with the Fox executive Brian Graden. “We pitched it to Graden, and he said, ‘I’m not putting poo on my network,'” Stone explains. From there, Stone and Parker had to change tactics, which ultimately led to the creation of “South Park,” a series that now spans an incredible 28 seasons (and counting) — and includes recurring appearances of a talking turd.
Comedy Central was absolutely on board with Mr. Hankey
After Fox’s rejection, Trey Parker and Matt Stone went back to the drawing board, crafting a revised take that would incorporate Mr. Hankey and other elements they had envisioned. They eventually pitched the new version of the show to Comedy Central, and the network was sold on the concept. “We came up with another way to present it all, which was “South Park,” and it featured the town rather than the piece of poo, and maybe we bring the poo into it later. So when Comedy Central [was] interested, they took us out to dinner, basically to say, ‘We’re who you should take this show to,'” Stone says.
However, the real test would involve the one character that had been their undoing (or un-pooing?) at Fox. “They were super excited about the show. So we were out to dinner with them, and we said, basically, ‘We just need to know one thing: Are you open to talking poo?'” It was the burning question that needed to be answered. “And the person that was there at the time said: ‘Absolutely.'” From there, the world said hello to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, along with their friend who was guaranteed to leave a mess everywhere. Now, with a recent comeback accumulating over six million viewers, we’re so glad they’re still around.
This story originally appeared on TVLine
