On this day, 29 years ago, Kenny died. It wouldn’t be the last time. The envelope-pushing, profanity-heavy animated series “South Park” premiered on Comedy Central on August 13, 1997. The show’s premiere was more than just the first of the parka-wearing character’s many, many comical deaths, however; it also changed the TV landscape forever.
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, “South Park” began as a short film the duo made while attending the University of Colorado in 1992. The short was animated using cut-out construction paper that they moved for every new frame, making it almost more like stop-motion animation than a traditional hand-drawn cartoon. And Parker and Stone’s short was a hit among those who saw it. A Fox executive commissioned them to make an updated version three years later, and, before long, there was talk of a full series. After the pair butted heads with Fox over whether or not they’d have to cut Mr. Hankey from the show, however, Parker and Stone instead turned to Comedy Central.
You can probably guess the plot of the first proper episode of the “South Park” series from its title, “Cartman Gets an A*** Probe.” Notably, this first episode was the only one to be made using actual cut-out construction paper; future episodes would be made using computer programs that emulated the look.
South Park helped make Comedy Central a major channel
“South Park” was proudly puerile and offensive, and while some aspects of the show might have been too much for Fox executives to bear, it turned out millions of Comedy Central viewers were ready for just such a series. The series premiere scored a 1.3 Nielsen rating, and things only got better from there. A few months later, the episode “Pinkeye” landed a rating of 3.8; before this, an average Comedy Central series had a rating of 0.6.
As a result, Comedy Central was able to charge upwards of $30,000 for a commercial broadcast during “South Park.” A mere six months earlier, the most expensive ad on the channel had cost just $7,500. “‘South Park’ is what really gave Comedy Central jet fuel,” former Comedy Central head Doug Herzog recalled in an oral history of the network published by The A.V. Club. He credited the show for increasing the channel’s reach by 20 million homes. A Variety story published in early 1998 noted that “South Park” might have been the first show to single-handedly drive carriage of a cable channel. “Operators are calling us now, and that simply doesn’t happen,” Brad Samuels, Comedy Central’s senior VP for affiliate sales, said.
Even as cable television falters, South Park is still a hit
“South Park” would only continue to grow from there, producing a theatrical film, spin-off video games, and more. Comedy Central became more and more popular, too, and has since given us a number of all-time great comedy shows. At its peak, in 2011, Comedy Central was watched in over 99 million homes. With the rise of streaming services, however, cable television has declined in popularity. Comedy Central’s numbers have gone down, as has its output. Corporate mergers have further impacted the channel.
Yet “South Park” is still going strong nearly three decades later — and a big part of its success is thanks to streaming. Season 27 was especially popular: The second episode of the season brought in 6.2 million viewers. Only 1.56 million of those views were on Comedy Central, though, as the rest were on Paramount+. Of course, however you slice it, that’s still a pretty impressive figure for a show that began as crude construction paper 29 years ago.