South Park - Season Seven premieres Wednesday, March 19!

[AKA]

From South Park Studios:

Premiere Date: March 19th 2003
Episode 704: "Cancelled"

The boys discover Earth is nothing but one big intergalactic reality show and it’s about to be canceled when "South Park" returns for its seventh season on Wednesday, March 19 at 10:00 p.m. on Comedy Central

With a nod to the first episode of South Park, the satellite dish in Cartman’s ass has been reactivated. The question of "Visitors" in the small mountain town is finally answered when the aliens return to wrap up one of their longest running reality shows, "Earth". Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, yes Kenny, are once again trapped in space and it’s up to them to save the planet from annihilation.

[AKA]

TV icon Norman Lear is goin' down to 'South Park'

By Bill Keveney
USA Today

LOS ANGELES -- When Trey Parker and Matt Stone first pitched South Park, they described the potty-mouthed, politically incorrect Cartman character as "an 8-year-old Archie Bunker."

So it seems fitting that All in the Family creator Norman Lear, a man who was shaking TV's foundations when South Park's creators were babies, is joining them to develop stories for the Comedy Central series' seventh season (premiering Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT).

Lear, 80, a TV legend, doesn't need another writing gig, but he doesn't see this as a job.

"They invited me to a party and we're partying," he says after a writers' meeting at South Park's Marina del Rey studio. "There's no way to overstate the kick of being welcomed by this group."

Despite an age gap of nearly 50 years and some substantial differences in their signature shows -- for example, real adult actors vs. construction-paper kids and crude language that would have shocked Family's Edith Bunker -- the three share a bond: strong points of view and a willingness to ignite controversy in a mostly bland medium.

With the collaboration, "we feel it has come full circle for us," Parker says. He and Stone explain that All in the Family is one of the few sitcoms they enjoyed amid vast "cookie-cutter" offerings.

South Park came to Lear's attention a few seasons ago through his adolescent son. He called to compliment the creators, who were receiving both praise and condemnation for a show that became a white-hot cultural phenomenon. Although South Park's audience has dropped from more than 4 million early in its run to 2.6 million last season, it remains Comedy Central's top-rated show.

Lear, who wove political and social issues into his many hits, including Maude and The Jeffersons, says the Emmy-nominated series is both serious and hilarious in the way it "deals with the foolishness of the human condition."

He admires its willingness to confront sensitive political matters (South Park did an Osama bin Laden episode less than two months after the Sept. 11 attacks). Parker and Stone return the compliment.

"As we got to know Norman, we realized this guy is really cool and likes to talk about the same things we talk about," Parker says. "So we said, 'You should come sit in with this group and you'd fit right in.'"

Although Parker, 33, ultimately puts pen to paper, the creative force of the show comes through writers' meetings in which Parker, Stone and their writers -- that is, people they find funny -- discuss everything from current events to personal experiences in the search for comic inspiration.

Lear initially was going to help with one episode about a traveling Declaration of Independence display visiting South Park, mirroring a real national program Lear sponsors. But the working relationship was so comfortable that Lear's fingerprints now are on a majority of the seven new episodes, including the series' 100th on April 9.

In the season premiere, the South Park boys -- Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny -- learn that Earth is actually an intergalactic reality series staged by aliens and is in danger of cancellation.

Not surprisingly, the three see current political tensions as rich material. The issue of protest, so fraught with strong feeling, is slated for one episode. Calling themselves independents -- with Parker leaning more Republican and Lear more Democratic in philosophy -- they plan to skewer all sides.

Parker and Stone still embrace the lowbrow. They explain a subplot about flatulence -- a great comic topic, they say -- and Lear is hardly put off. In fact, he says he has a CD with a flatulence contest he wants them to hear.

Lear marvels at the work style of South Park's writers and animators, who as of late last week weren't even sure which episode would run Wednesday. But that's common for South Park, where episodes often are put together in a few days and tweaked hours before broadcast.

"They work without a tape recorder. They don't take many notes" and they turn around rich episodes on short order, Lear says. "That's what amazes me."

[Mr. Stefani]

finally its on tonight