The History of South Park, Bigger, Longer, & Uncut

The Development of South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut

gleaned from Corona's Coming Attractions, Ars Technica, Yahoo, E! Online, PC Gamer

1. December 1997 - Rumors of a South Park movie begin (but see above). Parker and Stone confirm this and add that the budget for the film is $1.5 million. Turns out that Paramount is the studio interested in making a South Park movie. Parker and Stone agree to it so long as it is an R-rated movie, and they get final cut. They begin working on the script.
2. January 1998 - Parker and Stone reveal that they'll make an R-rated film like their short, The Spirit of Christmas.
3. February-April 1998 - I dream of a South Park movie which has several musical numbers, none of whose names I knew at the time. I dream of Stan face down, unconscious on the ground, then of him looking up at a large glowing… you'll have to see the movie if you don't already know. I dream of Mr. Mackey and the kids in "It's Easy, Mmmkay", of the kids dancing in the playground during "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" (okay, that name I did know, since it first played in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo"), even of Mrs. Broflovski dancing across the living room. Stan and Kyle's line in "La Resistance (Medley)" come to me during the day. Same with Satan's lines. That's it, though.
4. April 1998 - the film is to be made using construction paper, like the short.
5. June 15, 1998 - The script is completed.
6. July 1998 - Canada is to be featured prominently. Terrance and Phillip are Canadian, right? On E! Online, Matt mentions the film will come out in March.
7. August 1998 - the first draft of the script is delivered to Paramount on the 20th. The movie opens with Saddam Hussein about to be sentenced to death in the electric chair. After speaking his final words ("How about you get me the fuck out of this chair!" Matt Stone said) Saddam is dispatched in a way that creates much blood and gore. We now know that Phillip, not Saddam, says this line. He and Terrance are not dispatched after all. Isaac Hayes says they're aiming for a Christmas release. Maybe he meant that they're aiming to finish the film by Christmas, which is what happened. Script supervisor Paul Shomer says the film is due out in February.
8. September 3, 1998 - The film is being done by another crew in another building. Copies of the script are on red paper to discourage unauthorized copying.
9. October 2, 1998 - Production begins on the film. Later in the month, in an interview with Mr. Shobiz Trey says the movie will come out in April. The second draft is handed in.
10. December 1998 - The first trailers come out. Just Cartman dancing or commenting ("Damn, Im huge!" or "Who the hell are you people?!"). In PC Gamer Matt confirms that the movie will be out in April.
11. Early 1999 - It is decided that the film will be a musical. By this time, the film equipment has already been disassembled and carted off, so tape backups are used for any further changes. This allows for the addition of references such as Jar Jar Binks and then-current news items (Madeleine Albright in the Balkans).
12. January 19, 1999 - Paramount lists the full title as South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, to be released this summer. Original title: South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose. Parker and Stone get to use "All Hell Breaks Loose" in the trailers, but not as part of the title.
13. January 21, 1998 - The eight draft is handed in. No mention of Metallica or of "Hell Isn't Good" anywhere on the draft, even though rumor has it that Metallica had already recorded the song for the movie.
14. March 9, 1999 - The South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut Web site is up.
15. March 17, 1999 - SP:BLU set to be released on June 18.
16. March 37, 1999 - SP:BLU set to be released on July 16.
17. April 27, 1999 - SP:BLU set to be released on June 18 once again.
18. May 1999 - The film will have a war between the United States and Canada. South Park gets turned into a concentration camp (turns out the army does occupy it, but it does not become a concentration camp). The list of guest voices is released.
19. June 1999 - The release date is pushed to June 11, then to July 2 to June 30. Parker and Stone say they filled the film with as much vulgarity as possible as revenge for the NC-17 slapped on Orgazmo. But every time they submit the movie, it gets an NC-17 and they're asked to remove stuff from it so it could get an R. They comply, only to replace the deletions with more vulgar stuff, then submit an even worse movie. The MPAA relents and okays the R. The real lesson to learn from all this: You can use as much profanity and filth as you want, as long as you don't show any copulation.

    Showtime!

20. June 30, 1999 - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut opens. It's a great film, if you don't mind profanity. Final budget: $21 million.
21. July 1999 - Jack Valenti regrets granting an R rating to the film, given the density of profanity in it (399 bad words in 82 minutes). Many, including I, wonder how it escaped an NC-17 rating.
22. October 11, 1999 - Final domestic gross is $52,008,288.

    Accolades and Revelations

23. November 23, 1999 - Movie released on DVD. VHS - rent only.
24. December 13, 1999 - Andy Klein, a longtime member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, reveals in alt.tv.southpark, that the Association has voted to give the award for best score of the year to Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman for SP:BLU. Andy hopes to present it to them himself on January 19 at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood. Kudos!
25. December 18, 1999 - New York Film Critics Circle votes SP:BLU best animated film of the year, to be handed to Trey and Matt on January 9. This is the first year the Circle has an award for best animated film.
26. January 25, 2000 - McFarlane Toys (Spawn) may produce a series of toys based on the movie. Stay tuned.
27. February 8, 2000 - From Inter Sandman's February 2000 news. This concerns James Hetfield singing in "Hell Isn't Good":

    JAMES ON SOUTH PARK 02.08.00 James finally admitted to lending his vocal cords to the South Park movie on the Members Only Message Boards at Metallica.com. Because this is a Members Only area, we will not post his responce (he also answered several other questions)... Members: go check it out now! We were told repeatedly by people at Paramount, that this was not James, and in fact South Park creator, Trey Parker.

    The rest of the band, it seems, sat this one out. Arguments on SP fan sites continue as to whether all of Metallica was involved, or just James, and when the recording session took place.

28. May 16, 2000 - Movie finally released on VHS. You can find it for as low as $5.99 if you know where to look.
29. July 24, 2000 - One of the questions in the Twenty Questions concerns the very question answered on February 8. Yes, James Hetfield was the only Metallica member to be part of "Hell Isn't Good." He sang the second part of it, with DVDA as backup. Another of the Twenty Questions was about a director's cut of the movie, but Trey and Matt didn't want to make one, and they hate director's cuts of movies. They felt the movie spoke for itself, but thought about it and said they might make a special edition with commentary someday.
30. September 12, 2000 - The stats compiled in the summer of '99 for South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut have entered the Guinness Book of World Records 2001: On page 95 under Cartoons it says the movie "contains 399 swear words and 128 offensive gestures." Taking my cue from "It's Easy, M'kay" I get, from my transcript:
    1. ass - 26
    2. shit - 37
    3. bitch - 73
    4. fuck - 144
       or 280 bad words. Adding Cartman's words (and a few others) gives us
    5. Cock - 8
    6. Tit - 1
    7. Pussy - 3
    8. Dick - 7
       or 19, for a grand total of 299 bad words. I'm sure there are words I missed that total 100 or more.
31. July 10, 2001 - One of the SPS FAQs asks about a special edition of the movie. The reply is that there are no plans for one, and that it's Paramount's decision to put it out.
32. January 27, 2002 - Some light on why the MPAA rejected the title ''South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose.'' Roger Ebert answered the following question in the Chicago Sun-Times:

    Q. I remember when ''South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut'' came out. I seem to remember that the earlier title of this film was ''South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose.'' This title was rejected by the MPAA on the basis of the word ''Hell'' in the title. I was wondering if this was true why they decided to allow the word ''Hell'' in the title of ''From Hell'' the new movie with Johnny Depp? This would seem to be very contradictory.

    Russell Benz, Fargo N.D.

    A. Richard Taylor, spokesman for the MPAA, says: ''According to the Classification and Ratings Administration in Los Angeles, the word 'hell' was never part of the title of that film (at least never in any form when the ratings board was reviewing the film). Therefore, the simple answer to Mr. Benz's question is that the MPAA never rejected the use of the word 'hell' in the title of the film.''

    This statement is technically true in that it refers to the version submitted to the board. But the MPAA often makes ''suggestions'' before films are submitted. According to the Internet Movie Database, ''In a clandestine rebellion against MPAA, who forced them to alter some of the film's content and its original title, Trey Parker and Matt Stone slipped the new title, 'Bigger, Longer and Uncut' (adjectives that can describe a penis as well as the film) past the ratings board.'' And the Web site The Censors quotes Parker: ''Originally, our movie was called 'South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose.' The MPAA said, You can't say 'hell' in the title.'' The site continues: ''He and Stone's counterproposal for the title was an obvious penis joke, Parker said, but the MPAA approved it. 'They just didn't get it.' '' This is also the story Parker and Stone told Jay Leno on ''The Tonight Show.''

33. April 5, 2005 - In the South Park Studios Interview with Matt Stone, Matt said he and Trey had no plans at that time for an SP:BLU special edition. They have no deleted scenes, there is no docementary footage of a making of so the only thing it could be is a commentary track. To be perfectly truthful, he said, both he and Trey hate doing commentary tracks. He don't know why.
34. May 13, 2005 - In an interview with IGN, Matt reaffirmed that there will be no special edition of SP:BLU. He says there's no other material to add alongside it, so there's no SE to make.

South Park At The Oscars 2000

The Nomination

Fans of the show, including I, began to follow developments as they came in. Here is just a sampling of articles written about "Blame Canada"'s nomination.

1. February 16, 2000 - In "'South' song could shake show up" there is speculation as to how Trey Parker and the Academy will handle the content of "Blame Canada" before it is performed on Oscar night.
2. February 17, 2000 - The South Park Digest reports throughout the week that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is nominated for the Best Achievement in Music (Original Song) for "Blame Canada!"
3. February 22, 2000 - Trey Parker will rewrite the lyrics for "Blame Canada," the Oscar-nominated song from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, before it is performed at next month's Academy Awards telecast, USA Today columnist Jeannie Williams reported today. Williams quoted Lili Fini Zanuck, who is co-producing the telecast with her husband, Richard, as saying that Parker "will come up with some funny solutions to his own problems. ... We won't do anything to 'Blame Canada,' but Trey is aware of the ABC censors."
4. March 2, 2000 - CNN's "Oscars to include musical finger-pointing at Canada" discusses various aspects of "Blame Canada" and the Canadian reaction to the one nomination The Huricane got. "EXTRA: 'South Park' Song Censored? Blame Hollywood!" discusses Trey's responsibility in making "Blame Canada"'s lyrics suitable for network broadcast (it will be performed) and the choice of singer(s) since Mary Bergman committed suicide. At the William S. Paley Television Festival at the DGA Trey and Matt say that fans shouldn't hold their breath for another South Park movie. They feel that the MPAA would reject anything from them now, even making "beautician" an NC-17 issue.
5. March 3, 2000 - "South Park" Guys: Bleep the Oscars! has more to say on the Academy's unease with "Blame Canada." Marc Shaiman notes it would be ironic to censor a song about censorship. Neither he nor Trey will change the words, though. Now the censors are looking at changing "fart" in "they just want to fart and curse." UntimateTV's "Who Will Sing "Blame Canada"? Who Will Voice Cartman's Mom?" reveals that Trey and Matt promise a surprise performer for "Blame Canada" and continue to rail against the MPAA for colluding with the major studios against the independents.
6. March 8, 2000 - In Yahoo!'s "South Park' Song Poses Oscar Dilemma," ABC weighs in on censoring "Blame Canada." The profanity in the song must either be cleaned up or bleeped out. In "Blame That Bleeping Canada" Lili Zanuck says she'd like a softer censorship than the bleep.
7. March 18, 2000 - Yahoo's "Williams to "Blame Canada'' for Oscars, but how?" says that Robin Williams has been picked to sing the song. Is this the surprise performer Trey and Matt had in mind?
8. March 20, 2000 - Yahoo's "Robin Williams Crooning 'Canada'" says producers pray Robin Williams doesn't decide to improvise parts of "Blame Canada." Still, he has the background to pull it off. He's been Mrs. Doubtfire and has sung well in Aladdin…
9. March 23, 2000 - 'Blame Canada'? shows how excited Trey was about "Blame Canada" being nominated for Best Original Song. He also noted how ABC was worried over the word "fart," and why no one should take "Blame Canada" seriously or personally.

The Luncheon - March 13, 2000

Trey and Marc (Shaiman) are in the second row, four people away from and to the right of Oscar. Trey wears a silver-colored shirt, Marc looks over Trey's left shoulder. ««-----------------------

A Night At The Oscars - March 26, 2000

A Pimp And His Hos

As the stars arrived at the Shrine Auditorium the cameras got a good look at what they were wearing. Trey, Matt, and Marc showed up in their own fashion statements. Marc came dressed as a 1970's-style pimp wearing a pale blue suit and fur coat, Matt came dressed as Gwyneth Paltrow in a replica of her pink Ralph Lauren dress from last year's Oscars, and Trey came dressed as Jennifer Lopez in a knock-off of her Versace gown from this year's Grammys. "We're not ashamed of our bodies,'' Parker told Reuters. ''This event is the most important thing in the world.''

The Joan Rivers Interview

June 16, 2000, Enertainment Weekly - Matt Stone on Battlefield Earth, which is parodied in the short: "Who wanted to go see that movie? The demographic was, like, 38- to 41-year-old Scientologists."

A little-known fact:

Posted in South Park Studios by: butters @ 04-20-2001 11:05 Very few people know this but Matt and Trey were planning on creating a short segment for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards (kind of like the 2000 one that made fun of "Gladiator" and "Battlefield Earth"). The subject of the 1999 version was "The Mummy" and Jar Jar Binks. It was hilarious, but MTV nixed it because they didn''t want to piss off George Lucas. If you remember, there was a huge sketch in the show with Lisa Kudrow, Andy Dick, and the Jedi scene from "Episode One." The scene was never animated, but there was an animatic tape floating around...

A Memo