South Park

*South Park* is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and their exploits in and around the fictional titular town, located within the real-life South Park basin in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. The show became infamous for its profanity and dark, surreal humorthat satirizes a wide range of topics towards a mature audience.

## **Summary:**

Parker and Stone developed the show from *The Spirit of Christmas*, two consecutive animated shorts. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, ultimately leading to *South Park*'s production. The pilot episode was produced using cutout animation, leading to all subsequent episodes being produced with computer animation that emulated the cutout technique. *South Park* features a very large ensemble cast of recurring characters.

Since its debut on August 13th 1997, 308 episodes of *South Park* have been broadcast. It debuted with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest-rated shows and is slated to air new episodes through 2022. Since 2000, each episode has typically been written and produced in the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. A one-hour special episode, titled "The Pandemic Special", premiered on September 30th 2020. Another one-hour special episode, titled "South ParQ Vaccination Special" will premiere on March 10, 2021.

*South Park* has received numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous inclusions in various publications' lists of greatest television shows. The show's popularity resulted in a feature-length theatrical film, *South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut* which was released in June 1999, less than two years after the show's premiere, and became a commercial and critical success, and garnered a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2013, *TV Guide* ranked *South Park* the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.

## **Action Figures:**

Merchandising related to the show is an industry which generates several million dollars a year. In 1998, the top-selling specialty T-shirt in the United States was based on *South Park*, and US$30 million in T-shirt sales was reached during the show's first season. A *South Park* pinball machine was released in 1999 by Sega Pinball. Comedy Central entered into an agreement with Frito-Lay to sell 1.5 million bags of Cheesy Poofs, Cartman's favorite snack from the show, at Walmart until the premiere of the second half of the fifteenth season on October 5th 2011. As per the main focus of this wiki, there have been a few toy companies like Fun 4 All, Mezco Toyz, and Mirage that have produced various *South Park* action figures, collectibles, and plush dolls. Though there have also been a few lines of SP merchandise that were planned, but never made off the prototype phase as listed below:

* South Park/McFarlane Toys
* South Park/Mirage
* South Park/Mezco

## **References:**

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South\_Park