On weds night Comedy central was to air the Scientology Episode that caused Isaac hayes to leave the show…The episode did not air and now we’re starting to find out why.
It appears that Tom Cruise threatened Viacom and said that if the episode aired that he would pull all ads for MI3 from Viacom stations.
Not only did Viacom pull the episode but there are rumors that they have ordered Matt and Trey not to discuss why the episode was pulled.
Personally I’m stunned that Viacom would buckle like this…If this is true then shame on viacom and comedy central for screwing the two guys that helped put that station on the map…If I was Matt and Trey I would tell viacom that when their contracts are up with comedy central that they are gone.
Could you imagine if South Park moved to HBO or Showtime.
What’s next…Censor Jon Stewart for making fun of President Bush.
I assume this means that the episode won’t be released on DVD either. Then again, I don’t know what Cruise would threaten them with. You’d think he’d have grown a sense of humor by now.
Yeah I don’t see how saying your gonna pull your publicity for mission impossible 3 is much of a threat…if anything it would be doing the public a great service.
Originally Posted by Curugon Way to post a story and not give your sources.
well the source that I got it from was from the south park website BBS who are quoting defamer and hollywood interupted…now those are sites I don’t frequent much but it seems to me that they may be on to something.
Why would comedy central promote the episode all week only to pull it at the last moment…I somehow doubt Matt and Trey decided to pull it…and the fact that neither one of them are commenting on the situation seems to lend some credibility…I mean usually they are quick to speak on something yet there has been no comment from either matt or trey…given how quick they were to discuss Hayes’ departure the slience from them on this does make the rumor of viacom telling them to not speak on the matter seem valid…and it does seem like something that Tom Cruise would do.
I heard this morning on the radio that Cruise threatened to not do any publicity for MI:3 (also distributed by Paramount) if they aired the episode again.
If that’s true, it’s very short-sighted by Cruise, because his name is all over the movie, not only in acting in it, but producing it as well. He’d be an idiot not to publicize his own movie because he’s so protective of Scientology. Of course, if you’ve already got billions of dollars, I guess the movie would just be a big write off otherwise.
I’m so torn about this movie because on the one hand, Tom Cruise is in it, but on the other hand, so is P.S. Hoffman and Simon Pegg. I was never a huge Tom Cruise fan in the first place, but he has really turned me off the last 4-5 years.
Cruise not doing publicity might not be an altogether bad thing. I know more than a few people who were so put off by his antics on the War of the Worlds publicity tour that they opted out of seeing the movie.
Originally Posted by Boney Doesn’t make sense. So what if he pulled the MI3 ads? It’s not like they’d have 30 seconds of dead air without them! There’d be other advertisers. These pussies should stand up and say “Fine. You never get to appear on any Viacom owned TV station again.” I mean who has the real power here?
Viacom owns Paramount. Paramount is releasing Tom’s movie. The report says Cruise is threatening his own company. He’s telling them to choose between promoting one of their biggest blockbusters or airing a South Park repeat. Assuming Cruise has the clout to make good on his threat, pulling the SP episode is obviously in Viacom’s best interest.
Parker and Stone were on Letterman a couple nights ago. They talked a bit about Hayes quitting the show because of the Scientology episode but both Cruise and the plot of the episode were not mentioned. May not mean much but it seemed a bit odd.
Originally Posted by Moltisanti May not mean much but it seemed a bit odd.
They also weren’t on for that long and the question was the last asked I believe. If they do Leno and don’t talk about it then s omething is up.
Paramount should have called his bluff. There is no way Cruise doesn’t promote this movie. This is a guy who flew his 7 month pregnant wife to Australia to fend off rumors of a break up. He’s all about promotion and nothing would stop him esp. when not promoting it could cost 20+ million dollars.
But Letterman is under the same Viacom umbrella that “South Park” is. I’m not really trying to paint Letterman in a bad light it just seemed like it would be obvious to bring up Cruise. I certainly don’t think Letterman is worried about his bosses, especially after how he let Howard Stern go off on Les Moonves earlier in the week.
It all sounds like unsubstantiated rumors. Unless Viacom has money in MI:3, I can’t imagine they would care about losing the ads, anyway.
That being said, the South Park episode is not really appropriate. It’s blatantly hateful and that whole “this is what they actually believe” section goes beyond any sort of veil of satire that the creators can usually hide behind. Why don’t they do a “this is what Christians actually believe” mockery or one on Islam, etc.?
Scientologists are an easy target. There’s little that separates their beliefs from any other religion, though. It’s all make believe.
Originally Posted by Dannychico That being said, the South Park episode is not really appropriate. It’s blatantly hateful and that whole “this is what they actually believe” section goes beyond any sort of veil of satire that the creators can usually hide behind. Why don’t they do a “this is what Christians actually believe” mockery or one on Islam, etc.? Scientologists are an easy target. There’s little that separates their beliefs from any other religion, though. It’s all make believe.
Didn’t they do something akin to this regarding Mormonism? It’s been some time since I saw that episode, but I thought it was a pretty good sized slam on how “silly” their beliefs seemed. Although, if I recall, they seemed to make the point at the end that it was okay to be that bizarre sounding because faith is a positive thing to have. Not sure how that episodes compares to what they are doing with Scientology though; it’s been a while since I’ve seen any South Park.
I didnt hear about this, but I noticed that the other episode that was supposed to be paired with “coming out of the closet” was also not what it was billed as.
Any chance this was just a tvguide error or something?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!! -Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu
Originally Posted by Brechtsky I didnt hear about this, but I noticed that the other episode that was supposed to be paired with “coming out of the closet” was also not what it was billed as. Any chance this was just a tvguide error or something?
No, they actually promoted the fact that they would be airing “Trapped in the Closet” on air. It’s part of their “most offensive episodes” countdown, I believe.