LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Soul singer Isaac Hayes may have quit his job as the voice of Chef on "South Park" after a disagreement over religion, but his character will live on when the satiric cable TV cartoon returns to Comedy Central this week, the network said Monday.
Hayes and his "South Park" alter ego are at the center of an ongoing flap over an episode last November that poked fun at the Church of Scientology and its celebrity adherents, including actor Tom Cruise.
The tenth season of "South Park" will launch Wednesday with a new episode titled "The Return of Chef!", marking the "triumphant homecoming" of lusty school cafeteria cook James "Chef" McElroy to the show, the network said in a statement.
Hayes, 63, himself a follower of Scientology, surprised producers a week ago by announcing he was leaving the series because he objected to its "inappropriate ridicule" of religion, though he made no reference to the show's spoof of Scientology last fall.
Two days later, Comedy Central abruptly pulled a scheduled repeat of that episode, titled "Trapped in the Closet." Sources close to the show said the rerun was canceled after Cruise threatened to boycott promotion of his upcoming film, "Mission: Impossible III," for sister studio Paramount Pictures.
Representatives for Cruise and the studio denied this. But "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone fed the furor by issuing a statement suggesting the Church of Scientology was behind the decision to scrap the rerun.
The network has also noted that various religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been targets of the show's satire since its inception.
The network statement announcing Chef's return for the "South Park" season premiere this Wednesday was a clear sign that Parker and Stone planned to use the Hayes imbroglio as further grist for their comedy.
"Knowing these guys as I do, I can't imagine that they're not going to do just that," Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox told Reuters. He added that the producers routinely "turn around" new episodes in just six days, leaving them ample time to incorporate last week's dust-up into their season debut.
Fox said he assumed someone besides Hayes would supply Chef's voice. Details of the new episode were vague.
But a network synopsis said the fictional town of South Park, Colorado, is "jolted out of a case of the doldrums when Chef suddenly reappears," leading to new antics by the group of foul-mouthed fourth graders who are the show's stars.
"While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled to have their old friend back, they notice that something about Chef seems different. When Chef's strange behavior starts getting him in trouble, the boys pull out all the stops to save him," the network said.
"South Park," launched in 1997, remains the highest-rated series on Comedy Central, which like Paramount, is owned by Viacom Inc.
I hope they make Chef the hypocrite that Hayes was.
"I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." - Carrie Bradshaw
"The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort" - Paulo Coehlo
Live your life like it's your last day on earth
Life is not how many breaths you take, but how many moments take your breath away.
for some odd reason, while the word "Ganya" was still just a thought-dropping in my head, I thought it'd only be four letters. But apparently it's five. yep.
It was pretty good. I liked Kyles speech at the end about how we should not forget the years of joy chef brough to us all just because he was in a mind controlling cult.
Okay, the whole episode was a riot! I bet its the best ratings they've had in years, too.
One problem, I felt, was I spent the whole episode worried about what Isaac Hayes would say (**** the scientologists) about his character becoming a pedophile. Though the point of the episode was well-taken, and highly amusing
"I'm for it so we can put Nuclear power plants up there, and then beam the power back to earth on a laser beam." ~ Whidden
Yeah, my friend called me up and I watched an episode of South Park for the first time, the episode was hilarious. My question, what about this story about Isaac Hayes having a stroke and someone else calling in to quit for him?
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
A statement was released allegedly from Hayes saying he was quitting. South Park creators pointed at Scientology and the episode that ripped it (Hayes being a Scientologist and all). So they quickly pieced together this episode not so tongue-in-cheek bashing Scientology again and Hayes. A few days before the episode aired, FOX News reported from a source that I don't recall that Hayes had actually suffered a stroke and someone, be it family or friend, had issued the statement. FOX is the only place reporting this, however.
03-21-2006 05:27 PM
OMG! Dekka that is funny! Oh man, I almost choked on my food.
