Word: gradener
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...together. In New York City and Los Angeles the show is aired right before Jerry Springer, and often makes that show look rather pedestrian. It has the obvious mark of executive producer Scott ("the Snot") St. John (that's what he calls himself in the credits), who, with Brian Graden, co-created Studs, the dating-game show that was just as rude and compelling as St. John's new creation. The old show benefited from the wit of host Mark DeCarlo, who should be forced back into the host's chair. But then again, Magic Johnson couldn't mess...
Parker is from a small town in Colorado, and Stone grew up in a Denver suburb; they met when they attended film school at the state university in Boulder. In 1994 Brian Graden, who was an executive at Fox, saw their live-action film Cannibal: The Musical, and the connection that led to South Park was made. Graden says he couldn't get anyone interested in Cannibal, South Park or other ideas he tried to develop with Parker and Stone, among them a TV series about two apes who hang upside down and sing. To help his proteges...
...result was The Spirit of Christmas, a 5-min. animated short in which Jesus and Santa Claus fight and curse each other over who has the bigger claim to the holiday. "I was supposed to send it to 500 people on my executive kiss-a__ list," says Graden, who has since moved to MTV. "And I saw it and thought, O.K., this is the funniest thing I've ever seen, but I can't send it to studio heads. So I sent it to about 40 friends, most of them not even in the business." Nevertheless, the tape was copied...
...Graden says Parker and Stone are two of the sweetest people he has ever met, and others use the same words about them. They seem to be easygoing and unpretentious. Despite their irreverence, they aren't a pair of would-be Lenny Bruces living on comedy's dangerous edge. Whatever one's view of South Park, it's hard to dislike two filmmakers whose greatest heroes are the members of Monty Python and who talk about them with such enthusiasm. "To this day, when our heads are getting a little big," Stone says...
...shows, Singled Out, the beach house--gone. In their place, the channel refocused its programming on music and news; showcased interviews with musicians broadcast live from a studio overlooking Times Square; and hired a new cast of serious, rock-minded jocks. To oversee the changes, it brought in Brian Graden, 34, the former Fox executive who commissioned the famously crude Christmas cartoon that became Comedy Central's hit, South Park. "There's more value on talent and substance now," says Graden. "The age of Madonna is over...