重點：南方公園今年將會縮減成10集，並且在9月25日開播。
好久好久啊！今年大家得多點耐心等到9月了，雖然縮減成10集，
但是看時間點可能會推出好久沒見的耶誕特集...各位我們到時候再見囉！
http://goo.gl/bJCuU
Fortifying the Empire ‘South Park’ Built
Published: January 27, 2013
說到娛樂圈裡的成功故事，最精彩的莫非是這兩位來自科羅拉多州的男生，麥特史東
和崔帕克，他們用紙剪的小人偶製成動畫，用它們稱霸了有線電視，網路、線上影音
和百老匯。
When it comes to success stories in the entertainment world, it doesn't
get much better than the one about a pair of regular guys from Colorado, Matt
Stone and Trey Parker, who took cutout paper dolls, animated them and
triumphed on cable television, on the Web, at the multiplex and on Broadway.
上週，史東抵達了紐約 Chelsea社區的咖啡廳時，把自己裹得密不透風，就像阿尼一
樣，老是在南方公園中穿著那件橘色大外套。他隔日就要出發前往倫敦，進行「摩爾
門經」的第四次演出。
Last week, Mr. Stone arrived at a coffee shop in the Chelsea neighborhood
of New York so bundled up that he resembled Kenny, who always shows up on
"South Park" encased in a big orange parka. He was leaving the next day for
London, where the fourth production of "The Book of Mormon" will soon begin
a run.
在這16季、 237集之中，我們跟著南方公園四個動畫粗糙且對話粗俗的小男孩發生的
大小故事，深入評論過各種文化的中心。同時，兩位製作人也幫助喜劇頻道一躍
成為大型頻道，製作了四套影集，情境喜劇，甚至還以賣座的「摩爾門經」登上了百
老匯舞台；該劇是由Scott Rudin和Anne Garefino發行，Robert Lopez製作。
Over the course of 16 seasons and 237 episodes, “South Park,” an assault
on good taste built on the misadventures of four crudely animated and crudely
spoken boys, has entered every pore of the culture. In the meantime, the two
creators have helped put Comedy Central on the map, made four feature films,
produced a sitcom and landed a Broadway hit with “Book of Mormon,” produced
by Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino and created along with Robert Lopez.
目前史東和帕克推出的南方公園遊戲版即將完成。他們近日宣布將耗資３億美金，成
立一間製作公司「Important 工作室」。
Now Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker are about to finish a video game version of
“South Park,” and they recently announced that they were forming a production
company called Important Studios, valued at $300 million.
南方公園的成功，就是娛樂圈的教材：只要演出人們想看的東西，觀眾就會找上門。
無論基本觀眾如何改變，影視平台如何變化都會是如此。
The success of “South Park” is a stark lesson in the fundamentals of
entertainment: if you tell stories that people want to hear, the audience
will find you. This is true no matter how fundamentally the paradigms shift,
or how many platforms evolve.
「我們做的夠久了，知道這些題材都是隨波逐流。」史東這麼說。
“We've been doing it long enough to figure out that content will ride on
top of whatever wave comes along,” Mr. Stone said.
有人認為他們會在這些功成名就，會開始走低調路線－這真的發生了。
別擔心，他們不會真的殺死那個每集都掛掉的阿尼。
但是本來每年有兩個半季，各7集，總共14集的南方公園，
今年將會縮減成10集，並且在9月25日開播。
You might think that after all they've accomplished, they would be ready to
step back a bit, and this is essentially true. Don’t worry, they aren’t
going to actually kill Kenny, who is ritually sacrificed in every episode.
But “South Park,” which generally has been produced in two batches of seven
episodes for a total of 14 every year, will be cut back to a single run of 10
episodes, beginning on Sept. 25.
“Why did we do seven and seven to begin with?” Mr. Stone said. “We just
sort of made that up. And we are switching to 10 for the same reason. It just
sounded like a good number, and we won’t break up the year so we can more
easily do other stuff.”
The change sounds casually tossed off, but there is nothing unformed about
the thinking that drives their choices.
“There is no appointment viewing anymore,” Mr. Stone said.
“In our first season, you had to show up on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on
the comedy channel to catch the show. Now, I don’t even know where or how
people watch our show. We sort of don’t really care about ratings. It’s
more important to come up with work that will add to the library in a way
that we’re proud of and will make people want to catch the show wherever
they want to.”
That could happen on Netflix, on iTunes, on an ad-supported streaming format
on Hulu, or hosted by the servers in the Los Angeles offices of Mr. Stone’s
and Mr. Parker’s company.
The two men had the prescience to negotiate a 50-50 split on all digital
revenue with Comedy Central, and part of the reason they remain so engaged is
that they have real participation in the “South Park” enterprise.
“We have always owned our stuff or acted like we do,” Mr. Stone said as he
worked his way through a late lunch. He pointed to Louis C. K., the comedian
who took his last comedy special directly to fans on the Web, as an example
of an artist moving to the sweet spot of the business that she or he creates.
“Owning your own stuff means that you control not only the content, but the
life you are living while you are producing it,” he said.
“And then, if things go well, you can be part of the upside.”
Mr. Stone thinks it’s silly for creators to rely only on outside financing.
Why drop years of sweat equity into creating something but not invest any
cold hard cash?
“It took us four years to work out ‘Book of Mormon,’ and when you think of
the opportunity cost of that — other projects that we walked by — it would
be sort of silly not to put money in,” he said.
As a result, they have a big stake in “The Book of Mormon,” which is about
to clone its fourth version in London — following New York, Chicago and a
touring production — and has combined gross income approaching $5 million a
week. That’s part of the reason that they were able to create a studio.
“Disruption is overrated,” he said. “If you tell good stories, the
platforms are sort of beside the point. We made the most analog thing you can
think of, a play at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, and it worked out as well as
anything we have ever done.”
He went on to suggest that each time new a distribution avenue opens, it
has become a window of opportunity for their content.
In a week when Netflix broke through to report a profit and Apple seemed
to bump up against the upper limits of the hardware that delivers
entertainment, the “South Park” guys are proving anew that content will
maintain value.
“Nobody even cared about DVD rights when we got started,” Mr. Stone
said. “There was nothing there. But we started with shows on half-inch tape
and people bought them, and then it was DVDs, and then the Web, now iPads and
Netflix. Each time, it worked out.”
Doug Herzog, president of the Viacom Entertainment Group, which owns
Comedy Central, echoed that sentiment. “ ‘South Park’ has yet to meet a
platform it hasn’t been able to conquer,” Mr. Herzog said. “We’re happy
to take as many or as few as they can produce. Frankly, I’m surprised it
took them this long to get to a schedule like this.”
Reached by phone, Mr. Parker, a musician as well, said “South Park” ran
like a rock band. “Now instead of putting out two albums a year, we are only
going to do one, which is more manageable and ensures that it will be
something we are proud of.”
Given the loyal and frantic fan base for “South Park,” the creators’
decision to cut back on the number of annual episodes would seem risky,
except they have been right about a lot of things and have the artistic and
financial independence to show for it.
“We want to keep ‘South Park’ going for a long time to come, and given
what is going on in television, I don’t think it matters as much how many
episodes you have,” Mr. Stone said.
And just in case I didn’t grasp the level of devotion that Mr. Parker and
Mr. Stone inspire, a young man suddenly stepped up to our table with his
shirt off. He began speaking rapidly about the impact of “South Park” on
his life. He explained that he took off his shirt so we would not forget him,
but later Mr. Stone could not remember his name.
“He will forever be ‘shirtless dude’ to me,” he said