I, like perhaps some of you, was looking forward to seeing the South Park episode that caused Isaac Hayes to quit. It was scheduled to air Wednesday night….but unfortunately that never happened.
The New York Post explains what happened:
Tom Cruise got Comedy Central to cancel Wednesday night’s cablecast of a controversial “South Park” episode about Scientology by warning that he’d refuse to promote “Mission Impossible 3,” insiders say.[...]
The “South Park” episode, “Trapped in the Closet,” pokes fun at Scientology and shows Cruise, John Travolta and R. Kelly (who is not a Scientologist, but has a song called “Trapped in the Closet”) literally in a closet.
The episode, which first aired last November, was set to rerun Wednesday night, but was mysteriously pulled at the last minute.
Now, hollywoodinterrupted.com reports Cruise went straight to the top - to execs at Viacom - and warned he’d boycott the promotion for “MI3″ unless the “South Park” episode was pulled.
Hollywoodinterrupted adds:
Not only is this the first time that the South Park creators have been officially censored in their ten hit seasons with Comedy Central, Viacom officials also reportedly ordered Matt Stone and Trey Parker not to discuss the reason why their episode was cancelled.
I may have to start watching South Park again, to see how Matt and Trey respond. They don’t seem like the sorts of folks who stand for being gagged.