South Park Creators Have Only Missed One Deadline (& Blame It On A Power Outage)
The creative team behind "South Park" produces episodes at a breakneck pace that's managed down to the minute. Each episode has six days to air. The team, led by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, only begins work writing, animating, voicing, and everything else on a new episode as the previous episode from a given season starts airing.
This way, the episode can contain up-to-the-minute content with whatever aspect of culture or pop culture they're skewering. Their approach keeps them walking a tightrope dangerously close to when their latest episode is about to drop. Major props to the team for being able to pull it off because they've only missed their deadline one time throughout the show's long run.
On October 15, 2013, a power outage at South Park Studios caused their first and only delay in getting a new episode out on time. In a press release from "South Park's" lifelong network Comedy Central, they said on the night the episode was supposed to air, "From animation to rendering to editing and sound, all of their computers were down for hours, and they were unable to finish episode 1704 'Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers' in time for air tonight." Co-creator Trey Parker said in the same release, "It sucks to miss an airdate, but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen."
The episode that missed the deadline isn't really a standout
The Season 17 "Goth Kids" episode of "South Park" would end up airing a week after it was initially planned, landing on Comedy Central on October 23, 2013. Filling its time slot instead was the ultimate fan-favorite, and episode fans think first-time watchers should dive in with "Scott Tenorman Must Die" from the show's now-legendary Season 5. The creators would live-tweet along with the 2001 episode, giving fans a unique experience since they couldn't enjoy their expected new episode.
Reviews ended up being mixed for the delayed episode. The AV Club gave the episode a C- rating and said, "Unfortunately, 'Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers' was a fairly limp episode, one that an extra unexpected week of time apparently could not fix." On IMDb, the episode has an average rating of 6.8. However, IGN gave the episode a 7.7 out of 10 rating and said, "This week's 'South Park' proved that the goth kids still had enough material for [most of] one more episode."
The Goth Kids of "South Park" have gone on to become iconic in the series pantheon, but this episode wasn't regarded as a standout. Unfortunately, it seems as if this episode will mostly be remembered for being the one episode that missed the "South Park" team's insane self-imposed deadline.