Trey Parker and Matt Stone Missed Tonight’s “South Park” Deadline Due To Power Outage

South Park has one of TV animation’s most rigorous and unconventional production schedules with episodes often finished just hours before airtime. A new episode was scheduled to debut tonight, but the crew missed their deadline due to a power outage at their studio last night. (It speaks to the consistency of Parker and Stone that missing a deadline is such a big story. When I worked on Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon, it would have been newsworthy if we’d actually MADE a deadline.)

Trey Parker and Matt Stone released blackout photos along with the following statement:

On Tuesday night, South Park Studios lost power. From animation to rendering to editing and sound, all of our computers were down for hours and we were unable to finish episode 1704 “Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers” in time for air tonight. Trey Parker said, “It sucks to miss an air date but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen.”

In place of the new episode, Comedy Central will air two older episodes: “World War Zimmerman” and the classic “Scott Tenorman Must Die.” Parker and Stone will live-tweet both episodes on the @SouthPark handle with behind-the-scenes production details. The new episode, “Goth Kids 3,” will air next Wednesday.

(via Gawker)