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ISAAC HAYES IS GONE, BUT CHEF REMAINS ON ‘SOUTH PARK’: Wednesday’s season premiere has kids noticing ‘something different’ upon his return.
*Looks like “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone haven’t wasted any time capitalizing on the hot mess cooked up by the voice of Chef.
The season premiere episode on Wednesday (March 22) is titled “The Return of Chef!” despite the departure of its voice actor Isaac Hayes, who left last week over issues with the show’s flippant view of religion.
There was no mention of Hayes in a press release regarding the episode, in which Chef returns to South Park in a “triumphant homecoming,” only to have the boys notice that “something about Chef seems different."
Hayes, the voice of Chef since the show’s 1997 debut, criticized “South Park’s” disrespectful attitude toward religion in a statement announcing his departure. The two creators fired back with a press release claiming Hayes never had a problem with the program’s satirical look at Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and only took issue when his religion, Scientology, became the focus of an episode last season called “Trapped in the Closet.”
The controversy surrounding the episode prompted Comedy Central to pull its scheduled repeat, and rumors have suggested that the world’s most famous Scientologist, Tom Cruise, was behind the network’s decision after refusing to promote his upcoming film "Mission: Impossible 3" if the episode aired again. Paramount, which is releasing the movie, and Comedy Central are both under Viacom ownership.
Cruise's people say the rumor is untrue, and Comedy Central says it pulled the episode so that it could honor Hayes’ departure with two shows featuring Chef in the main storyline.
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