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CHAPPELLE’S ‘LOST EPISODES’ DEBUT: The first of three new episodes premiered Sunday fashioned out of abandoned material.
*Comedy Central began its new abbreviated season of “Chappelle’s Show” Sunday with an announced introduction of host Dave Chappelle and a shot of an empty stage.
It was the network’s way of poking fun at Chappelle’s decision to leave behind his $50 million contract last year, as well as an assortment of filmed material that Comedy Central has packaged into three new “Lost Episodes” – the first of which premiered last night.
"This isn't a designed farewell," Neal Brennan, the show's co-creator who pieced them together told the Associated Press. "There's no cliffhanger. These were just three out of what was supposed to be 10 - and the other seven never happened."
Cast members Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings joke about Chappelle’s departure right away in the show’s opening. Meanwhile, the first sketch could double as a commentary for Chappelle’s disillusionment with the way people around him have reacted to his success.
As previously reported, the scene shows the comedian getting an advertised $8 haircut at the barbershop, but the price is suddenly jacked up when a TV in the shop reports of his huge payday. Suddenly the haircut is $11,000.
Chappelle also gets a prediction from a dying man: "You didn't have to do two more seasons. No matter how good the show is, they're only going to say it's not as good as last year was."
A second sketch shows Chappelle exacting revenge on people who mistreated him before he was rich.
"What I worry about is that everyone is going to look at it like a 'CSI' episode, examine every show and say, 'Oh, that's why Dave did that,'" Brennan told AP. "There are no clues. The thing that people forget is, I came up with half the ideas. And it's not like I knew he was going to Africa. Does it give you a look into my psyche?"
Comedy Central President Doug Herzog said there were a lot of long discussions at the network about what to do with Chappelle’s abandoned footage.
"Once we saw the material, we thought it was fantastic," he said. "When you're in the comedy business, as we are, it's very hard to walk away from great material. It's so hard to find to begin with. We knew the audience wanted to see it. And I don't want to sound crass, but we had already paid for it."
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