Full Article Text
By MICHAEL GlLTZ
THE new season of "Chap
pelle's Show" -the hot
test sketch comedy series
on television and a record-set
ting bestseller on DVD -has
been pushed back months from
Feb. 16 to late April or May.
Uiness and a "Sopranos"-like
display of artistic control are to
blame, officials say. Dave Chap
pelle is under the weather with
the flu and borderline walking
pneumonia, according to Tony
Fox, the executive vice presi
dent of corporate communica
tions at Comedy Central.
As well, Chappelle is not
sticking to a predictable time
table for delivering new epi
sodes of the show, famous for
parodying Rick James ("I'm
Rick James, b--!") and ex
ploring issues of race and class
with scathing humor.
"Dave- and his entire pro
duction crew for that matter -
got a bit of a late start on writ
ing season three," says Fox.
"We're behind on the writing.
He was recently sick for more
than a week. There had been a
built-in hiatus in the produc
tion schedule for the holidays.
"We had about 10 days of pro
duction left, so we pushed that
through the end of the holiday
break to give him some time to
recover and get some writing
time in. We'll resume produc
tion in January, so we're not ex
actly sure what that means in
terms of launch date."
The first season debuted in January of 2003 and quickly be
came the cable channel's hot
test property alongside" The
Daily Show With Jon Stew
art" and "South Park."
Season two debuted in Janu
ary of this year and turned into
a genuine phenomenon.
It regularly drew more than 3
million viewers, and the DVD
set of season one came out a
month later, quickly becoming
the top-selling TV show on
DVD of all time (though "Seio
feld" is expected to surpass it
this season).
Chappelle toyed with ending
the show on a high note.
But he eventually re-signed
With Comedy Central in a prec
edent-setting deal that paid him
to continue as star, executive
producer and writer of the se
ries and gave him a piece of the
DVD profits (something even
movie stars don't typically get).
The two-year deal for 26
shows could be worth some $50
million, depending on sales.
The DVD set of season two
has also been delayed to tie-in
with the TV launch of season
three.
"We're still talking to Dave
and his team, seeing where we
are in the writing," says Fox ..
"Bottom line: We're behind. If!
had to guess, I'd say April or
May at the earliest. No later
than May."
Along with the show, Chap
pelle has been working on
other projects,including a
feature film along the lines of
1973's "Wattstax," which fea
tured legendary stand-up by
Richard Pryor.
The untitled film -di-rected by Michel Gondry
of "Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind" -
combines Chap
pelle's sketch com
edy with a Brooklyn
"block party" con
cert filmed in Sep
tember and featur
ing musical guests
like Mos Def (a fre
quent guest on the
show), Kanye
West, Common,
Erykah Badu and
a reunited Fugees.
There is no re
lease date for the
film.
Chappelle's
$500,000 book
deal with Disney
owned Hyperion
also appears to
be in flux.
THE new season of "Chap
pelle's Show" -the hot
test sketch comedy series
on television and a record-set
ting bestseller on DVD -has
been pushed back months from
Feb. 16 to late April or May.
Uiness and a "Sopranos"-like
display of artistic control are to
blame, officials say. Dave Chap
pelle is under the weather with
the flu and borderline walking
pneumonia, according to Tony
Fox, the executive vice presi
dent of corporate communica
tions at Comedy Central.
As well, Chappelle is not
sticking to a predictable time
table for delivering new epi
sodes of the show, famous for
parodying Rick James ("I'm
Rick James, b--!") and ex
ploring issues of race and class
with scathing humor.
"Dave- and his entire pro
duction crew for that matter -
got a bit of a late start on writ
ing season three," says Fox.
"We're behind on the writing.
He was recently sick for more
than a week. There had been a
built-in hiatus in the produc
tion schedule for the holidays.
"We had about 10 days of pro
duction left, so we pushed that
through the end of the holiday
break to give him some time to
recover and get some writing
time in. We'll resume produc
tion in January, so we're not ex
actly sure what that means in
terms of launch date."
The first season debuted in January of 2003 and quickly be
came the cable channel's hot
test property alongside" The
Daily Show With Jon Stew
art" and "South Park."
Season two debuted in Janu
ary of this year and turned into
a genuine phenomenon.
It regularly drew more than 3
million viewers, and the DVD
set of season one came out a
month later, quickly becoming
the top-selling TV show on
DVD of all time (though "Seio
feld" is expected to surpass it
this season).
Chappelle toyed with ending
the show on a high note.
But he eventually re-signed
With Comedy Central in a prec
edent-setting deal that paid him
to continue as star, executive
producer and writer of the se
ries and gave him a piece of the
DVD profits (something even
movie stars don't typically get).
The two-year deal for 26
shows could be worth some $50
million, depending on sales.
The DVD set of season two
has also been delayed to tie-in
with the TV launch of season
three.
"We're still talking to Dave
and his team, seeing where we
are in the writing," says Fox ..
"Bottom line: We're behind. If!
had to guess, I'd say April or
May at the earliest. No later
than May."
Along with the show, Chap
pelle has been working on
other projects,including a
feature film along the lines of
1973's "Wattstax," which fea
tured legendary stand-up by
Richard Pryor.
The untitled film -di-rected by Michel Gondry
of "Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind" -
combines Chap
pelle's sketch com
edy with a Brooklyn
"block party" con
cert filmed in Sep
tember and featur
ing musical guests
like Mos Def (a fre
quent guest on the
show), Kanye
West, Common,
Erykah Badu and
a reunited Fugees.
There is no re
lease date for the
film.
Chappelle's
$500,000 book
deal with Disney
owned Hyperion
also appears to
be in flux.