WHEN IN HOLLYWOOD, VISIT...

Trey Parker and Matt Stone star in the comedic masterpiece BASEketball, released by Universal Pictures in 1998


This just in from the good folks at Metroblogging Los Angeles (Well, not exactly just in. It was posted two months ago and centers around a 10-year-old piece of film, but as NBC used to love to say, if I haven't seen it yet, it’s new to me!):

”When Edgar Bronfman Jr gained ownership of Universal Studios he got into some odd marketing campaign practices.

One of which is this rare, employee orientation video that enlightened people about how things were going to change under new management.

It was comissioned to be written and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and it was, and Jr. didn't like it, so they scrapped it.

UPDATE: Zap2it posted an interview with Trey Parker: ‘Parker said that he and Stone were paid by Universal Studios to create Your Studio and You in 1996, shortly after the studio had been purchased by Seagrams. ... At that time, Parker said, both he and Stone were complete Hollywood unknowns and were sleeping on the floor of a friend's apartment. In fact, it would be a few months before most of the world would see the duo's immensely popular cartoon The Spirit of Christmas which featured a fight to the death between Santa Claus and Jesus and ultimately led to the South Park cartoon on Comedy Central and the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut."

There are some pretty big names involved in the shenanigans here, and it all makes for a pretty hilarious 14 minutes. Thanks to my pal Haruka for passing it along to me so I could do the same for you.