The TV Zone

In a couple of hours I'm going to go on vacation and will turn off this computer. But before that happens, I think it's appropriate to say a few words about Isaac Hayes. He did have a TV career - hardly as notable as his music or movie one - but there were numerous credited roles over the years (most recently Tolok on "Stargate SG-1;" a brief role, but maybe not to "SG-1" fans...) The most important, or visible - or let's say, audible - was Chef on "South Park." It's a role that Hayes definitely regretted; it ended badly, as pretty much everyone knows (or every "SP" fan knows) and even after it ended, it got worse. Hayes was angry about the Scientology rips, and because he was a Scientologist, that was that (I believe he left in 2005, but maybe '04; google it). Trey Parker and Matt Stone were angry too - the famous quote from them was that he took the checks when they were ripping Christians too (a paraphrase). They later wrote and produced 2006's "The Return of Chef." The less said about that episode the better, except to note that Matt/Trey took his voice and strung together a bunch of quotes that were used in an episode about something that's probably not best to mention at a moment like this...(OK, the episode was about pedophilia.)

Two quick points to make: "Chef," and thus Hayes, was a key (if not central) figure in South Park and therefore in the success of "South Park," the show. He did voice some one hundred and forty episodes, or was credited for roughly that number. Whether his voice was in that many episodes? Beats me. But...the lesson here is, be careful of the jobs you take in television. You may regret those jobs, as I suspect Hayes may have in this instance.

Second, Comedy Central has posted a tepid tribute to Hayes, and you can check it out now. I hope they - and Matt/Trey - do better than THIS. Also check out the first comment on this page. I think the writer makes his point clearly and well.

(Photo: Courtesy of the BBC.)