Comedy Central has new Chappelle episodes

[karyn]

from yahoo

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
Fri Jul 7, 12:10 PM ET



NEW YORK - Comedy Central couldn't resist the easy joke, opening the aborted third season of "Chappelle's Show" Sunday with a shot of an empty stage and introduction of a star who never appears.

It's the first of three episodes compiled from sketches left behind before Dave Chappelle's now legendary freakout, walking out on a $50 million contract and one of TV's hottest shows two years ago under still mysterious circumstances.

"This isn't a designed farewell," said Neal Brennan, the show's co-creator who put them together. "There's no cliffhanger. These were just three out of what was supposed to be 10 — and the other seven never happened."

The opening sketch, besides illustrating the sharp comic touch that made the show popular, gives fodder for armchair psychologists.

Chappelle is sitting in a barber's chair, getting a trim in a place that advertises $8 haircuts. His barber says Chappelle must be raking in the money as a big-time TV star.

"Nah, man, it's cable," he replies. "I do all right, but it's nothing to write home about."

Just then, a TV in the corner airs a report of Chappelle's big payday from Comedy Central. The barber's face turns cold and his haircut has a new price — $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, darker 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 said. "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?"

But it's probably inevitable, said Comedy Central President Doug Herzog. He compared it to a musician who looks inward on his third album as a response to success on the first two.

There were a lot of long discussions at Comedy Central about what to do with this material, Herzog said.

"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."

As the show's opening and jokes with sidekicks Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings illustrate, "Chappelle's Show" isn't afraid to talk about what happened with Chappelle. It would have been dishonest otherwise, Brennan said.

Even Chappelle has joked about it — just not on Comedy Central.

He told Conan O'Brien that his wife has given him guff for walking out on his big score. His spokeswoman did not return calls from The Associated Press.

It's never been fully explained why he left. Chappelle has denied rumors of substance abuse or psychiatric problems. He's complained of arguments about the show with Comedy Central. (Herzog said the network had "almost no access' to Chappelle during work on the third season.) Chappelle also said he had doubts about how racial elements of his show were being taken.

During an appearance on "Oprah" in February, Chappelle said that he might be amenable to returning to his show providing some arrangement could be made about providing money to charities.

Since then, he hasn't returned any of Comedy Central's phone calls, Herzog said.

Comedy Central is in the midst of its second marketing campaign to promote Chappelle's third season. After all the frustration, Herzog still says he wouldn't close the door on working with Chappelle again, calling him "arguably one of the great comedic voices of his generation, a comedic genius (and) a lovely guy, truthfully.

"If I'm in the comedy business, if Dave Chappelle calls, I'm going to listen," Herzog said. "He's got to call, though."

[incog]

I wonder if Dave Chappelle is pissed that they are running those episodes.

[Wickedanima]

I dunno, but his reasons sound strange to me. He'd be making alot of money, couldn't he just donate his part of the money to the charities he's worried about?

[Amelia G]

I dunno, but his reasons sound strange to me. He'd be making alot of money, couldn't he just donate his part of the money to the charities he's worried about?

I was thinking the same thing. If he doesn't want the tens of millions of dollars, surely it would be better for him to choose the charities than to have Comedy Central choose them.

[GnArKiLL]

I dunno, but his reasons sound strange to me. He'd be making alot of money, couldn't he just donate his part of the money to the charities he's worried about?

If you watch Inside the Actors Studio when Dave was on it he kinda explains why he did what he did, it has absoloutly nothing to do with the money.

[Wickedanima]

I guess, but it never made much sense to me. If you become successful, you will inevitably benefit people that you may or may not agree with. That is simply a fact of life, unless you are say, Mother Teresa. If you are a performer, you have to accept that. People that think you sucked will be all over you like white on rice. The best you can do about it is do your job, and contribute your part to charities, college funds, or your community.

[Morning Glory]

I can understand about his concern for racial elements. I kind of always thought that was the appeal of the show, to confront racism, by presenting it in a comedic light which takes away all of it's power. I do think the show was unexpectedly popular among white audiences, which probably won't be able to relate as intimatley to the subject matter as people that have truly experieced it... but I really think that should be considered a good thing, because it does open up a dialogue, and the fact that white's were so intrested in a show that was primarily about african americans and racism, is really a big step in breaking down the color barrier.

[Mirren]

I agree with you Morning Glory. I only saw a few episodes from the Dvd and it was indeed funny. I liked the Rick James/Prince stuff the best.

[GnArKiLL]

Did anyone else notice that in his first stand up special Killing them softly the audience was mostly black with a few white people here and there but last year when he did For What its Worth the audience was mostly white with a few black people. Thats all im gonna say about that.

[Anarkey]

i really miss his stuff . one of the best Comic's out there.
WERE R YA DAVE!