How a lark became a golden goose

Last Christmas, mixed in with the usual holiday greeting cards, about 40 Hollywood executives received a videotape of an animated short called The Spirit of Christmas from BRIAN GRADEN, then a television producer at Fox. Graden hoped the hilariously vulgar cartoon, which was created at his request by aspiring filmmakers TREY PARKER and MATT STONE, would get a laugh.

Little did Graden, Paker, and Stone know that the short would spawn a cult following and get them a TV series (South Park, premiering this month on Comedy Central). Christmas, the story of four third-grade boys who bicker on the sidelines while witnessing a bloody battle between Jesus and Santa, became the insider's ultimate guilty pleasure. Jaded industry executives duped the tape and sent it to friends, who in turn sent it to more friends. Hollywood suits could be heard quoting such insouciant lines as, "Dude, don't say 'pigfucker' in front of Jesus!"

"We were so surprised at how immediately it was all over the country," says parker, who estimates that thousands have a copy of the tape." And all these stars were huge fans. George Clooney sent out 300 copies of it, and he got it from a friend of a friend."

The creators say they're mystified by Christmas' following. Even Graden, a TV veteran who created Studs and produced America's Most Wanted, can't explain it: "They did a little Christmas card. This was never meant to be a TV show at all."

Parker and Stone, both in their mid-20's, suddenly found themselves in the midst of a whirlwind. Networks and production companies clamored to work with the duo. Even the Sundance Film Festival jumped in, offering to waive the entry fees so the short could be entered. Parker and Stone said yes to Sunday, of course. But instead of signing on a production company, they, along with Graden, started their own (called, arbitrarily, Braniff Airlines). South Park will follow Christmas' cast and their misadventures in a small Colorado mountain town.

Stone and Parker are film school, not art school, graduates. But since Christmas hit with Parker drqwing the characters and both creators writing and performing the dialogue, they'll keep those chores on the series. Says Stone, "We come from a production background, which is like, 'We come up with funny stuff and then we go do it.' If you don't make your own idea, then what is it?"

-D.K.