"Big Gay Al's Gay Boat Ride" addressed open homosexuality in a way that was uncommon for television at the time, which created some anxiety among Comedy Central executives. The network initially objected to offensive remarks made by sports commentators in the episode, but the comments were kept in at the insistence of Parker and Stone. George Clooney made a guest appearance as Sparky, a small role with no dialog except for dog barks.
The episode marked the first appearance of Big Gay Al and generally received positive reviews for its portrayal of homosexuality. Creators Stone and Parker considered it their favorite episode of the first season, noting that it helped elevate the credibility and relevance of South Park during its early days. It was nominated for both an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and a GLAAD Award, and was the episode submitted when South Park won a CableACE Award for Outstanding Animated Series.
Stan's new dog Sparky follows the boys to the bus stop one morning. To determine whether Sylvester, a local dog, or Sparky is the toughest dog in South Park, Stan and Cartman encourage the dogs to fight. When Sparky suddenly jumps on top of Sylvester and begins humping him energetically, Sylvester runs away yelping, and Cartman declares that Sparky is apparently a "gay homosexual". At football practice for the South Park Cows team, Stan's Uncle Jimbo and his friend Ned show up and ask coach Chef whether the boys can beat the betting spread of 70 points. Impressed by a play from Stan, who is the quarterback and the star of the team, Jimbo and Ned go to the bookmaker where Jimbo bets $500 on the Cows. As a result, everyone else bets all their money on the team, and they threaten Jimbo if the Cows lose. Intimidated, Jimbo and Ned seek a backup plan and learn that John Stamos' brother Richard will be singing "Lovin' You" at halftime. Consequently, they plan to detonate the mascot for Middle Park, the opposing team, by placing a bomb to explode when Richard Stamos sings the high F note in the song.
After practice, Sparky appears and mounts another dog, who also runs away yelping. The next day, after class, Stan asks Mr. Garrison what a homosexual is, prompting Mr. Garrison to claim "Gay people are evil." As a result, Stan attempts to make his dog more masculine. First, he presents Sparky with a female poodle, a plan which fails when Sparky steals the poodle's pearl collar. Thinking that homosexuality might not be bad, Stan phones Jesus on his show Jesus and Pals to ask him what he thinks of homosexuality. Before he can answer, though, the show abruptly ends in time for Cartman's favorite show. Frustrated, Stan rants about how he wants a butch dog rather than a gay dog. Sparky overhears this and runs away to the mountains, ending up at Big Gay Al's Big Gay Animal Sanctuary.
Concerned about his dog, Stan goes to look for him, missing the start of the football game. When Stan finds Sparky at the Big Gay Animal Sanctuary, Big Gay Al takes Stan on a boat ride through his sanctuary and gives a speech about how homosexuality has been around for a long time, that eventually makes Stan accept his dog's homosexuality. Meanwhile, Richard Stamos fails to hit the high note at half time. Returning to the final moments of the game, Stan steps in as the quarterback, passing the ball to Kyle for a touchdown that beats the betting spread as time runs out. In his speech after the game, Stan tells the people of South Park about the Big Gay Animal Sanctuary and that "it's okay to be gay". He leads the people to the site of the Sanctuary, but it has mysteriously disappeared; people's runaway pets, however, return. Before leaving, Big Gay Al thanks Stan for making everyone understand homosexuality. Although the Cows beat the spread, Richard Stamos appears to prove he can hit the high note that he missed earlier, triggering the bomb and killing the Cowboys' mascot.
"(This episode) I think was sort of what really made South Park popular. I think this was our breakout show in a lot of ways. ... This was sort of the show we chose to represent the series."
The plot for "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" originated from an idea by series co-founders Trey Parker and Matt Stone to have a boy try to convince his gay dog not to be homosexual. Michael Smith, a childhood friend of Parker and a basis for the Ned Gerblansky character, claimed that Big Gay Al was based in part on a real-life resident of Fairplay, Colorado. Smith, a minister at a Fairplay church, said of the resident, "We just call him Big Al, but he cross-dresses every year for Fairplay Day. He lives out of town, which is why Big Gay Al's cartoon pet sanctuary is set out in the hills". However, Stone said the name "Big Gay Al" and the idea of his "gay animal sanctuary" came from Pam Brady, a producer and writer with the show.
When the episode was under production in 1997, it was relatively uncommon for a television series to openly address homosexuality in such overt terms, especially in a cartoon. As a result, Parker and Stone said Comedy Central executives expressed more concern about "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" than any other previous South Park episode. Parker said of the network, "I don't think they ever really discouraged it, but they were definitely freaked out". The network, however, did object to scenes in which one of the football sports commentators made offensive jokes and was silenced by the other commentator. The network particularly objected to a joke in which, after watching Kyle run, the commentator said, "I haven't seen a Jew run like that since Poland 1938", a reference to the country's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II. The jokes were conceived based on a number of real-life offensive remarks sports commentators made and gotten in trouble for. Stone said the scenes were meant to parody the commentators, not the subjects of the jokes. However, they were only allowed to stay in after what Stone called "a big fight" with Comedy Central. After the episode was scheduled to air, TV Guide refused to advertise it under its true title for fear of offended readers, and instead called the episode "Big Al's Boat Ride". The episode was written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and was directed by Parker. Parker and Stone considered "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" their favorite episode of the first season, and they credit it with helping elevate the credibility and relevance of South Park during the early days of the series. Although the first season of South Park received a lot of criticism from commentators who felt the show was disgusting and offensive, Parker specifically defended the episodes "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" and "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", which he felt included moral values and a "sweet side to it" among the sophomoric humor. Stone also said those two episodes became the specific shows people would most talk about when they discussed South Park. Actor George Clooney provided the small role of the voice of Sparky, which is limited entirely to dog barks. Clooney was a vocal South Park fan and was largely responsible for generating news about "The Spirit of Christmas", a 1995 animated short film by Parker and Stone that served as a precursor to South Park. Parker said they decided to cast a famous actor in the small role of Sparky because "we thought it was funny", and because they wanted to do something different from the animated series The Simpsons, which is known for having prominent guest appearances on a regular basis. Parker added, "Since South Park is sort of a show that rips on celebrity, we wanted to degrade them in other ways too. And we thought let's have celebrities on, but have them do really minor, unimportant things". Comedy Central executives were excited at the prospect of having Clooney appear on the show, but Parker said they were disappointed to learn his role was so small.
The episode marked the first appearance of Big Gay Al and generally received positive reviews for its portrayal of homosexuality. Creators Stone and Parker considered it their favorite episode of the first season, noting that it helped elevate the credibility and relevance of South Park during its early days. It was nominated for both an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and a GLAAD Award, and was the episode submitted when South Park won a CableACE Award for Outstanding Animated Series.
Stan's new dog Sparky follows the boys to the bus stop one morning. To determine whether Sylvester, a local dog, or Sparky is the toughest dog in South Park, Stan and Cartman encourage the dogs to fight. When Sparky suddenly jumps on top of Sylvester and begins humping him energetically, Sylvester runs away yelping, and Cartman declares that Sparky is apparently a "gay homosexual". At football practice for the South Park Cows team, Stan's Uncle Jimbo and his friend Ned show up and ask coach Chef whether the boys can beat the betting spread of 70 points. Impressed by a play from Stan, who is the quarterback and the star of the team, Jimbo and Ned go to the bookmaker where Jimbo bets $500 on the Cows. As a result, everyone else bets all their money on the team, and they threaten Jimbo if the Cows lose. Intimidated, Jimbo and Ned seek a backup plan and learn that John Stamos' brother Richard will be singing "Lovin' You" at halftime. Consequently, they plan to detonate the mascot for Middle Park, the opposing team, by placing a bomb to explode when Richard Stamos sings the high F note in the song.
After practice, Sparky appears and mounts another dog, who also runs away yelping. The next day, after class, Stan asks Mr. Garrison what a homosexual is, prompting Mr. Garrison to claim "Gay people are evil." As a result, Stan attempts to make his dog more masculine. First, he presents Sparky with a female poodle, a plan which fails when Sparky steals the poodle's pearl collar. Thinking that homosexuality might not be bad, Stan phones Jesus on his show Jesus and Pals to ask him what he thinks of homosexuality. Before he can answer, though, the show abruptly ends in time for Cartman's favorite show. Frustrated, Stan rants about how he wants a butch dog rather than a gay dog. Sparky overhears this and runs away to the mountains, ending up at Big Gay Al's Big Gay Animal Sanctuary.
 George Clooney in \x26quot;Up in the |  [Editor\x26#39;s Note: George Clooney |  Plus George Clooney winked at |  It has cleaned up at most of |  Travelpro Luggage Sweepstakes |
 Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) |  George Clooney and Vera Farmiga in \x26#39;Up in the Air\x26#39; |  George Clooney, star of "Up in |  George Clooney and Anna |  Up in the Air Movie Poster |
The plot for "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" originated from an idea by series co-founders Trey Parker and Matt Stone to have a boy try to convince his gay dog not to be homosexual. Michael Smith, a childhood friend of Parker and a basis for the Ned Gerblansky character, claimed that Big Gay Al was based in part on a real-life resident of Fairplay, Colorado. Smith, a minister at a Fairplay church, said of the resident, "We just call him Big Al, but he cross-dresses every year for Fairplay Day. He lives out of town, which is why Big Gay Al's cartoon pet sanctuary is set out in the hills". However, Stone said the name "Big Gay Al" and the idea of his "gay animal sanctuary" came from Pam Brady, a producer and writer with the show.
 up in the air |  Farmiga and Clooney meet cute |  Suitcase.com, one of the first |  (George Clooney) who lives |  Up in the Air sees George |
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