I would say by Season 6

-Pip and Mr. Hat are retired as characters

-Ms. Choksondik is gone forever

-Ms. Crabtree barely appears by now

-Chef’s prominence as a character starts slowing down

-Terrence & Philip are barely seen from here on

  • awataurne@alien.top
    BEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ve always weirdly thought the episodes where they introduce new police characters outside of Barbrady was sort of a change in the show. Not necessarily for the worse or anything but around then is when I started to realize things had changed a bit

  • Power_of_Atturdy@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Scott Tenorman Must Die is the end of the classic era.

    Shortly after Matt and Trey started leaning into the social commentary era with Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants.

  • G3t_0ut@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Hers how I see it

    First short films: Origins

    Seasons 1-3: Early South Park

    Seasons 4-6: Classic era

    Seasons 7-12: Early Golden Age

    Seasons 13-18: Late Golden Age

    Seasons 19-21: Serialization era

    Seasons 22-23: Tegridy farms era

    Season 24-Present: Exclusive event era

  • BreadlinesOrBust@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    If the classic era means the height of the show’s influence on pop culture, like the “oh my god they killed Kenny” and “screw you guys I’m going home” stuff, that was over by season 4. I also think the show generally gets a lot better at that point

  • DryAfternoon7779@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Classic era ended with Scott Tenorman eating his parents. Cartman’s character development reflects the “eras”

  • heartcollector218@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Scott Tenorman Must Die is like first moment I feel the old South Park started to change. Went from silly stories of 4 boys to insane diabolical since then.

    Other than that, the official end has to be Chef’s death and ofc Issac Hayes. It is not the same without Chef.

  • leebon427@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    For me, it’s -

    Season 1-5: Classic era

    Season 6-15: Golden age

    Season 16-22: noticeable decline

    Season 23-present: back on the upswing

    Newer seasons and the recent specials have been amazing, but for awhile there it was just okay

    • Flailingtittys@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      People really can’t admit the show started to decline around seasons 15-16 but it’s so true. South Park is my favourite show ever but the decline is real and its just such a different show now compared to the peak years.

  • kryplen@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    the last classic south park season was 13

    when they started adding pc principal and all sorts of other stuff like that, that’s when it got to be there were maybe 1 or 2 good episodes per season, if that

    that’s when it truly died

    i’ve seen some of the later episodes, and apparently it came back after a while of being shit, but i don’t wanna go back and suffer through it, trying to figure out exactly when that was

    it could’ve only been bad for the few seasons i knew were bad before i gave up (14-16), or it could’ve been bad up until the last couple seasons, but i’m probably not gonna find out

  • therealStevenMoffat@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It depends on how you define “classic”. If you mean “the original style of the show”, then definitely I’d say Season 6. If you define “classic” as “the best era”, I’d say South Park STARTED really getting good with Season 6. Some people say the golden age ends at Season 10 or so, but I’d say everything up to 17 stays broadly high quality and still feels the same, so I include it in my “golden age”, which ends when the show delves into serialization.