agree to never anger him to the extent Scott did again. Production and broadcast According to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, "Scott Tenorman Must Die" represented significant shifts both in the writing of the show and the characterization of Cartman. Although originally just an annoying, spoiled child, Cartman got somewhat meaner over the course of the show's previous episodes. However, with "Scott Tenorman Must Die", he became "the most evil kid in the world", and got progressively darker throughout the series' run. The creators debated whether it was okay to have Cartman kill Scott's parents and feed them to him, as it was a "crazy to do with a kid", and would be setting a new bar for the series and the character. Eventually, after having debated the issue at length, the writers decided to go ahead with the idea. However, they found it very important to make sure that Cartman kills Scott's parents indirectly, without having to "pull the trigger himself." Parker and Stone had also cited the episode as a milestone in the writing of South Park, as the first episode to have only a single plot, without a subplot (that is, a B story or even a C story) to support the episode. The creators could only come up with the cat and mouse situation between Cartman and Tenorman, which they had described as reminiscent of the relationships in classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. The creators feared that not having a subplot would negatively affect the episode, but upon finishing, they realized that a single, strong plot worked well. Since then, many episodes have contained just one plotline, or two strongly related stories. "Scott Tenorman Must Die" was written by Trey Parker, and directed by South Park animation director Eric Stough. Whereas most episodes of South Park are created within a single week, writing on this episode began in the middle of May 2001, more than a month before the start of the season on June 20, and the episode was assigned a production code number of 501 (meaning the 1st episode of the 5th season). The early start was because the creators sometimes try to have one episode "in the bank" — meaning that they have "at least half-start" animating it. This way they can take off a few days during the two-month-long, demanding