Having been unable to persuade the comedian Dave Chappelle to return to his hit series, "Chappelle's Show," Comedy Central has pieced together sketches he did before his abrupt departure in May 2005 and named them "Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes."
The three "lost episodes," which begin airing today, don't shy away from the fact that their star is missing in action. "I don't think he's coming," says a member of the blues duo that used to play alongside Chappelle during the opening of each show.
Just weeks before the third season of his show was to begin, Chappelle suddenly left for South Africa, leaving his colleagues, friends and fans wondering why he would walk away from a hit show and the promise of a $50 million deal with Comedy Central. After nearly a year of waiting for him to return, Comedy Central decided to move on without him.
"We were hoping against hope that we would hear from Dave and that he would come back," said Doug Herzog, the president of Comedy Central. "We really didn't want to do this without him, but we needed to bring some closure."
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He added: "We did pay for the episodes, so we might as well use them. I am trying to run a business."
Though he has been absent from his show, Chappelle has kept anything but a low profile. He has done interviews with Oprah Winfrey and James Lipton of the Bravo series "Inside the Actors Studio."
He has also performed stand-up comedy at clubs around the country.
Donnell Rawlings, who plays the character Ashy Larry on the show, said he bumped into Chappelle at a stand-up spot in New York two months ago.
"It was like seeing a ghost and a friend," he said. "I wanted to ask him about what happened, but he had this look on his face like, please don't ask me about what happened."
Money is a recurring theme in the first episode's sketches, which deal primarily with Chappelle adjusting to his newfound wealth. While receiving a trim at his local barbershop, news that he stands to make millions in his new deal with Comedy Central breaks on BET. Suddenly, his $8 haircut is hiked up to $11,000. His carwash, once $28, is now $873, plus an autographed picture.
In a darker sketch, he appears to be grappling with whether he will be able to top his previous work. As the gargantuan bodyguard he has hired lies dying — after being shot by an overzealous IRS agent — the guard says: "Your greed did this to me. You didn't have to do two more seasons. No matter how good the show is, they're only going to say it wasn't as good as last year."
Chappelle has fun seeking revenge on all the little people who insulted him on his way to the top. He tricks a promiscuous ex-girlfriend into leaving her husband and then promptly dumps her; he brands a casting agent, who once snubbed him, as a racist in a commercial that is shown during the Super Bowl; and he torches a comedy club where he used to perform.
Neal Brennan, Chappelle's former co-writer and former best friend, agreed to piece together the "Lost Episodes" because, he said, he believes the work is funny.
"I thought it was a continuation of what we'd been doing, and I disagreed with Dave," he said. "I never had a problem with any of it."
He said Chappelle had vetoed the filming of a number of the sketches, which he said was particularly frustrating since Chappelle had written or co-written all of them.
One was about a rapper who won't stop rhyming.
"I had no idea why" he objected to it, Brennan said.
"Chappelle's Show" will air at 11:30 p.m. today and 1:30 a.m. Monday on Comedy Central.
