“South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who this summer landed one of the richest TV deals ever, are being called Scrooges by performers at their Casa Bonita restaurant near Denver.

In late October, the performers, including the famed cliff divers, went on a three-day strike, citing unsafe working conditions and stalled negotiations over their first contract. The performers voted unanimously to unionize with Actors’ Equity Assn. a year ago.

The strike ended when the restaurant’s management agreed to bring in a mediator to assist in the negotiations.

But the standoff has continued, prompting Actors’ Equity to take out an ad in the Denver Post this week that depicts a “South Park” cartoon-like Parker and Stone awash in hundred-dollar bills while their staff, including a gorilla and a person clad in a swimsuit, shivers outside in the Colorado cold.

The union said its goal is to prod the star producers to resolve the labor tensions by giving about 60 Casa Bonita performers, including magicians and puppeteers, a pay increase and other benefits along with their first contract.

Other Casa Bonita workers voted earlier this month to join the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 7.

“At Casa Bonita, we value all of our team members and their well being,” the restaurant management said in a statement. “We are negotiating in good faith with our unionized team members in the hopes of concluding fair collective bargaining agreements.”

Parker and Stone declined to comment through a spokesperson.

The pair, who also created the hit Broadway play “The Book of Mormon,” rescued the kitschy, bright-pink Mexican-themed eatery in Lakewood, Colo., from bankruptcy in 2021 and have since plowed more than $40 million into the restaurant to upgrade and correct unsafe electrical, plumbing and structural issues after the facility had fallen into disrepair.

For “South Park” super-fans, the venue has become something of a mecca since first being featured in the seventh season of the long-running Comedy Central cartoon.

In that episode, Cartman flips out when Kyle invites Stan, Kenny and Butters Stotch to his birthday party at Casa Bonita (not Cartman), where they are serenaded by the restaurant’s ubiquitous mariachi bands.

Along with legions of other kids who grew up in Colorado, Parker and Stone fondly remember making the trek to the Casa Bonita of their 1980s youth. Restoring the restaurant has become a passion project for the writers, a journey that became grist for a documentary, “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!,” which streams on Paramount+.

In July, Paramount managers were eager to tie up loose ends to facilitate the company’s sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners. The incoming management team also became involved in the protracted negotiations to strike a new deal with Parker and Stone’s production company, Park County, to avoid having the situation unravel, possibly tripping up their corporate takeover.

Paramount ultimately agreed to extend the overall deal for Park County as well as lock up the show’s exclusive global streaming rights for $300 million a year over five years. Until this year, the show streamed exclusively on HBO Max.

The overall deal is slated to bring Parker and Stone’s firm $1.25 billion through 2030.

As part of the pact, the team agreed to create 50 new “South Park” episodes for Paramount. The series has enjoyed a ratings bounce and increased cultural resonance this year as it routinely roasts President Trump.

Actors’ Equity, which also represents Broadway performers, is seeking pay raises for its members at Casa Bonita. Union representatives said performers’ wages there average $21 to $26 an hour.

“Matt and Trey have become fabulously wealthy by pointing out the hypocrisy of rich and powerful people,” said David Levy, communications director for Actors’ Equity. “And now they are behaving exactly like the people they like to take down.”

John Campbell is a senior vice president at Walt Disney Co. who oversees streaming ad sales solutions. He also coaches his second-grade daughter’s basketball team, and recently asked her teammates to name their favorite TV show.

“Eleven out of 13 girls said ‘Hannah Montana,’ ” Campbell said in a recent interview, citing the popular Disney series starring Miley Cyrus that produced its last episode in 2011, before any of his players were born.

Campbell was pleased they selected a show from the Disney library, but wasn’t all that surprised based on the advertising demand he’s seeing for the company’s vintage shows.

A recent study from National Research Group found that 60% of all TV consumed is library content. Among Gen Z, 40% say they watch older shows because they find them comforting and nostalgic. Disney’s own research finds that 25% of the programs kids call their favorites were made before 2010.

While newer cutting-edge series typically win critical kudos and accolades, Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers are binge-watching programs that became hits on the broadcast and cable networks in the pre-streaming era. They are also devouring holiday movies and specials, even on traditional TV.

“We do see, especially around the holiday time, that people are looking for that comfort, that sense of ease,” Campbell said.

As more TV ad spending moves from traditional networks to streaming, Campbell said Disney is capitalizing on the retro trend thanks to its massive library of series. The company has seen the Gen Z audiences devour hits of yesteryear such as “How I Met Your Mother,” “Modern Family” and “Golden Girls.”

“Scrubs” and “Malcolm in the Middle” are such strong performers on Hulu and Disney+, the company has ordered reboots that advertisers are eager to be a part of, according to Campbell. Disney has even worked with advertisers to make throwback commercials to run in classic films on its streaming platforms and TV networks.

“The younger audience is drawn to the perceived simplicity of the old times and humor,” Kavita Vazirani, executive vice president of research, insights and analytics, ABC News Group & Disney Entertainment Networks. “It’s programming that just makes them feel good, and it’s something that they can watch with their friends, their families.”

Older shows have long had a place among young viewers. Previous generations grew up watching reruns of “The Brady Bunch” and “I Love Lucy” after school, when their choices on broadcast TV were scant.

But the current viewer has an endless plethora of viewing choices through streaming and cable. One executive at another media company not authorized to comment publicly cited research that said teens and young adults are gravitating to the more conventional sitcoms and dramas from the early 2000s, believing they were made explicitly for their age group.

During the era, the WB Network — later merged into the CW — was turning out young adult dramas such as “The Gilmore Girls” and “Dawson’s Creek,” while the Disney Channel was at the height of its popularity. “Friends,” the idealized rendering of urban life for young adults and long a favorite on streaming, was the ratings leader at the time.

The appetite for such programs showed up in the most recent “Teens and Screens” study by the Center for Scholars & Storytellers @ UCLA found that among the 10- to 24 year-olds, 32.7% said they want to see “relatable stories that are like my personal life.” The previous year, the top answer was fantasy, which ranked second in 2025.

But another reason young viewers are digging into the vaults is volume.

The UCLA survey showed that the favorite show among the measured age group is the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The series has only 42 episodes over five small-batch seasons.

When a young viewer finds an older successful series that ran on a network for years when 22 episodes per season was standard, they can binge for hundreds of hours.

“There are a lot of seasons of available episodes that you can watch, in typically any random order you want to,” said Nii Mantse Addy, chief marketing officer at the streaming service Philo, which also has seen a sharp rise in viewing of library programs.

“There’s not as much decision fatigue,” Addy said. “The shows provide something that you can go back to and just turn on and know kind of how it’s going to make you feel.”

Executives also say that binge-watching old shows provides a respite from the angst young people experience while scrolling through social media, which escalated through the COVID-19 lockdowns.

But social media have also been a tool to help consumers discover new programs. Fans of vintage series post TikTok videos reacting to episodes that first aired years ago. There are also fan communities online and “re-watch” podcasts that are driving people to seek out programs.

“Social media has been quite a catalyst for essentially introducing these old shows to a whole new audience, whether it’s through memes, viral clips or whatever it may be,” Vazirani said. “It’s like the modern day water cooler, essentially.”