01x01 - He's Back

[bunniefuu]

-It's kind of a famous car here.
-Yeah?

It's a Bronco.

It's a Bronco.
This is a classic.

-Nice.
-I mean, just take
a look around it.

All you have to do is
wash it up.

There is now a statewide
manhunt underway

for OJ Simpson.

One of this country's
best-known personalities is

a suspect in a double homicide.

Man, you know
I made this car famous.

You know, I made this
car famous.

I even got a b*llet hole in
this damn thing, in the side...

[dispatcher] Suspect may be
driving a white

or light-colored Ford Bronco.

The former football great was
charged in connection with

the deaths of his wife
and her friend.

It has escapability.
That's the main thing.

Al Cowlings was driving
this thing,

and if we wanted to get away,
it was easy to get away.

-[sirens wailing]
-[phone ringing]

[officer, over radio] This is
AC, I have OJ in the car.

He's still alive, but he's got
a g*n to his head.

He saw the body of Nicole
Brown lying in a pool of blood.

[reporter] Branded a k*ller.

[crowd jeering]

Just look through
this window here.

-There's a camera right here.
-Oh -- [laughing].

You've been juiced!

You've just been juiced.

OJ Simpson is back in the news
again with a DVD that some say

is the epitome of bad taste.

This really is a picture of OJ
in disguise.

Families of both Nicole Brown
and Ron Goldman say the DVD

called "Juiced" is more
morally reprehensible.

He has no respect for
the m*rder of

his children's mother.

There's no way that anybody
with half a brain cell

would have thought that
a show about

OJ Simpson pranking people
would be a good idea.

Welcome to Classic Burger.
My name is Truman.

Like, who would
greenlight that?

I greenlit the show,

and I canceled the show.

[reporter] They're the lost
OJ Simpson tapes.

It's impossible to even find.

OJ was going to bring
instant eyeballs.

There's no stopping the juice,
and when I'm on the bill,

I'm like a lion going loose.

That's...
so [bleep] up.

I've been ashamed for 20 years
of my participation

in this project.

[Luc] I think we actually lifted
a couple curtains to reveal

more aspects of OJ.

All they remember is,
bloody Bronco.

[laughing]
A bloody Bronco.

The prank show was a front to
try to get OJ's confession.

Tell me he just said
what I think he said?

He's back.

[Todd] So the first thing
I think we're gonna try

is just doing, you tell me
what "Juiced" is.

What "Juiced" is?
OK. All right.

-[Todd] So play
the eyeline to me.
-OK.

Well, what is "Juiced"?

It's sort of a live-action
show, a takeoff in many ways of

"Candid Camera" or
the Ashton Kutcher show,

or Jamie Kennedy.

A lot of people,
and even I,

am not sure what
my public persona is,

but we know
it evokes a reaction

of all types of reaction.

Mr. OJ Simpson.

OJ was a celebrity in a way that
we don't really get anymore.

For a lot of people,
OJ was an athletic god.

[TV host]
The roar of the crowd had been
a part of the Simpson legend

since he burst into
the national spotlight at

the University of
Southern California.

He rushed with 2,000 yards in
one season.

He was like Michael Jordan
of this era.

[Robin] He beyond relished
the attention.

He thrived on it.

He loved to be a star,
and how people adored him.

[OJ] There's a lot of things
I need as a person.

You know, I need --
I need that recognition.

What is driving
OJ Simpson is that need

to be known,
that need to be liked.

Would you welcome
OJ Simpson?

[applause]

[SNL cast] Ladies and gentlemen,
OJ Simpson.

OJ was one of
the first athletes

to make that jump from sports

into pop culture --
he was in commercials.

Nobody does it better
than Hertz.

[Scaachi] He was on TV.

Champagne for anyone?

-[Scaachi] He was in movies.
-Norbert!

-How are you, buddy?
-Hey!

He became one of the most
popular people in America.

[Walter]
He was the first Black guy
that America accepted into

their living rooms and thought,

oh, he's such
a great guy.

[Jemele] His charisma crossed
cultural and racial lines.

OJ was America's Black friend.

It was OJ who said,

"I'm not Black, I'm OJ."

He had the kind of life that
you would hope to have.

It was idyllic.

He had really lovely kids,
he had a beautiful wife,

people liked him, and he had
an incredible legacy.

Until that night.

[sirens wailing]

On June 13th, 1994,
at approximately 10 minutes

after midnight,
a witness discovered the body

of Nicole Brown Simpson lying
on the walkway leading

to her residence.

Police will continue to
investigate the brutal slaying

of Simpson's ex-wife,
Nicole Simpson,

and her friend,


It was such a gruesome,

brutal death.

There were pools of blood
streaming down the sidewalk.

It was really violent.
It was really grisly.

The pavement is soaked in blood,
and they are crumpled.

Her head's almost gone.

Ron and Nicole were butchered.

A bloodstained glove was found
at OJ's mansion

in Brentwood, California.

[reporter] Sources tell us
as of right now,

Simpson is the center of
this investigation.

Whether it was on radio
or on television,

the news was OJ.

[TV narrator]
The most anticipated trial
ever to hit the United States

justice system,
the people versus OJ.

It's like you could not escape
any news about this trial.

Every single tabloid,
OJ was on the front page.

It was like no other story
existed but this one.

[Scaachi]
When the trial started in


install cameras
in the courtroom.

There was round-the-clock
coverage of it.

Did OJ Simpson
really k*ll

Nicole Brown
and Ronald Goldman?

The answer to the question
is yes.

The prosecution had
an avalanche of evidence.

Nicole Brown's throat was
hideously slashed.

They had blood evidence.

They had circumstantial
evidence.

They had DNA.
They had blood in his car.

They had bloody shoe prints
at the scene.

And they had a history of
domestic violence.

A lot of Americans believed

that OJ's conviction was
a foregone conclusion.

All right, Mrs. Robertson,
would you, uh --

do you have the envelope with

the sealed verdict
for us, please?

-Yes, your honor.
-All right, would you give
those to Deputy Trower?

The verdict was watched by


that were turned on

were tuned into
the trial.

[Judge] All right, Mr. Simpson, would
you please stand and face the jury?

[clerk] We, the jury,
in the above entitled action,

find the defendant,
Orenthal James Simpson,

not guilty of
the crime of m*rder.

[Jemele] When they said,
"Not guilty,"

my entire face was
on the floor.

A lot of Black people had
had personal experiences with

the same justice system
and knew it was capable of

finding somebody guilty
who wasn't guilty.

It did not take long for him
to realize it was a whole lot

of people that thought
he was a m*rder*r.

You can see the divide really
clearly between

how Black Americans
are treating it...

[cheering]

[indistinct] -- OJ is innocent!

[Scaachi]
...and how white Americans
are treating it.

Just don't think justice
was served.

-He was there, and he did it.
-Money can buy you justice.

There was this disappointment
and downright just disgust

by white people that was like,

whoa, these are two very
different reactions.

It was happening
all across America.

And the Pope came out with
a book this week.

God himself told me that
OJ is guilty.

[Walter]
OJ was a pariah.

He had to deal with the reality
that, to the public...

...he was no longer the OJ
that he was before he went in.

I always say that
I was not convicted by a jury.

I was convicted by the media.

In all my years,

I've never seen
a more obvious case of guilt.

I mean, this is a monster.

This is an animal
who needs to be incarcerated.

Everybody was trying to get
a confession from him on record.

Just, did you do it?

No, I didn't.

Nope.
Did not do it.

OJ talking about the murders
is the content

that everybody wanted.

After we finished filming,

OJ said to me that he had
a surprise for me,

and I genuinely
was surprised.

I think it was
his idea of a joke.

And this is it.

[vocalizing classic
slasher effect]

The prank show was a mechanism,
to try to get the confession.

I did feel I could push
this guy to a point where

we could get OJ's confession.

I didn't think it was a good
idea at the time.

Obviously, roll camera.

Whoa!
What the hell are
you guys doing?

I mean, as producers,
we were like, holy [bleep].

We knew he had
some gold there.

[crew] Camera speeding,
gentlemen -- [indistinct].

Bring in the girl.

-[indistinct]
-Ah...yeah.

-Close your eyes.
-[OJ belches] Oh, excuse me.

There's not a trial,

basically, that anyone
has gone through

that I didn't have to
go through.

Civil, criminal,

custody, you know,
financial thing.

I mean, I went through
every appeal,

almost, you could go through --
it's still in appeal.

All 12 jurors in the civil
case agreed that OJ Simpson was

responsible for the slashing
death of Ron Goldman

and Nicole Brown Simpson
being k*lled.

The Goldmans and the Browns --

they hit him with 33.5 million
dollars in damages.

They took his Heisman Trophy.

His house went
into foreclosure.

[Ron]
And then OJ got kicked out
of his golf club, the Riviera.

He didn't really like
his new life.

I really don't think
he liked it at all.

And then there are Simpson's
professional plans.

His legal defense
reportedly cost him

most of a 10-million-dollar
personal fortune.

[indistinct shouting]

[Walter] After he lost
the civil case to the Goldmans,

OJ moved to Miami
because the state law protected

his new house and his
$30,000-a-month NFL pension.

Yeah,
I've always liked Miami.

Obviously, I've considered

moving here because of some
of the benefits.

He really didn't want to pay
the Goldmans a dime.

[OJ] More than anything,
when my trial was over,

I was angry and would overreact
to certain things.

I wasn't as nice to
the general public.

He was just a man
who was broken.

There was definitely
a spiral down.

[reporter] One arrest
happened in 2001

after OJ was accused of being
the aggressor

in a road rage incident.

Road rage?
This guy chased
me and my kids down,

blew his horn at me
and my kids.

Mr. Simpson said to him
at that point,

"So I blew the stop sign, what
are you gonna do, k*ll me?"

[OJ] They tried to get me


I had to go through
a full-blown trial.

And then, OJ somehow got
swept up in

this money laundering
and drug smuggling case.

[OJ] They raided my house
with 33 FBI agents,

trying to make me a drug --

ecstasy dealer
and a money launderer, right,

and an internet satellite crazy.

The FBI raided his house
and all they found was that

he was pirating DirecTV.

Details on an OJ Simpson
sex tape coming up at

the top of the hour
on "Geraldo at Large."

You know, they wrote that
I was coming out with

a porn video.

[Scaachi] The OJ porn tape is
alleged to be footage

of lookalikes having sex,
but that the audio

is OJ and his girlfriend at
the time, Christie Prody.

And if that wasn't enough,
he ran his speedboat through

a manatee protection zone

and then got pulled over
for that.

It's just --
it's almost endless.

[Scaachi]
By 2003, he has money problems,
he has family problems,

he has relationship problems.

All of the fame
that he had built is gone.

[Ron] OJ had lost his mind.

People didn't love him like
they used to,

and he loved to
be loved.

He was doing whatever he could
just to be in the spotlight

and to make money.

[Robin]
OJ was so desperate for
a comeback that he would

entertain anyone
who could make that happen.

I'm a cartoonist by DNA.

I'm a MBA by classroom
training, and I would say

I'm a PhD in chaos.

This is Rick Mahr,
president of

Backyard Wrestling Incorporated.

This is the most controversial
tape in America.

Oh, shut up already!

I've seen some things.

[indistinct yelling]

Oh!

[laughing]
I've put out some shows.

Yeah, get her!

What some people call chaos,
I call just another Tuesday.

-Oh!
-Ah!

[Rick] My first quote-unquote
real job was...

pretty cheesy.

I worked in marketing for
Kraft Foods.

And I wasn't super passionate
about it.

I needed a sign
that there was something more,

and my sign came in a VHS tape.

[onlooker] Oh, my god.

-[indistinct]
-[screaming]

[Rick]
It was this crazy backyard
wrestling match.

People were lighting themselves
on fire, jumping off roofs,

slamming each other
with thumbtacks.

Once I saw that tape,
it was, you know,

one plus one equals two.

Like, this is stuff people are
gonna want to see.

So I started a brand called
Backyard Wrestling.

The way I would describe
Rick is

he's the Stanley Kubrick of
ruckus video.

The ruckus genre was pretty
much shock video.

-Oh yeah!
-Oh!

[Todd] Getting people to pay
attention by either absurdity,

violence, nudity.

Backyard Wrestling!
Don't try this at home!

sh*t was wild.

I have a list of 100-plus
titles -- "Backyard Wrestling,"

"Backyard Babes,"
"Ghetto Brawls,"

"Felony Fights,"
"Shameless,"

"Crazy White Boys,"
"Brawling Broads."

The list goes on and on.

I was building my own ecosystem

akin to like,
a Walt Disney.

Walt had
family-friendly content.

He had Mickey Mouse.

And my toy chest...

was a little more
the Land of Misfit Toys.

-Oh!
-Holy --

[indistinct shouting]

And there was nothing quite
else like it at the time.

This was before YouTube
and TikTok and all that,

so you weren't seeing all this,

unless you bought the DVD.

I mean, their calling card is
violence, objectification.

The people behind this,
they made their living off

showcasing sort of
the worst of human beings.

[Todd] It wasn't just Rick.

The biggest thing about ruckus
was everyone

was trying to outdo one another.

It just kept going,
going, and going.

Big controversy tonight.

An outrageous new video.

[Jemele] They sort of took
depravity to a new level.

It was a new kind of rock
bottom for entertainment.

[Jerry] Before we talk to Mark,
let's meet his wife.

[audience]
Jerry! Jerry!

In the '90s,
television and cable,

they were looking for ways to
get eyeballs for really cheap.

There were talk shows,
there were crime shows.

There's this new wave of
bro culture.

Hello, Juggy.

This week,
you're gonna be watching

"The John Henson Project."
Why?

Because we got a guy who shoved
a firecracker

up his a*s and lit it.

[Scaachi] These shows were loud
and vulgar and gross.

You take a woman,
and you put her in a bikini,

and she just jumps up and down,
and that's the show.

All of a sudden,
there's 1,000 of these shows,

and entertainment has
a tremendous influence about

how we see each other
and how we see the world.

It can make us see
the worst of folks.

It can make us
dehumanize people.

It can make us feel OK about
things that are not right.

Whether we admit it or not,
we're all drawn to it.

It's part of human nature.

-Who the -- who is this?
-[indistinct]

[Rick] I needed something that
would out-shock them all,

and OJ was going to bring
instant eyeballs.

That's what I'm talking about.


So I'm taking a meeting with
OJ Simpson in Vegas.

Every newscaster, every talk
show host have asked me to
come on their show, you know.

Over the last 10 years,
they've tried to recruit me for

their purposes,
and I'm tired of doing

what they want me
to do.

[Rick]
I got escorted to the suite,

and there is OJ Simpson.

My first idea was a live
lie detector pressure cooker

challenge on pay-per-view.

Imagine the most notorious man
on the planet hooked up to

electrodes trying to get
the truth

about what really happened.

But...
record scratch.

That wasn't gonna fly.
Now we have to call an audible.

I'm in this mental tornado.

Everything's spinning,
spinning, spinning, spinning.

Trial of the century.
Iconic sports athlete.

He's a fallen star.

The intersection of
reality TV and celebrity.

What's hot?
It's MTV.

Ashton.
OJ.

Wait -- let's do our own version
of "Punk'd."

[announcer]
Tonight on "Punk'd"...

Who do we punk this week?

[Scaachi] "Punk'd" was
a show that aired on MTV.

Ashton Kutcher hosted it.

He had actors come in,
and they would prank

a famous person on
hidden camera.

[screaming]

All right, fine,
I've been punk'd.

Tyra Banks got punk'd!

It was a huge, huge piece of
pop culture ephemera.

It changed how we watched TV,
and it became a verb.

To be punk'd is to be pranked.

Well, you know,
when I first heard about doing

this "Juiced" thing,
of course, I've been retired

and I'm happily retired.

And to be honest, it would
give me something to do.

And it was humorous.

I've always felt that I was
pretty good with the humor.

Ah!

[OJ]
Even with the "Naked g*n" films,
the funnier stuff was

because the public had an idea

of OJ because of
my personal persona.

The way people viewed me as
being a winner, sort of a guy

that would have never had
these things like being dragged

under a bus, getting shot up
and folded in a hospital bed,

happen to them.

Just being a guy who was
self-deprecating, that itself

makes people love you more.
It endears you to people.

OJ, how a way of making
you feel so special.

And it was very personal.

When I met my now ex-husband,
he was good friends with OJ.

Nicole and I became friendlier
over time.

To the outside public,

OJ and Nicole seemed like
a glamorous Hollywood couple.

But behind closed doors,

they were actually
very troubled.

[Todd] What's, uh...

I don't know.
You know, I --

I had a good time, and I'm sure
some people will enjoy it.

And the people
who have a problem with me

and stuff, don't buy it.
There's no problem, you know?

It's like, turn the channel.

[Rick] Signing OJ for "Juiced,"

it was high-stakes because
I was doubling down not just

with my time and my resources,
but reputationally.

[director speaking]

Mm.

How much did I invest
in "Juiced"?

Uh, you could buy a lot of
oranges for that figure.

[director speaking]

Well, you're certainly

in the six figures,
but you're below seven.

So this experiment,
it needed to go well.

There was a huge
potential audience

for this kind of material.

[TV narrator] "Girls Gone Wild"
is traveling coast-to-coast.

[Scaachi] By 2003,
"Girls Gone Wild" had sold about

4.5 million tapes to consumers.

The "Girls Gone Wild" creator,
Joe Francis, made $14 million

just on these tapes.

[Rick]
"Juiced" needed a real pirate
crew, people who were attracted

to controversy and didn't have
any qualms about the insanity

we were about to release
on the world.

Some of us crossed paths on
past productions that

I had done, and there was
a bit of...

adventure, misadventure
in us all.

[director] Look straight
into camera.

Into that one or that one?

[crew] Soft sticks.

[crew #2] Filmed in secret,
take one.

Six. Mark.

I was not afraid of dealing
with controversial subjects.

It had been 10 years
since the murders.

I wanted to be boots on
the ground, be next to him,

maybe secretly thought that
maybe he might spill the beans.

I just wanted to know.

Did he do it?

Before I met OJ?
Hell yeah, I thought he did it.

I mean, who didn't?

That's what I thought all
the way up until we started

"Juiced," and then
that's where things changed.

To be honest with you,
people think I'm guilty,

think I'm guilty,
but I think

I probably have more
die-hard fans

than I have
die-hard enemies.

OJ did not do it.

You gotta meet the man before
you judge the man.

You know, for 20 years,

I was ashamed that
I took part in this.

[crew] Todd Lewis interview,
take one, mark.

[Todd] Right out of college,
I moved to LA.

I was gonna go in
the entertainment industry.

There was no one who was gonna
stop me from being successful.

[incoherent rapping]

I really did anything I could
to get screen time.

I was an extra on
"Dude, Where's My Car?"

I did an Alanis Morissette
video where I accidentally

f*ndled her breasts.
Sorry, Alanis.

I doubled Ryan Reynolds in
"Van Wilder."

I gave myself five years.

And I got to year four,
I really started to look for

any job that I could.

That's kind of when the whole
Rick Mahr thing happened.

Rick gave me a shot directing
a title called "Backyard Babes."

Here we go.
Roll cameras.

They were basically jerk-off
tapes, Skinamax,

whatever you want to call it.

I was not proud of it,
but Rick gave me a shot,

and I was like, "I'm not
gonna let this dude down."

After we did "Backyard Babes,"
I remember specifically,

Rick said to me, "I've got
an idea for a show.

Who is the most
notorious celebrity you know?"

And I was like,

"Richard Ramirez,
Charles Manson."

And he's like,
"No, no."

I'm like, "OK, just tell me.

Tell me who the [bleep] it is."

And he goes, "OJ Simpson."

And right there, I just knew it
was [bleep] brilliant.

I was blinded.

I was enamored by Rick
and the fact that he believed

that I could do this project.

I knew it was gonna piss
people off.

But I knew with OJ Simpson,

it was gonna at least
get eyeballs.

We were about two weeks out
from sh**ting.

It was go, go, go.

[Rick] For the pranks,
usually it was Todd

proposing what we're gonna do.

I made it clear we're
not gonna satirize m*rder.

It is so intellectually
dishonest to say,

"We just thought we were making
a fun prank show."

Because if you replace OJ
with anybody else,

it's a completely
different show.

[Todd] I wanted to do
something different.

I wanted to do something that
no one had ever seen.

I wanted to write pranks that

were rooted more in ruckus
and more shock.

I came up with this idea.
The gag is this.

We dress OJ up,

like he's a wax figure,
and you put him in one of these

wax museums --
people are going to be like,

"That effing m*rder*r,
blah, blah, blah."

You know, we just knew it was
gonna be raw and real.

So I called the wax museum,
and they were all about it.

Two weeks out from sh**ting,
she's like,

"Hey, Todd, our management
just wants to know

who the celebrity is."

"Oh, yeah, no, of course.
Yeah, it's OJ Simpson."

Crickets.
When she goes,

"Yeah, we're not gonna be
able to do that."

And I knew right there, like,
what did we get ourselves into?

I mean, it got shut down over
and over and over again.

People were disgusted that
we were doing this.

It really made me stop
and think, like, this is...

a bad idea.

The first day,
I had a lot of reservations.

My fiancé did not want me to be
a part of it.

I was like, "[bleep] it."

Because I was so eager to
make a name

for myself and make my career,
and it was awful of me,

but I could tell
she was pulling away,

and I didn't care.

[Luc] I remember the first day
of sh**ting,

it was a seedy recording studio.

They brought in
all these people to audition.

They were going in blind.

They thought they were coming
in for a big celebrity to sing

the hook on a track
or become a backup dancer

for his first music video.

OK.

-OK.
-We did not tell
the auditioners

who the artist was.
They had no idea.

The big reveal
was that it was OJ.

The people who don't know
what's going on are,

like, the most vulnerable
people in the show.

It's women that
he finds attractive.

That first day,
I didn't know what to expect.

And then when OJ
walked in...

That was the moment my life
changed forever.

It is pretty surreal that
I was drawing OJ Simpson

as a cartoon,
cut to 10 years later,

and he's walking
into my camera frame.

[Rick]
When OJ came out with the durag
and the capped gold tooth

and his tats,
I mean,

what can you say?
That's "Juiced" right there.

You got OJ Simpson in a durag
wearing the gold teeth

and an A-shirt.

That's the technical term
for 'em,

but they call them
"wife beaters."

That entire scene is just
one big racial trope.

The way I live my life
is large.

My expectations was this
larger-than-life figure.

And then
OJ walked in.

-Yeah.
-He was limping.

His hair was starting to gray
a little bit.

He was non-intimidating.

We talkin' about me, Juice.

I can't take credit.
It's God-given.

And then he spoke,
and he laughed.

And it was like
you got that

OJ laughter with him going,

ha ha ha-ha,
ha ha ha-ha.

[OJ laughing]

[Tyson] That OJ laugh is
so recognizable.

It was very trippy.

[singing] Lemme introduce you to
the man known as Juice,

'cause when he''s
rocking the mic,

you can''t lose.

[Rick] You know, day one
sets the tone

for the rest
of the show.

So the stakes were, I would say,
at the highest.

After all this planning,
we had no idea how people

were gonna react to OJ.

Shut up!
Hi!

[Rick] OJ's interaction with
everyday people was like

this sociological,
psychological experiment that

we were running.

Hi, I'm Carrie.

Actually, I'm a big fan of OJ,
so I'm really glad that

I got to meet him.

Oh, my gosh.

That's funny.

OJ was right
when he said that

he evokes a reaction
out of people, 100%.

And we were surprised how
positive it was...

at first.

[Todd] Our artist is in
the other room.

He should just kind of watch
and see what's going on.

-OK.
-[Todd] Cool.

-All right.
-And as soon as...

-You're Melissa?
-Yes.

[Melissa]
Well, I found out about the
audition through Craigslist.

It was an audition for a backup
dancer, for an artist,

a new artist.

One, two...

Once I went into the room,
that's when it started

getting really weird.

The instructor did not know
anything about dance.

Just starts teaching us some
random combination,

and I'm like,
what is going on?

Yeah.

Five, six, seven, eight...

[Melissa] Then they bring
the artist around.

At first, I thought
it was just, like,

some random old rapper.

And then I realized, oh,
this is OJ Simpson,

the worst human being
in the world.

I was being told, like, I was
being Juiced, and I'm like,

I have no idea
what this means.

Like, I don't know
what's happening.

The camera's in my face.

I remember thinking back on
that moment and going,

why didn't I say something?
I just felt taken advantage of.

[dancer] I drove...[indistinct].

[Melissa] I just wanted to
get out of there.

I'm like, I have to get out of
here, I can't breathe.

Like, I just felt like
I couldn't breathe.

[Rick]
Nobody knew how this thing was
gonna go, but I did know

day one that this thing was
going to be a keeper.

She was ready to lose it.

[men laughing on video]

I was a little girl.

That -- that makes me so mad.

That makes me so mad.

They were just taking advantage
of people.

Just calling it auditions,
calling it --

just to get their content,
their dirty content.

I knew in that moment,
I'm like, "Wow,

I'm just someone's joke."

So can you tell us your name?

Melissa, West Covina,
and I was definitely Juiced.

[crew] All right.

[indistinct]

[music playing]

[singing]
'Cause he''s got
a Heisman...

a Heisman...

-Um, just one --
-The girl can definitely sing,
it ain't no doubt about that.

The majority of women that
were coming in were young.

They looked very much like
the type of women that

OJ would find attractive.

And so he definitely made
a conscious decision to kind of

play into that.

Hey, how are you?

What's up?
How are you?

-Nice to meet you.
-My pleasure meeting you.

He started getting
a little too comfortable with

the prank victims --
it was awkward.

She's -- yeah, she's cool.

She's cool.

[laughing] With who?
Like a whole bunch of people?

No, not at all.

All of the energy in that
sketch from those women are

them trying to keep him happy,
because I don't want him to

turn and get mad at me
because they have no power.

I'll go if I could bring
a friend of mine.

Huh?

Yeah.

This is OJ Simpson.

You start feeling, well,
this person is not

a safe person,
like, why am I here?

[Todd] The mood on set
changed when OJ

started hitting on the singers.

He seemed a little too into it,

and it got kind of really
uncomfortable for everyone.

Boy, is "Juiced" ever a show
made for men to watch

women be uncomfortable.

Because why do I know him?

Oh, yeah, because of
that trial.

Yeah, from Los Angeles.

-Yeah.
-OK.

[Jemele] You're talking
about somebody who already
had a certain reputation.

They wanted him
to kind of play into

OJ the charmer,
OJ the womanizer.

I didn't have any control,
and it made me feel...

vulnerable is really
the only thing.

And they knew that.
They knew that.

They knew that.

Is she?
Oh, OK.

Um, actually, I can't.

I, um,
I'm learning how to...

drive a stick.

Between the spousal abuse,
the accused murders,

I think that women
are affected

differently by OJ
than men are.

If we don't get to
talk tonight...

-Uh-huh.
-Today, you've been Juiced.

I've been Juiced?

OJ led a life
of any woman he spoke to

would be interested in him.

And I think he was trying to
maybe relive glory days.

When OJ wasn't getting
the reaction that he wanted

from the women...

So, where's my release form?

-Yeah.
-[overlapping speech]

Yeah.

...his patience started growing
thinner and thinner.

No, you have a problem with me.

You could tell, like, this is
going into another gear.

And I don't know
what to do.

Ahh.

[singing]
Let me introduce you to the man
known as the Juice,

'cause when he''s rocking the mic
you can''t lose.

So all you other rappers
better go

and hide, man,
'cause he''s got a Heisman.

Now, you're coming in to be
a vocalist on The Juices,

OJ Simpson's rap album?

Hey, you must have known
you were about to get Juiced.

You're dealing with...

combustible,
real-life situations.

That's the powder keg that
comes with

OJ Simpson.

[Todd] Can I get one more
big bling bling out of you?

We both got the bling bling.

Oh, my God.

We're just looking for work.
That's it.

It's, like, almost predatory to
young performers,

girls trying to make it in
an industry.

Yeah.

-[woman] thank you.
-[OJ] Stay gorgeous.

[Rick] Yeah, oh, yeah.

I could tell he was
getting frustrated.

Yeah, what the [bleep], man?

You know, I mean,
I'm here all morning,

and you keep --
you got these people here,

they can sing,
but [bleep], you...

You give me the same old crap.

I wanted to do a gag where
we could actually have OJ rap.

[rapping] You silly baboon.
Livin' like a tycoon.

[Todd] So, I wrote all of
these lyrics.

But he didn't care.

If you put
the first ones there,

little more energy in
the top.

[Rick] Todd was having trouble
wrangling OJ.

[sighs]

And OJ was kind of being
a little bit of a diva.

[Todd] He flat out told me,
"You know what, Todd,

I'm just gonna be OJ
being OJ."

And I was like,
"Well, you know,

"but if you do it this way,
there might be a payoff here.

It might be better."
He's like, "Yeah, yeah,

"I'm not gonna do that.

I'm just going to be OJ
being OJ."

[singing indistinct lyrics]

-I'm so sorry,
that part throws me off.
-No, let's start again.

Just forget the "Known."

-Say, "Let me introduce you to
a man named Juice," OK?
-All right.

[Todd]
He would not take notes.

He was trying to rewrite
the song on the fly.

-No, I'm just -- you know,
I'm just kind of working
-OK.

with it here.

[woman singing]
He''s got a Heisman.

So all you other
rappers better go and...

Um...

And that was a sign that,
like, holy [bleep],

I mean, what's the rest of this
sh**t going to be like?

I think we're great, man.
I just totally disagree.

[Todd] I don't know. I don't
know if it's working, you know?

It was at that point
I realized that this guy

was not gonna listen to
a word that I say.

And that's when OJ decided to stage
a fight in front of the singers.

I'm gonna get in a fight
with Todd, so somebody,

the camera's got to be on her,
and watch

her reaction through
this fight.

All right.

[Todd] I was already walking
on eggshells.

I wanted to be careful to not
set the guy off.

[Todd & woman singing
indistinctly]

The other rapper's better
go and hide, man,

'cause he's got a Heisman.

-I think you got it -- cool.
-I can try.

Hey sweetheart,
how you doing?

-What's your name now?
-Tysha.

Nice to meet you.

Yeah, I'll do it again.

I was pissed because
he called me a r*cist.

Like, he did that on camera.
I was pissed off at him.

You know, even though we had
staged this fight for the show,

there was real emotion.

[Scaachi] It showed him in vivid
color being scary,

hard to deal with.

Even if that is a performance,
he doesn't have enough goodwill

with us as the viewer
to play evil.

There was a point where
I saw anger in his eyes.

I was like, "Oh, [bleep],
where are we going with this?"

[bleep], [bleep] you!

As things got even more
heated, all of a sudden

it's like, "Oh, do we keep
rolling or should we cut?"

He is checking the box of all
of the worst stereotypes that

people have about him
and about Black men in general.

Violent, emotional,
unhinged, threatening,

accusing white people
of racism.

It's like the idea
of this going off the rails

wasn't disqualifying.
I mean, it was appetizing.