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Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic Page #4
He made earning a certain amount
that was not
possible at that time, possible.
One of the films I did with him,
called Which Way Is Up?,
I designed the film
around his stand-up routine.
Come on, Bob, get your ass
out here. Richard played himself.
He played his father.
F*** you!
I heard that. F*** you too, boy!
And he played a bootleg preacher.
What kind of lowlife dog, scoundrel,
snake in the grass...
that ever did multiple characters.
Richard would come and say,
"Come to watch this."
I come upstairs and he said, "Look!"
I look out the window,
and, by the swimming pool,
would be sitting famous
white people - famous producers.
Dying to be allowed
to come up the stairs,
up to the place where we were.
Do you ever go home? Yes, I do.
I'm not allowed in Peoria any more.
I didn't know that.
When you make some money, Negros
don't want you in town no more.
He desired to be
the biggest star in entertainment.
As big as Cosby, as big as Poitier.
He also wanted to be
the blackest star. You know.
Bird head. Cracker.
Spear checker. White trash.
Jungle bunny. Honky.
His appearances
on Saturday Night Live were very
instrumental in walking the
very thin line between what was
acceptable on television
and his mind.
N*gger. Dead honky.
My grandmother would walk
by the living room and she'd say,
"Are you watching that Negro again?"
It was the only black
person my grandmother would allow
in the house was Richard Pryor.
The audiences absolutely loved it.
That's why the network
went after him
and said, "We want you to do
a television show."
We had the best time.
When you have the support of someone
who carries that much weight,
it trickles down to everybody to be
courageous and crazy.
Mr President, Mr President. Yes.
Mr President,
since you've become President,
you've been courting
Will this continue?
As long as I can keep it up.
I actually hired
a court stenographer,
because the ideas were...
One day he walked
into the conference room,
he jumped on the table and said,
We didn't know who Bojaws was.
What do you say?
Are you crippled?
Bojaws was this weird medicine man
that lived in the Louisiana bayou.
Healing people. Mr Bojaws,
I've got a bad arm.
I can't move it.
He's got a bad arm
and he can't move it.
Argh!
It was ground-breaking
within the rules of how mundane
television was at the time. There's
a lot of things written about me.
People wondering
if I'm going to have a show,
if I'm not going to have a show.
Well, I'm having a show.
People say, "How can you have
a show? You've got to compromise.
"You've got to give up everything."
Is that a joke or what?
Well, look at me!
I'm standing here naked.
I've given up absolutely nothing.
So, enjoy the show.
It was pretty crazy.
It was wonderful.
He was always pushing the envelope.
That's when I went, wow!
That was the best thing, the start
of the season. It was like, wow!
He was always between two worlds.
He was between that acceptable,
sort of mainstream white world,
and, of course, a much stronger,
But the networks were
so leery of him, so scared of him.
The show was supposed
to air that night.
NBC censored the opening.
Called Richard at home and said,
"You know we're going to edit out
the naked opening.
"It caused a sh*t storm."
He quit.
The first thing to start off going,
"This is my attempt
to make a statement.
If they don't air that, that really
sets the rules. OK.
You're not going to let me do what
I'm going to do.
Richard came back and, after
pleasantries, Richard said,
"Television chews you up and spits
you out, and I don't want that
"to happen to me, so I've decided
not to do the series."
He went to NBC, and they said
Richard had to do the show.
They weren't going to let him
off the hook.
From the looks of things,
I'll be seeing you next time.
NBC made sure of that.
I'm not going anywhere.
They kept saying,
you've got to be more mainstream.
He was going, "No, f*** you.
No, we can't."
If it wasn't real, f*** you.
You know what I mean?
He wasn't compromising.
Rocco is the token
white person on the show.
He wanted a lot of changes made.
More black people
involved in production staff.
He only wanted
three whities to come back.
We're in a rehearsal hall one day,
and a guy walks in with an African
cap, a dashiki and a stick.
I said, "Richard, who is that guy?"
He said,
"His name is Prophet Jennings.
"He's a N*gger expert."
Who was the one to judge
whether Richard was black enough?
Richard looked at him, and he'd
either go like this or like that.
I love American people.
I want to say, I had two for lunch.
In the end,
they demanded that he do stand-up,
which didn't sit well with him,
making demands on him.
So they recorded 45 minutes
of him doing stand-up.
They had ten seconds they could use.
A lot of people here
might be offended.
So you should leave, because
I'm going to say f*** and suck.
And sh*t and doo-doo.
It's amazing that he got things
on that he got on, but it's only
because 90% of what
he wanted to get on he didn't get on
that 10% of it
actually got through them,
because they couldn't fight with him
that much.
Those bells again!
That was it. He went out swinging.
Well, good night. See you next week.
And we're delighted to have
with us two of the very best friends
I have who dropped by,
Miss Pam Grier and Mr Richard Pryor.
Richard was dating Pam Grier. You
know, she was crazy about that guy.
We bumped into each other on the set
of Greased Lightning, in which
we were both starring in, which
will be released some time in April.
You say you bumped
into each other. Yes, we bumped.
That must have been
quite a collision.
I know that Richard's grandmother
She thought she was certainly
an accomplished actress.
She was black and she was a healthy
girl. She wasn't a party girl.
I'll be jogging in the morning,
police.
Me and Rashan, two black men,
will be jogging.
We're not robbing anything.
Richard was completely sober.
He played tennis
every morning at seven o'clock.
It was a Richard I had not seen.
Richard came into my office
and said,
"I'm getting married tomorrow."
I'll be late.
I said, "Wow! Congratulations!"
That's f***ing great.
# Baby, save me
# From this heart of mine... #
I had a cake this big.
Congratulations, Richard and Pam.
# I can't sleep at night
It's taking over... #
"You tell the son of a b*tch
"I'm coming down
and I'm going to kill him."
Richard Pryor had married a girl
he got pregnant. And he walks in.
He looks at the cake and realises
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