Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic Page #4

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He broke the glass ceiling.

He made earning a certain amount

of money for black people

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...

This was the first black film

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.

As black as Malcolm X.

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.

The network 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

an awful lot of white women.

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,

"Let Bojaws handle it."

We didn't know who Bojaws was.

What do you say?

Are you crippled?

Let Bojaws handle it.

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!

Let Bojaws handle it.

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,

harder, knowing street place.

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

wanted Richard to marry Pam.

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... #

My phone rings and Pam says,

"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.

I start moving the cake out.

He looks at the cake and realises

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