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The People v OJ Simpson - FX (1 Viewer)

I never understood why the prosecution didn't bring up what those Fuhrman tapes actually were.  Fuhrman is off duty one day, sees a girl in a coffee shop on her computer and tries to pick her up.  He chats her up about the computer (back then a portable computer obviously would have been a rarity) and asks what she's working on.  Turns out she's writing a script about female officers in the LAPD.  It's Fuhrman's lucky day because he is LAPD and now he's got an in (to her pants).  He offers to consult on the project.  The tapes are him being as real, vulgar, street as he can be as to give the material authenticity.  He pretends to be something like (I believe) 17 different characters to help her write real sounding dialogue. The tapes were not some secret recording of him shooting fro the hip. Why didn't they try to explain this during the trial?  They just went along with the defense argument that the guy was a racist scumbag who used the N word all day. In the show they have a shot of him polishing his Nazi memorabilia case.  Completely ridiculous.  They said he was reprimanded for writing "KKK" on a mlk poster or something.  That didn't happen.  He laughed when he saw someone had written KKK on a poster.  He did not write it.  Was he an idiot for allowing himself to be recorded like that?  Absolutely, but how could he have known they'd come to light and in one of the biggest trials in history?  On top of that the script is about female officers and the highest ranking female officer he knows ends up being the judges wife. Talk about some bad luck.  You almost feel sorry for the guy.

 
Willie Neslon said:
 
As far as people saying Gooding was the worst casting of the show, I disagree.  If you listen to the real OJ when he gets animated he goes into that high-pitched, whiny, raspy voice.  Gooding nails it.  Yes, physically he's not a match but there are plenty of other actors who don't match physically with who they're playing. Travolta towers over the real Shapiro. Nathan Lane is something like 5'4".  I think the questioning of Gooding's casting is because OJ was the only actual celebrity at the time of the trial.  We knew him for years. Everyone else was a nobody so an exact physical match isn't required.
 
As far as why there was no mistrial, I would guess it was because nobody wanted one.  Not the prosecution, defense, judge or da's office.
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Listen to Nicole's 911 call. OJ wasn't whiny in that. You can tell by the recording that it was a big dude yelling. Cuba doesn't have OJ's depth in his voice in any situation.

 
jamny said:
Listen to Nicole's 911 call. OJ wasn't whiny in that. You can tell by the recording that it was a big dude yelling. Cuba doesn't have OJ's depth in his voice in any situation.
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You're comparing apples and oranges. They don't show him having a violent confrontation in this show. I'm talking about the whining about the tv coverage, the whining to his attorneys. Yes, they don't have the exact same pitch to their voice but Gooding does a pretty good agitated Simpson.  I'll try to find an example. try this one

 
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Willie Neslon said:
You're comparing apples and oranges. They don't show him having a violent confrontation in this show. I'm talking about the whining about the tv coverage, the whining to his attorneys. Yes, they don't have the exact same pitch to their voice but Gooding does a pretty good agitated Simpson.  I'll try to find an example. try this one
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Still not hearing it. No biggie. Difference of opinion.

 
jamny said:
Still not hearing it. No biggie. Difference of opinion.
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The only people on the show who are doing an almost exact voice match are Darden and Ito. Darden is doing a nasally thing that the real Darden does. It's almost perfect. The guy doing Cochran sounds nothing like him. Travolta sounds nothing like Shapiro.  Lane is doing Lane. I'm not sure why you're holding Gooding to such a high standard but not holding anyone else to it.  

 
I think Gooding is doing a great job as OJ. It's always going to be tough to cast such a well known personality, but he's doing as good a job as I could imagine anyone doing. 

 
the entire casting is incredible.  outside of OJ, Shapiro, and Kardashian they absolutely killed it.  The others are so incredibly close to the actual characters it's mind boggling.

Whoever did the casting deserves a promotion.  

 
I attended the Television Academy screening and Q&A for the finale Monday. He was found not guilty! Seriously, no spoilers here. All I'll say about the actual finale is that I thought they handled it well. Obviously it's difficult to condense hours of closing arguments into minutes. Now here's some tidbits from the Q&A on the overall series. On the panel were Ryan Murphy, the producers and writers who created the show, Travolta, Cuba, Paulson, Vance, Brown, Lane and Britton. It was moderated by Toobin, the author of "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson."

-Cuba said people ask if he now thinks O.J. was guilty. He says he goes back and forth on it a lot (groan from audience), but he wants to keep his personal opinion to himself. Toobin responded: "In my book, I say very explicitly that I think O.J. is guilty because he is."

-Brown said: "Being someone who was very much a champion of the defense and was very very happy 20 years ago with the acquittal of O.J. Simpson, to step into the shoes of somebody in the prosecution with the level of evidence they had presented to them that led them to believe that O.J. Simpson was guilty of double homicide -- my perceptions of Darden changed from someone who was on like the wrong side of history to a man who was simply trying to do his job to the best of his ability. I hope people can see the performance and if they had a similar opinion to me from 20 years ago, maybe they might be open to change their mind."

-The producers told the actors not to reach out to their real-life counterparts. Brown said he tried to reach out to Darden a couple of times before the producers mentioned this, but that Darden didn't respond.

-Nathan Lane said he got an email from F. Lee Bailey after filming had completed saying he wanted to talk. Lane gave him a call and "all he wanted to make sure of was that Bob Shapiro was not favorably portrayed." Travolta added: "And I achieved that."

-Connie Britton: "Do yourself a favor get Faye's book. It's Brentwood Hellos all day!"

-The idea of the show originated from executive producer Brad Simpson after he read Toobin's book. He and partner Nina Jacobson were in a meeting with FX and were asked for any books they thought could be a series. Simpson brought up Toobin's book and they loved it. They brought in Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski to write. They had scripts on the first two episodes done when they got Ryan Murphy to come in to help bring it to TV, since Jacobson and Simpson had only worked on movies before.

-The producers said they took inspiration from Robert Altman's Nashville, Network and All the President's Men. Nashville in that there were no supporting characters. One of the writers said: "With the O.J. Simpson trial, every person involved thought they were starring in their own show."  

 
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Great finale episode.  The way they show the two races during the verdict reading was insane.  OJ is guilty as a mofo.  They said the 4 hours of deliberation was barely enough time to do the paperwork and no way long enough to review the evidence.   Nuts.  I remember one of the black female jurors gave an interview afterwards and said she was vocal from the start she wouldnt convict OJ under any circumstance.  Just bizarre.

Still dont understand how this thing wasnt a mistrial or at the very least a hung jury.  

 
I liked it but I don't know why they played loose with the facts sometimes.  They take the time to include such a specific detail as the court officer stumbling on "orenthal" when reading the verdict (just like it happened) but then show major moments as they didn't happen. Sometimes great attention to detail, sometimes complete fabrications when they didn't have to. Cochran didn't think up the "if it doesn't fit you must acquit" line. Little stuff like that irked me.  People are watching this as if it's 100% fact when it's more loosely based on the facts. Personally I thought the guy who played Darden completely nailed it. I thought the guy who played Cochran (Vance) had the essence of Cochran but the guy who played Darden was Darden. He won't receive nearly the acclaim of Paulson or Vance but he was phenomenal.

 
Willie Neslon said:
I liked it but I don't know why they played loose with the facts sometimes.  They take the time to include such a specific detail as the court officer stumbling on "orenthal" when reading the verdict (just like it happened) but then show major moments as they didn't happen. Sometimes great attention to detail, sometimes complete fabrications when they didn't have to. Cochran didn't think up the "if it doesn't fit you must acquit" line. Little stuff like that irked me.  People are watching this as if it's 100% fact when it's more loosely based on the facts. Personally I thought the guy who played Darden completely nailed it. I thought the guy who played Cochran (Vance) had the essence of Cochran but the guy who played Darden was Darden. He won't receive nearly the acclaim of Paulson or Vance but he was phenomenal.
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F Lee Bailey said in an interview that Travolta nailed Shapiro. Also it is true that a prison officer that was guarding the jury did tell OJ the verdict before it was read. Kardashian did throw up after the verdict was read, and he doubted OJ's innocence.

 
drfeelgood said:
F Lee Bailey said in an interview that Travolta nailed Shapiro. Also it is true that a prison officer that was guarding the jury did tell OJ the verdict before it was read. Kardashian did throw up after the verdict was read, and he doubted OJ's innocence.
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There was some attention to detail and other details that were just inaccurate.  Cochran didn't drink but they show him drinking throughout. Hodgeman never collapsed in the courtroom. Darden never walked out when Fuhrman took the stand again. The list goes on.

 
Did the juror really salute OJ? That seemed the most unbelievable to me. 

Cochran didn't come up with the if it doesn't fit line? Who did?

 
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Watched the second to last episode on DVR today, tempted to delete the final one before watching. It's all so melodramatic and cartoonish, yet just as depressing as watching the trial the first time. I hate every last person on the screen.

 
I was living in London during the trial so missed a ton of the specific details at the time / don't remember - holy #### was this show entertaining.  The OJ trial really was the beginning of our ridiculous reality TV culture.  

 
McGarnicle said:
Watched the second to last episode on DVR today, tempted to delete the final one before watching. It's all so melodramatic and cartoonish, yet just as depressing as watching the trial the first time. I hate every last person on the screen.
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Huh.

1) I thought the show was great. Just watched the finale. 

2) I came away from it with a lot more respect for Darden and Clark than I did after the trial. 

 
drfeelgood said:
F Lee Bailey said in an interview that Travolta nailed Shapiro. Also it is true that a prison officer that was guarding the jury did tell OJ the verdict before it was read. Kardashian did throw up after the verdict was read, and he doubted OJ's innocence.
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Photo from OJ's house at the party after he'd been released.  Kardashian had doubts but it wasn't as portrayed in the show.  He didn't completely get out of his life until months later.

 
Interesting stuff here:

Kardashian said on the day Simpson was to be arrested he found him with a gun in Kardashian's daughter's bedroom and talked him out of killing himself. At first, he prayed with Simpson, he said. Then, he jolted him by warning him he'd "go to hell" if he pulled the trigger. Then he begged Simpson not to do it in his daughter's bedroom because "my daughter couldn't sleep in this bed."

Together they went outside so Simpson could find a more appropriate place to shoot himself, he said.

"He told me at that time, 'I can't live with the pain, the pain is so great,' " Kardashian tells ABC in a partial transcript of the interview obtained by CNN.

A source familiar with the interview told CNN there are more "blockbusters" from Kardashian in the unexpurgated sit-down with Walters.

Outside his house, Kardashian suggested Simpson shoot himself by the backyard swimming pool. "I said, 'Why don't you do it right here,' knowing for some reason that he probably wouldn't. And he said -- looked up at the sun and said, 'I can't do it here, I'll be baking in the sun.' I said 'O.J., you're not going to be here, your spirit's going to be gone. What do you care!' "

So they walked about, and Simpson vetoed several other suicide spots.

That's when his friend A.C. Cowlings took over the suicide watch, and off they went in the Bronco on the famous low- speed chase. Kardashian claims at one point Simpson actually put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but it didn't go off.

 
What was up with letting Simpson make a statement not subject to cross-examination (albeit not in front of the jury). It reminded me (like a great many details) of something I had forgotten. Another example of Ito's seeming incompetence. There can be an appeal on the basis of incompetence in a guilty verdict, but not an innocent one due to double jeopardy.

I was also reminded of Cochran's summation in which he talked about sending a message beyond the court room, which was outrageous to reference anything other than the evidence in the case, and thought Ito should have stopped him (if possible, not sure if a precedent, or for a prosecution objection), maybe he was intimidated like refs are sometimes to not call a penalty at the end of the game that could swing the outcome.        

 
Bob Magaw said:
What was up with letting Simpson make a statement not subject to cross-examination (albeit not in front of the jury). It reminded me (like a great many details) of something I had forgotten. Another example of Ito's seeming incompetence. There can be an appeal on the basis of incompetence in a guilty verdict, but not an innocent one due to double jeopardy.

I was also reminded of Cochran's summation in which he talked about sending a message beyond the court room, which was outrageous to reference anything other than the evidence in the case, and thought Ito should have stopped him (if possible, not sure if a precedent, or for a prosecution objection), maybe he was intimidated like refs are sometimes to not call a penalty at the end of the game that could swing the outcome.        
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Ito's decision to allow the trial to be televised (likely in an effort to enhance his profile) was a major miscalculation in every way

 
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