The story takes place in June 1994, when Simpson flees from police in a white Ford Bronco. An estimated 95 million viewers tuned in to watch the SUV lead a slow, two-hour police chase down Southern California's iconic highway. People staked out overpasses along the pursuit route, holding signs and cheering for Simpson.
This was a glimpse into the American way of thinking. Show them something almost unbelievably absurd — the Bronco was using its turn signal at one point as it exited the freeway — and they'll watch. Producers and Hollywood executives were also paying attention.
At the time Simpson was charged with, and ultimately acquitted of, the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, Mary Murphy, a longtime entertainment journalist in Los Angeles, said, “In many ways, it was the epitome of television. It was the beginning of many things.” and her friend Ron Goldman. When Mr. Simpson died on April 10 at the age of 76, Mr. Murphy received a flood of emails — 30 years later, the phenomenon of the trial and its ramifications still loom large in the entertainment industry. .
Viewers tuned in en masse to CourtTV to watch the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial, which lasted more than eight months and whetted the culture's appetite for true crime. The 24/7 cable news cycle has become permanent. But the spectacle also helped shape another emerging genre: reality TV. (His one of the first popular reality shows, MTV's “The Real World,” debuted several years before the trial.)
You don't have to pay a bunch of actors, writers, and producers to come up with crazy scenarios. All it takes is a few cameras in a courtroom, and viewers become incredibly immersed in people they've never heard of before. For example, aspiring actor Kato Kaelin was staying at Simpson's compound at the time of the murder and became an overnight sensation with his photos taken by Simpson. stand.
“You were completely absorbed in their personalities. Kato Kaelin was a guy who lived in a guest house and suddenly became a star,” said Murphy, an associate professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. Told. “It was very interesting. I knew all the players and I knew the lawyers.”
Susan Lee, then an NBC executive overseeing daytime television, told the Los Angeles Times in 1995: The trial is “One of the best soap operas I've ever seen on TV.” — and the actual The soap's ratings dropped significantly during its broadcast. “People suddenly had the opportunity to watch a real soap opera full of hooks and teasers, and incredible things were happening every day.”
“It was like a new way to become famous,” said Brian Graden, who at the time of the trial was Fox's senior vice president of development, overseeing shows such as “Cops” and “America's Most Wanted.” said. Later, when he worked as an executive at MTV, During the success of “The Real World” and other reality shows, he said in focus groups that students asked, “Why watch someone pretending to be something when you can see a real person?” I remember asking a question like “Is it?''
No one could have predicted that this trial would have such an impact on the American psyche, but in a way, television was ready for this moment. Michael Sokolow had been working on the breaking news desk at CNN's Los Angeles bureau for just three months when the Bronco pursuit incident occurred. But he recalled that a local television station in California had already “found a recipe for ratings by broadcasting car chases live from above.”
As the story unfolded, the tabloids invested heavily in trying to contain every twist and turn, often ignoring mainstream news. “There was unimaginable pressure on everyone in Los Angeles, working at every news organization, to get the scoop,” said Sokoloff, now a professor of media history at the University of Maine.
Shows like Geraldo Rivera's new CNBC show “Rivera Tonight” featured the trial each night. Other shows such as “Hard Copy,'' “Current Affair,'' and “Entertainment Tonight'' also heavily picked up on the interest the show generated.
However, the trial itself was different from previous reality TV shows. “After 'The O.J.,' they realized they could get very high ratings for very low production costs without actors, producers, writers, or sets,” Sokoloff said. The court essentially produced the program and piped it to each station that wanted a feed through a box outside the courthouse. “I don't think people realized how cheap O. J. Simpson's work was,” Sokoloff said.
The trial also had a “story arc that built toward a climax” and combined several popular television formats, including sports, game shows and mysteries, into one, he said. Ta.
“Everyone was glued to the TV…It tempted people to watch live,” Murphy added. “[Producers] I realized that celebrities can just be born, and reality stars can also be born right in court. ”
One of them is Kaylin, whose surfer hair and laid-back LA lifestyle served almost as comic relief during the trial and inspired an SNL parody. He would go on to appear on reality shows for years, from “Celebrity Boot Camp'' to “Celebrity Big Brother.'' Another sudden star was Brown's friend Faye Resnick, who later appeared on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
The impact of the trial was even greater for a family that would become virtually synonymous with reality TV in the coming decades.
“The Kardashians rose to prominence because of the publicity that the trial brought,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University's Newhouse School. One of Simpson's best friends and defense attorneys, the late Robert Kardashian, became a household name. When his ex-wife Kris Jenner and their many children were cast as E!'s newest stars on Keeping Up with the Kardashians in 2007, that was enough to give them a boost. It ushered in countless spin-offs and copycat series about the eccentric family.
This domino effect would continue over the next 20 years, becoming the prototype for Kim Kardashian turning her reality TV fame into businesses ranging from fashion and beauty to gaming, and leading Kylie Jenner to become a multi-millionaire cosmetics company. It's not just because he changed into a king. Networks like Bravo and TLC have created a subculture of obsession. The competition show spurred the careers of Grammy and Academy Award winners. And the host of “The Apprentice” used the show to reclaim his image as a savvy businessman from the tabloids. It was leveraged into a successful bid for the White House.
Thompson doesn't think Simpson should be tried. Too He has contributed greatly to the explosive spread of reality television. “The Real World” has already been on MTV for several years until then. “Cops” has aired on Fox since the 1980s, and CourtTV also had a huge ratings hit with his 1993 trial of the Menendez brothers. And it wasn't until years after the trial that the genre really exploded with his early 2000s hits. “Big Brother'' and “Survivor.''
But the case “trained all news organizations, from CourtTV to the networks, on how a single story can become an entire business model during its lifetime,” Thompson said. Ultimate Content He also served as a generator, providing material for Jay Leno's “Tonight Show” and other late-night comedy shows for months.
“If you want to call it a reality show, the O.J. That's for sure,” he said. .