In the early 1990s, O.J. Simpson was at the center of the “trial of the century,” accused of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman before ultimately being acquitted.
That verdict, however, remains controversial; despite his acquittal, the murder accusations effectively ended the former NFL star’s career as a commercial spokesman, sports commentator and actor.
He later went on to spend nearly a decade behind bars years later after being found guilty of a different crime and sentenced to prison in 2007.
He was released in 2017, and passed away in 2024 while battling cancer.
A Comeback Attempt Via Reality TV
The year before he was sentenced to prison by Judge Jackie Glass, Simpson was plotting a comeback that he hoped would land him back in the good graces of the public.
At the time, he saw an avenue in reality television, which led to building a TV show around Simpson.
Titled “Juiced,” the prospective series placed Simpson in a hidden-camera prank show, not unlike Ashton Kutcher‘s “Punk’d.”
“Juiced,” however, never made it to television, but is now the subject of a new docuseries on I.D., “O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil.”
Public Outrage Derailed ‘Juiced’
As the docuseries recalls, “Juiced” was briefly available as a pay-per-view offering, but a planned DVD release was scuttled when clips leaked and stirred up backlash as the families of the murder victims protested.
Ultimately, the comeback attempt that Simpson hoped would return him to Hollywood never materialized, and he would go on to spend the next nine years in the slammer.
“This was an untouched time capsule of a moment in pop culture history, including 60-plus hours of behind the scenes of it all getting made and a sit-down interview with O.J., ” the series’ executive producer, Eric Day, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The spark was for us was how this came together, how it was made, and then how it fell apart. We started looking at two things: the behind the scenes, where you really get to watch the interaction with O.J. and members of the crew and other members of the cast, and see how pranks came alive, pranks fell apart, pranks were impossible to pull off. That said more about the medium and more about O.J. and why people were there, and that’s where stories started to come up,” Day explained.
As viewers will see, “Juiced” was a seemingly bottomless pit of what-were-they-thinking ideas, ranging from Simpson costumed like a 1970s-era pimp to pretending to be a used-car salesman trying to unload a white Ford Bronco.
“Then the fact that we had a lot of the folks that were involved in this 20 years ago. They have carried that with them, and a lot of baggage comes with that. … They were all willing to sit down and have conversations about where they were then in the context of this, and provide that testimony. I think that gave us a really complete story,” added Day.
The four-part docuseries “O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil” premieres Monday, September 7 on I.D., concluding on Tuesday, September 8.
Why do greedy and hateful people want to make money about the man now that he dead and gone and cannot benefit from from it?
I/We will never watch this travesty! “O.J.” Was a murder, a thief and a liar! He should have spent his life behind bars. 🤬