OJ Simpson – Podcasting Them Softly

As the child from a working class family in South Bend, Indiana, Larry was introduced to the movies by his father. He was not restricted as to what he could watch, so he watched it all. After high school he debated between pursuing either a career in comedy or a life in pictures.

Larry opted for the movies, and soon found himself at USC. It was there that he would meet Scott Alexander, and together they would form not only a friendship, but also the foundation of a prolific career as a successful screenwriting duo.

After (and though it launched a trilogy of films and even an animated series) Problem Child, the screenwriters struggled to find work. It seemed as though they had been typecast buy their work and so looked to independently produce a biopic they were working on about the notoriously bad filmmaker Ed Wood.

As fate would have it, word of the project reached director Tim Burton. After expressing interest, the boys would have to hammer out a screenplay in double-quick fashion. They succeeded, and this, the first in a string of biographical efforts, would re-establish them in Hollywood and from it they would carve out their place in the genre and become, in many ways, its ‘go-to guys.’

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Biopics of Larry Flynt and Andy Kaufman would follow, seeing the boys team up with Academy Award winner Milos Forman. They would go on to re-team with Tim Burton as well as dabble in a variety on different genres including everything from a kid-friendly version of James Bond to horrific hotel rooms were you’ll spend a night or perhaps even an eternity.

Larry and Scott have garnered the highest accolades the industry has to offer and continue to deliver. While trying to get a hold of Larry for this interview I caught him riding high on his recent wave of success, so I would just have to wait for the tide to turn. I am however, glad that I did. It was, as it is ever, a privilege to chat with a man whose work I heartily admire. I love the films he has written and I look forward to the projects that he and Scott have in the pipeline.

Without further ado I present, the award-winning screenwriter and all-round nice guy . . . the one, the only, Larry Karaszewski.

We’ve reached a tipping point with dramatic television. The new golden age of TV has almost reached this Marvel-esque oversaturation point. There is a constant onslaught, whether on the television itself, or ads online, of new programming. Programming that promises to be different, to be sharper, to be like nothing you’ve seen before. Then came THE PEOPLE VS OJ SIMPSON.

This new series, American Crime Story, started last night with its pilot episode, and it is PHENOMENAL. We all know the story, we can recall the nostalgic era of the OJ trial. Jay Leno and his dancing Itos, the NBA finals game getting minimized for the “high speed” chase, but how much do we actually know about it?

The cast is paramount, stringing together former star power with character actors and current talent; the cast may very well be on the top tier of television ensembles ever. Sarah Paulson and Bruce Greenwood as wonderfully solid as ever. John Travolta, David Schwimmer, Courtney B. Vance, and Cuba Gooding Jr have dusted themselves off, and marked their return in wonderful showboating performances.

Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander have created a show that not only drums up our nostalgic rememberings of the greatest media circus ever and humanizing it, but also made this at a time where the social climate of the OJ trial is more relevant than ever. Just when you thought TV couldn’t get any better, then came THE PEOPLE VS OJ SIMPSON.