The first season of American Crime Story— the true crime anthology executive produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk of American Horror Story fame—is subtitled The People v. O.J. Simpson. If you lived through the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial than the evocative title is probably conjuring up memories of black gloves and Ford Broncos. But if you were born after 1990, then chances are good that O.J. Simpson and his murder trial are little more than free-floating pop culture minutiae, a piece of history about as relevant as He-Man or collections of Pog Slammers.
So who is O.J. Simpson and who cares about seeing his trial dramatized in American Crime Story?
For older millennials, O.J. Simpson’s existence begins and ends with his murder trial, but for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, he was quite a bit more.
O.J. Simpson was this guy:
This famous play failed to win Simpson the Heisman, but it made him a nationally-known college football player. He went on to play for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers and did a bunch of this thing called “rushing” that football fans go wild for. He’s still one of the top yardage earners in the history of the sport.
O.J. Simpson was also this guy:
That’s him playing opposite Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun . Part of what made his trial so shocking for old people is that O.J. Simpson is funny and charming. He wasn’t the kind of athlete who made awkward cameo appearances. Not only could he do comedies, but he also appeared in thrillers like The Towering Inferno and Capricorn One .
There’s not an athlete/actor celebrity exactly like him today, so it’s hard to pin down exactly what his modern analog would be. Maybe a way less famous Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or a slightly more famous Dave Bautista? Terry Crews, with his combination of Expendables action appearances and comedy chops ( Brooklyn 99 ) is probably the closest to the O.J. celebrity sweet spot.
On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were both stabbed to death outside Brown’s condo. By June 17 police believed O.J. Simpson was responsible and requested that he turn himself into the LAPD. But instead of showing up at the police station, O.J. disappeared. Simpson would next be seen in the infamous Ford Bronco.
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson opens within that narrow context. But you don’t get to be the trial of the century just by starring in a cop spoof and running some yards. The O.J. Simpson trial quickly came to stand for larger racial tensions in America, with anger at the 1992 acquittal of LAPD officers for the beating of Rodney King still simmering.
If American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson succeeds as a narrative, then it will have to conquer both the specifics and the mood of a country. We’ll see how they did tonight, when American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson airs on FX at 10 p.m.
