The pilot for The Richard Pryor Show, made in the spring of 1977, was pure cutting-edge, with Pryor as a wacked-out version of Idi Amin and in a sketch featuring Maya Angelou that was daring, insightful and emotional. Ebersol took a chance and gave the green light.For a moment, anyway, it looked like a seminal moment for TV. Urbisci pitched the idea of The Richard Pryor Show to Ebersol but as a prime-time, variety and sketch show. A 29-year-old who already had made his name in sports programming, Ebersol had recently moved into late-night TV at NBC and had great success with Saturday Night Live. He had guested on Ed Sullivan, but he wasnt popular.Dick Ebersol, however, was interested. And a good portion of the population was specifically not attuned to Richard Pryor. For a black comedian to host a show, even in the 70s, there were a lot of people not interested, said director/producer John Moffitt. It took some pushing even in the mid-70s, TV was a tame medium and cautiously dipping its toe into the black American experience with Sanford and Son and Good Times. 1977 seemed a ripe moment to bring Pryor into living rooms in prime time.Rocco Urbisci, just starting his career as a writer, director and producer of TV comedy, thought the moment had come to put Pryor on the small screen.
The year before that he had been one of the first hosts of the groundbreaking Saturday Night Live. The year before, he had starred in three notable, mainstream movies: Car Wash, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings and Silver Streak, the first film to pair him with Gene Wilder, with whom he would make a memorable black-and-white film duo. Comedy Arts Festival)īy 1977, Richard Pryor had stepped into prominence in American entertainment. The shows pilot also will be screened at the festival. Comedy Arts Festival, revisits the late comedians short-lived 1977 TV series.
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