''The Richard Pryor Show'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

starring and created by

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

. It premiered on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

on Tuesday, September 13, 1977, at 8 p.m. opposite

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's '' Laverne & Shirley'' and ''

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most succ ...

''. The show was produced by Rocco Urbisci for Burt Sugarman Productions. It was conceived out of a special that Pryor did for NBC in May 1977. Because the special was a major hit, both critically and commercially, Pryor was given a chance to host and star in his own television show. ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' included the series in their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".

Production history

''The Richard Pryor Show'' lasted four episodes during the 1977 season. It ranked 86th out of 104 shows for the 1977–78 season, with an average 14.5 rating. Industry observers questioned NBC's decision to put one of America's most controversial and

profanity Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...

-laced artists in the middle of "

family hour The Family Viewing Hour was a policy established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States in 1975 in television, 1975. Under the policy, each television network in the U.S. had a responsibility to air "family friendly, fa ...

" on Tuesdays; the show was one of the earliest and most blatant challenges to the hour, which had been ruled unenforceable nine months prior.

Cast

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

* Paul Mooney *

Tim Reid Timothy Lee Reid (born December 19, 1944) is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' (1978–82), Marcel "Downtown" Brown ...

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense reali ...

Sandra Bernhard Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, singer, comedian and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. She is perhaps b ...

Vic Dunlop Vic Dunlop (November 6, 1948 – August 13, 2011) was an American stand-up comedian and film and television actor. Dunlop gained national attention appearing in such television series and films as ''Make Me Laugh'', ''Match Game-Hollywood Squa ...

Edie McClurg Edith Marie McClurg (born July 23, 1945) is an American actress and comedian. She has played supporting roles in the films ''Carrie'' (1976), ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), and ''Elvira: Mistress of the Dark'' (1988), and bit parts in ' ...

Marsha Warfield Marsha Francine Warfield (born March 5, 1954) is an American actress and comedian. She grew up on Chicago's South Side, graduating from Calumet High School. She is best known for her 1986–92 role of Roz Russell on the Top 10 rated NBC sitcom ...

* Allegra Allison The main cast consisted of Pryor as various characters. Some of the more popular characters were Pryor playing a money-seeking

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

, a

wino Wino may refer to: * WINO (band), a Japanese rock band * WINO (FM), a radio station (91.9 FM) licensed to serve Wakins Glen, New York, United States * WRFI (FM), a radio station (89.7 FM) licensed to serve Odessa, New York, which held the call ...

, and a white-hating rock star. The rest of the cast consisted of comedians, some of whom went on to have popular careers in Hollywood.

Episodes and controversy

Pryor taped only four episodes of the show. There were many controversial skits that aired, but the most controversial bit was the first episode's unaired title-card scene in which Pryor was shown nude but with his genitals removed like a

Ken doll Kenneth Sean Carson is a fashion doll and fictional character invented by Elliot Handler and introduced by American toy company Mattel in 1961 as the counterpart of Barbie, who was introduced two years earlier. Ken was named after Kenneth Handle ...

, with Pryor insisting "I have given up absolutely nothing" from his material to ensure the program was televised (the gag being that Pryor was indeed, euphemistically,

neutered Neutering, from the Latin ''neuter'' ('of neither sex'), is the removal of an animal's reproductive organ, either all of it or a considerably large part. The male-specific term is castration, while spaying is usually reserved for female animals. C ...

). A skit in which Pryor appeared as a

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

-toting rocker who kills all of his white fans also caused a stir. The third episode also featured a controversial skit that showed a woman describing what her first

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

experience was like in a park. Probably one of the most shocking and revealing skits of the show came during the last episode. The skit featured a

roast Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelizatio ...

(similar to ones by the Friars Club or hosted by

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

). The show's cast roasted Pryor, who sat with his head down laughing while regulars on the show either had kind remarks or very scornful ones. For instance, Sandra Bernhard said that Pryor was a very good father who gave everything he had, that being "a flat nose and big lips."

Home media and syndication

A two-volume

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

set was released on March 23, 2004. The DVDs include the special that Pryor did that was the inspiration for the series. In February 2010, the African-American-themed cable network TV One aired a five-hour marathon of ''The Richard Pryor Show'', which consisted of the original special, followed by all four episodes of the series. The broadcast marked one of only two times that the show had been aired on television since its original run on NBC. In the late 1990s,it was re-shown as a summer filler show after most of their other series had either been canceled or fulfilled their regular seasons. In February 2011, TV One re-aired the episodes again in honor of black history month. The network began showing the episodes again, in August 2012. On March 11, 2010, ''The Top 10 Greatest Sketches from The Richard Pryor Show'' was released by Alright, Dude Productions, featuring a mini-documentary format on Pryor's history, the conception of the show, and eventually moving into the actual countdown portion. The show can also be seen as part of

Time Life Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...

's Ultimate Richard Pryor Collection Uncensored DVD Set.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Richard Pryor Show 1977 American television series debuts 1977 American television series endings 1970s American sketch comedy television series 1970s American variety television series English-language television shows NBC original programming Richard Pryor