O.J. Simpson Pt. 1: From Gang Leader to Gridiron Gladiator

Part one of our episode on OJ Simpson. In our first episode we talk about OJs early years as a troubled kid with rickets to star of the football field and movie screen. 

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Transcript

Shaun: 0:14

OJ Simpson, that famous football player, slash murderer, allegedly that everybody knows and some people love. That's our subject for the day, Nate. What do you know about OJ Simpson?

Nathan: 0:23

Allegedly.

Shaun: 0:24

Allegedly.

Nathan: 0:26

I guess we have to say allegedly, even though it's everyone knows yeah. Everyone knows I was like I'm going to go help find the real killers. No, you won't.

Shaun: 0:39

He also wrote a book questioning whether or not he did it. We'll get into that shortly.

Nathan: 0:43

Yeah, okay, We'll get into it right now. Yeah, I didn't know OJ Simpson as a football player because I don't care about football. My first experience with OJ Simpson was Naked Gun, and then my second interaction with OJ Simpson interaction being, you know, just being where he existed was White Bronco.

Shaun: 1:03

So but Al Cowlings I believe Al Cowlings was the one driving the Bronco and OJ was in the backseat with a gun against his head and a phone in the other hand. If I recall from the courtroom sketches and stuff like that.

Nathan: 1:12

Right and it's like and nowadays they would just gun them down.

Shaun: 1:16

You're right. Well, it depends on how famous you are. Oj was pretty famous back in the day.

Nathan: 1:20

Yeah, I think it was also the nineties they would gun them down. You're right. Yeah, I'll back on that. Yeah, uh, in fact, in the nineties, the cops didn't have any like if you're right Now or then, there would have been like a thousand cops following him.

Shaun: 1:42

Yeah, They'd be like hold up, he's one of the good ones.

Nathan: 1:46

Like the cops in A Dark Night with all the down-to-the-tones campaign.

Shaun: 1:49

All the cops were following OJ Simpson you ready to learn about the life and times of one Orenthal Simpson?

Nathan: 1:57

Let's do it.

Shaun: 1:58

All right. July 9th 1947. Eunice Simpson spreads her goalposts wide and out her end zone rushes a football-sized Orenthal, Julius Simpson. He comes out of the womb fully decked out in pads and a helmet and he spikes the placenta and does a touchdown dance. When he comes out In the corner at baby Pete Carroll chews gum and nods approvingly.

Shaun: 2:16

Oj's mother was an orderly at a psychiatric ward and his father was Jimmy Lee Simpson, a custodian at the Federal Reserve and possibly an out-and-proud drag queen who died of AIDS in 1986 or 1985, depending on who you asked. Possibly I say possibly a drag queen, because there's only a couple of mentions of him being a drag queen and they're all from like the recent years, like 2016, and on One the recent years like 2016, and on One of them is a book written by George Carposie Jr. Basically, it has an account from a drag queen in San Francisco who claims quote Mama Simpson, as he was known to me, used to hang around a hotel where I lived and was frequently dressed in drag. Everyone knew he was OJ's dad. That's evidence. One Also, apparently, jeffrey Toobin wrote a book that claimed that he was a drag queen. Yes, that same Jeffrey Toobin who was caught with his pants down on a Zoom meeting at a CNN. Remember that Nate Jeffrey Toobin His name got turned into a verb for a while.

Nathan: 3:07

Yeah, that's. Is that the guy? Was it CNN? Yeah, it was like, yeah, they were at a Skype meeting and he went off to take care of himself and everyone's like, oh my god, we're still here, that guy.

Shaun: 3:18

Yeah, I think he actually loaded up the thing and he had no pants on and was going to town on himself or something along those lines.

Nathan: 3:24

The one I know of. He had gotten up. Maybe he had no pants on at that point, but he got up, went over the couch while his camera was still on to start going. All the people were going no Huh.

Shaun: 3:36

Maybe that's what it was.

Nathan: 3:37

I went ahead and like, yeah, okay, I get it. You weren't trying to show everybody what was going on, but come on, man, you know.

Shaun: 3:45

When asked exactly what happens, toobin said I'd rather not go into the grisly details. The only thing I'll say about it is I didn't know. Other people were on the Zoom call and they were watching.

Nathan: 3:57

And this was not an intentional act on my part. But, that being said, what do?

Shaun: 4:00

you give it Nine out of ten. Yeah, the other evidence, too, is a 2016 documentary called OJ, made in America. In that documentary, one of OJ Simpson's childhood friends, calvin, said One day we went over to his dad's house and we knocked on the door. When his dad opened the door, he was in a bathrobe, which is not a crime. When his dad opened the door, he was in a bathrobe, which is not a crime. But then he kind of opened the door more and there was a guy in the back and he was in a bathrobe too, and it was obvious that he was gay. So, and also keep in mind, oj Simpson's dad like abandoned him at the age of four. So this is a four-year-old's quotations, being like, hey, yeah, sure he was gay. So I don't know. Like I said, all these accusations came out long after OJ's dad was dead, and this and that, and it seemed like it was mainly to sell books. So eh eh.

Nathan: 4:41

I mean, it doesn't really matter in the long run, but just for the sake of like clarity. Yeah, I wouldn't trust a four-year-old's recollection, especially after you know you're talking for years. Everyone's like oh yeah, he's a drag queen and then let's be, let's be happy. He stopped at like I saw a guy in a bathroom behind him versus like yeah, he gave me a.

Shaun: 5:04

Come hither look.

Nathan: 5:05

Right, like I saw he opened the door, some guy was like balls deep behind him. Right, there's a little.

Shaun: 5:13

There's a little bit of a leeway there between like we thought he was bending over pick up his shoes by the door, but it turns out another guy happens to be there versus, like you know, full raw doggy and throw some kids one reason this kind of matters? Because people like to try to tie this back into some of the uh homophobic stuff oj said during the murder case and whatever, and they're like oh well, this shows you right here why he's such a troubled, horrible man and this and that so eh.

Nathan: 5:38

But I don't know, the gays, yeah, the gays, even back then, like oh, why did she die? The gays?

Shaun: 5:45

Yep Also, his obituary says he died of cancer, not AIDS. But also that's kind of one of those things back in the day. If he did die of AIDS, you probably didn't want people to. So there we go. His dad gay Maybe. Question mark. Question mark. As for OJ, him and his family grew up in the poor part of San Francisco and was fashionable with poor children. At the time, oj developed a case of the rickets at the age of two and gave him bowed legs. His mother whooped him up some homemade.

Nathan: 6:09

As was fashionable at the time.

Shaun: 6:11

As was fashionable at the time. Hey, if you're a kid back then, you're poor. You either got the rickets or you got polio, and if you didn't have one of those, all the other poor kids made fun of you.

Nathan: 6:21

Haha, look at that kid over there.

Shaun: 6:22

He's never had rickets. Yeah right, Isn't that funny. Jimmy and the Iron Long yeah.

Nathan: 6:30

Yeah, we all laugh at Jimmy and the Iron Long, but that motherfucker was an asshole. He was the worst bully of all of them. He would just run over people's hands. He's like whoops. He'd have his friends hold down the jocks, like all of his crippled friends holding jocks down, while he slowly, like, rolls over them Like in. Aladdin, he's like rolling down the hill. He's gotta quickly find the window where it gets crushed. Ha, uh, yeah.

Shaun: 6:56

Yep. That was one of the leading causes of deaths For street urchins back in the day, being run over by bullies and iron lungs.

Nathan: 7:02

The scourge Of iron lungs. Rolling down the hill, rolling down with a biker gang, like in a perfect V Everybody's panicking, Grabbing their children running inside their houses.

Shaun: 7:15

Oh no, the iron lung gang is coming. People like hiding behind the windows, you know? No, the iron lung gang is coming. Yeah, people like hiding behind the windows, you know, the iron lung just slowly rolls by with the head turning and staring at them.

Nathan: 7:26

Uh, yep, okay, uh, they're pretty. I mean I'm not exactly advocating for killing people out of the lungs, I don't, you know, I don't even know if I see an iron lung, but like, what's the point? I mean, there's one guy. He's like oh, one guy recently died. He was 70 something. He spent his entire life in iron long, you know, like he was a lawyer.

Nathan: 7:46

I'm like a lawyer for what? Like, at what point? I know you could be a lawyer and like, do paperwork, but again, the only thing he had access to was his face.

Shaun: 7:55

So he was an expert at teleconferencing.

Nathan: 7:58

Basically would be my guess but he was 76 and met a lawyer most of his life. He wasn't a recent thing so it was um.

Shaun: 8:06

He communicated by a pigeon, I guess, stuck little notes on them sent him out.

Nathan: 8:11

I mean, I am by no means advocating putting people on iron lungs out of their ability but.

Shaun: 8:16

but they say you're on trial for murdering 30 people in iron lungs with a pillow. You just walked up and pushed a pillow over their face.

Nathan: 8:25

We have this audio. If you hadn't noticed, in the audio I never was advocating to put people out of their misery.

Shaun: 8:32

Hey, I may have left a hanging but You'll notice I said I don't advocate for other people to murder people in iron lungs. I never said about myself, but in case you wonder what iron lung is too, I believe it's because your muscles are so weak you can't breathe anymore like move your diaphragm breathe, so that actual whole lung just basically works like a giant, like bellows, to pump air in and out of you yeah, totally I mean yeah, as a life-saving device I think it's a miracle.

Nathan: 8:56

But again, but again it's like it really should be like a temporary measure, not a permanent one. But again, I mean, whatever People have loved ones. If I had a loved one like my daughter was an iron lung I'd probably be like, no, let her live. So I mean.

Shaun: 9:10

I'd be like chasing away the horde of people outside with pillows being like we're here for an angel of death for your daughter. You, You're an angel of death for your daughter. You're like no Look at her. We wheel her in the backyard twice a week.

Nathan: 9:19

She has fun, right? So yeah, just you know abstractly, with me having no say over it, I'd be like no, put them all in the misery. But yeah, I mean someone goes. Well, what if your kid I'm a hypocrite.

Shaun: 9:31

There you go, but thankfully your kids aren't in iron lungs. All they have is the rickets. And, by the way, in case you're wondering what rickets is, it's a softening of the bones due to a vitamin D deficiency.

Nathan: 9:40

I always wondered what it was. Yeah, I mean because I know.

Shaun: 9:44

Because you always hear about the rickets and stuff like that. It's like oh so bode-y. It looked like he had the rickets when he was a kid.

Nathan: 9:50

Yep, and there's a funeral home called Rick that I want to pass by Ha.

Shaun: 9:57

Old rickety cricket running his.

Nathan: 10:00

Rickety cricket. Is that Jiminy's like long-lost brother?

Shaun: 10:03

Yes, Fast forward to the age of 1960, and at the age of 13, OJ Simpson forms what he calls a gentleman's club known as the Persian Warriors. While OJ calls it a gentleman's club, everyone else calls it a street gang. Yes, OJ was a hoodlum, picking fights, stealing stuff, throwing rocks at cars, that kind of jerkwad stuff. This would eventually land him in juvenile detention at the age of 15, where he would spend some time there and kind of be in and out of juvie. His future wife, Margaret Whitley, would even refer to him during this time as a quote-unquote terrible person.

Nathan: 10:33

OJ, uh Well, I have no doubt he was a terrible person even after that time, might have been the vitamin D deficiency.

Shaun: 10:41

Very true, maybe that's what it is. Turns you into a violent murderer.

Nathan: 10:44

But I mean, let's be real, from what you said, it's kind of cute. Oh, he went through. I mean, I'm sure he was a slight little mess society. But let's take a quick step back and look at I don't know the 90s in LA. Let's take a quick step back and look at I don't know the 90s in LA, just like, oh, he had a gentleman's club, like, oh yeah, what are they called? You know the Crips.

Shaun: 11:06

Oh, that's a bunch of crippled people. That's neat. I bet you he helps them out in day-to-day activities. It's like a South Park callback there.

Nathan: 11:15

Yes, exactly.

Shaun: 11:17

I was there too, timmy and Jimmy. So in and out of Juvie and Jail was probably going to be OJ's destiny at this point, and that's pretty much what everybody believed. Oj's family, friends and even OJ himself was like well, I'm obviously going to be a lifelong criminal. Then one day he got out of Juvie and he got to spend the day with his sports idol, willie Mays, and Willie Mays basically spent the day hanging around him giving him that good old, tried and true speech of do sports not crime. Remember when you used to have, like you know, school assemblies and you know some local like C-list athlete would show up and be like, hey, I used to be a backup Seahawk. Do sports not crime, I have to expect him to go, you know?

Nathan: 11:52

hey, don't tell anybody about this.

Shaun: 11:56

Don't tell anybody about that. Time you saw me in a bathrobe with the other guy Bro kill your family.

Shaun: 12:01

You want to play football? Well, willie Mays' little speeches actually worked and OJ decided to get into sports and start playing high school sports. Oj went on to be a standout high school football star and colleges were dazzled by his performances. They're like, hey, this guy could be the next big thing. And the colleges started lining up, being like you should come play for a while. Wait a minute, your grades aren't really up to snuff and also, you're in juvia a lot, weren't you? Maybe we don't want you representing our school. So OJ basically had to go like a little piddly fart community college and play football there for a couple of years to get his grades up and prove that you know he's no longer the thug he once was. Because, yeah, he was suspended from high school five times and went to juvie.

Shaun: 12:42

That's kind of a red flag for a lot of things.

Nathan: 12:45

Yeah, I mean, no one really was going to be like, oh, let me snack this guy up. Oh, he did what now?

Shaun: 12:51

Yeah, some dude just a few years ago tanked in the NFL draft because he uploaded a video of him hitting a bong. People were like can't have a bong hitter smoker on our team.

Nathan: 12:59

That's so dumb.

Shaun: 13:02

Yeah, he dropped from the first round to the bottom of the second round, lost millions of dollars in signing bonuses because of it. Good times? Well, not for him. When was this? This was like 2018 or something like that.

Nathan: 13:14

Well, yeah, it's still too early.

Shaun: 13:20

I think now you're probably better off now. Nah, not really. Well, it's against the NFL rules to smoke weed. It's a suspension if they catch you doing it. And you don't want to pay a guy $10 million and have him suspended all season Because he couldn't stop smoking weed. That's what happened with Ricky Williams. Ricky Williams was the New Orleans Saints Made him one of the highest paid running backs of all time and he immediately just said I'd rather smoke pot instead and just like quit and took the money with him. Yep, so there you go. Sometimes it's not good to finance a pothead, I guess.

Nathan: 13:48

I guess, but also like I don't know, that's what that was. Just that one guy, yeah.

Shaun: 13:53

Anyway, anywho. So after going to San Francisco City College for a while, getting his grades up and getting back on track, oj finally had a college come calling, and in 1967, the University of Southern California decided to snap him up. Yes, this is the same USC school that started off-topic alumni's Pete Carroll's career too. Pete Carroll, oj Simpson they meet together in this once again.

Nathan: 14:16

Will their sins never be forgiven.

Shaun: 14:18

Ha. Yes, look at what USC has brought upon us. Between these two and Will Ferrell, I mean God, they're just bringing about the fucking end of times, the apocalypse. Now that he's in college, as a USC running back, oj would dominate college football, leading USC to a national championship in 1967, and he would also earn the Heisman Trophy in 1968. Heisman Trophy in 1968. Heisman Trophy, for those of you who don't know, is essentially the trophy for best college player.

Shaun: 14:43

That year, 1967-68,. Oj would lead college football in rushing years, and he would also, during this time, be a very accomplished track athlete in college as well, and even competed in the 1968 Summer Games. This is a bit of note too, because this is the Summer Games that Martin Luther King Jr was trying to get all the black people to boycott the games due to racism. When he asked OJ to boycott the games, oj responded I'm not black, I'm OJ. Oh, fuck off. Apparently, that right. There, though, is what made him like people say. That's what made him good in the eyes of the racists and all the white people. That's what made him quote, unquote one of the good ones.

Nathan: 15:17

Of course it did.

Shaun: 15:18

Yes.

Nathan: 15:19

Of course it did.

Shaun: 15:20

And if you want an example too, my dad was one of the most racist people you'll ever meet, and he loved OJ. He was like they need to leave that man alone. He also loved Bill Cosby too, so that should tell you something. Oh, wow, like even before screaming at the TV like you can't accuse that old man of doing something like that. Look at him, he's a sweet old man. He would never do these things. He's one of the good ones. My dad also said almost the exact same thing about it starts with an M Rupert Murdoch. Yeah, my dad also said Rupert Murdoch was a kindly old man who never did anything wrong. So there's, and old people can do no harm. As we know, that is not true.

Nathan: 15:56

After a certain age, it all doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't Not anymore.

Shaun: 16:01

Oh, I thought you were actually being serious.

Nathan: 16:02

No, no, no, that's right please. That is not off-topic branded.

Shaun: 16:09

That's something we say off-air to each other privately. The men's 4x100m relay race that OJ participated in also set the world record that year too, so that's something kind of neat. During his time at USC, oj would do a little bit of acting, including an uncredited role on the TV series Dragnet and also appearing on the first episode of Medical Center on CBS. This little bit of acting would be kind of important because in the 69 NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills took OJ first overall. Andj was thrilled and immediately told the Bills to hey, pay me, I'm going to be worth it. And demanded the largest contract in professional sports history $650,000 or over five years, or the equivalent of $4.1 million nowadays money which by today's standards, that's not a whole lot for an actor. That is not a lot. That is like nothing.

Shaun: 16:53

Well, the Bills hated the idea of paying him that much money and they told him to saw it off, we are not paying you that much. To which OJ said okay, that's fine, I'll just go be an actor, I've got an acting resume. And the Bills said ah, damn, you called our bluff. So they decided to sign him and it turns out it was a wise move, as over the next nine seasons as a Buffalo Bill, oj would dominate the running back scene and and become the second-leading all-time rusher by yards. During his career he was also the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, beating out fellow football player and actor, jim Brown. I think Jim Brown was actually the original two football player slash actor. He was also a running back who was in the Dirty Dozen, I think. Yeah, he'd been in a few things. Yeah, he even was in movies up until the 90s.

Nathan: 17:35

I think, yeah, he was in Mars Attacks. Oh, yeah, he was, wasn't he?

Shaun: 17:38

Yeah, the fact is, I really don't know him from, oj wouldn't spend his entire career as a Buffalo Bill. He would actually, as a token gesture, spend the last two years of his career in San Francisco playing for the city that he grew up in. He uh man. By that time he was old and broken up with bad knees, so he didn't really contribute much, but the fans still liked it. They're like, hey, that's our boy, yay, our boy.

Shaun: 17:59

He actually still holds a couple of NFL records, like fastest player to gain 1,000 rushing yards in a season and the fastest player to gain 2,000 rushing yards in a season and most rushing yards per game in a season, with 143 rushing yards per game. In case you're wondering, 100 yards per game is considered really good for a running back, so he was doing really good at that time. Oh yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, yeah, he. Honestly, he was actually one of the best running backs of all time. He was legitimately a good football player. However, he did only play in one playoff game and never won a super bowl because and the buffalo bill sucked back then which kind of a bummer when you're known as one of the greatest players of all time, yet you couldn't win a championship I mean you can't carry it.

Nathan: 18:35

I mean they're like oh, he carries a team, yeah, I mean yeah, especially in football.

Shaun: 18:39

I mean some sports like basketball, maybe you can kind of, or soccer maybe. So OJ's football career would end in 1979, but lucky for him, he had already begun his acting career by this time. Most famous, what he's most famous for was his 1975 Hertz Rent-A-Car ad where he ran through an airport in a suit to the car rental kiosk to rent a car. Damn exciting stuff. Nate, Do you remember those commercials? No, Hertz rent-a-car. No, I remember them because they used to play them on like those top 10 greatest commercials of all times kind of things, and it was literally OJ being like oh no, I'm late to rent a car. And then he just like runs through the airport. He's like jumping over luggage and like doing spin tackles around pillars and stuff. I don't know, it's pretty lame, but I guess at the time it might have been cool.

Nathan: 19:21

Oh, absolutely.

Shaun: 19:22

At the time I was like oh my god, yeah, it's like oh, look at this, it's such an action-packed commercial Because also before that, I think most commercials were literally just like a dude sitting on a stool reading a you know teleprompter, yeah, whole teleprompter. Stop reading jackass by Sony.

Nathan: 19:40

Model such, such, such such.

Shaun: 19:41

Yeah, just keep rolling Volume up, volume down, power button. So as for bigger stuff beyond commercials because he did a bunch of commercials, he was also a spokesman for, like Chevy and GM and all that kind of stuff, for bigger budget stuff. He would appear in the 1977 TV miniseries Roots and he would also be in the 1974 motion pictures the Klansman and the Towering Inferno Towering Inferno and Roots being very popular movies at the time, or shows slash movies. I also watched Roots 2. Had to watch it in school. Main thing I remember that from was at one point they gave the slave an option we're gonna cut off your foot or cut off your dinky, and he optioned to have his foot cut off instead. Did you ever see Roots? I haven't. Oh, okay, it was a movie about slavery and slavery.

Nathan: 20:19

Well, yeah, I mean, I know it was about Jordi LaForge was in it.

Shaun: 20:23

Oh, yeah, he was, wasn't he? Yeah, it was Kunta Kinte slash Toby. I don't know. It's yeah, it's exactly what you think it was, yeah.

Nathan: 20:32

You If you read the description.

Shaun: 20:34

Yeah, if you read the description you'll be like, okay, I can kind of figure out how this movie goes. Yeah, which you can do that for a lot of movies. To be honest, oj Simpson was big into acting, even to the point where he formed his own studio, orenthal Productions, which made some made-for-TV movies in the late 70s and early 80s. Those movies included Goldie and the them. I kind of like the title Cocaine and Blue Eyes. That's kind of a cool movie title Cocaine and Blue Eyes. Actually it sounds kind of like a Johnny Cash song or something he sings.

Nathan: 21:06

It all soulfully. Cocaine and.

Shaun: 21:08

Blue Eyes or really manic, because he's on cocaine. Depends on what era of Johnny Cash we're in, true, yep, it's very true. Also, johnny Cash were in, true. Yep, it's very true. Also, the movie Detour to Terror kind of has a fun description. It's um a homicidal dune buggy trio terrorizes a busload of Las Vegas-bound tourists with the intent to kidnap one of them. So basically what we were talking about earlier, but instead of iron lungs it's dune buggies, I guess. Oh, there you go, yep, but I just like Dune Buggy Trio Kind of makes me think of Speed Buggy Gone Bad, I guess.

Shaun: 21:40

Also, in the mid-70s, oj met both his future wife, nicole Brown, and also made friends with two other eventual famous people, the Menendez brothers, eric and Lyle Menendez. Oh, jesus, ha, ha, yep, in case you don't know, eric and Lyle Menendez were convicted in and Lyle Menendez were convicted in what was it? Late 80s, early 90s of murdering their parents for inheritance money. I want to say the 90s. Yeah, I think it was very early 90s, man, the only thing I remember that from was the SNL sketch they did about it. Weird associations, I have Right. In 1978, oj hosted SNL and he was only the second athlete to do so at the time, brian Tarkenton being the first Brian to do so at the time, brian Tarkenton being the first, brian Tarkenton being an odd pick because I don't know, he didn't seem like a very personable person, very generic and boring, white.

Nathan: 22:21

And apparently, from what I heard, I don't know how accurate it is, so take it with a grain of salt but apparently Lorne Michaels, the head guy of SNL, was friends with OJ, which's like there's somebody higher up than Lorne Michaels that did that. I thought it was like I didn't think anybody was higher up than Lorne Michaels. I thought he was like.

Shaun: 22:45

Brandon Tartikoff is way higher than Lorne Michaels. Lorne Michaels just does SNL, I know just SNL.

Nathan: 22:50

I'm not speaking for anyone else I? Mean, I guess, I mean, I guess someone from on high can come to him, but from what my understanding is, of course, it's just like Lorne Michaels running this place like basically a dictator.

Shaun: 23:02

We'll find out real quick. Let's see, don Ohlmeyer was the guy who gave the order to have him fired, nbc West Coast Division President Don Ohlmeyer, who happened to be an extremely close friend of Simpson. There you go. Okay, so it wasn't Lorne Michaels. Nope, it was't Lorne Michaels.

Nathan: 23:15

It was not Lorne Michaels, because I knew it was someone in charge, but I just used to recognize. I thought it was Lorne Michaels.

Shaun: 23:22

Just automatically assumed as notorious scumbag Lorne Michaels.

Nathan: 23:25

How dare you? I mean it's not like, no, not poor innocent Lorne Michaels Right.

Shaun: 23:31

How dare you assume the dude who did all sorts of scumbag things did another, another scumbag. I mean that's very subdued.

Nathan: 23:37

How did he forget about all the puppies he saved by killing them? He saved that pup Remember he went around town picking up all those poor lost puppies and selling them to the wet market. Wait, the wet market's what now?

Shaun: 23:49

Yeah, oh, that's where they just sell wet puppies. No, no, that's where they drown them, it turns out yeah.

Nathan: 23:56

I thought so. They only sold damn puppies over there, though.

Shaun: 24:01

Also around this time. According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, james Cameron actually considered OJ Simpson to play the role of the Terminator, but decided against it because of OJ's reputation as a nice guy or, quote-unquote, one of the good ones. Right, yeah, that does sound familiar.

Nathan: 24:12

It does sound familiar, that does sound familiar.

Shaun: 24:14

It does sound familiar I've heard this before but the only person that backs this one up, too, is Arnold Schwarzenegger. I've never actually seen James Cameron say that, so I don't know Not saying Arnold Schwarzenegger's a liar, but you know, I mean, I'm also saying he could have misremembered stuff too, I mean also.

Shaun: 24:27

I mean I have nothing against the Terminator, but I'm also not going to take everything he yeah, okay yeah, um, some of these celebrities, as they're getting really old nowadays they're starting to tell some kind of tall stories. It makes you go. Did that happen? Especially like hulk hogan's kind of going off on some weird stuff nowadays?

Nathan: 24:44

yeah, oh man speaking of hulk hogan. There's, um, it's a documentary coming. I want to see it's produced by, uh, kevin nash, like what happened to just who killed the wcw, or something like that. I mean, it's, the wcw was the last time I cared. Yeah, it's, it's been.

Shaun: 24:59

It's been a long time since I gave you eric bischoff and vince russo that killed it. Wcw there. I saved you well, hogan too I guess.

Nathan: 25:07

Yeah, well, I, I assume that this is like, I guess, from the wrestler's point of view I'm guessing the whole thing was a huge clusterfuck.

Shaun: 25:15

It's basically the uh inmates were running the asylum at that place.

Nathan: 25:18

Oh, for real. Okay, yeah, I mean I can see that. I mean I really did. I really did love a WCW for quite a while. And then, like I said before, when I moved out there, I was really upset, like I'm not going to be able to see. My uncle didn't have cable and I tried to watch it once. It was all scrambled because again, I didn't get cable.

Nathan: 25:41

So I kind of remember seeing Goldberg for a second and then or some other bald dude. Yeah, exactly, and fast forward about a month. I realized I hadn't even attempted to try to see if I can watch it and I realized, wait, I don't care anymore.

Shaun: 26:02

I was going to say you thought you were a wrestling addict, but you were just a casual wrestler user. It turns out, yep. No withdrawals or nothing You're just like well, that's easy to quit. Meanwhile, there's plenty of people in wrestling rehab right now being like you, son of a bitch. Yeah, I sucked a dick for wrestling. What have you done for it?

Nathan: 26:16

I'm sorry. Yeah, I know that really sucks, but yeah, I'm good. 1985,.

Shaun: 26:22

OJ and Nicole Brown get married Because Nicole Brown Simpson as she'd be known from then on. Apparently Because whenever I think Nicole Brown, I just automatically fill in the Simpson at the end. I don't know, even though she'd probably prefer if you didn't do that.

Nathan: 26:35

Yeah, especially nowadays. Would you please not add the name of the person who killed her at the end of that? Right, it reminds me. It just took me to a brief, uh reddit story that I heard read, whatever, and the guy was talking about like how his uh, he had a bunch of family who died and he would keep them going to these graves. Like they're down a car accident or something, um, and he was going putting flowers in the grave but he always noticed there's someone next to him like they shared a similar next plot over and there was no one ever came to it there's never flowers. So he started buying flowers for that, um, for that unknown gravestone, and he did this for like months and finally he's like who is this person? And come to find out it was someone who murdered his wife and kids so some flowers for john, the baby raper, and he's like damn it.

Nathan: 27:21

So he wanted to kind of like even the karma scale out, and he went, started delivering flowers to the wife he murdered and the kids, and while he was there, though, some other woman was there. So oh, why are you putting um flowers on my aunt's grave? And he's just like was very kind of like, oh, you know, this happened, and they both found it kind of funny.

Shaun: 27:39

And then I'm getting married, so yeah, and now every anniversary they go pee on that man's grave that murdered her Right.

Nathan: 27:46

That's how they bond together. We do this as a family.

Shaun: 27:49

I thought that's what you were going to say. First, instead of buying flowers for the other grave, he just started whizzing on it. Oh yeah, 1987, oj has a cameo in the movie Back to the Beach, starring 1960s crooner Frankie Avalon and original mascoteer Annette Funicello. Don't recognize those names? Ask your grandparents, they will probably know. Yeah, I do not recognize the names. Uh yeah, frankie Avalon I got to listen to a lot of his music because I was forced into like 50s and 60s stuff back in the day. It's teeny bop crooner music and Annette Funicello was a Mascoteer who went on to like do some. The only reason they ever hired those two in movies was so you know, your parents could be like hey, I don't know that name, johnny there's.

Nathan: 28:28

There's a guy, the name I recognize yeah, exactly they're making their comeback. Kids these days don't know what they're missing with the original mouse kateers yeah, the only older stuff I used to be forced to watch and I emphasize that forced to watch because I don't know what I think I did not willingly was, um, fucking lawrence wilk. Yeah, do you ever?

Shaun: 28:49

watch lawrence wilk? No, because he was on cbs and I didn't get cbs. Yeah, yeah, I was forced to watch. Maybe it's pbs is one of the two, but, yeah, I never got to watch that. I know of lawrence wilk though, the polka master himself. Oh my god. And oh my god and well, it's that, and also.

Nathan: 29:06

This sounds really chill, but my uh, my uh, stepfather, he there used to be this guy on there who danced you know what. Never mind, let's just say I'm gonna stop there. Let's just say, yeah, they're uh did?

Shaun: 29:19

did he throw peanuts at the tv when this man was dancing?

Nathan: 29:21

it's like dance, no no, no, let's just say he was the only black person on the show and my british stepfather was racist and you probably can hear this going, and he had a name for him and it was a, let's say, um, a certain slur on a stick. I'm like aha, like, come on man, like that's not cool. I mean I didn't, I didn't, I didn't like it, but then again, you know he was, he was big and scary, so I wouldn't exactly go to his face Like hey don't say that.

Nathan: 29:49

But yeah, it's just every time I think of Lawrence Wilk, I think of that. I'm like man that's fucked up.

Shaun: 29:55

Just gotta hate when those memories you don't want get imprinted with certain things Right.

Nathan: 30:00

Like why do you about Lauren Wilk?

Shaun: 30:03

Yeah, it's about this black man he had on the show, but it's not really about that black man either as a person.

Nathan: 30:09

I must have to stress, it is not about him.

Shaun: 30:15

Yeah, that's one of those things where, when you're explaining it, you need to phrase it very carefully. Yeah, put the modifiers before what you're about to say. Serious.

Nathan: 30:23

Okay, I need to lead into this.

Shaun: 30:25

It's going to take me a couple minutes to get there, right, so it's kind of like there's a story that goes with this because if I just jump straight into the subject or the ending, alright, 1988, 1991, and 1994 sees OJ starring alongside Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun film trilogy Series holds a soft spot in my heart. Also, apparently there's a remake coming out soon starring Liam Neeson, and it's going to be written by the guy who did the new Chip and Dale movie, produced by Seth MacFarlane. So that might be kind of cool. That might be cool.

Nathan: 30:54

Yeah.

Shaun: 30:54

I think it's.

Nathan: 30:55

I mean because when he took over that, leslie Nielsen took over that role, from my understanding, he was still more. I'm not saying he didn't do any comedy, but he was more known for his dramatic stuff.

Shaun: 31:09

Yes, Airplane was the first comedy I think he ever did, and before that it was like, yeah, it was all like high drama. Yeah, the thing I remember reminding him for was back in the 60s he was on Disney's Swamp Fox as the Swamp Fox, which was back in like the Spanish-American War or something like that back in, a famous character from back then had a catchy theme song Swamp fox, swamp fox, tail in his hat. Nobody knows where the swamp fox at Swamp fox, swamp fox hiding in the trees, I don't know. Anyways, that's what I got to watch in my childhood. Yeah, I hear your silence, stunned silence. I can't.

Nathan: 31:41

I'm trying to remember Swamp. I don't know what you're talking about.

Shaun: 31:45

Yeah, I mean it was like a really short series. It was just kind of one of those Disney Sunday matinee kind of things. Man, oh, right, right, yeah yeah, it was live action too, not animated, so we gave less craps about it back then. Live action, yeah yeah, there's no singing, dancing mouse and duck on this. Shenanigans kill them all. And that's gonna do it for the first half. On our episode about oj simpson, tune in next week for the second half when we discuss the eight team knockoff starring oj. We never got oj's arrest and murder trial, kato kalin's acting career, oj's death, and we talk about where we think oj's trial ranks among the trials of the century. All this and more on the next episode of offed off topic.