"Richard Pryor: Positive Influence."
This lovingly sarcastic chyron appears as stand-up legend Richard Pryor, played by Indianapolis native Mike Epps, walks off the screen after inviting a Lakers player to a raunchy post-game party.
"Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" is an HBO show about the "Showtime" era of the Los Angeles Lakers. The show is produced by Adam McKay and focuses mainly on basketball legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, played by Solomon Hughes, and Magic Johnson, played by Quincy Isaiah.
In Sunday's episode, "Memento Mori," Johnson is trying to decide which shoe company he wants to sign with. He's at a club with his team when Epps, as Pryor, appears to steal the show.
"So you must be Magic Johnson, teeth that white!" he says.
Pryor riffs with the players. He teases Johnson's teammates that they're famous in the Black community. But Johnson and Pryor are on another level of fame.
"Me and Magic here, we dealing with white famous," Pryor said.
Pryor then pulls Johnson aside to chat about the nature of fame and what it's like to have your star on the rise.
"You know all this fame s--t ain't natural," he said. "That's the problem. We ain't born for it. And we ain't made for it. And definitely ain't ready for that s--t when it hit us. But you best believe everyone else is."
Pryor told him to "say presto" and that Earvin, Johnson's given name, is dead.
"He's gone," Pryor said. "That's the first cost of doing business with the white man."
As if on cue, Dr. Jerry Buss walks up and steals Johnson away to show him off.
Later in the episode, right before a game, Pryor makes another appearance with "Dr. Mike."
"Those is the Lakers, not the fakers!" he says, strolling down the hallway before the game. The quip of him as a "positive influence" marks his exit.
Epps, an actor, comedian and producer, has been close to portraying Pryor for years, . He was slated to play Pryor in a biopic directed by Lee Daniels, but the project never got off the ground.
In a 2015 interview with Larry King, Epps said he was "so honored to even be considered or chosen to play the greatest of all time."
In a conversation with rapper Jeezy last May, after the project had already fallen through, Epps said that he went down a "long road" with the Pryor biopic.
"It's just been a rollercoaster, man, because nobody understood that it wasn't just me doing Richard Pryor," he said.
Epps said that he had constantly been in between the family and the production, and that Richard Pryor "loved people fighting" over him.
"I think that Richard Pryor has controlled his whole existence," he said. "Everything, even after his death. He was that kind of guy."
In an Instagram post, Epps said "it was an honor to play The Great Richard Pryor."
New episodes of "Winning Time" air Sunday nights at 9 p.m.
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