O.J.: Made in America

Through interviews, news footage, and archival audio and video, O.J.: Made in America traces the life and career of O.J. Simpson, starting with his arrival at the University of Southern California as an emerging football superstar and ending with his incarceration in 2007 for robbery. Throughout the documentary, Simpson's life – the football success, television and acting career, relationship with Nicole Brown, the domestic abuse, Nicole and Ron Goldman's murder, the trial – runs parallel to the larger narrative of the city of Los Angeles, which serves as host to mounting racial tensions, and a volatile relationship between the city's police department and the African-American community. Footage from the Watts riots was used as well as the entire Rodney King video, which most news outlets and documentaries only used in parts. Both of these events are used to set up and explain what happened during the Simpson murder trial. Television critic James Poniewozik described the director's technique in his New York Times review: "Ezra Edelman pulls back, way back, like a news chopper over a freeway chase. Before you hear about the trial, the documentary says, you need to hear all the stories – the stories of race, celebrity, sports, America – that it's a part of." ==Production==

Development of a documentary based on Simpson for ESPN Films began in 2007, eventually leading to the hiring of Brett Morgen to create the film, June 17th, 1994, also part of the 30 for 30 series. Throughout the 18-month process from conception to completion, Edelman conducted 72 interviews for the documentary, "including key players from the prosecution (Marcia Clark, Gil Garcetti and Bill Hodgman), Simpson's defense team (F. Lee Bailey, Carl E. Douglas and Barry Scheck), childhood friends of Simpson (Joe Bell and Calvin Tennyson), relatives of Simpson (cousin Dwight Tucker), fellow football players (Jim Brown and Earl Edwards), jurors from the criminal trial (Carrie Bess and Yolanda Crawford), former LAPD detectives involved in the case (Mark Fuhrman and Tom Lange) and African-American civil rights activists (Dr. Harry Edwards, Danny Bakewell and Cecil Murray)", and people who could speak on behalf of Ron Goldman (his father Fred Goldman) and Nicole Brown Simpson (her sister Tanya Brown, her friends David LeBon and Robin Greer, and her boyfriend Keith Zlomsowitch). Also interviewed were people connected to Simpson such as his agent Mike Gilbert along with Tom Riccio and Bruce Fromong, who were each involved parties of the 2007 robbery. Edelman also reached out to Simpson through a letter, which was never answered; he had also hoped to include Simpson's first wife, Marguerite L. Whitley, who could not be contacted, and former L.A. County district attorney Christopher Darden, who declined participation. (He would later appear in the 2025 Netflix docuseries American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson). Despite envisioning the project as a five-hour documentary, the final film was screened to ESPN Films executives at 7.5 hours in length, to which Schell said they would figure out the programming end, as they were "going to give Ezra the time he needs to tell this story". In January 2016, ESPN Films announced O.J.: Made in America for part of their 30 for 30 series. == Music ==

Ishmael Reed was interviewed by director Ezra Edelman for O.J.: Made in America, however his interview wasn’t used in the documentary. Reed was critical of the documentary in an article he wrote for the magazine CounterPunch. He stated, “In the series, other prosecutors yammered on and on about theories that were disproven in court. A detective who might have planted evidence was allowed to take up time. In order to make the case that the decision in the criminal trial was based on black grievances about the LAPD, or Mark Furhman, they used a black juror whose opinion fit this marketable line instead of jurors who voted on the basis of evidence that had been tampered with. The late Philip Vannatter never explained why he carried a vial of the victim’s blood to O.J.’s estate.” ==Release==

O.J.: Made in America premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2016, and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto on April 29 and 30. The documentary had a theatrical run with two intermissions at Cinema Village in New York City and the Laemmle Theatre in Santa Monica, California from May 20–26, 2016. The first part debuted on television on June 11, 2016, on ABC, followed by parts two through five airing on ESPN on June 14, 15, 17 and 18, respectively. The entire documentary was made available on WatchESPN on June 14, 2016, after the airing of the second part. ==Reception and legacy==

It was met with acclaim by arts and cultural commentators unfamiliar with ESPN's programming. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 96 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Kenneth Turan and Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times both praised O.J.: Made in America, with Turan stating, the film "is an exceptional 7 1/2-hour documentary, so perceptive, empathetic and compelling you want it never to end", However Johnnie Cochran denied this during the trial and informed Judge Ito in court that Shawn Chapman contacted the Los Angeles County Jail doctor, who confirmed Simpson was taking his arthritis medication every day, and that the jail's medical records verified this. Ishmael Reed was interviewed by director Ezra Edelman for O.J.: Made in America, however his interview wasn't used in the documentary. Reed was harshly critical of the documentary in an article he wrote for the magazine CounterPunch, stating that, “In the series, other prosecutors yammered on and on about theories that were disproven in court. A detective who might have planted evidence was allowed to take up time. In order to make the case that the decision in the criminal trial was based on black grievances about the LAPD, or Mark Fuhrman, they used a black juror whose opinion fit this marketable line instead of jurors who voted on the basis of evidence that had been tampered with. The late Philip Vannatter never explained why he carried a vial of the victim’s blood to O.J.’s estate.” Reed lamented his interview wasn’t used "because it would have disturbed this entertainment that was meant to comfort a white audience into believing that all of the questions about the Brentwood murders have been answered... That’s why it faithfully supported the line of the prosecutors and the police, regardless of whether O.J. is guilty or innocent of the Brentwood murders.” It was voted #81 on BBC's 100 Greatest Television Series of the 21st Century. In July 2025, it ranked number 11 on Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century." Accolades ==See also==