Review: ‘American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson,’ starring Christopher Darden, Kim Goldman, Carl Douglas, Mark Fuhrman, Mike Gilbert, Yolanda Crawford and Brian ‘Kato’ Kaelin

February 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

O.J. Simpson during his 1995 trial in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson”

Directed by Floyd Russ

Culture Representation: The four-episode documentary series “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” features a predominantly group of white and African American people talking about the murder investigation and 1995 murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson.

Culture Clash: Simpson was accused on murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, with the notorious and controversial trial having a verdict that was racially divisive.

Culture Audience: “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about celebrities, murder trials and how race, police investigations and attorneys can influence the outcome of a trial.

Christopher Darden in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” takes a look into the most famous murder trial of the 20th century. Does the world really need another documentary about O.J. Simpson and his scandals? Not really, but this four-episode docuseries uncovers a few interesting tidbits about the murder investigation and features a rare interview with former prosecutor Christopher Darden. In 2024, Simpson died of prostate cancer when he was 76.

Directed by Floyd Russ, “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” is not as comprehensive as the 2016 Oscar-winning/Emmy-winning documentary “O.J.: Made in America,” directed by Ezra Edelman. “O.J.: Made in America” (which was really a five-episode series pretending to be a movie) took a deeper dive into the racial, socioeconomic and cultural histories of the Los Angeles area to explain the circumstances that influenced the verdict. Because of all the media coverage, the O.J. Simpson murder trial was called the Trial of the Century.

“O.J.: Made in a America” was also a biography of Simpson, whereas “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” focuses mostly on his legal problems after he became famous. He was born and raised in San Francisco as Orenthal James Simpson on July 9, 1947. Simpson became a Heisman Trophy-winning football star at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

He then went to become a celebrity running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, mostly for the Buffalo Bills, and culminating with two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers before his retirement from football in 1979. Before and after he retired from football in 1979, Simpson also had a career as an actor. After retirement as an NFL player, Simpson was also a NFL analyst for NBC and ABC,

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” sticks to a certain theme in each episode: Episode 1, titled “The Blood,” is about the murder investigation. Episode 2, titled “The Search,” is about Simpson’s apparent attempt to become a fugitive. Episode 3, titled “The Circus,” is about the murder trial. Episode 4, titled “The Verdict,” is about the trial’s verdict and the aftermath. Each episode is edited for maximum suspense, even though most people watching this documentary already know what the trial’s outcome was.

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” doesn’t look back on historical events before 1994, the year that Simpson’s 35-year-old ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her 25-year-old friend Ron Goldman were murdered in front of her condominium home in Los Angeles’ Brentwood neighborhood. O.J. lived in a separate house in Brentwood. “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” also isn’t a comprehensive biography about O.J. Simpson. As the title suggests, “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” is really about the legal cases and controversies surrounding O.J. from 1994 onward.

By now, most people who know anything about O.J. know the basic facts of the case. On June 12, 1994, Nicole and Goldman were found murdered outside her house that night. They were both brutally stabbed to death. (Sensitive viewers be warned: “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” shows the unedited bloody crime scene photos of the slaughtered bodies of Nicole (who was nearly beheaded) and Goldman. “O.J.: Made in America” also showed these photos.)

O.J., who did not have a solid alibi during the estimated time of the murders, was arrested for the murders after taking police on a low-speed, 60-mile, two-hour chase on various freeways in Orange County and Los Angeles County. This chase (which had O.J. in a 1993 white Ford Bronco driven by his best friend Al “A.C.” Cowlings) was famously televised live and showed many spectators cheering for O.J. on the sides of the freeway. In the Bronco, O.J. reportedly had a gun and was threatening to kill himself. O.J. had also written a self-pitying, possibly suicidal note before he fled in the Bronco chase and later surrendered to police.

The murder weapon was never found. O.J.’s blood was found at the crime scene, Nicole’s blood was found in O.J.’s car, and he could never explain how it got there. O.J. had a cut on his hand that night, but he said it was from shaving. A bloody glove was found at the crime scene. The presentation of the glove during the murder trial would be a major turning point in the trial.

O.J.’s well-documented history of physically abusing Nicole (including his 1989 arrest, for which he was fined and received probation) was used as evidence to establish a pattern that he wanted to harm her. Nicole’s older sister Denise Brown famously testified in the murder trial about O.J.’s pattern of abuse against Nicole. Also presented as evidence in the trial: photos of a bruised Nicole and Nicole’s past 911 calls for help to report O.J.’s physical abuse against her.

O.J. and Nicole started dating in 1977, shortly after he met her at a private club, where she worked as a waitress. At the time, she was 18 and he was 30. O.J. divorced his first wife Marguerite Simpson in 1979, after 12 years of marriage. Marguerite had custody of their two children: Arnelle Simpson (born in 1968) and Jason Simpson (born in 1970), who both stayed in contact with their father after the divorce. O.J. and Margeurite had a third child—a daughter name Aaren—who tragically died from a drowning accident at 2 years old in 1979.

O.J. and Nicole got married in 1985, the year that their daughter Sydney was born. Their son Justin was born in 1988. After a volatile relationship with several breakups and makeups, O.J. and Nicole got divorced in 1992. The former couple reunited briefly (but did not remarry) after the divorce, but that reunion didn’t last. By 1994, Nicole had been dating other men and wanted to move on from her ex-husband, who was described by many people as jealous and controlling of her.

The prosecution contended that O.J. “snapped” and committed the murders because Nicole had shunned him earlier that night when he saw her and her family at the restaurant Mezzaluna, where Goldman worked as a waiter. Nicole’s mother had accidentally left her glasses at the restaurant, and Goldman was at Nicole’s condo to return the glasses. Goldman was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.

O.J. hired a so-called Dream Team of famous defense lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran (the lead attorney), Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kardashian, Carl Douglas, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. The prosecution was led by Marcia Clark, with assistance from Bill Hodgman and Darden. The televised trial, presided over by Judge Lance Ito, lasted from January 24 to October 3, 1995.

The sequestered jury (which consisted of a majority of black women) heard conflicting testimony about the evidence. The evidence was put into doubt because the defense team successfully argued that the investigation could have been corrupted by racist cops who tampered with or planted the evidence. In the end, Simpson was found not guilty on all counts. Several TV news outlets showed live reactions to the verdicts. Mostly white groups of people looked shocked and disappointed, while mostly black groups of people cheered and looked elated.

There have been many books, documentaries and news reports with analyses of why many black people viewed this trial differently from people of other races. “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” repeats the theory that the black people who cheered for the verdict weren’t cheering because they thought that O.J. was not guilty. They were cheering because they felt that the verdict was a rebuke against a system that often unjustly convicts or mistreats black people. They saw it as a triumph over the mostly white Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which had a long history of racist brutality against black people. (The controversy and 1992 riots over Rodney King are a prime example of how much these issues resonated with people.)

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” doesn’t reveal much that “O.J.: Made in America” didn’t already cover. However, “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” does mention a few more thngs in a long list of evidence that the LAPD detectives on the scene overlooked or did not handle properly. Among the photographed things that were not taken into evidence at Simpson’s house when the police searched his house right after the murders: some clothes in Simpson’s washing machine, bandages in a bedroom, and blood on a light switch. There was also a photographed bloody fingerprint at the crime scene that was not taken into evidence.

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” makes a less convincing argument that two people who are interviewed in this documentary—Jill Shively and Skip Junis—should have been called to testify for the prosecution during the trial. The reality is that these two witnesses would not have made a difference in the outcome of the trial because there was too much reasonable doubt in their witness statements. Shively claims that she saw O.J. speeding the Bundy Drive (the street where Nicole’s condo was) on the night of the murder during the time that he said that he was at home. O.J. said he was waiting for a limo to take him to Los Angeles International Airport for a business trip to Chicago. Junis says he saw O.J. throw away something at the Los Angeles International Airport, but Junis can’t say for sure what that something is.

Shively says she vividly remembers her encounter with O.J. because O.J. was speeding when he nearly collided with a Nissan car and she heard him speak as he glared at her. Shively gave this testimony to the grand jury that indicted O.J. for the murders. If Shively’s testimony is true, the driver of the Nissan never came forward.

However, Shively could not reasonably be a witness for the prosecution for the murder trial because, by her own admission, her credibility was tainted after she was paid $5,000 to do an interview with the tabloid TV show “Hard Copy” about her run-in with O.J. In “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson,” Shively says at the time she did this interview, she thought it was normal for get paid for this type of interview, and she didn’t know at the time the prosecution would disregard her as a witness.

Junis says he saw that when O.J. at Los Angeles International Airport after the murders took place, Juris says he saw O.J. take an object from a duffel bag and throw that object in an outside garbage can. Junis says the object looked like something long and was possibly in a sheath. He says that it could have been a knife. However, Junis admits in the documentary that it was dark outside, he was too far away to actually see what was thrown away, and he never bothered to look in the garbage can to see what the object was. In other words, he’s not a reliable witness. It’s no wonder he wasn’t called to testify in the trial.

Former prosecutor Darden, who is now a defense attorney, has a world-weary and generally resigned attitude about losing the most famous case of his career. He says of the verdict: “It’s a beautiful thing or a travesty of justice. It’s about one’s perspective.” His former prosecutor colleague Clark participated in “O.J.: Made in America” and apparently declined to participate in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson.” Clark took a leave of absence from the California District Attorney’s office and officially quit in 1997, the same year that her non-fiction book “Without a Doubt” (about her trial experiences) was published. She no longer practices law and is now an author who has written several crime novels.

Douglas is the most flamboyant person interviewed in the documentary and is one of two members from O.J.’s defense team who is interviewed in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson.” The other former Dream Team attorney who’s interviewed is Bill Thompson, who focuses mainly on talking about what he says was untrustworthy DNA evidence that was mishandled by police investigators. Thompson gives a lot of credit to fellow defense attorneys Scheck and Neufeld for their expertise in DNA.

Some members of the so-called Dream Team are now deceased, including Kardashian, Cochran and Bailey, who was disbarred in 2001 and 2003. In 2002, Kardashian died of esophageal cancer at age 59. Robert Kardashian’s ex-wife Kris and their daughters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe would later become reality TV stars. In 2005, Cochran died of a lung infection at age 67. An ailing Bailey died in 2021, at age 87, and his family will not disclose his cause of death.

Douglas repeats the well-known facts that the Dream Team had internal conflicts about strategy and leadership, including Shapiro’s ego getting bruised when O.J. decided to have Cochran replace Shapiro as the lead defense attorney. Shapiro and Cochran clashed over the direction of the defense team strategy. Shapiro (who is white) didn’t want race and racism to be major factors in the defense. By contrast, Cochran (who was black) wanted race and racism to be the central points in the defense.

Douglas also keeps pushing the notion that the LAPD could not be trusted in this case because there were too many incompetent and/or racists cops involved who could have mishandled or tampered with evidence. The credibility of the evidence was also put in doubt when video evidence showed members of the LAPD, including evidence technician Dennis Fung, not wearing gloves when handling evidence at the crime scene. Defense attorney Scheck famously ripped into Fung during Fung’s testimony about blood and DNA found at the crime scene.

Douglas also freely admits that he loved the controversial decision to allow the trial to be televised. “Trial lawyers have great egos,” Douglas comments. “I always say that the most dangerous spot to be is between a trial lawyer and a camera that’s running. We lawyers thrive on that attention and that celebrity. And we want it to continue forever.” Douglas doesn’t say whether or not he thinks O.J. was guilty of the murders but he does say that the verdict was correct because the LAPD made so many mistakes in the investigation, there was plenty of reasonable doubt.

Mark Fuhrman, one of the detectives who gathered evidence at the crime scene, was the defense team’s chief villain, especially after the team uncovered Fuhrman’s admitted history of racism against black people. In “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson,” Fuhrman is interviewed and seems less interested in defending all the known blunders that he made in the investigation and is more interested in trying to convince whoever watches this documentary that he wasn’t as terrible of a racist as O.J’s defense team made him out to be.

“I can’t undo what has been done,” Fuhrman says while adding that he’s not looking for forgiveness. Fuhrman also bitterly complains that his supervisor at the time, Philip Van Atter, was at the crime scene and didn’t properly look at Fuhrman’s notes. Van Atter died in 2012, at the age of 71.

Kim Goldman, Ron Goldman’s younger sister, is the only person from the victims’ families who is interviewed in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson.” She’s given many interviews about her family’s involvement in the murder case and has a podcast about it. Kim Goldman really doesn’t say anything new about Ron, O.J., the murder trial or the 1997 wrongful death civil trial that the Brown family and Goldman family won against O.J Simpson. The O.J. Simpson estate has yet to pay the $33.5 million judgment that was awarded in the trial.

Ron and Kim’s father Fred Goldman, another outspoken critic of O.J., participated in “O.J. Made in America” but chose not to be in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson.” The members of the Brown family presumably did not participate in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” because they did a separate documentary project: the 2024 Lifetime docuseries titled “The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.”

Douglas isn’t very convincing when saying that because he saw O.J. cry, that made Douglas doubt that O.J. could be a cold-blooded murderer. Douglas comments that you’d have to be a sociopath to commit that type of murder and then calmly go to an airport an hour later. However, former LAPD homicide detective Tom Lange, who was one of the chief people in the murder investigation, says in the documentary that O.J. was indeed a “sociopath.”

Mike Gilbert, O.J.’s former sports agent, repeats what he’s said in many other interviews: Gilbert was loyal to O.J. until after O.J. made a comment to him years after the murders that convinced Gilbert that O.J. murdered Nicole and Ron. O.J. told Gilbert that Nicole and Ron would be alive if she didn’t have a knife when she opened the door. Coincidence or not, Gilbert says his friendship with O.J. ended shortly after O.J. filed for bankruptcy in 2007.

Other people interviewed in “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” include Brian “Kato” Kaelin, a wannabe actor who was living as a guest on Simpson’s property and was a prosecution witness to what he saw that night; prosecution witness Ron Shipp, a former cop friend of O.J.’s; Brad Roberts, a former LAPD detective who worked on the murder case; Bettina Rasmussen, a witness who saw Nicole’s dog wandering around the neighborhood with bloody paws on the night of the murder; Peter Weireter, the crisis negotiator who helped convince O.J. to surrender to police; Yolanda Crawford, who was jury member for the murder trial; and journalists Geraldo Rivera, Jeffrey Toobin, Conan Nolan and Marika Gerrard.

Crawford says of the jury’s verdict in the murder trial: “I hated that we had to do that,” but she adds that the verdict came down to reasonable doubt that the prosecution could not erase. Crawford also comments that she will never forget the scream that Kim Goldman made after the verdict was read. As she has said in other interviews, Crawford believes she and the rest of the jury made the right decision in the verdict.

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” does a brief summary of what O.J.’s life was like after 1997, including his 2008 conviction of robbery and 2017 early release from prison. He served nine years from a 33-year sentence. “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” director Russ has said in interviews that O.J. was still alive when the documentary began filming and was asked to participate. But the documentary filmmakers decided not to include O.J. because O.J. wanted to be paid to participate and wanted to dictate who else could be in the documentary.

“American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” is a generally competent chronicle about a very divisive true crime story. A few things were left out of the documentary, such as Simpson’s controversial 2007 book “If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer,” which was labeled as a fiction book. Fred Goldman was awarded the rights to the book because of his civil case judgment against O.J. Simpson. Ultimately, “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” is a docuseries worth watching for a shorter and more updated version of what was essentially covered in “O.J.: Made in America.”

Netflix premiered “American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson” on January 29, 2025.

Review: ‘Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York,’ starring Scott Shannon

February 20, 2022

by Carla Hay

Scott Shannon in “Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York” (Photo courtesy of Gunpowder & Sky)

“Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York”

Directed by Mitchell Stuart

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City and Secaucus, New Jersey, the documentary film “Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York” features a nearly all-white group of people (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the middle-class and wealthy and discussing the first decade of pop radio station Z100 New York, which launched in 1983.

Culture Clash: Z100 started off in last place in New York City’s radio ratings, but in just two-and-a-half months, it became the top-rated station in the area, largely due to radio personality Scott Shannon and his then-unorthodox methods of increasing an audience.

Culture Audience: “Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in radio success stories, but the documentary leaves out a lot of truths about the radio business and the music industry.

A 1980s archival photo of Scott Shannon in “Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York” (Photo courtesy of Gunpowder & Sky)

WHTZ, the New York City pop music radio station better known as Z100, is arguably the most influential pop-music radio station in the United States. (It can be heard on the FM frequency at 100.3 in the New York City metro era.) “Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York” is a documentary that takes a look at back at the origins of Z100 and how it went from “worst to first” in the radio ratings for the New York City metro area. “Worst to First” is really a tribute to Scott Shannon and his Z100 reign in the 1980s, rather than a comprehensive look at all of Z100’s history. The movie has flawed editing and diversity problems, but ultimately it’s lightweight nostalgia with entertaining stories.

“Worst to First” director Mitchell Stuart has a history with Z100, since he has directed footage for some of the radio station’s star-studded Z100 Jingle Ball concert events. (Stuart occasionally appears on camera in this documentary when he’s talking to Shannon.) Elvis Duran, who is currently the most famous on-air personality at Z100, is a producer of this documentary. Duran is also interviewed in “Worst to First.” If you know that information when watching this Z100 lovefest, you’ll have a better understanding of why this movie looks very biased in talking about things that only make Z100 look good, and not anything dirty or sordid that went on behind the scenes.

Still, “Worst to First” (which has a brisk total running time of 64 minutes) capably achieves its intent to show fondness for Z100 and how the radio station started off as an underdog that many people thought would never reach the heights that Z100 reached. One of the main reasons why the documentary is watchable is because of Shannon, who is a very engaging raconteur with a sense of comedic wit that can be a little cocky and rebellious. Shannon is clearly intended to be the star of the movie, because he gets the most credit for bringing Z100 to the top of the ratings in 1983, the year that the station launched. He left Z100 in 1989, and he has continued to work as a radio DJ.

Shannon, who was one of Z100’s original staffers, was the leader of the radio station’s morning-show team. Born in St. Louis in 1947, and raised near Indianapolis, Shannon came from a military family (his father was in the U.S. Army), so all the moving around that a military family has to do helped prepare him for his career in radio. Almost all radio DJs who are serious about making radio a long-term career have to frequently move from job to job and city to city to pay their dues and try to advance to larger radio markets.

Shannon was no different, and he eventually landed at WRBQ (Q105) in Tampa, Florida, where he and co-host Cleveland Wheeler led “The Q Morning Zoo” show. This “morning zoo” concept (one to three hosts who lead a team of sidekicks for a morning show) has been copied by hundreds of radio stations, but WRBQ is credited with being the first to have this concept. In “Worst to First,” Shannon says that he quit WRBQ around the same time that Milton Maltz, CEO of Malrite Communications, recruited Shannon to be part of the start-up team at a new radio station called WHTZ, nicknamed Z100.

At the time, Z100 was headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, which was considered a suburban void (compared to New York City) for the media and music industries. However, Z100’s radio signal (just like other radio stations in the New York City area) came from New York City’s Empire State Building, for a reach that extended from New York City to Long Island to parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. Not only was Secaucus considered out of the way for people in the entertainment industry, but Z100’s first office space was also drab and less-than-impressive, according the former Z100 staffers in the documentary.

Shannon says that he almost didn’t take the job because the unnamed executive who interviewed him was very condescending when asking Shannon during the interview: “What makes you think that you’re ready for the biggest [radio] market in the country?” Shannon’s response? “I got up, I threw my little booklet at him, and I walked out.”

According to Shannon, just as he was about to leave in the elevator, Malrite Communications CEO Maltz saw Shannon, who told him why he was leaving. However, Maltz persuaded Shannon to take the job. Shannon quips in the documentary: “Then, I realized I didn’t know anything about New York.” (Maltz is not interviewed in “Worst to First,” but the documentary has an interview with Malrite Communications vice president of programming Jim Wood, who essentially confirms this story.)

Duran comments on Shannon’s arrival as a DJ in the New York City metro area: “Scott came in not knowing anything about New York City, and I think that gave him the edge. He wasn’t scared by the city. You could tell he wasn’t from around these parts. I think that’s what made him stand out. He surrounded himself with a lot of caring, trusting people who not only communicated well with the audience, but they elevated him.”

Among the former Z100 staffers interviewed in the film are original “Z Morning Zoo” cast members Prof. Jonathan B. Bell, Ross Brittan, Claire Stevens, Anita Bonita and Cathy Donovan. Bell comments on the first time he heard about Shannon: “He had been described to me as a nutcase from Tampa, Florida, who walked around wearing shorts all the time. And somehow, he was going to revolutionize New York radio.”

Also interviewed are former Z100 DJs/hosts/personalities Sean “Hollywood” Hamilton, Patty Steele and “Magic” Matt Alan. And these former Z100 DJ/hosts/personalities are mentioned, although they are not interviewed in the documentary: Mr. Leonard (the alias of John Rio), J.R. Nelson, Jack the Wack, Janet From Another Planet and Dr. Christopher Reed. Mr. Leonard and his high-pitched voice persona had the reputation of being an eccentric who rarely went to the studio and called into the station instead when he was on the air.

Former Z100 employees who are interviewed in the documentary include Gary Fisher (Z100 director of sales from 1983 to 1987 and Z100 vice president/general manager from 1987 to 1992); Fank Foti (Z100 head engineer from 1983 to 1987); Michael Ellis (Z100 music director from 1983 to 1984); Ken Lane (Z100 promotion director from 1983 to 1989); Steve Kingston (Z100 program director from 1989 to 1996); and Tom Poleman (Z100 program director from 1997 to 2005 and currently iHeartMedia president of national programming).

Nile Rodgers (Chic co-founder, Grammy-winning producer and New York City native) says that radio in the early 1980s underwent this transition in a post-punk and post-disco world: “Basically, what was happening at radio, the way I saw it, was they could extract one lane that they thought was really working, and they would just format a whole show or station like that.” In other words, radio formats were becoming increasingly fragmented.

John Sykes, iHeart Media president of entertainment enterprises and a co-founder of MTV, comments on the state of New York City radio at the time that Shannon arrived on the scene: “There was a segment of New York radio that had gotten lazy.” Some of the heavy-hitters in the New York City market at the time include WPLJ (which changed from rock to pop/Top 40 in 1983); news/talk station WOR; WNBC, which had star hosts Don Imus and Howard Stern; WBLS, a longtime R&B/urban music powerhouse; and WKTU, whose specialty was dance music.

Z100’s biggest competitor at the time was obviously WPLJ. Shannon came out swinging in this fight. One of the first things he did to shake things up was announce to the audience that Z100 was in last place and that they needed help in getting to the top of the ratings. It was unheard of at the time for any radio station to publicly admit how bad its ratings were. Shannon encouraged listeners to make Z100 posters and other merchandise and to tell their friends about Z100.

Audience members were given incentives and rewards if they gave Z100 the names and contact information of people whom they told about Z100 and who pledged to listen to the station. It’s exactly the type of viral marketing that’s commonplace today on the Internet and social media. But, of course, the Internet and social media didn’t exist in 1983. Z100 also used some tried-and-true promotional gimmicks, such as giving away cash to listeners in sweepstakes and contests.

Shannon also did what was considered taboo in radio back then: He began personally insulting Z100’s radio rivals on the air. Perhaps the biggest target was WPLJ program director Larry Berger, whom Shannon began to call Larry Booger. Ironically, Shannon later worked at WPLJ, from 1991 to 2014. Berger, who left WPLJ in 1988, died in 2018.

Former Z100 VP/GM Fisher comments on Shannon’s tactics to get to the top of the ratings: “Scott is the best radio attack dog. He does his best work when he had a target.” The Z100 irreverence didn’t just come from Shannon. Kingston says that as, a prank, he went to the WPLJ studios with boxes of bumper stickers that said, “I Brake for Larry Berger.” He put several of these bumper stickers all over WPLJ vehicles and inside the WPLJ offices.

Even though people might think Shannon had a somewhat rude approach to surpassing his rivals, some of his past and present colleagues say that this brashness was all part of his radio persona and that his real personality was much more laid-back. Donnie Ienner, former CEO of Sony Music, remembers that he first met Shannon in 1972, when Shannon was DJ at WMAK in Nashville. At the time, Shannon was going by the DJ name Supershan and had his hair styled to look like early 1970s Elvis Presley. Ienner adds, “Privately, Scott is very demure and very quiet. And as soon as that microphone goes on, he’s on.”

Shannon is also praised in the documentary for his genuine passion for music. (What the documentary doesn’t mention is Shannon’s short-lived stint in a pop/rock duo called Wildfire, which had a minor hit song called “Here Comes the Summer” on Casablanca Records in 1977.) Shannon says he got into rock music when he was in his mid-teens, and he was hooked ever since. He also mentions in the documentary that he also grew to appreciate pop, R&B and other music genres.

Sony Music Entertainment chief creative officer Clive Davis says that Shannon’s genuine love of music set him apart from many other DJs who seemed to care more about crafting comedy personas: “Love of music allows you to be different, to not be totally predictable, and for that contagious spirit to come through.” In the documentary, Jon Bon Jovi also says that he appreciated the Z100 team for being true music fans, and for not making him feel like “a cog in the wheel” when it came to promoting his music at radio.

Shannon and other people talk about how Madonna (before she was famous) kept pestering Z100 to play her 1983 single “Holiday.” She would frequently call the station and would sometimes show up unannounced, in an effort to get Z100 to play her music. One day, she demanded to speak to Shannon on the phone. Shannon remembers that Madonna told him in that conversation that if Z100 played “Holiday,” she promised to do something special for Z100 when she became famous.

Z100 then played “Holiday,” and the rest is history. Madonna kept her promise, by giving Z100 exclusive radio access to the Times Square premiere of her 1987 movie “Who’s That Girl,” where Z100 did a live show. Shannon calls it one of the “greatest days” in his time at Z100. No one in the documentary mentions that “Who’s That Girl” was a huge flop at the box office, although Madonna did have some hit songs from the soundtrack.

Because of Z100’s headquarters location in Secaucus (which Z100 hosts cheekily tried to underplay, by saying they were broadcasting from the top of New York City’s Empire State Building), Z100 initially had a hard time convincing celebrities to go to the station for in-person interviews. Tony Orlando, who’s interviewed in the documentary, was Z100’s first celebrity guest, who was booked almost by a fluke, because a junior Z100 employee just happened to be a volunteer at a charity event hosted by Orlando. In the documentary, Geraldo Rivera and Joe Piscopo also weigh in with their thoughts on Z100.

The antics of the Z100 team and the free promotion and publicity that Z100 was getting from its rapidly growing fan base led to Z100 going from “worst to first” in the ratings in just 74 days. It was an unprecedented feat in New York City radio. Jim Kerr, who was a WPLJ morning DJ from 1974 to 1989, remembers after WPLJ switched to a pop/Top 40 format in 1983: “We were ready for our climb right to the top. And then, out of nowhere, came Scott Shannon.”

Shannon soon became a national celebrity. In 1984, he began hosting the nationally syndicated weekly series “Scott Shannon’s Rockin’ America: The Top 30 Countdown” on Westwood One. (This series was on the air until 1992.) National TV shows such as “Good Morning America” and “Entertainment Tonight” began featuring the “Z Morning Zoo” team in stories about why Z100 had such a meteoric rise to the top.

It’s undoubtedly an inspirational story, but it’s told from a very calculatedly safe bubble designed to shut out some harsh realities about problems in the radio industry and the music industry. There’s no mention of radio payola scandals in the 1980s. There’s no mention of racism and sexism. There’s no mention of rampant abuse of drugs and alcohol. In addition, “Worst to First” has some editing and sound mixing that are rough around the edges and a little bit amateurish.

An example of an edit that does this documentary a disservice is a disjointed interview segment with manager/producer/Blackheart Records co-founder Kenny Laguna, who’s best known for his association with rocker Joan Jett. (Jett is interviewed in the documentary too, but she doesn’t say much except generic comments about how happy she was to hear her music on the radio.) Laguna tells a story about a botched promotion for one of Jett’s 1980s singles, which he does not name. Laguna says that he hired a plane to fly outside the Z100 studios with banner that read: “Dear Scott, Please play Joan Jett. Love, Ken.”

The problem was that the pilot “flew the plane over the wrong part of Secaucus. And Scott didn’t see the plane,” says Laguna. And then that’s the end of the story. Why put that story in the documentary if there’s no follow-up answers to these questions: “Did Laguna do another plane stunt to correct the mistake? And if so, did Shannon see the message, and what did he think?” The story is just left to dangle with no follow-through or conclusion.

Another out-of-place edit is having Gavin DeGraw as one of the artists interviewed in the documentary. DeGraw was a child in the 1980s, he didn’t grow up in the New York City metro area, and he didn’t become a famous artist until his 2003 debut album “Chariot.” What is he doing commenting about Z100 in a documentary about Z100’s 1980s history? It makes no sense. The documentary even shows DeGraw expressing surprise when he says says that he didn’t know that Shannon was one of the original members of the Z100 team. It’s an irrelevant interview that should have been left out of the documentary.

In addition to some questionable editing decisions for content, some of the technical editing decisions don’t flow smoothly at all, with a few cringeworthy jump cuts. And considering that “Worst to First” director Stuart has experience in directing music shows, it’s disappointing that the sound mixing is uneven, with the volume on some interviews jarringly louder than others. It’s not too much of a distraction, but it’s noticeable.

However, one of the best things about “Worst to First” is the archival footage, much of which hasn’t been seen in years. In addition, the filmmakers interviewed people from various aspects of the media and the music industry outside of Z100. Other people interviewed include author/former New York Daily columnist David Hinckley; journalist/historian Jimi LaLumia, Columbia Records senior vice president of adult radio promotion Pete Cosenza; and Scott Shannon’s wife, Trish Shannon.

A significant flaw in the documentary is how it completely erases women of color. No women of color are interviewed in the documentary. That’s partially because no women of color were on the Z100 decision-making team. But former Z100 staffers aren’t the only ones interviewed in the documentary. Artists and music executives were interviewed for this documentary too, but the filmmakers chose not to include any women of color from these parts of the industry either.

In an era when Grammy-winning music superstars Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Gloria Estefan were riding high on the pop charts and on Z100’s playlists, these women of color are not even mentioned in the documentary. The filmmakers probably wouldn’t be able to get Turner, Jackson or Estefan for interviews, just like Madonna (who’s mentioned quite a bit in the documentary) wouldn’t be available. But if the filmmakers bothered to include faded pop stars such as Debbie Gibson and Taylor Dayne for the documentary interviews, then they could’ve interviewed some women of color who were pop stars in the 1980s too. The filmmakers probably didn’t even make the attempt.

Surely, the filmmakers could’ve gotten at least one of these women of color artists for interviews: Salt-N-Pepa, Jody Watley, Jeanette Jurado from Exposé, Ruth Pointer from the Pointer Sisters, Lisa Lisa, or sisters Kathi Wolfgramm, Elizabeth Wolfgramm and Moana Wolfgramm from The Jets. Surely, the filmmakers could’ve interviewed women of color who’ve been influential music executives in the 1980s and beyond, such as Suzanne de Passe (formerly of Motown) or Sylvia Rhone, who’s been the president or chair/CEO of several record companies in her illustrious career, including Epic, Motown/Universal Motown, Elektra Entertainment Group and EastWest Records. The bottom line is that women of color were excluded from this documentary. When people talk about women of color being overlooked or sidelined, this documentary is an example of how it happens.

The documentary also completely ignores the obvious prejudices that women overall have to deal with in radio. Male radio hosts are allowed to be overweight, have gray and white hair and/or a lot of face wrinkles and jowls, but female radio hosts usually are not given this leeway in their physical appearance. Just look at the lineups of commercial radio station talent if you don’t believe this sexist double standard exists. (Non-commercial radio, which isn’t a slave to advertisers, tends to be more inclusive regarding what female radio hosts look like, but non-commercial radio has bigotry issues too.) Some people might say that when it comes to hiring people as radio hosts, audiences aren’t supposed to care what radio hosts look like. In reality, this belief only applies to male radio hosts, who benefit the most from this double standard.

The one token African American on the original “Z Morning Zoo” team was Bell, a light-skinned man, who had a “sidekick” job and was never put in charge of making the programming and hiring decisions. Because no one wants to admit on camera that they’ve been racist and sexist in employee decisions, these uncomfortable and truthful topics are kept out of a documentary designed to be a tribute. People who benefit the most from these prejudices are also the ones who tend to ignore this bigotry, condone this bigotry, and/or practice this bigotry the most. It’s not the 1980s anymore, when these issues were more likely to be swept under the rug.

It’s why “Worst to First,” for all of its jovial stories, looks like a whitewashed film made from a fan-worship perspective, instead of a documentary made by people with journalistic or truth-seeking standards. “Worst to First” is entertaining enough if people want a relatively short and fluffy breeze-through of 1980s nostalgia. However, there’s a lot more to the story that braver and more honest documentaries would have mentioned or included.

Gunpowder & Sky released “Worst to First: The True of Z100 New York” on digital and VOD on February 11, 2022.

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