Flashback is a function collection that revisits key moments from TV information historical past with the Newsers that have been a part of them.
Like a variety of Gen-X journalists, Ted Rowlands remembers precisely the place he was when Choose Lance Ito gaveled within the O.J. Simpson homicide trial within the winter of 1995. Similar to Keanu Reeves, he was feeling Minnesota as a Duluth-based sports activities reporter for a neighborhood radio station, whereas working a TV gig on the facet.
“On daily basis, our callers needed to speak concerning the Minnesota Twins, however I used to be obsessive about the trial,” Rowlands remembers now. “I used to be a soccer fan, so I liked O.J. again then. He had risen above and past athletics into the mainstream. After which to have these accusations in opposition to him—you couldn’t wrap your head round it.”
Over the course of eight lengthy months, America watched as Simpson and his authorized “dream group” took on the mountain of proof suggesting that he had killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her buddy Ron Goldman the yr prior. By October, the decision was in: not responsible on each counts.
Over 100 million folks world wide tuned in for Simpson’s acquittal, and the aftershocks have been quick and long-lasting. The trial ended up reshaping Rowlands’ life as effectively; not lengthy afterwards, he switched to the information beat and left the Midwest for the West Coast. Stints at ABC Information and CNN finally led to his present anchor spot at Courtroom TV, which equally noticed its profile raised by its gavel-to-gavel Simpson protection.
30 years later, Rowlands is getting a full circle second as the manager producer of Courtroom TV’s new seven-episode collection, Trial & Error: Why Did O.J. Win? Premiering Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. ET the present re-opens the community’s case logs and sits down for brand new interviews with key gamers like former LAPD detective Mark Furhman, protection attorneys F. Lee Bailey and Alan Dershowitz, and kin of each victims, together with Tanya Brown and Fred Goldman.
“Our philosophy was, ‘Let’s go in with a important eye and present how O.J. gained,’” Rowlands says. “It was the proper storm the place, 30 years later, it’s fairly straightforward to say that the decision doesn’t maintain up.”
In an expansive interview, Rowlands displays on how the landmark O.J. case reshaped the panorama for trial protection, and his personal expertise attending to know Simpson—who died final yr—later in his life.
(This interview has been edited for size and readability)
