. - and one of flip's writers was a young richard pryor. en he found his voice, he became the new king of comedy. (richard laughs) (audience laughing) - woo! (audience clapping) (upbeat music) - for the first time on television, richard pryor. - hate to take the subway because the first thing you see when you walk down the subway, is some guy down there, "give me a nickel." (audience laughing) - on television, back in the '60s, you gotta come on stage clean. and richard pryor adapted for a while, but he wasn't happy. - and richard, at some point, understands, "this is not who i am. this is not what i care about. and i have to speak in a way that's authentic to me." - so richard left hollywood. - [richard] people who live in berkeley are put under curfew, they're tear gassed. - in the late '60s, richard pryor went up to oakland. at the time, it was just a black militant, wild thing, man. and he met some black panthers. but the main guy he met there was paul mooney. paul mooney was his muse. - you can't get sight, you gotta get hip to what you

richard pryor. i just love to hear about how people struggled and how they overcame. and how they failed sometimes and did not overcome but they are willing to share their story. i moved by that . >> so you're optimistic about the coming year? >> yes. i always have faith. the scripture says without faith, it is impossible. >> we are grateful to you for your work and hosting on mosaic. blessings in this new year. >> thank you very much. you gave me the opportunity. 13 years now. >> try to be like ron swisher. upbeat and positive, the world will be a better place. thanks to you. we will see you again next time. - lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+. sometimes it takes a different approach to see the difference you can make around you. ♪♪ ♪♪ with capella university's game-changing flexpath format, set your own deadlines and access coursework any time. imagine your future differently with capella university. >>> from cbs news bay area, this is the morning edition. >>> family and loved ones of journalists killed while covering the war in gaz

richard pryor when he said when richard pryor says you know, i i'm not addicted to cocaine. i just liked the smell. i mean, that was funny alone a lot of great comedy self-directed. chris rock's comedy can be very, very self-directed. wanda sykes makes front of her own family. it's not like they're off limit targets. it's just that it better have a point and it better have some real whip behind it. otherwise, it's really just finishing cruelty cruelty is simply stupid thank you, sally. >> appreciate it. it's a great session. >> all right. >> still to come, hey, i was this invited from delivering a commencement speech this year so instead, i'm going to deliver it to all have you in just a moment and don't forget, vote on today's poll question that's where cottage it is exactly what i was just talking about. >> sally jenkins jerry seinfeld blames extreme level pc crap and people worrying about offending for the lack of comedy on tv. do you agree or disagree? sign up for my free daily newsletter. you're gonna get exclusive editorial cartoons from the legends rob rogers drew thi

among them comic legend richard pryor. do you think you could have married richard pryor?lling out of love, but not being loved. and there is a difference. maybe my husband, partner, mate was film making. >> reporter: by the mid '60s she was a fixture in hollywood on screens big and small. then her life hit a pretty big bump. you are having this great career ride and suddenly in 1988 you go to the doctor and they give you this cancer diagnosis and they told you had 18 months to live? >> mm-hmm. yes. my world literally came to a screeching halt that day in the office. it's very serious because it's a stage four, and we found it in wider areas in your body. that's how we evolve. they didn't say cancer. they said the "c" word. and i was like, you can say cancer. and i'm going to give to my all. >> we got to make an unscheduled stop! >> reporter: and her all was enough. she recovered and started to put her career back on track. turns out, pam grier had fans in high places. something she found out by accident while watching a quentin tarantino film. in 1990s you go to the theat

so if you look okay, so with exception to richard pryor okay, it's like the only stand up comedian thatunny to this day. if you look at his old material, if you look at his old material, if you look at his old material, if you look at old material from people around that time, it's bad but funny at the time. >> who colin. george. colin. george. >> yeah. he was he was funny, but not as funny. >> oh, he's a big leg. >> oh, he's a big leg. >> he was very smart. he was george carlin. >> the smart thing he said, is that in comedy, you need to know where the line is and go above it. yeah. that's what he always said. he was brilliant. >> it was not as funny, but we punch way above our weight on on the comedy thing. >> the great people like ray galton and alan simpson, who wrote steptoe and sons and hancock's half hour, look at that sort of stuff. we've got john, john sullivan, who did only fools and horses. yeah. brilliant stuff. it was brilliant now, though, is it? oh, no, but it is. blackadder is . i'll tell you why. >> not only fools and horses, only fools and horses on the stage now doing

if you count inflation, you are to go back to the '80s, the richard pryor movie. that is how long it was this little the industry thought "furiosa" would be a hit they did a full-freight marketing campaign it shows right now in hollywood, if you have the goods and people want to see the movie, they will show up. good is not good enough for movie theaters anymore. it has to be great this did not have enough to lure movie goers to come back they rejected it outright. >> matt, what's working right now? >> what's working is no intellectual property where there is something you know and has seen before and something additional that brings you to the theater. something fresh and something you didn't know and it is a spec spectacle. you want to see it now and you want to see it on the large screen we see can the imax and large screens are taking up 25% of the box office some weekend because p people are showing up to see a spectacle. something they cannot get on their screen at home if it doesn't have that, you're dead. >> matt, adam aron, is a character in what i'm hear

i tell all my students when i teach these days is in the '60s and '70s, richard nixon and all the vietnam war riots, it was pryorshot on 60 -- primarily shot on 60-millimeter fill and will it's hard to enhance the image of the face. now we have technology shooting 1080p and all the new footage and all goes on the internet and you were putting yourself in a position w. you go for a job, i'm not telling you not to -- if you want free speech and protest and want to burn a flag, i don't care what side you're on. i'll know about it as a employer. i guarantee you every image even at night of those people trying to go and get work and graduate college and doing your resume and buy these deep dark services and do it with all these companies and see you burn ago flag and don't care which flag or campus, i take that resume and put it over here because i can look through the other resumes and find something that's not tearing down the campus, that's just as good as you. that's what i'm telling these students. think about what you're doing because you're in 1080p and the world will forever know what you did. if you're good