Opening to A Million to Juan on HBO 2 (1997)

Craig's VCR & Media Closet

Video footage courtesy of dustyrx at archive.org  All credit of this footage goes to him!

Transcript

00:00Yo, Colt Jack! Come here, man. Check it out, man.

00:12We launched a cool t-shirt. Godzilla. Logo. Check it out, man.

00:17Hey, look. Godzilla.

00:22How much, man?

00:24Five bucks. Real tour t-shirts. Guaranteed authentic.

00:30I mean, these are bootlegs, man.

00:32No, man. This is the real thing.

00:34Check it out.

00:38Four bucks.

00:44Here's Juan.

00:45Don't you understand Spanish?

00:46Regular guy trying to make the rent.

00:48No credit in any language.

00:50Off-roadsome dude in a limo. Hands him a check.

00:52How many zeros in a million?

00:53Four?

00:54Six.

00:55That's a million. You gotta give him credit.

00:57Gracias.

00:58How can you use a check you can't cash?

00:59He may not have a green card.

01:00What part of Spain are you from?

01:02The east side.

01:03But he sure knows how to get lucky.

01:05Come and get it, Juan.

01:06Paul Rodriguez. Edward James Olmos. Chich Marin. A million to one.

01:18You'll be back, Doc.

01:20I couldn't handle it inside, but I can now.

01:25I'm still here, Doc.

01:32It's been so long.

01:36So long.

01:45Their instinct is to avoid the danger.

01:48Their instinct is to acquit.

01:50They're just waiting for somebody like you to march in there and give them the excuse to do it.

01:56I can't.

01:58You will.

02:03It's about a woman, a single mother who's called for jury duty on a mob trial,

02:07who gets chosen by them to convince the other jury members to vote not guilty so that they can get an acquittal.

02:16Well, someone's going to contact you and tell you to say two words too precisely.

02:24Do you know what they are? Have you guessed yet?

02:27No.

02:29Not guilty.

02:36New York City, 1959.

02:40The battleground was rock and roll.

02:44I'll give you close to show.

02:47You can stop me, but you're never going to stop rock and roll. How do you know that?

02:52It was the beginning of an era.

02:55You should have been there.

02:58American advice.

03:04Remember your biggest nightmare in grade school?

03:07Please delay my beating until Thursday.

03:09It's worse when you grow up.

03:13That guy just flipped a pan.

03:15Who?

03:16The shop teacher.

03:17Welcome back, baby.

03:18I'm an adult now. I'm not a little kid. He used to spit into my 2% milk.

03:21He was a little boy.

03:23But try telling him that.

03:25You're going to get it now.

03:27Rick Moranis, Tom Arnold, Big Bully.

03:31Premieres Saturday, March 1st on HBO.

03:34To be a Navy captain, you need experience.

03:39I'm here to pick up my new submarine.

03:40So do you need anything from me?

03:42A good crew.

03:45Prepare for dive!

03:48I better go see if any of the other rooms are still tilted.

03:51And a sense of humor.

03:55Kelsey Grammer.

03:56God, I love this job!

03:59Down Periscope. Premieres Saturday, March 8th, only on HBO.

04:03I'm Dave Chappelle. I'm here with HBO Entertainment News.

04:07Very exciting day today.

04:09See, all this month we're talking to people who have not just made black history,

04:13but are making black history.

04:15And this guy I'm talking to today is definitely making a mark.

04:18Acclaimed novelist Walter Moseley.

04:21You might have read some of his work.

04:23You know, Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty.

04:27This guy loves colors in the titles.

04:29You might especially know Devil in a Blue Dress,

04:32the tri-star adaptation of this movie,

04:35starring Denzel Washington,

04:37brought his character E.G. Rollins to life.

04:40I want to get behind the man that made the movie,

04:43or made the book that became the movie.

04:45Either way, I'm getting to the bottom of something.

04:53You know, when I was a kid,

04:55my father was very clear about what life was like.

04:58He said, there's only two things you have to do in life.

05:00The first thing you have to do is pay the rent.

05:02That's what he said.

05:04So he really worked on that.

05:06But then after a while he said, once you pay the rent,

05:08you can do what you love.

05:10After a long time of looking, I think I was in my mid-30s,

05:13I fell upon writing.

05:15And suddenly you're an author.

05:17It was very funny.

05:18I was working as a programmer at Mobile Oil,

05:20and I called him and said,

05:21I sold the book I'm celebrating today,

05:23but I'll be in tomorrow.

05:24And the next day I called him up and said,

05:26I celebrated so much yesterday,

05:28I can't get out of bed today, but I'll be in tomorrow.

05:30And they're still waiting for you to come in.

05:33Wow.

05:35And then the first book you wrote was?

05:38It was called Gone Fish.

05:40But it was a victim of what you call PTM,

05:43pre-Terry McMillan.

05:45So before Terry McMillan, what they would say is this.

05:47They'd say, well, you know, it's like this.

05:49White people don't read about black people.

05:51Black women don't like black men,

05:54in spite of all those black children.

05:56And black men don't read, so who's going to read your book?

05:59Of course, none of that's true.

06:00So what turned it all around?

06:01What knocked it open?

06:02Well, then I wrote a mystery.

06:03You know, it was, you know,

06:06Easy Robbins, Raymond Alexander,

06:08Devil in a Blue Dress.

06:10I wrote it, and I sent it around.

06:11And people said, oh, I get the trick.

06:13The detective is black.

06:21Hollywood reads your books, they write your books.

06:23Devil in a Blue Dress was made a movie.

06:25And you saw Denzel Washington,

06:27and you knew that this was going to be

06:29the face of Easy Robbins.

06:31You can't even write about it.

06:33Did you like the choice?

06:34I mean, you want a good actor, you know.

06:36Denzel's one of the best or something.

06:38You could be Easy Robbins.

06:40I'm just thinking, if I was sneaking around now,

06:41black dudes can't really sneak around in the 90s.

06:47Hey, Easy Robbins.

06:48What do you decide what the literature's going to be in,

06:51and how you unfold it?

06:52For me, I start at the beginning,

06:53I have no idea where it's going.

06:54All I know is somewhere around page 20,

06:56somebody's going to be dead.

06:58I know that writing is rewriting,

06:59so it doesn't matter how bad the writing is in the beginning.

07:01You just got to keep on going back,

07:02going over and over and over.

07:04How long can you write the same book?

07:07Sixteen drafts.

07:08Sixteen drafts?

07:09At least.

07:10It'd be like seven minutes, I'd kiss my ass.

07:13That's all I can do.

07:17Well, the most.

07:18Good to meet you, man.

07:20Thank you.

07:24Here's one.

07:25Don't you understand funny?

07:26Regular guy trying to make the rent.

07:28No credit in any language.

07:30Off-road, some dude in a limo, hands him a check.

07:32How many zeros in a million?

07:33Four?

07:34Six.

07:35It's a million.

07:36You got to give him credit.

07:37Gracias.

07:38How can you use a check you can't cash?

07:39He may not have a green card.

07:40What part of Spain are you from?

07:42The east side.

07:43But he sure knows how to get lucky.

07:44Come and get it, Juan.

07:46Paul Rodriguez, Edward James Olmos, Cheech Marino.

07:48A million to one.

07:56The following movie is rated PG.

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