From a new book on Richard Pryor: The story of wha' happened when Mr. Pryor hosted Saturday Night Live. The book is Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him and it's written by David and Joe Henry. It's pretty good and here's an Amazon link to order it.
I met Pryor a few times and worked on one TV show where he guest-starred and then wrote on the series mentioned below. I was never around for any outbursts or anger so my memory of him is as a usually-quiet guy who acted like he was terrified that everyone around him was about to hurt or exploit him in some way. The one time he ever acted friendly was the first time I met him, a story I keep meaning to tell here and will. I did tell this story about being on the set when he returned to TV after his infamous burn incident.
The book by the Henrys seems to capture the guy pretty well. I'll quibble a teensy bit with what they wrote about the series I worked on with him…
Seven years after parting company with NBC, Richard returned to TV with Pryor's Place, a CBS Saturday morning kid show that premiered on September 15, 1984 and ran for ten weeks. The expected parties were outraged that Richard Pryor should in any way be presented as a role model for children. It was a thoroughly wholesome affair, following two young boys on their adventures in a Sesame Street-type neighborhood as they faced moral dilemmas and learned lessons from them. Richard somberly played himself as host and narrator but showed much more life playing neighborhood characters. Critics were kind, though few could resist pointing out that he'd come full circle and was back to doing Bill Cosby's act.
I don't know where they get this "ten weeks" business. We did thirteen episodes and as was customary then on Saturday morn, each aired several times so the show was on for most of a year. They would have run 'em for a full year if they had led into a second season…and there would have been a second season but Richard simply refused to do any more. Matter of fact, he tried to quit repeatedly during the thirteen because he became more interested in a movie he was doing and couldn't understand why, after taping the first six or so, he couldn't stop and come back next year to do the rest. I also don't recall any outrage by anyone that Richard Pryor was addressing children. My sense was that the series didn't get much attention at all…a not unusual occurrence with shows I work on. But the book is still well worth your time.