CORNER, THE: PART ONE: GARY'S BLUES {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)

Summary

The premiere of this dramatic miniseries about impoverished people living around an open-air drug market in Baltimore, Maryland.

The episode begins with an introduction by its director, Charles S. Dutton. Gary, a middle-aged heroin addict, recounts how he once had a good and financially successful life, and points out a convenience store in the neighborhood while purchasing a cigarette. He had his first job there, but says he watched it burn down during a race riot. He is unwilling to discuss the events that led him to his ruination and addiction to heroin. Gary witnesses an argument between a man and a woman in the middle of the street over complications in a drug sale, and afterward he congratulates the woman, his girlfriend Ronnie, over managing to obtain heroin by threatening to call the police. They retreat to shoot up together, but Ronnie believes that the police might be downstairs waiting to bust them and she sends Gary to check. However, while Gary is distracted she switches out the heroin for something else without his knowledge. When they shoot up together she empties her syringe while Gary’s back is turned, and when neither of them feel anything she convinces him that they were gypped into getting fake drugs.

Gary walks down the street, recalling happier times in his youth, when the neighborhood was friendlier and less decayed. He encounters his son DeAndre on the street and asks him why he is not in school. Ronnie introduces Gary to her cousin Tony, and they work together to steal water pipes from peoples’ basements to sell at a local factory. However, Gary is upset that he is offered less money than he had hoped, although he feels he has no choice but to take the deal. Gary seems to take Tony under his wing and sends him out to buy drugs for him, and later takes him back to his house to shoot up together. Gary recalls an incident from his teenage years when he gave some weed to his then-girlfriend Fran, claiming he was only selling it to get money for college. In the present, Gary witnesses a police action on the street and Ronnie yells for him to come down. He is unwilling to let her find out that he has been shooting up with Tony and tries to sneak out through the back way. She finds out anyway and berates him for not sharing with her. They have an argument and she vows to get even with him.

At the convenience store, Gary witnesses a child yelling at the cashier about a sandwich he purchased, and he exposes himself to her before trashing the store. Gary feels sorry for her and tries to apologize for the boy’s behavior. He attempts to purchase a single cigarette again but finds he cannot since the cashier has slightly increased the price. That night, Gary’s father gets home late from his job as a taxi driver. He and Gary share a brief, somber conversation before he goes to bed. The next day, Gary sends someone out to purchase heroin for him, but he does not return, sending Gary into a panic. Soon the lack of drugs visibly affects him. His mother sends him to purchase groceries for the church meeting that Sunday, and he goes to the convenience store to pick up the items. Despite the temptation to use the money to purchase drugs, he does as his mother requested. Later he visits Fran to get her brother Stevie to run out drug purchases for him; he is wheezing, possibly from asthma, and Fran mocks him. Fran also warns him that DeAndre is starting to sell drugs as well, and that he feels that he no longer has to answer to them.

DeAndre sells drugs to a couple of teenagers in a car. He is under the tutelage of older boys who try to give him instruction about how to conduct himself on the street. DeAndre also encounters Tyreeka, a girl he is going out with; they argue about a date they planned that weekend, and DeAndre is frustrated with her money-centric attitude but confesses that he is attracted to her. One of his friends advises him to test her devotion to him by asking her to fix him a sandwich and judging her true feelings from how much effort she puts into it. Gary and Tony break in to what they believe is a vacant house in order to ransack it. However, Gary feels guilty after seeing a photograph of the family who occupied the place. They continue and Gary is spotted by someone living next door. Tony goes out to confront him, and he promises not to say anything if they agree to give him drugs. The police arrive and DeAndre attempts to grab a bag of discarded drugs while everyone is distracted, but another police car emerges and DeAndre flees, dropping the drugs in another man’s lunch bag before the police can find him. One cop, Bob Brown, seems familiar with DeAndre already frisks him and finds nothing, but warns him not to go outside for the rest of the day.

While numerous residents get high, an older resident called “Fat Curt” grumbles about the sorry state of their lives and how he believes the drugs they take are no longer potent. Gary still feels guilty about ransacking the house and finds himself uneasy about cooperating with the neighbor, believing he may betray them. Gary’s supply of drugs runs thin again and he asks to borrow money from his mother, although she has none for him. He looks around the neighborhood frantically for Ronnie, although he can find no sign of her, and no one in the neighborhood seems to be willing to help him. He runs into DeAndre as well, who decides to give his father some cocaine that he might be able to trade for heroin. He attempts to make a trade, but he and the dealer are forced to drop their drugs when the police arrive. Gary grows increasingly desperate and takes up a stranger on his offer to steal appliances at a place out of the neighborhood in order to score enough money for drugs.

He and the stranger, Doug, travel to a major appliance store and plan on how to go about robbing it. However, the plan fails and Gary is arrested and brought to a police holding cell. He insists that the arrest is a mistake and that he stole nothing. He calls his mother and begs her to raise the money to bail him out. He is transferred to a prison when Ronnie lodges a charge of assault against him. Gary recalls a memory from college when he received a phone call from Fran informing him that she was pregnant with his child. In the present, Gary grows increasingly agitated and irrational in his cell as withdrawal continues to set in. Eventually Gary is released and he finds DeAndre, bonding with him over a game of basketball. Ronnie finds them and Gary angrily confronts her about the assault charge. Despite his anger, he chooses to go share in Ronnie’s heroin rather than continue his game with DeAndre. Fat Curt talks about Gary’s former success, noting that he “stumbled” and gave away a great deal of his money. He says Gary was addicted to cocaine at one time and blames this for his downfall, and for the state of the neighborhood in general. He discusses a little of his own experience with drugs and its effects on people.

Details

• NETWORK: HBO
• DATE: April 16, 2000 10:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:03:33
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: B:63618
• GENRE: Drama
• SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection; TV - Drama
• SERIES RUN: HBO - TV miniseries, 2000
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• David Simon … Executive Producer, Writer, Based on the book “The Corner: a Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood” by
• David Mills … Executive Producer, Writer
• Robert F. Colesberry … Executive Producer
• Nina Kostroff Noble … Producer
• Antonia Ellis … Co-Producer
• Charles S. Dutton … Director
• Edward Burns … Based on the book “The Corner: a Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood” by
• Corey Harris … Theme Music by
• Henry Butler … Theme Music by
• T.K. Carter … Cast, Gary MucCullough
• Khandi Alexander … Cast, Fran Boyd
• Sean Nelson … Cast, DeAndre McCullough
• Clarke Peters … Cast, Fat Curt
• Glenn Plummer … Cast, Blue
• Toy Connor … Cast, Tyreeka
• Tasha Smith … Cast, Ronnie
• Maria Broom … Cast, Bunchie
• Ron Brice … Cast, Tony
• Cyrus Farmer … Cast, Stevie
• Sylvester Lee Kirk … Cast, DeRodd
• Delon Browne … Cast, Boo
• Corey Parker Robinson … Cast, R.C.
• Bonita L. Cartwright … Cast, Roberta
• J. Valenteen Gregg … Cast, W.M.
• Reg E. Cathey … Cast, Scalio
• Donnell Rawlings … Cast, Bread
• Robin Michelle McClamb … Cast, Rita
• Duane Chandler Rawlings … Cast, Hungry
• Don Wallace … Cast, Bugsy
• Eugene R. Little … Cast, Gee Money
• Robert Crenshaw … Cast, Fat Rick
• E. Emery Bright … Cast, Doug
• Brian O'Neill … Cast, Officer Bob Brown
• Avery Kidd Waddell … Cast, Teenage Gary
• Angel M. Wainwright … Cast, Teenage Fran
• Jade Yorker … Cast, Young Gary
• Krystal Lynn Morris … Cast, Officer Jenerette
• Derren M. Fuentes … Cast, Officer Tucker
• Vivian Bang … Cast, Korean Lady
• Stanley Boyd … Cast, Neighbor
• De'Rodd Hanes … Cast, Kid in Doorway
• James Christy … Cast, White Driver
• Delaney Williams … Cast, Scale Guy
• Robert Sparrow … Cast, Kid With Testers
• Garrett Wright … Cast, White Student
• Stewart Stagg … Cast, Runner
• Brandon Troy McMickens … Cast, Lookout
• Robert A. Smith Jr. … Cast, Turnkey