In honor of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th Anniversary, we will be going through its rich and varied history and breaking down its legendary run into easy to digest eras. Some eras might last for years, others only one season. But each era is one that either marked a change in the show, were driven by a remarkable personality of a star, or marked a special part of the history of the program. Today, we look at the biggest star SNL ever produced–Eddie Murphy.
In the multiverse, on some alternate earth, an alternate version of me, hopefully with a thinner waistline and thicker hair, is writing an Saturday Night Live Eras column on Charles Barnett. On this Earth he was a street comedian who was more popular with his fellow comics than the general public. In that universe, it was Barnett that Jean Doumanian chose for the African-American role in her cast of SNL.
In another, different alternate earth, alternate me #2 is writing this piece about Robert Townsend. On that earth, Townsend was cast as the ethnic hire by Doumanian, and that’s where he got noticed instead of how he made his name on our earth, by creating the satiric film Hollywood Shuffle.
That is because on those earths, Doumanian went with her first choice of black actor for the cast instead of casting Eddie Murphy. Depending on what book about Saturday Night Live you read, Barnett or Townsend was Doumanian’s choice for the spot Murphy got. Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad said that Barnett was the choice but lost the job when he blew off a follow up reading for the position. Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller says Townsend made it as far as being offered a contract. He dawdled on signing it, the book says, which allowed Murphy to get a foot in the door.
This is to illustrate that Eddie Murphy, one of the greatest comedians of his generation wasn’t the first, or possibly not even the second, choice for Saturday Night Live. But through luck and determination, and faith in his own talent, he managed to break through, become a big star, and helped saved SNL when it most needed saving.
It is fun to mock Eddie Murphy for the ups and downs his career went through over the years. But it’s hard not to be impressed by the start of his career, and the hustle he went through to make it happen. He decided he wanted to be a stand-up comedian at the age of 15 and when most other people were working towards getting their driver’s license, he started doing comedy in clubs and restaurants, honing his craft. By the time he joined SNL at 19, Murphy was a wily veteran of the comedy club circuit.
Murphy was doing stand-up in Florida when auditions for Doumanian’s cast happen. When he got back, he pestered talent coordinator Neil Levy constantly to try and get an audition. Initially, Levy told Murphy, truthfully, that the audition process was over. But Murphy was persistent and Levy finally relented and took a look at the young comedian. He was blown away by Murphy’s bit, and immediately went to Doumanian to show Murphy to her. She hired Murphy on as a Featured Player.
While Murphy found his way onto the cast, he would still have a struggle to get on the air. Doumanian thought that the featured players should be used only if necessary and Murphy not at all. His job was to learn by watching the main cast. His first appearance on the show was as a background player in a sketch in the second episode. The sketch was a parody of the then-popular, syndicated nature documentary series Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom where they were searching for a Negro Republican. They hired another black actor for the role of the republican. Murphy sat on a couch in a party scene.
Murray had to pester Doumanian for a chance to get on the air. Eventually, she relented and let him do a spot on Weekend Update about a town that was making the high school basketball team accept white players. Now, maybe it was because it was it was on the worst segment (Weekend Update was horrible under Doumanian) of a horrible year on SNL, but Murphy scored with this bit.
Unable to deny Murphy’s talent and his rapport with the audience, Doumanian gave him more stuff to do on the show. Even to the point that when the show ran short one episode, they allowed Eddie to do the standup routine that got him hired during the last segment. But it was too late for Doumanian. Her regime was in its downward spiral, and not even Murphy could fix it. However, Murphy and his friend Joe Piscopo were able to survive both purges NBC executive and incoming SNL producer Dick Ebersol made on the show’s cast, and Murphy went into the seventh season as the focus of Ebersol’s new direction.
A brief sidebar in defense of Joe Piscopo. Piscopo is often portrayed as someone who had buddied up to Murphy as a way to protect his own standing on the show. The famous quote from several writers was “Eddie Murphy’s success went to Joe Piscopo’s head.” But if you were to watch those first, Murphy-less episodes, you’ll see that Piscopo more often than not was the high point of them. A low bar to step over, yes, but a fact nonetheless. Did he benefit by being work buddies with Eddie? Absolutely. Did he deserve to survive the purge on his own merit? I’d argue yes.
Murphy shined in the new spotlight that Ebersol gave him. Finally, SNL had a breakout star the likes of Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. Murphy created indelible characters and sketches that are still remembered and referenced today–Buckwheat, Gumby, Velvet Jones, “James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party,” and “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood” (which he first performed during Season 6).
And it wasn’t just fluff he was offering. When he grew tired of performing the Buckwheat character, Murphy and the show decided to kill the character off in a sketch. But they did it a way that parodied the way broadcast news sensationalized tragedies. Ted Koppel (Piscopo) would break in often during the episode, usually with a reshowing of Buckwheat getting shot. It is a biting piece of satire that is even more germane today than it was when it was made.
Some in the cast might have rankled under the attention that Murphy was given. After all, he was the first active cast member who hosted the show while still being a member of the cast (He stepped in for his 48 Hours co-star Nick Nolte at the last minute). But you can’t argue with results. Eddie Murphy saved Saturday Night Live.
Like Chase and Belushi before him, Murphy became so popular on the show that Hollywood came calling. He made two films while at SNL – the aforementioned 48 Hours and Trading Places. Both were massive hits and both spelled doom for Murphy staying on the show.
Murphy would officially leave halfway through the 1983 to 1984 season, while filmed segments featuring him ran sporadically throughout the year. Murphy would go one to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in films such as Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America (for the record, Joe Piscopo also left at the end of that season. He career has not done quite as well. Although I’ll stand behind the statement that Johnny Dangerously, Wise Guys and Dead Heat are unmitigated cult classics).
Ebersol faced moving on with Saturday Night Live without its most famous star in Eddie Murphy. What he did was take a page from George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, and hired an all-star cast for the next season. We’ll talk about this Steinbrenner cast in out next installment.
