Eddie Murphy Hosts Saturday Night Live(December 2019)
I'm one of those people for whom SNL has been a part of my entire adult life, always there(I watched it from its first 1975-1976 season), and of different importance at different times.
It sure was a big deal in the beginning, with folks like Bob Hope and Red Skeleton ceding the stage to Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Dan Ackroyd. (And, starting in the second season, Bill Murray, who remains the most durable of SNL movie stars today.)
Chase left the show for movies first, then Belushi and Ackroyd together, and finally, Murray left. And creator Lorne Michaels elected to quit the show with his first cast.
This left SNL in 1980 scrambling. A new producer(Jean Doumanian -- immediately under attack and didn't last long), followed by another new producer(Dick Ebersol). All en route to Lorne Michaels returning in the mid-80's(and he is still there today, as if Milton Berle producers were running SNL in 1975.)
Two things are famous about SNL in the early 80s: (1) It was almost cancelled for good and (2)a brash(yet suave) young black comedian named Eddie Murphy saved the show - turned it into "The Eddie Murphy Show" for a few years even as he got HIS giant superstar movie career(48 HRS as a debut, Trading Places with Dan Ackroyd as a solid hit; Beverly Hills Cop as his "Ghostbusters"-like blockbuster.)
I recall, as a 30ish movie fan, watching as Eddie Murphy at Christmas 1984 with Beverly Hills Cop demolished a long-awaited pairing of 70's superstars Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds("City Heat"). It was a clear-cut wipe-out of FORMER big stars(Clint and Burt) by a NEW superstar. And it was devastating -- another movie era change(Burt's star career pretty much ended right then; he took the blame, not Clint.). After a few weeks, "Beverly Hills Cop" even stole the "City Heat" tagline: "The Heat is On"(Because BHC had that song.)
But modern movie careers are hard to maintain. People forget how, after the "triumvirate" of 48HRS(Eddie's best movie, IMHO), Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop...was never really matched by Eddie again. Came the late 80's and 90's, Eddie was already making pallid sequels to BHC and 48HRS(now with his and Nolte's billing reversed), and -- less a late 80's hit of middling quality called "Coming to America." the next three decades found Murphy as a star with declining power -- though, amazingly, he was allowed to make bomb movies, it felt, like for decades before studios stopped funding him. (Within those decades, his "Nutty Professor" remake and sequel and his Shrek vocals gave him the boost necessary to stay in the game; it wasn't ALL bombs.)
Somewhere during this time, SNL comedian David Spade made fun of Eddie Murphy's decline("Look...a falling star!") and Eddie Murphy went into a rage, cutting all ties to SNL and refusing to acknowledge the mutual debt. He refused to appear on the 30th(I think?) Anniversary, and became this weird "ghost" --- SNL"s biggest star(other than Bill Murray) with no willingness to acknowledge it at all.
But like a lot of stars(including Bill Murray) and like a lot of regular people, Eddie Murphy has mellowed with age, buried some hatchets. He appeared on the 40th(I think?) Anniversary program, very briefly and just saying some nice words and doing nothing else.
And he came back to host SNL last night.
For me, this was one of those rare "big deals" in entertainment history. SNL in general has been a part of my entire adult life; and I remember the Eddie Murphy years on TV and the movies as being very, very fun, in the beginning(I LOVE 48 HRS, it might be my second favorite 1982 movie after ET, or maybe Tootsie, well, I loved The Verdict -- it was a great year.) And the story of Eddie Murphy's decades-long estrangement from SNL is one of those "show biz legends" that got a final chapter last night. Eddie came back.