Why Eddie Murphy Refused To Return To SNL For Three Decades

Eddie Murphy was one of the biggest stars to ever grace the Studio 8H stage as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member. But once he left the show, he didn't come back for a very long time.

Murphy was just 19 years old (!) when he joined "SNL" as a cast member in 1980, and he quickly became the show's breakout star, carrying the load during a particularly rough patch for the NBC sketch comedy staple with classic characters like "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" and his Buckwheat impression. "I was really, really young," Murphy says in his new Netflix documentary "Being Eddie," which began streaming Wednesday. "I'd get on 'Saturday Night Live', and I'm a teenager. It's a bunch of career-defining stuff that happened really early on, when I was just a baby."  

Murphy's "SNL" stint led to a string of hit movies like "48 Hours," "Trading Places" and "Beverly Hills Cop" that made him a film superstar, and he left the "SNL" cast in 1984. But it took more than three decades for him to return to the show that launched his career. In "Being Eddie," Murphy opens up about the "SNL" slam that led to the rift, and who he really blames for the bad blood. 

Murphy's film career was riding high in the 1980s with hits like "Coming to America," but his box office streak later fizzled, and in the early '90s, several of Murphy's big-screen efforts like "The Distinguished Gentleman" and "Vampire in Brooklyn" missed the mark. It's the latter, a 1995 horror comedy directed by Wes Craven, that was the subject of a brutal "SNL" joke delivered by David Spade on Weekend Update. When Murphy's face popped up on the screen, Spade cracked: "Look, children, a falling star! Make a wish!"

Murphy now admits the joke had him fuming: "My feelings was hurt... It's like your alma mater taking a shot at you." He doesn't think a joke like that would make it to air these days, either: "If there was a joke like that right now, and it was about some other 'SNL' cast member, and it was about how f–ked up their career was, it would get shot down."

Murphy doesn't even blame Spade for the insult: "The joke had went through all of those channels that the joke has to go through... So I wasn't like, 'F–k David Spade.' I was like, 'Oh, f–k "SNL." F–k y'all. How y'all going to do this s–t? That's what y'all think of me? Oh, you dirty motherf–kers.' I was like that. And that's why I didn't go back for years."

It took a momentous occasion — "SNL's" 40th anniversary — to get Murphy to finally forgive and forget, and he made a triumphant return to Studio 8H for a brief appearance on the 40th anniversary special in February 2015. That went so well that Murphy actually returned to host "SNL's" Christmas episode in 2019. He also appeared in this year's "SNL50" anniversary special, stealing the show with his impression of fellow "SNL" alum Tracy Morgan and teaming up with Will Ferrell for an outrageous "Scared Straight" sketch.

Murphy explains in the documentary why he decided to finally bury the hatchet: "I was like, you know what? F–k this. 'SNL' is part of my history. I need to reconnect with that show because that's where I come from. That little friction that I had with 'SNL' was 35 years ago. I don't have no smoke with no David Spade. I don't have any heat or none of that with nobody."