Che, who spent 11 years on the SNL cast and also served as a head writer, talks about the moment in Netflix’s documentary Being Eddie. He explains that everyone felt intense pressure to get the episode right.
“The Eddie Murphy show was the most tense start to a show I’ve ever been a part of,” Che says. “It was scary almost. This had to go well.”
Murphy hosted Saturday Night Live on Dec. 21, 2019. It was his first time back as host since leaving the show in the mid-1980s. Murphy had been a cast member from 1980 to 1984 and is widely credited with helping save the show during a tough ratings period.
For years, Murphy stayed away from SNL, partly due to a joke made about him by David Spade in 1995. His return was seen as a major moment in the show’s history.
Che says SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels wanted Murphy’s opening monologue to feel personal. However, Murphy was cautious about doing it alone. That led to an idea to bring other famous comedians onstage with him.
Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, and Dave Chappelle joined Murphy for the opening monologue. Kenan Thompson later walked onstage as well, creating a powerful moment that linked different generations of the show.
In the documentary, Chappelle compares seeing Murphy back at Studio 8H to “seeing a lion in the wild.” Behind-the-scenes footage shows just how emotional the moment was for the comedians involved.
Che recalls that Rock and Chappelle were so excited they called their mothers during rehearsal to tell them they were part of Eddie Murphy’s return.
After the episode aired, Rock told Michaels that the show had reached its peak. “It was one of the greatest SNLs ever,” Rock says in the film. “It’s not going to get any better than this.”
Murphy has not hosted SNL again since that episode, but he did appear in several sketches during the show’s 50th anniversary special earlier this year.
Looking back, Murphy says returning to Saturday Night Live was a positive experience. “My creative energy was turned back up to 10,” he says.
Being Eddie is now streaming on Netflix. Saturday Night Live is expected to return with new episodes later this month after its winter break.
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