Before SNL

Eddie Murphy was born on April 3, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in the Bushwick projects and later in the town of Roosevelt, Long Island, Murphy acquired an early affinity for television, impressions, and comedian, Richard Pryor. Murphy began developing his stand-up routine while in high school where he was by all accounts the popular class clown. After graduating from high school, Murphy enrolled at Nassau Community College and began performing at various clubs around the New York City area.

With an act characterized as raunchy and profane, Murphy eventually worked his way up to larger comedy clubs, such as the Comic Strip. In 1980, Murphy heard rumors that Saturday Night Live was in need of black cast member and immediately decided to audition. After auditioning for the part six times, NBC hired him as a minor member of the show’s repertory cast.

Studio 8H

For the first few shows of Murphy’s first season at SNL (season 6), he was only utilized sparingly as an extra when needed. During the season’s sixth show on January 10, 1981, SNL producers realized that they were four minutes short on material. Fearing backlash from NBC if they were to run short, the producers put Murphy and told him to perform a segment from his stand-up routine until the show was over.

Murphy’s improv earned the show such positive reviews that the producers decided to give him a more prominent role on the show. Five weeks later, Murphy debuted his first recurring character sketch called Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, a spoof of the popular children’s show Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood.

Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood Video

Murphy began to earn household fame with his recurring sketch in which he would impersonate the adult version of Buckwheat from the Our Gang series (more commonly known as the Little Rascals).

Buckwheat Sings Video

Fans of the show began to associate Murphy with Buckwheat so much that Murphy requested that the character be killed off. On May 12, 1983, SNL performed the sketch “Buckwheat Dead: America Mourns” in which Buckwheat was shot in the same scenario as the failed assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan. With Buckwheat dead and his film and stand-up career already on the rise (48 Hrs. in 1982, Trading Places in 1983, and Eddie Murphy: Comedian in 1983), Murphy decided to leave SNL during the show’s ninth season in 1984.

Outside Work

Murphy’s first major post-SNL success came with the release of his 1984 movie, Beverly Hills Cop (Fun Fact: Murphy is under contract to star in Beverly Hills Cop 4 in 2016).

Murphy also found large success in 1987 with the filming and release of his stand-up special, Eddie Murphy Raw. Aside from addressing some of the backlash he had received for his profanity (mostly from Bill Cosby), many of the show’s jokes concerned Murphy’s favorite topics of women, sex, or celebrities that wanted to fight him.

Murphy also appeared in several other notable films, such as Coming to America in 1988, The Nutty Professor in 1996, Mulan in 1998, Bowfinger in 1999, Shrek in 2001, Shrek 2 in 2004, Dreamgirls in 2006, and Tower Heist in 2011.

Opinion

Many people often forget that Eddie Murphy began his career as that young, profane kid on SNL. After being transformed into someone who is now seen as kid friendly by movies, such as Doctor Doolittle and Daddy Daycare, it’s genuinely hard for people to accept Murphy as the talented disciple of Richard Pryor on display in his stand-up. Murphy was the first person to really bring that air of controversy to SNL, always pushing the envelope and seeing what he could actually get away with. In essence, Murphy gave SNL that edge that took it from a show that the entire family could watch together to a show that parents were reluctant to let their kids watch. Eddie Murphy is the man who truly made Saturday Night Live, late night.