Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a NBC special on Feb. 15. The hope is that virtually everyone ever associated with the show returns to Studio 8H to join in the festivities. That applies especially to the breakout stars who have rarely or never returned to the show.
One of those names is Eddie Murphy, who hasn’t been back to 30 Rockefeller Center since leaving SNL on Feb. 25, 1984. But it appears that the show’s 40th anniversary will be a worthy enough occasion for Murphy to return for the first time in 31 years. How great would it be if he performed as one of his legendary characters, like James Brown?
During an interview with NewsOne, Murphy revealed to host Roland Martin that he will return to SNL for its 40th anniversary and talked about why it’s taken this long for him to do so.
It’s just timing. It just never worked out where the timing was right for me to do it … They’re actually having a 40th anniversary I think in two weeks. I’m going to that, and that’ll be the first time I’ve been back since I left.
Given how Murphy’s movie career exploded (despite what you may think of his recent work), it’s understandable that he never saw the opportunity to return. Though you’d have to think there was a weekend here or there where he was in New York and could have stopped by Studio 8H. Maybe he was never asked and was waiting for an invitation.
It should also probably be mentioned that Murphy was on NewsOne to promote his new Reggae single, “Oh Jah Jah.”
We’d all rather see him do Buckwheat or Gumby, wouldn’t we? (The guess is that he’d have no interest in doing bits from 30 years ago.) Although we have no idea what role Murphy — or any of the SNL alumni — will have in the 40th anniversary special.
