Eddie Murphy became a comedy legend during his early Eighties run on Saturday Night Live. But he hasnt graced the shows iconic stage since hosting an episode on December 15th, 1984 months after leaving the series during Season Nine with bad blood souring the relationship over the years. Now Murphy is making his long-awaited return for the series three-hour 40th anniversary special, scheduled for February 15th.Its just timing, the comedian-musician toldNews Onein a recent interview. It just never worked out where the timing was right for me to do it. . . Theyre actually having a 40th anniversary I think in two weeks. Im going to that, and thatll be the first time Ive been back since I left.
The special will reportedly feature cast members from throughout the sketch series four-decade run, though no official appearances have been announced by NBC. Regardless of who shows up, Murphys return will be a major highlight. (Heres hoping Mr. Robinson makes a cameo.)
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In recent years, Murphy has slowed down his acting schedule, appearing most recently in the 2011 all-star comedy Tower Heistand the critically panned 2012 dramedyA Thousand Words. Though his last studio album,Loves Alright, came out in 1993, hes unexpectedly released a handful of new reggae singles in recent years, including the Snoop Lion-featured 2013 trackRed Lightand the newly shared Oh Jah Jah.
In 2011, Murphytalked to Rolling Stoneabout all the facets of his career and his rocky history with SNL.They were shitty to me onSaturday Night Livea couple of times after Id left the show, he said. They said some shitty things. There was that David Spade sketch [when Spade showed a picture of Murphy around the time ofVampire in Brooklynand said, Look, children, a falling star]. I made a stink about it, it became part of the folklore. What really irritated me about it at the time was that it was a career shot. It was like, Hey, come on, man, its one thing for you guys to do a joke about some movie of mine, but my career? Im one of you guys. How many people have come off this show whose careers really are fucked up, and you guys are shitting on me? And you know every joke has to go through all the producers, and ultimately, you know Lorne or whoever says, [Lorne Michaels voice] OK, its OK to make this career crack
I felt shitty about that for years, but now, I dont have none of that, Murphy continued. I wouldnt go to retrospectives, but I dont let it linger. I saw David Spade four years ago. Chris Rock was like, Do you guys still hate each other? and I was like, I dont hate David Spade, Im cool with him.'