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After 30 Years, Eddie Murphy Returns to SNL For Show’s 40th Anniversary Special

It has been more than 30 years since comedy superstar Eddie Murphy was last spotted on Saturday Night Live, but the award-winning actor will be returning to the show that launched him into the stratosphere for its upcoming 40th anniversary special.

Comedians who started out on SNL have frequently returned to the late night comedy skit show but Murphy has been missing from the Rockefeller Center stage for three decades.

During an interview with NewsOne Now’s Roland Martin, Murphy revealed that his long awaited return has finally come.

“It just never worked out where the timing was right for me to do it,” Murphy explained of his absence from the show. “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.”

NBC has not publicly commented on Murphy’s return.

It isn’t clear just how much air time Murphy will have, but there will certainly be an audience tuning in to the special just to see how the reunion plays out.

While there didn’t seem to be any harsh feelings when Murphy made his leave, a few jokes about the comedian on the late night show rubbed him the wrong way.

“They were sh***y to me on ‘Saturday Night Live’ a couple of times after I’d left the show,” Murphy said during an interview back in 2011. “They said some sh***y things. There was that David Spade sketch. I made a stink about it, it became a part of the folklore.”

The skit referred to Murphy as a “falling star” and according to him that’s what he had a major problem with.

eddie murphy“What really irritated me about it at the time was that it was a career shot,” Murphy said of the joke. “It was like, ‘Hey, come on, man, it’s one thing for your guys to do a joke about some movie of mine, but my career? I’m one of you guys. How many people have come off this show whose careers really are f****d up, and you guys are sh*****g on me?’ And you know every joke has to go through all the producers, and ultimately, you know Lorne or whoever says, ‘OK, it’s OK to make this career crack.’ “

Despite the tensions from the past, Murphy says he doesn’t have hatred for anyone now.

“I wouldn’t go to retrospectives, but I don’t let it linger,” he added. “I saw David Spade four years ago. Chris Rock was like, ‘Do you guys still hate each other?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t hate David Spade, I’m cool with him.’ “

The anniversary special will mark the first time Murphy has returned to SNL since he hosted the show back in 1984.

By that time he had already been launched into stardom with his role in Beverly Hills Cop.

 

 

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