Saturday Night Live: The Best of Eddie Murphy (1998) (V)

Directors:

Andy Breckman
Dave Wilson
(more)

Writers:

(more)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Plot:

Before he was The Nutty Professor, before he was Dr. Dolittle, and even before he was the Beverly Hills Cop...

Plot Keywords:

Musician | Social Satire | Pop Culture | Compilation | Performer Name In Title

Cast

Eddie Murphy	...	Himself / Various Characters (archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sheree Ali	...	Gumby's Wife (archive footage) (uncredited)
Billy Crystal	...	Lew Goldman (archive footage) (uncredited)
James Downey	...	Newspaper Vendor (archive footage) (uncredited)
Robin Duke	...	Herself / Various Characters (archive footage) (uncredited)
Mary Gross	...	Herself / Various Characters (archive footage) (uncredited)
Christopher Guest	...	Mort Schmegman (archive footage) (uncredited)
Rich Hall	...	Waiter (archive footage) (uncredited)
Tim Kazurinsky	...	Himself / Various Characters (archive footage) (uncredited)
Charles Q. Murphy	...	Friend (uncredited) (archive footage)
Joe Piscopo	...	Himself / Various Characters (archive footage) (uncredited)
Tony Rosato	...	Secretary (archive footage) (uncredited)
Lisa Ruffin	...	Various (archive footage) (uncredited)
Martin Short	...	Irving Cohen (archive footage) (uncredited)
Clint Smith	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Stevie Wonder	...	Stevie Wonder Impersonator (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Andy Breckman		(segment "White Like Me")
Dave Wilson		(archive footage)
Claude Kerven		(segment "Buckwheat assasination") (uncredited)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Eddie Murphy		uncredited
Michael O'Donoghue		uncredited

Produced by
Ken Aymong	....	supervising producer
Dick Ebersol	....	executive producer
Stacey Foster	....	coordinating producer
Michael Shoemaker	....	co-producer

Original Music by
David Allen Jones

Film Editing by
Ed Hinch		(video tape)

Production Management
Gary Considine	....	executive in charge of production

Sound Department
Chris Seeger	....	post-production audio
Jay Vicari	....	post-production audio

Editorial Department
Nicholas S. Mallardi	....	editor: avid

Other crew
Laurie Berdan	....	research coordinator
Robert Caminiti	....	associate director (as Bob Caminiti)
Sharon Haskell	....	title sequence
Tom Mezzio	....	research coordinator
Lyle Schweitzer	....	research coordinator
Scott Weinstein	....	research coordinator

Distributors

• Europa Filmes (2000) (Brazil) (VHS)
• NBC Studios
• Trimark Video

Runtime:

USA:77 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Quotes:

Little Richard Simmons:[Little Richard Simmons' 'Sweatin' to the Oldies']
[to the tune of "I'm Ready"]
Little Richard Simmons:Ready, set, go cat go, I know a girl whose butt hang low. She flabby, flabby, flabby flabby! She flabby, flabby, flabby, Flabby! She flabby, step on your foot, she'll mash your toe!
[to the tune of 'Good Golly, Miss Molly]
Little Richard Simmons:Good golly, Miss Molly; look like a hog! Good Golly, Miss Molly, look like a hog! Better start runnin' cause you waited to late to jog!
[to the tune of 'Tutti Fruitti']
Little Richard Simmons:A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!Tutti-frutti, all rooti; tutti-frutti, all rooti, Tutti-frutti, all rooti, tooti-fruit all rooti; a wop lop a boo bop a wop bam boom!Know a gal name Daisy, the girl is fat and lazy; wooooo! know a gal named Daisy, the girl is fat and lazy! She got fat to the east, fat to the west, the girl got long and floppy breasts! tutti-frutti all rooti, tuttoe frutti all rooti, wooooo, tutti frutti all rooti, tootie all rooti, a wop bop a loo bop a wop bam boom!

Movie Connections:

Edited from "Saturday Night Live: Rod Stewart (#7.1)" (1981)

Soundtrack:

Rock and Roll Music

Fast Eddie Saved Saturday Night Live

Now this is the real Saturday Night Live: funny, biting, mean, and hilarious. The show from a quarter century ago had a diamond in the rough and an equally funny companion, Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. These two single-handedly revived the franchise after the original cast left, and far outshone the originals in terms of raw talent. Eddie was a phenomenon of the comedy world that the now-pathetic SNL may never see again. He was only 19 when he joined, but he was highly versatile in his ability to do impressions, which was his best talent. Eddie knew how to work the audience, and gave the people precisely what they wanted. He was enthusiastic and energetic, and could do anything from James Brown to a curmudgeonly old Jewish man. He created a menagerie of very funny and highly memorable characters. His fast-talking Brooklyn stand-up style was a welcome change to the by-the-numbers comedy school comedians who made up the rest of the SNL cast in the early Eighties. Eddie was fresh and exciting, and far from pedestrian. No comedian on SNL, even among those of the so-called "great" originals, such as John Belushi or Bill Murray, rose from nothing to international fame and fortune as fast, or at such a young age, as Eddie Murphy. He was like a bright comet in the comedy heavens that is really an anomaly.

I highly doubt SNL can ever hope to hedge their bets on another boy wonder like Eddie. A talent like his is hard to find. Jean Douminian and Ebersole's decision to cast Eddie was pure good luck, and I doubt Lorne Michaels will ever come across such a serendipitous find for the rest of his career.