Saturday Night Live: The Best of Eddie Murphy

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.