Eddie Murphy is taking a thoughtful look back at one of the most notorious rifts in his career — his decades-long feud with Saturday Night Live. In his new Netflix documentary Being Eddie, the 64-year-old comedy icon opens up about the moment he felt deeply betrayed by the show that launched him into superstardom.

Murphy, who became a breakout cast member on SNL from 1980 to 1984, explained that the conflict began in the mid-1990s when the program allowed cast member David Spade to take what Murphy considered a cheap and personal shot at him on national television.

“It’s like your alma mater taking a shot at you,” Murphy recalls in the documentary. “At my career — not how funny I was. Called me a falling star.”
(Source: Netflix / Being Eddie, 2025)

The 1995 joke that ruptured the relationship

In 1995, during Spade’s popular “Hollywood Minute” segment, he held up a photo of Murphy — whose film Vampire in Brooklyn had underperformed at the box office — and delivered a biting line:
“Look, children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish.”

According to Murphy, the joke wasn’t just personally hurtful — it represented an institutional betrayal.
“If there was a joke now about a former SNL cast member, about how messed up their career was, it would get shot down,” he said. “It went through all those channels, and then it was on the air.”
(Source: Variety, reporting on the documentary)

Murphy explained that he never primarily blamed Spade.
“I wasn’t like, ‘f–k David Spade.’ I was like, ‘f–k SNL.’ That’s what y’all think of me? Oh, you dirty mother f—ers. And that’s why I didn’t go back for years.”

A career-defining legacy — and a painful break

Murphy’s reaction is understandable considering how important SNL was to his early success. His characters — Mr. Robinson, Gumby, Buckwheat — became instant cultural touchstones and helped revive the show during a difficult era.
As The New York Times noted, Murphy “essentially carried SNL on his back” during the early 1980s (source: NYT, 2025).

So when the show mocked his career downturn, Murphy felt blindsided.
“It was like, ‘Yo, how could you do that? My career? Really?’ I thought that was a cheap shot. And I felt it was racist,” he told The New York Times in a 2025 interview.

The long road back to Studio 8H

Despite their fractured relationship, Murphy slowly began warming toward reconciliation over the next two decades. He returned briefly for the SNL 40th Anniversary Special in 2015, though he declined to perform comedy at the time — a moment that signaled lingering discomfort.

By 2019, however, Murphy decided it was time to fully bury the hatchet. With his film career quiet and fans eager to see him return to the stage, he accepted the invitation to host SNL for the first time in 35 years.

“People don’t realize I’ve taken a break,” Murphy recalls thinking. “Let me get off this couch to remind them that I’m funny… I’m on the couch by choice.”
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, 2019)

Hosting the show was both a professional triumph — earning him widespread acclaim and an Emmy Award — and a personal breakthrough.
“‘SNL’ is part of my history. I needed to reconnect with that show because that’s where I come from.”

Murphy appeared once again at the show’s 50th anniversary celebration in early 2025, confirming that the relationship had healed.

No lingering bitterness

In Being Eddie, Murphy makes it clear that he holds no lingering resentment toward Spade or series creator Lorne Michaels.
“That little friction I had with SNL was 35 years ago. I don’t have no smoke with David Spade. I don’t have heat with anybody. I was like, ‘Let me go to SNL and smooth it all out.’ And I did.”

For his part, Spade had already acknowledged in his 2015 memoir Almost Interesting that he understood why Murphy was upset, writing:
“I’ve come to see Eddie’s point. I know for a fact I can’t take it when it comes my way.”

A legacy intact

Today, Murphy stands as one of the most influential comedians in modern history — a performer who shaped the DNA of American comedy and whose impact on SNL remains unmatched.
As Rolling Stone wrote in a retrospective ranking Murphy the No. 2 greatest SNL cast member of all time, “Eddie Murphy didn’t just save the show — he reinvented what sketch comedy could be” (source: Rolling Stone, 2024).

With his new Netflix documentary and a renewed public presence, Murphy appears more reflective, self-assured, and at peace than ever.

Being Eddie is now streaming on Netflix.