The classic 1990s TV show Eddie Murphy watches every single day: “Two episodes, then lights out”
In this day and age, the list of big names who haven’t hopped on the 21st century’s prestige TV bandwagon grows smaller by the year, but don’t expect Eddie Murphy to join them.
He doesn’t seem interested in making anything but legacy sequels and formulaic comedies these days, anyway, and even though streaming has been his exclusive home since 2019 and several platforms host the best shows on television, Murphy’s arm is unlikely to be twisted.
Based on what he’s been cranking out since exploding back onto the scene with a standout performance in Dolemite Is My Name, he probably can’t be arsed with the hassle of shooting multiple episodes. He was supposed to be in a TV series once, with Axel Foley intended to make recurring cameos on a planned Beverly Hills Cop show that followed the character’s son, but he turned down the regular commitment.
Since leaving Saturday Night Live in 1984, Murphy hasn’t appeared on the small screen in the flesh as a character other than himself since 1989, when he popped up as James Brown in the 1989 pilot episode What’s Alan Watching?, which he produced, and which wasn’t ordered to series.
Everything since then has been voiceover work, with the former A-list megastar creating, executive producing, and voicing Thurgood Stubbs in 31 of The PJs‘ 43 episodes, with everything else rolling off the Shrek gravy train. Clearly, the man’s on-camera interest in television is non-existent, but when he’s at home, he’s developed a ritual revolving around a seminal 1990s favourite.
He once called Ridiculousness “the best show on television,” and it’s something that he’ll watch any time, any place, wherever he can, but that’s not the one he’s conditioned himself to watch before he hits the hay. Instead, the SNL favourite and former undisputed champion of the box office prefers the greatest series ever made about nothing.
“I’m a huge fan of the Seinfeld show,” Murphy revealed. “I watch Seinfeld every night before I go to bed. Two episodes of Seinfeld, then lights out.” Funnily enough, during his SNL days, he shared two seasons as a cast member with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who’d win an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing Elaine Benes, before they reunited as co-stars for the first time in almost 40 years for the forgettable You People.
Seinfeld‘s reputation speaks for itself, with the comedy evolving into the most-watched show on American television during its run, and since going off the airwaves in 1998 with a finale that brought a nation to a standstill and drew over 76 million viewers in the United States, it’s only solidified its position as one of the most acclaimed, influential, and iconic comedies of the modern era.
Does Eddie Murphy look like a Seinfeld guy? Not really, but he doesn’t look much like a Ridiculousness guy, either. And yet, he can’t bring himself to put his head on the pillow until he’s watched a couple of episodes of Jerry and the gang getting up to their usual tricks.
