In the book Live From New York, an NBC exec attributes Eddie Murphy not appearing on the 15th anniversary show to the David Spade Hollywood Minute “falling star” joke. I might be wrong, but as far as I can tell, that joke came after the anniversary show aired.
In the same book, Lorne Michaels says that Murphy was willing to attend the anniversary show, but only if Billy Crystal would not be there. Crystal had made a remark about Murphy in a Playboy interview that Murphy didn’t like, so Murphy didn’t want him to be on the show. Michaels had already invited Crystal, so that was that.
Source: People Magazine January 22, 1990 “Feuding Funnymen” by Mitchell Fink
That explains why Eddie didn’t host the 1989 reunion, and could POSSIBLY explain why he didn’t do the 25th. If he is truly that sensitive, then perhaps the falling star comment really was all that was needed to stop him from going to the next one. (I believe zbuzz is right about that david spade joke happening after the 15th anniversary in 1989).
The thing is, I know on snl that there is an editing process that takes place, and that certain people are “jibe”-able and others are not (based on personal and professional politics). For instance, if there is a possibility that someone may host the show, that person is not repeatedly slandered on air (even when it would be REALLY funny). Considering the on air slandering of him both in regards to the transvestite incident (kevin nealon) and his dwindling career (david spade), I believe we can conclude that he was not welcome on SNL since that last time he hosted.
Snippets of the Crystal interview from Playboy give the distinct impression that Eddie pulled a bit of a Chevy Chase when he returned to host (after no doubt telling all those people how he really felt when he left for hollywood the first time…)
@Hail_Ants: I agree with everything you said EXCEPT the quote above which is quite obviously not true. Or do you think they wrote “Live from new york, it’s the eddie murphy show” on the cue cards?
Well, I feel he’s successfully kept any part of that behind the scenes. I think his public persona has always been & remains him being perceived as a nice guy. And when he did that, “Live from NY, its the Eddie Murphy show!” line it wasn’t so much him being egotistically & arrogant but more him acknowledging his amazing success in a playful, wink-wink sort of way. That’s the way I took it and I think the audience did too (though maybe not the then current SNL cast!)
Ann Risley. As of when the SNL 25th Anniversary book came out, she had the least impressive subsequent career (Her IMDB listing dead-ends at 1993). Gail Matthius, similarly obscure, has an IMDB credit as recently as 2000, but most of it looks like animation voice work.
Pamela Stephenson and Morwenna Banks left the show after brief tenures. Stephenson married Billy Connelly and left show business in 1987 to raise a family and go back to school. Banks (who left the show after four episodes in the 1995-96 season, the same season that ate and digested Sarah Silverman, Laura Kightlinger and Janeane Garofalo) is active in British television.
Stephenson went on to become a clinical psychologist and occasionally appears on UK television doing a one-on-one format “psychology-based interview show” (to quote Wikipedia) called Shrink Rap. She was also on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010; although she was 60 at the time, watching her salsa dance made me think that Billy Connelly was a very, very lucky man.