{"id":9216,"date":"2019-08-05T04:45:21","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T09:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=9216"},"modified":"2019-08-09T17:12:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T22:12:03","slug":"eddie-murphy-saturday-night-live-robert-townsend-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2019\/08\/05\/eddie-murphy-saturday-night-live-robert-townsend-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Eddie Murphy Get His SNL Gig After Another Comedian Forgot to Sign His Contract?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here<\/a> to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n

TV URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Eddie Murphy’s spot on Saturday Night Live was only available because another comedian forgot to sign his contract.<\/p>\n

Reader Jim S. wrote in to ask about the following piece of information that he had read about how Eddie Murphy was cast on Saturday Night Live in 1980’s Season 6. From TV Tropes, it states that Robrt Townsend “[a]uditioned for season six and was chosen to be a cast member, but everyone else (save Jean Doumanian) saw potential in an up-and-coming stand-up comedian at the time named Eddie Murphy. Also, Robert Townsend forgot to sign his contract.”<\/p>\n

Robert Townsend, of course, was a talented stand-up comedian in the early 1980s who later gained a good deal of acclaim for his film work, especially his 1987 satirical film, Hollywood Shuffle, which he wrote, directed and starred in (Townsend would also later create and star in Meteor Man and the sitcom, The Parent’Hood). <\/p>\n

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