Retro Television Review: Coming to America 1.1 “Pilot”

Posted on August 21, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Coming to America, which aired on CBS in 1989. Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Fresh off the success of the film Coming To America, Eddie Murphy served as executive producer of a series based on the film. How did that work out? Read on to find out!

Episode 1.1 “Pilot”

(Dir by Tony Singletary, originally aired on July 4th, 1989)

The pilot for Coming to America begins with the story already in progress. We get an overhead shot of New York while Prince Tariq (Tommy Davidson, speaking with an unconvincing accent) explains that he and his minder, Omar (Paul Bates), have been sent to America so that Tariq can attend college. (Tariq is established as being the younger brother of the character that Eddie Murphy played in the original film.) Tariq and Omar have rented a room from diner owner Carl Mackey (John Hancock). Carl is a curmudgeon. Tariq expects everyone to treat him like royalty. Carl grumbles about not getting to eat unhealthy food before a doctor’s visit. Tariq does an extended Stevie Wonder impersonation.

Uh-oh, Tariq’s out of money! In just nine months, he spends all of his money on movies and clothes. What can Tariq do? Maybe he and Omar can work in Carl’s diner! Uh-oh, Tariq’s started a dance party in the diner and he orders Omar to join the fun! Carl shows up at an inopportune time and Omar is fired. Can Tariq take responsibility for his actions?

“I’m a Beverly Hills Cop, you’re a Beverly Hills cop too and in 48 hours, we’re Trading Places.” Tariq says at one point and seriously, you have to wonder why they didn’t toss a reference to The Golden Child in there. Tariq is royalty so it certainly would have made more sense for him to refer to himself as being a Golden Child as opposed to being a Beverly Hills Cop. That’s the type of show this is, though. The humor is heavy-handed but it also misses way too many opportunities.

My friend from Australia, Mark, sent me the link for this pilot (it’s on YouTube) and he dared me to see how much I could watch before turning it off in disgust. I managed to get through the entire thing but it wasn’t easy. To be honest, I nearly stopped this thing as soon as Tariq’s opening narration began. When that much exposition is stuffed into the opening narration, you know that you’re about watch a disjointed mess of a program. Indeed, one could argue that calling this program disjointed is a case of me being charitable. In the end, the main problem is that, after all the build-up of Tariq being a prince, the plot itself could just as easily been the plot of a thousand other mediocre sitcoms. How many times did Lisa and Kelly have to take jobs at the Max in Saved By The Bell? Both Malibu CA and One World suggested that working at a restaurant was the best — perhaps the only! — way to learn responsibility. The Coming to America diner looks almost exactly like the City Guys diner. How is this not a Peter Engel production?

Coming to America aired once. There was never a second episode. Hence, today, we’ve started and ended a series! Next week, something new will premiere in this time slot. Hopefully, it will be better than both Malibu CA and Coming to America.

4 Shots From 4 Films – featuring Eddie Murphy!

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Bradley Crain

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

I’m just barely getting this in under the wire, but I wanted to celebrate Eddie Murphy’s 64th birthday on April 3rd with a few images from some of his best performances. He is a truly talented actor and comedian, and I’ve pretty much loved him my entire life. Thanks for all the great memories, Eddie, and I’m looking forward to many more!

48 HRS. (1982)

BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984)

DREAMGIRLS (2006)

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME (2019)

Trading Places (1983, directed by John Landis)

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

It all starts with a bet.

As Christmas approaches, Mortimer (Don Ameche) and Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) make a bet to determine whether it’s nature or nurture that shapes someone’s future. The fabulously wealthy owners of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, the brothers casually frame their director, Louis Winthrope III (Dan Aykroyd), for everything from dealing drugs to sealing money to cheating on his girlfriend (Kirstin Holby). After Louis is kicked out of both his job and his mansion, the Dukes hire a street hustler named Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) to take his place. Earlier Winthrope tried to get Valentine arrested for approaching him in the street. Now, Valentine is living in Winthrope’s mansion, with Winthrope’s butler and Winthrope’s job.

While Winthrope tries to survive on the streets with the help of a outwardly cynical but secretly kind-hearted prostitute named Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis, in her first non-horror starring role), Billy Ray surprises everyone by using his street smarts to become a successful, suit-wearing businessman. The Dukes, of course, have no intention of keep Billy Ray Valentine on as their director. Not only are the Dukes snobs but they’re racists as well. Once their one dollar bet has been settled, they start planning to put Billy Ray back out on the streets with Winthrope.

Trading Places was Eddie Murphy’s follow-up to 48 Hrs and he again showed himself to be a natural star while playing the type of role that could have been played by Dan Ayrkroyd’s partner, John Belushi, if not for Belushi’s early death. (Jim Belushi has a cameo as a party guest.) Murphy gets to show off a talent for physical comedy and Trading Places is one of the few films to really take advantage of Dan Aykryod’s talents as both a comedian and actor. Winthrope goes from being a coddled executive to being as streetwise as Valentine. This is probably Aykroyd’s best performance and he and Eddie Murphy make for a good team.

But the real stars of the film are four actors who weren’t really thought of as being comedic actors, Denholm Elliott, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and especially Jamie Lee Curtis. Ophelia is a much edgier character than the “final girls” that Curtis was playing in horror films and Curtis steals almost every scene that she’s in. Ameche and Bellamy are great villains and it’s fun to watch them get their comeuppance. What screwball comedy would be complete without a sarcastic butler? Denholm Elliot fills the role of Coleman perfectly.

Trading Places was a box office success when it was released and it’s now seen as being one of the new Christmas classics, a film for the adults to enjoy while the kids watch Rudolph and Frosty. I think the movie ends up going overboard towards the end with the gorilla and Dan Aykroyd wearing blackface but, for the most part part, it’s still a very funny and clever movie.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984, directed by Martin Best)

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Two years after teaming with Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs., Eddie Murphy returned to the action genre in what remains he best-known action comedy, Beverly Hills Cop.

We all know the story. Eddie Murphy is Axel Foley, a streetsmart detective in Detroit whose childhood friend, Mickey (James Russo), is murdered because of something that he saw while working as a security guard in Beverly Hills. Axel plays by his own rules and gets results even as he gives his boss, Inspector Todd (Gil Hill), heartburn. Todd refuses to allow Foley to investigate Mickey’s death so Axel puts in for some vacation time and catches the first plane to Beverly Hills.

In Beverly Hills, he meets up with another childhood friend, Jenny (Lisa Eilbacher). Axel thinks that Mickey’s murder was ordered by a shady businessman named Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff). The Beverly Hills Police Department orders Axel to leave Maitland alone and to return to Detroit. Axel won’t go until he gets justice for Mickey. Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox) assigns Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) to follow Axel in Beverly Hills.

Like 48 Hrs., the story is serious but the comedy comes from how the well-drawn characters interact with each other and from seeing how Axel reacts to the strange and wealthy world of Beverly Hills. Axel has the same reactions that we would have but, because he’s played by Eddie Murphy, he always has the perfect response to everything that he sees, whether it’s dealing with a snooty hotel clerk or with someone like Serge (Bronson Pichot), Jenny’s co-worker who speaks with an unidentifiable accent. Even more so than in 48 Hrs or Trading Places, Murphy reveals himself to be a natural star here. One reason why we like Axel is because he’s not just funny but he’s also the type of confident hero that we all wish we could be. He’s not intimidated by Beverly Hills for a second.

It’s now impossible to picture anyone else in the role of Axel Foley but, when the film’s script was first being shopped around, it was originally offered to Sylvester Stallone, who said the story had potential but was missing something. He rewrote the script and took out all of the humor, turning it into a grim and serious action film. (It is rumored that Stallone later turned his version of the script into Cobra.) Fortunately, Stallone eventually dropped out of Beverly Hills Cop so that he could co-star with Dolly Parton in Rhinestone. Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, then at the start of their producing careers, then offered the role to Eddie Murphy, who took Stallone’s script and added back all of the humor. Murphy also ended up ad-libbing several of the film’s best one-liners, improvising the hotel lobby scene and the meeting with Serge on the spot.

Beverly Hills Cop was a huge success, cementing Murphy’s status as a star and proving that Murphy could carry a movie on his own. The film still holds up, certainly better than any of the sequels that followed. Even though Murphy was clearly the main attraction, the movie also gave actors like John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Ronny Cox, Bronson Pinchot, and even Paul Reiser a chance to shine. The villainous performances of Steven Berkoff and Jonathan Banks would serve as a model for countless bad guys through the 80s and 90s. Beverly Hills Cop is a movie that makes you happy that Sylvester Stallone didn’t have a better sense of humor.

48 Hrs (1982, directed by Walter Hill)

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

48 Hrs. begins with a violent and bloody jailbreak. The fearsome Billy Bear (Sonny Landham) helps his criminal associate, Albert Ganz (James Remar), escape from a chain gang and kills several guards in the process. Billy and Ganz then head to San Francisco, where they start killing their former associates while searching for Luther (David Patrick Kelly). Another bloody shootout leaves several detectives dead and SFPD Detective Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) looking for revenge.

That’s not the way you might expect one of the most famous comedies of the 80s to begin. It’s not until Jack arranges for another associate of of Ganz’s to be released from prison for 48 hours that anything humorous happens in the film. However, because Reggie Hammond is played by Eddie Murphy, 48 Hrs. quickly becomes very funny.

Murphy was appearing on Saturday Night Live when he was cast in 48 Hrs, in a role that was written with Richard Pryor in mind. One of the first things that Murphy requested was that the character’s name be changed from Willie Biggs to Reggie Hammond. Murphy made the role his own and watching him, it’s hard to believe that he was only 21 and also that 48 Hrs was his first film. Murphy performs with the confidence of a natural movie star. He’s good in the film’s most famous scene, where he pretends to be a cop and talks down an entire bar full of rednecks. (I can’t repeat his most famous line but everyone knows it.) But Murphy is even better in the scenes where he’s just reacting to Nolte’s slovenly cop.

The comedy in 48 Hrs comes from the mismatched partnership and initially hostile chemistry of Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond. Cates has a job to do while Reggie, understandably, wants to enjoy as much freedom as he can before he gets sent back to prison. The humor is so effective because it’s almost entirely character-based. There are no gags but there are two well-written characters with differing ways of looking at the world who have to learn how to work with each other. The two of them start out disliking and distrusting each other but ultimately become best friends, even if Jack does punch Reggie and Reggie does keep trying to steal Jack’s lighter. Because this is a Walter Hill movie, there’s still a lot of action. Nolte and Murphy may make you laugh but there’s nothing funny about full-on psycho performances of James Remar and Sonny Landham. 48 Hrs. not only allows Murphy and Nolte to show off their comedic ability but it also allows them to be true action heroes.

Popular with critics and audiences, 48 Hrs. was the most commercially successful film of 1982. It set the standard for most buddy-cop movies to this day and it introduced the world to Eddie Murphy.

#MondayMuggers – Why 48 HRS (1982)?

Posted on December 30, 2024 by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday December 30th, we’re watching 48 HRS. starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.

So why did I pick 48 HRS., you might ask?

It’s quite simply one of the best “Buddy-Cop” action comedies of all time! If you love tough, violent, badass action, as well as laughing your ass off, 48 HRS. is the perfect movie for you.
Eddie Murphy made one of the great film debuts of all time with 48 HRS. After establishing himself as a comic genius on Saturday Night Live with roles like Mr. White, Buckwheat, and Mr. Robinson, Murphy absolutely steals his debut film. Nick Nolte is also great as the tough, grizzled cop, but it’s Murphy’s performance that turned this into a classic.
Walter Hill directed 48 HRS. and he’s one of my favorite directors. My personal favorite film as I type this is Hill’s directorial debut, HARD TIMES (1975), starring legendary tough guy icon, Charles Bronson. Hill has such a great resume of top-notch films including THE DRIVER (1978), THE WARRIORS (1979), THE LONG RIDERS (1980), SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981), CROSSROADS (1986), EXTREME PREJUDICE (1987), and RED HEAT (1988). And 48 HRS. is probably the best of the bunch.
I love the songs in the film. Of course it starts with Eddie Murphy’s rendition of “Roxanne” by The Police. And then you can’t help but want to dance when the BusBoys are singing “The Boys are Back in Town” and “New Shoes.” Heck, I love “Torchy’s Boogie” by Ira Newborn as well, setting the stage for Murphy’s rousting of the redneck bar, one of the movie’s best scenes!

So join us tonight to for #MondayMuggers and watch 48 HRS. It’s on Amazon Prime.

#MondayMuggers – Why TOWER HEIST?

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday November 25th, we’re watching TOWER HEIST starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, and Matthew Broderick.

So why did Sierra pick TOWER HEIST, you might ask? It’s simple. It’s a Thanksgiving movie. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is even used as a key part of the heist strategy! Sierra and I love the holidays and we’re getting in the spirit. We hope watching this movie will enhance your Thanksgiving week!

It’s on Amazon Prime, and we’ll be following along the theatrical edition (NOT the Extended Edition). Join us if you’d like!

Axel Foley heads back West in the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Teaser!

Posted on December 14, 2023 by Leonard Wilson

Personally, I think we’ve milked the Nostalgia Train for all it’s worth, but if audiences are looking forward to it, maybe it’s a good thing. I forgot there was a third entry in the Beverly Hills Cop films, but then recalled it was the one with George Lucas in it. While we’re not sure why Detroit’s Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is returning to Beverly Hills, it’s good to see that most of his friends are there to greet him. It looks like they brought in Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, John Aston and even Bronson Pinchot along for the ride. New additions appear to be both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon.

The film is due out next March.

Film Review: You People (dir by Kenya Barris)

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Ezra Cohen (Jonah Hill) and Amirah Mohammed (Lauren London) have been dating for six months. Ezra is a Jewish atheist who works at a brokerage firm but who says his lifelong dream has been to be a podcaster. Lauren is Black and a devout Muslim. A graduate of Howard University, she is pursuing a career as a designer. Despite coming from very different backgrounds, Ezra and Amirah are deeply in love and want to get married. However, becoming engaged also means …. MEETING THE PARENTS!

Shelley and Arnold Cohen (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny) are self-styled progressives who immediately embarrass Ezra by going out of their way to trying to show how liberal and non-racist they are. Shelley, in particular, goes out of her way to bond with Amirah but it’s immediately obvious that Shelley views Amirah as being more someone to show off than as an actual human being. Meanwhile, Akbar Mohammed and Fatima Mohammed (played by Eddie Murphy and Nia Long) are members of the Nation of Islam who admire Louis Farrakhan and who claim that the Jews were behind the slave trade.

Just from that plot description, you can see a huge part of the problem with the new film, You People. Whereas Shelley’s problem is that she’s too quick to brag about how much she loves the idea of having a black daughter-in-law, Akbar’s problem is that he’s an anti-Semite. His main objections to Ezra are that 1) Ezra isn’t black and 2) Ezra’s Jewish. While Shelley takes Amirah shopping, Akbar tries to get Ezra killed by tricking him into wearing “the wrong colors” to a barbershop. While Shelley shows off Amirah to all of her liberal friends, Akbar shoves Ezra onto a basketball court. While Shelley is awkwardly trying to prove that she’s an ally, Akbar is inviting himself to Ezra’s wild Las Vegas bachelor party. (Akbar is disturbed to discover that Ezra has a “coke guy.” If this film had been made ten years ago, Ezra would have had a weed guy and it would have been easier to buy the film’s contention that Akbar is being unreasonable.) Shelley is certainly obnoxious and she fully deserves to get called out for her behavior. But Akbar is an anti-Semite who peddles the type of conspiracy theories that have been at the center of the alarming rise in recent hate crimes. Whereas Shelley is clueless, Akbar is actually malicious. And while that’s a story that one certainly could try to tell, it also makes it a bit difficult to buy the film’s fanciful ending. The movie ultimately can’t decide if it wants to be a fearless satire of race relations or a feel-good romcom. The tone of the film switches from scene to scene and Kenya Barris’s direction is so inconsistent that he makes Judd Apatow look like a disciplined filmmaker by comparison.

The cast is full of talent but the characters are largely one-dimensional. Jonah Hill is undoubtedly a good actor but he’s also nearly 40 years old and, with his full beard, he looks about ten years older, which makes it a bit hard to believe that he would be that concerned with getting the approval of his future in-laws. At first, a role of Akbar would seem ideal for Eddie Murphy but, with the exception of a scene where Akbar quizzes Ezra on his favorite Jay-Z song in an attempt to trick Ezra into saying the “n-word,” Murphy doesn’t really get to do much other than stand around with a pained expression on his face. Probably the most interesting performance in the film comes from Mike Epps, who plays Akbar’s brother and who is one of the few characters willing to call everyone out on their hypocrisy. But, unfortunately, Epps is only in a handful of scenes and the film uses him as more of a dramatic device than a fully rounded character.

As I watched You People, I couldn’t help but think about another film about an interracial wedding, Rachel Getting Married. That film provided a believable and multi-layered look at two different cultures coming together. You People, however, can’t quite make up its mind what it believes or what it wants to say and, unfortunately, what it does say is often said with a surprising lack of self-awareness. At times, it’s so proud of itself that it feels like it almost could have been written by Shelley Cohen.

You People is streaming on Netflix.

Moments in Television History #17: Charles Rocket Nearly Ends SNL

Posted on February 21, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

On this day, 41 years ago, Saturday Night Live was nearly canceled.

In 1981, Saturday Night Live was in its 6th season and things weren’t going so well. Lorne Michaels had left the program and he had taken what was left of the original cast with him. The new producer, Jean Doumanian, had hired an entirely new group of writers and performers. Doumanian felt that her biggest star would be a former news anchorman-turned-comedian named Charles Rocket. In order to prop up Rocket, she surrounded him with a cast that included Gilbert Gottfried, Denny Dillon, and Joe Piscopo. (Among those who auditioned but were not selected: Jim Carrey, John Goodman and Paul Reubens.) Seeking a black comedian who could take over the roles that were previously played by Garrett Morris, Doumanian tried to recruit a performer named Charlie Barnett. When Barnett skipped his second audition, she then considered hiring Robert Townsend before she finally settled on a 19 year-old stand-up comedian named Eddie Murphy.

To no one’s surprise, the initial reviews of the new Saturday Night Live were brutal. Everyone knew it would be difficult, at first, to win over the critics who were used to Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Belushi, Aykroyd, and Lorne Michaels. What no one expected was that the reviews would never get better and that, instead of Charles Rocket, it would be Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo who would emerge as the new fan favorites. Reportedly, a few of the cast members resented Murphy and Piscopo’s success. No one was happy with the way Doumanian was running the show. It didn’t take long until Season 6 was better known for its backstage tension than for it comedy. As ratings plunged, there were even rumors that the show might not be renewed.

On February 21st, 1981, those tensions went from being backstage to being on thousands of televisions. The night’s episode was hosted by Charlene Tilton, a cast member of what was then the most popular show in prime time, Dallas. Everyone in the country was debating who had shot J.R. Ewing. Saturday Night Live decided to do its own tak on the phenomenon by asking, “Who shot Charles Rocket?” Over the course of the show, Rocket was shown having a conflict with every member of the cast. Finally, towards the end of the episode, Rocket was shot. During the traditional goodbyes, Rocket appeared sitting in a wheelchair and smoking a cigarette. With the rest of the cast surrounding him, Tilton asked him how he was feeling.

Here’s what happened:

“Oh, man.” Rocket said, “I’ve never been shot before. I wish I knew who the fuck did it.” It can be difficult to hear him in the video above but you can tell from the reactions of the cast that everyone immediately knew what Rocket had said.

This may not seem like a big deal today but this happened in 1981. This was before HBO started producing their own shows. This was before anyone had ever heard of a streaming service. This was when there was only three major networks and they were all closely watched by the FCC. Dropping an F-bomb on live television, with no tape delay or chance to bleep it out, was a big deal.

Later, Charles Rocket would say that he didn’t even realize what he had said. That could have been true but the look on his face after he said it suggests that Rocket was aware of what he was saying. Before Rocket said it, there had been reports that NBC was planning on firing the entire cast at the end of the season. Did Rocket make an honest mistake (one that has since been made a few more times by cast members and guests on SNL) or was he going out with a bang? Was this Rocket’s way of getting back at a network that didn’t appreciate him?

The reports about NBC planning to make changes were true, to an extent. The plan was to fire Doumanian and replace her with Dick Ebersol. Most of the cast was going to be fired but NBC was specifically planning on keeping the three performers who it was felt were the strongest members of the ensemble: Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and Charles Rocket! Needless to say, after Rocket’s bit of improvisation, NBC changed its mind.

At first, it seemed like the show itself might also get canceled as a result. In1981, the networks had to deal with people like Jerry Falwell leading crusades to cleans up network television. Just as Fredric Wertham once blamed juvenile delinquency on comic books, all sorts of problems were being blamed on television. Jean Doumanian was fired after one more episode, along with Charles Rocket, Gilbert Gottfried, and cast member Ann Risley. Tragically, Charles Rocket’s career never recovered from this moment. Today, it probably wouldn’t be as big a deal. NBC would get hit by a fine but the moment itself would go viral and lead to even bigger ratings. But in 1981, saying the F-word on national television was a career killer. Rocket did appear in several movies, usually playing smarmy villains. But he never reached the stardom that had been predicted for him and ended up taking his own life in 2005.

In the end, the only thing that saved Saturday Night Live was that the Writers Guild went on strike and production on every NBC show shut down. By the time the strike was settled, the season was over and Dick Ebersol had managed to convince NBC to let him keep the series going by focusing on Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. When Saturday Night Live returned for its seventh season, Murphy was the undisputed center of the show. He achieved the stardom that had originally been predicted for Charles Rocket.

Previous Moments In Television History: