Speaking as a Gen Xer, I can confidently say that Coming to America is peak Eddie Murphy. The 1988 classic came out in a run of comedies from Murphy that included Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Boomerang, but it almost never got made at all. Paramount initially passed on the movie until Murphy made some critical changes that not only got the movie financed but also helped make it a box office success with an amazing, enduring legacy.
Arsenio Hall, who, in my opinion, was just as important as Murphy in making the movie as funny as it is, was recently asked about the film and why the studio didn't think it was good enough when it was initially pitched. Frankly, it's impossible to think of it without the changes, as it means some of the best characters, like the four old guys at the barber shop, including the Jewish guy, weren't part of the initial pitch.
It was also the first time Murphy played multiple characters in a movie, something he later became legendary for.
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The Characters Were The Key
According to Murphy’s co-star, Coming To America, which you can stream with the AMC+ add-on to a Prime subscription, almost didn’t get greenlit. It was only thanks to a critical change, specifically adding characters like the barbers and the preacher (played by Hall), that sold Paramount on the movie. Hall recently told People:
They turned Coming to America down. We went and pitched it at Paramount, and they said, 'No, thank you.' And we were like, 'Give us some notes. What should we do? 'And they were like, 'We're not sure, but you know, it's a fish out of water. We've seen this a billion times.'
Hall added that those notes included adding characters like Murphy played during his legendary time on Saturday Night Live. So, taking that to heart, Murphy added all the great characters we all love to quote, like the four guys at the barber shop, Hall’s Reverend Brown, and, of course, the great Randy Watson. Hall was excited, as you might expect, telling the magazine:
Eddie came up with the specific characters, and I just sat there shaking because I'm like, I got to do characters with Eddie Murphy. That's like saying, you know, check Jordan. Lock that motherf--ker down. So I was a nervous wreck going into Coming to America.
You certainly don’t see Hall’s nerves on the screen, as his Reverend Brown provides some of the funniest moments in the movie, and of course, his main character, Semmi, is just as funny as any other character in the movie, including all of Murphy’s. It’s rare to hear about the times a studio gives notes that actually worked out, but you can’t be mad at Paramount here, because there is no question that these characters make Coming to America one of the funniest movies of the 1980s, and really, of all time.
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