When news broke that Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall would be returning to their classic roles for the sequel to Coming to America, fans rejoiced! This wasn't just because Eddie was coming back to the big screen after a long hiatus. It was also because the 1988 original has a massive and dedicated fanbase. So much so that they've recently defended the 2021 sequel against the negative reviews from the critics. So, chances are, fans of the original film would love any story that took place in that universe... Therefore, they might be disappointed to learn that there was actually a Coming To America TV show that was canceled. Here's why...
Paramount Wanted In On An Eddie Murphy TV Show
Back when Coming to America was first released, Eddie was on top of the world. Who would have thought that he'd come so far from his days on Saturday Night Live. He was so hot that Paramount Studios even granted his request to give him his own production company, Eddie Murphy Television. According to a fascinating article by Level, his first project was an hour sketch show called Uptown Comedy Express.
"Since it was Eddie’s idea, Paramount said, 'Okay, we’ll let you have the TV company, and you can have your boys, but we need someone in the industry who is able to actually make a deal.' In other words, we need somebody White over there if you’re serious. So they gave him [producer and president of the production company] Mark McClafferty," executive assistant to the president of Eddie Muprhy Telelvion Shelly Clark-White said.
After Coming to America proved to be a massive hit, Paramount was thrilled with Eddie's idea to do a show through his production company about his character's little brother.
The premise of the show would follow King Akeem's little brother Tariq to New York City where he attended Queens College. The show would have seen Paul Bates reprise his role as Oha and be Tariq's personal aide. Tariq was supposed to be played by up-and-coming comedian Tommy Davidson. While a pilot of the show was filmed and aired, the project went belly-up and Tommy's career was basically ruined.
What Happened With The TV Show?
The script was 'eh' and didn't exactly show off Tommy's skills as an actor and comedian. Eddie was also barely involved and Tommy ran into major conflict with the show's showrunner, Ken Hecht, who was best-known for writing Diff’rent Strokes and Webster. While these shows were predominately about Black characters, they were always seen through a white lens, something Ken Hecht seemingly couldn't avoid, according to Tommy Davidson.
"I knew that Tommy Davidson was a real talent," Shelley explained. "I had gone to see him live and loved his show. I was playing him up a lot. I had been actively trying to get Eddie Murphy to go see Tommy at the comedy clubs, but at first he was kind of resistant."
At the time, Tommy was a real rising star on the comedy circuit. Still, he had to do a lot to convince the crew behind the Coming To America TV show, most of whom wanted Marlon Wayans or Wesley Snipes to play Tariq. Eventually, Tommy convinced both the crew and Paramount that he was the guy for the job. Tommy, of course, was thrilled, after all, how could he go wrong with working with one of the biggest stars in the world... Little did he know at the time.
"We got Ken Hecht to write the script. Paramount suggested him," President of Eddie Murphy TV McClafferty said to Level. "We initially wanted Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield, the guys who wrote the Coming to America movie, but they weren’t available. I don’t think their agents wanted them to do it. They would’ve been the best choice."
"The executive producer, Ken Hecht, had carte blanche. The material was wack. I had a great cast, but it was more of a dictatorship style of TV : 'Just do what I say,'" Tommy Davidson explained.
To this day, Tommy and Clint Smith (the vice president of Eddie Murphy TV) maintain that all of the best creative choices were made by them and not Ken. In fact, they thought his script "sucked".
On top of Ken's writing style, he was also causing major drama on the set, particularly with Tommy.
"I’m improving all over the place. Killing it," Tommy explained. 'Ken kept saying, 'Nah nah nah, that’ll never work.' But the interesting thing was, society was changing. The perception of Blacks was not the same as the television perception of White writers that wrote Black shows. We didn’t have a whole lot of Black writers then. So I’m left with the old regime style of doing things, which is, 'Shut up, Black person. I’m writing this.'"
On top of this, Tommy claims that he didn't get any help from Eddie Murphy. According to the Level article, Eddie wouldn't even return Tommy's phone calls nor visit the set despite it being a 10-minute walk from his office. The only time Eddie would visit the set is if he was working on the show... But this was rare.
"Had he come down there and said, 'This is my show and this is my star and this is what I want him doing,' it could’ve been a situation like Roseanne or Seinfeld," Tommy Davidson stated. "Roseanne represented the poor White people in America. The comedy was coming out of her stand-up. Seinfeld was a hip Jew with his friends. The urban framework of Coming to America was based on what existed at the time. The potential of that collaboration never got fulfilled."
On top of this, Paramount was becoming quite unhappy with Eddie's lack of involvement in the show. After all, they wanted an Eddie Murphy series with his face or sense of comedy plastered all over it... But that's not what they got. Eddie just wanted to do movies at the time.
Upon receiving the pilot, Paramount decided to air it on a day that nobody was watching television. The result was poor ratings. The show was axed, no subsequent episodes were filmed, and Tommy Davidson basically floated into cultural oblivion. In short, it was a major flop.
