Page 7 - Pop History: Coming to America

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

We take a look at the making of the classic Eddie Murphy comedy.Wanna support the show and get bonus episodes? Find out how on our Patreon: Patreon.com/Page7PodcastKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I believe the children are future. You treat them well? No, we'll let them lead the way. I never knew that that was Eddie Murphy growing up. You guys, welcome to coming to America's conversation today. I don't know about y'all, but it is definitely one of my family's favorite movies of all time. Welcome to Pop History. My name is Jackie Zabrowski.

My name is Holda McNeely, a absolute classic. That was that film. to growing up that it was just like it was a little forbidden. It was a little before you're, you know, since you're a little kid when that movie's popular. And so it was always kind of like, what are the dirty parts? And then seeing the uncensored version and then later getting to see the,

or seeing the censored version, later getting to see the uncensored version and how fun that is with the whole, because I remember it being like, the royal penis is clean. I, it's great, which I also was scandalous. And yet growing up, you realize how scandalous it actually is. Yeah, a lot of jokes I actually got watching it again recently. Natalie, you've watched the shit out of this movie.

Yeah, hey, I'm Natalie Jean. And yes, in fact, I have the very distinct memory as a little girl that it was the first time I'd ever seen a women's nude breasts was that movie. I was probably maybe five at the time. How did you feel about the breast? I went, hmm, quality. like any five-year-old would. They are beautiful women. Yes.

Yes. This movie is chock full of beautiful people. And I have since loved that movie, but maybe not just because of the breasts. But it doesn't hurt. It certainly doesn't hurt. And the outfits definitely don't hurt. And also how many times I had to see it before I realized not only that Eddie Murphy was the head of sexual chocolate, but that the fact that he and our society.

Arsenio Hall did so many characters. I even remember the first time when I realized that Arsenio Hall was the one, was quote, what her name is is ugly girl. And actually, I think Arsenio Hall is beautiful woman. Oh, yeah. And I thought there was like, how did they find someone that looks just like semi to be in it? That's crazy.

But you're right. The dude that sings at the rally, we had to take a second. be like, wait, is that Eddie Murphy? That is unbelievable. He's the most disguised in that one, I think, yeah. You can only tell by the sound of his voice, I feel like that that is Eddie Murphy. Like, it is so crazy.

And in the barbershop, I really, I had no idea. Really? The old white Jewish, I mean, growing up, I did it. And I definitely have in the past, like, you know, 10, 15 years. But as a kid, I had no idea. And it blew my mind, which is why later on we'll get into a little bit about the fact that I can't believe Rick Baker worked on this movie. Yeah, it's great.

I had no idea that Rick Baker, Rick Baker, who was huge in the horror community. I had no idea that he did the prosthetics and the makeup for this movie, which makes so much fucking sense. Because they're unbelievable. Also, I had seen coming to America like so long ago, and then way later in time saw Trading Places and had no, I never caught the reference until last night of the Traded Places.

homeless guys. I couldn't believe. I was like, is this real? Because John Lannis first worked with Eddie Murphy on trading places. And even as I was watching coming to America before that happened, I was like, oh, this is like opposite trading places for Eddie Murphy's character. Yeah, right. This guy going from rich to acting poor instead of going from poor to rich.

And then the two guys came out. I wonder what I must have thought back in the day. Like, why is this happen? Like, if you don't know that reference, that makes so much less sense. Yes. It makes absolutely no sense. And this movie is just, it is so embedded in my brain. And most of the people I was around growing up because we grew up in Queens.

So it is, I mean, it is the forever joke that you go to Queens to find someone fit for a king. And that is, I mean, here I am, Kings. Come get me. You are a queen, Jackie. I will say, I'm sure, there are still definitely bad parts of Queens, but it's just so funny living in a story like how unlike you know my neighborhood the film setting is yeah but you go out to woodhaven it's still a little

you know where for because that is actually my parents so I told my mom that we were doing coming to America this week because there is a shot in the movie of the outside of a movie theater and my parents were actually in that movie theater watching coming to America when it came out and it blew my mom's mind because also they didn't show the parts of Queens where we came from very often in movies,

if you could imagine. So this was actually a huge thing for our family. Were they filming around your actual neighborhood? Yes. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, so that's why my parents were so obsessed with it. Because usually that would make some sort of a happy nuclear family from somewhere else, like throw their guts up in horror to see where Jackie grew up.

I know. Everyone would be so upset about it. But you know what? There were no secret. kings coming to want to be in a relationship with me surprisingly. Well, you know what? It's better that you have this experience because when I was a kid, the thing they shot around my house was Silence of the Lambs.

Although beautiful background for such a horrifying story. We lived near the scary house where she's in the, with the black. It puts the lotion on it. Not that one, but the one where she has, like, she's in the dark and then he puts on the, what's it called, night cam? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I love that bathtub all full of goo. Yeah.

I don't think she did. That's my representation of my neighborhood. I have to say last night watching the neighborhood that Jackie grew up in, I literally, at one point, I put my hand into my pants. I pulled out a poo, and I threw it at the screen like a wild animal. I was so disgusted by the neighborhood that Jackie, but I was also like, this makes so much sense. She's such a garbage person. She's a trash person, and she loves it. being in the trash.

And I just love, but I do think that that's why it is so fun when they show up middle of winter. Yeah, and it's just what a nightmare of a place. And oh my God, when they go inside the house and then immediately everyone comes and steals all of their

suit. That like stressed me out. I was like, ugh, I hate this. But they have so much money and that's really what it is in your brain. And also, I got to throw this out there. How much? So I am still, a huge fan of ER. And so Dr. Benton, when I saw Dr. Benton was in ER

because I just loved him so much, we only referred to him obviously as Soul Glow, but I'm talking about Darrell in coming to America. And he's such the opposite as Dr. Benton, but then in my head I was like, what if this is the origin story of Dr. Benton? And this is, that's sad, that no one cares about this. That's great because he was not,

he was down and out at the end of this movie. Maybe that was the catalyst he needed. to become a dog. Oh my God, he's such a good doctor, but we're not talking about ER right now, and hopefully we will at some point in the future. Because today we're talking about coming to America. Oh, my God.

How is it that even James Earl Jones is just the most regal person of all time? And he, at his wife and this, everything, I mean, it really does make you want to be royalty. This is the movie that really truly does it. Makes me want to go to Zimunda, but I can't because, It's not real.

No, it's not real. And I do love how they're like, oh, no, no, they're in Africa. Put another elephant in it. Yeah, get a little zebra. Make that run through. As if that is what just happens in a palace in Africa. But you know what? They really catered towards how dumb Americans were.

Absolutely. And I do love, and I will forever love, because I remember my dad would always be like, oh, never let anyone talk to my daughter like that. where when her father finally stands up for her in the end, and it really is the only semi-pro-America thing that happens in this movie. It's the only time. The rest of it, it really does show how dumb and shitty America and Americans can be at times. For sure, especially in the late 80s, because of course this is a movie from 1988.

And again, I'm just in love. with these I think it's because of the current situation we're all in right now if you're listening this way in the future god I hope I hope it's super fun then and we're all hanging out and going to concerts and stuff like we used to but at the time we're in right now it's quarantine I've been drawn to these like period pieces from the 80s I've been drawn to these like definitely transport me to another time yes because I guess maybe maybe seeing representations of normal life in modern day just is upsetting you know what I mean and like, then I'm looking at what I'm missing.

But in the 80s, if they're all at the club having fun, it's like, oh, well, it's the 80s. I'm, like, just, I'm, you know, transported somewhere else completely. And how cute are they? So, oh, my God. Adorable. My problem, see, I was always completely in love with Arsenio Hall in this movie. He's so good in this movie.

He's so good and he's just so hot in it. I mean, but, I mean, Eddie Murphy is so charming. Charming. He's very charming. So charming. And I just love him in this movie. Well, and this has him at an interesting point in time, and we're about to back up and tell the tale of Eddie Murphy. But I will say, Landis does not have a lot of nice things to say about working with him on this picture.

He is top shit at this point. No, there's a lot of upset. And in fact, as someone that really loves this movie so much, I had no idea there was this much fucking drama around this movie. I never thought about it. It makes sense. And also, John Landis is a huge personality. Eddie Murphy is a big person. It's going to happen.

I always feel weird about John Landis, but, you know, for other reasons. And we will also get into why Eddie Murphy didn't go to the Twilight Zone trial to defend him. And so, like, there's a lot going up to the set. We'll briefly talk about the Twilight Zone. I want to do a whole, I mean, it is. That's not fun times episode. No, that's not a smile episode. This is a fun time episode.

You promised me a fun time episode. Yes. That's what we're going to have all the. Tell us about Eddie Murphy, Holden. All the tension and awful stuff aside, for sure. And by the way, really quick, too, before we get into Eddie Murphy, there would be no Hercules, Hercules without coming to America. I didn't even think about it like that.

Nuddy Professor, him being like a bunch of parts in a movie. This is the first time he ever does that. That all starts in coming to America. So Hercules, Hercules, Hercules. Hercules. Hercules. Hercules. You're talking about.

The Nutty Professor, yes. Is that the movie? Isn't that the Clumps? Oh, yeah, the Clubs came later. The Clumps are in Nutty Professor. Yeah, they start in Nutty Professor. I'm all, I don't understand. Well, it looks like we're about to do an episode on something like that soon, Natalie.

I'm going to force you guys to get into Norbit at some by. I can't wait for a Norbit episode and then our Flubber episode right after that. We'll do Norbert, then we'll do Flubber. Sure. All the shit-tastic films of the mid-2000s. Either way. Eddie Murphy, unbelievable story, born in Brooklyn, raised in Bush, in its Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn, which is not, especially back then, not a great... Now it's fine. Now it's just as expensive as ever world.

Yeah, now it's actually pretty bumping. His mother was a telephone operator, and his father was a transit police officer, an amateur actor and comedian who died when Murphy was just eight years old. After that, when his mother became ill, he and his older brother Charlie lived in foster care, where he said he developed his sense of humor and that makes a lot of sense. There's a whole other, please look up also Charlie Murphy.

This is a whole other, very upsetting story of how funny his older brother was, but really did give his younger brother the pedestal to shine and just kind of was behind him and supported him. And he passed away a little bit ago.

But it is a very, but please look up Charlie Murphy as well, who was a very funny, writer. Charlie Murphy, fantastic. You might know him from the Chappelle show. Either way, at the age of 15, he heard a Richard prior comedy album and decided he wanted to be a comedian, while also heavily inspired by Peter Sellers in developing a multitude of characters. Peter Sellers, of course, best known in maybe Dr.

Strangelove or Pink Panther, but known for his ability to transform into these characters, which obviously Eddie Murphy adopted in a fantastic way. He started skipping school to performing clubs underage. He started skipping school to performing clubs underage and put out his first stand-up album at just 21 years old. So he's like going to clubs and he's like 16, 17 doing stand-up. And yeah, his first album self-titled. This was followed by Delirious and Raw, which got a wide theatrical release.

Huge for the stand-up community. I mean, it is just, if you have never watched them, you gotta. You gotta. I'm gonna give you a warning though, especially Delirious. I forget about Raw, but it gets rough from the beginning. Is it a little bit of a naughty? It was a, you know, you definitely realize it was 30 years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Definitely, definitely doesn't hold up some of it. No, no. But either way. I'm sorry, 35 years ago. My God, we're getting old, y'all. That's insane. In the early 80s, he was cast on Saturday Night Live, and if you don't know, he's largely credited with keep,

with revitalizing that show. He, he, especially with his well-known, well-remembered characters, his parody of Fred Rogers with Mr. Robinson's neighborhood, the grown-up buckwheat character he did, Buckwheat from Little Rascals. Tice! Three times a made it.

Because this was also around the time when Lorne Michaels left the show. Yes. And so it was just weird in between point and he stayed on and really kept it going and was the only member I believe that it ever hosted while being cast in the show

at the same time because Nick Nalty couldn't show up. And also he hated doing buckwheat so much, which I didn't realize this, that he, on May 12th, he asked the SNL writers to kill Buckwheat off. He said that on May 12th and 1983, viewers watched the sketch, Buckwheat dead. America mourns in which Buckwheat is assassinated in front of 30 Rock. He still couldn't get rid of it after that, but I still think it's funny that he tried. I wonder why he hated it so much. Probably just annoying. It's a pretty flat, care. It's not a lot of variety.

It's no Mr. Robinson. And it's just making fun of just, like mostly his voice. So there's only so far you can go. And also, who could forget? I'm Gumby, damn it. His first performance on the big screen, however, was starring alongside Nick Nolte, which was in 48 hours, right? 48 hours, right?

It is called, yes, it is 48 hours. And he was also, he was nominated for a Golden Globe that year for the movie. he was beaten out by Ben Kingsley for Gandhi. All right, fine, I guess. Whatever. That was the I was born, by the way. This is also the beginning of what I do want to discuss a little bit about Eddie Murphy. And I feel that he was wrongly ripped a bit after doing coming to America because of how people thought that he was portraying Africans as well as black people that live in America.

and he this is really the beginning, 48 hours is where Eddie Murphy didn't want to just be a black star. Eddie Murphy wanted to be a star. And we were talking about this a little bit earlier where I never look at coming to America as quote unquote a black movie in the way that people refer to it online. I never thought of it as such. It's just an amazing fucking movie. And I do find it interesting where even Eddie Murphy comes out. It's like, it's like, name another movie in 1988 where there are four speaking white roles. And that's it.

Right. And that everybody else in the movie is black. Name another movie. Like, what do you think that I was trying to do here? This is way bigger than just like the how you feel of how you believe it was written or how the character should have been portrayed. That this was huge. And he even also had said about the movie 48 hours, that there was this, there's the scene when he and Nick Nolte are in a bar. It's like the iconic bar scene for 48 hours.

And he says, you know why it worked then and the reason why it wouldn't now? My significance in film. And again, I'm not going to be delusional. Was that I'm the first black actor to take charge in a white world on screen? Black exploitation movies, even if you dealt with the man, it was in your neighborhood, never in their world. In 48 hours, that's why it worked. Because I'm running it, making the story go forward.

And it's the same where it's like, I mean, now with it. his comeback with Dolomite and how he is very open with how black exploitation movies helped him grow and made him realize what he wanted to be and not in the black world, but in the world. Right. Yeah. And I mean, of course, we can only speak to this from the perspective of white people, but as a kid, the same, like, I never, it never occurred to me that it would ever be something called a black movie because I just, I loved it so much. And I was, I probably watched this movie. more times than any. Well, I'd say like three or four movies

I've seen more than this movie. And also that has to do a lot too with our white privilege and how we are able to view movies that I know that it is because of that privilege I'm going to say like, I never saw this as black movie. But then there are so that so much of the community is so behind the movie as well

as against it because you're right. It's not the best painting of especially America. But I think we deserve it a little bit. Yeah. The next film he ends up starring in is Trading Places, a comedy classic, of course, alongside Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis.

It is his first collaboration with John Landis, who he's going to end up directing Coming to America. We're going to do a little background on John Landis in just a little bit, but that is their first a meeting. After that, he becomes one of the hottest stars of the 80s with the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. I mean, if you weren't around during this time, Eddie Murphy was fucking everywhere. Everywhere.

He's a star. I mean, he's just made to be a star. He was the dude. Like, the dude. And also because he works his ass off. And that's why I know all the stories you hear about how he is not the easiest to work with on this set. It's just like, man, he had his forward motion in mind. And sometimes you can't stop to be a very nice person.

And not to defend him about that, but like, he's got one goal in mind. and that's to never go back to the life that he grew up in. Well, and also, I mean, in this particular instance, he's playing. How many characters, like six maybe? He's got a lot of his plate. He plays four roles in the film, Prince Akeem, Jaffer, soul singer Randy Watson, Jewish barbershop shop customer Saul and Clarence, the owner of the barbershop. So, and it was, as we said, it started his playing several characters in every movie.

Landis said, what we discovered was that the makeup freed him. Once he was in the makeup, he was just as fresh as when he was 19. In fact, the people who made the Nutty Professor said they loved working with Sherman Clump, but they hated working with Eddie Murphy. It does make a lot of sense. Landis also said, Eddie's genius is mimicry. He can be anyone. If you say sing like Eddie Murphy, he's got no voice.

But if you say sing like Jackie Wilson or Frank Sinatra, sing like Stevie Wonder, James Brown, I mean, he can do it. Well, like we were just mentioning, the band leader of sexual chocolate, but it's hard to even tell that it's Eddie Murphy. Except for his voice, which is, yeah, and he even said this was in a recent interview. They were asked how he felt about playing different characters in a bunch of movies.

He said, you know, every time I do a makeup movie, I always say, this is the last time I'm doing the shit. And then I always wind up back in the makeup chair. He says he keeps finding more movies where it kind of makes sense to do it. But I think it also does give him a bit of a relief to not be himself for a little bit. That completely take him out of his own depression issues

and the other things that he deals with in his life. Oh, absolutely. Especially, like, he blew up. He was, how old was he on SNL, like 18, 19? He was really young, really young. And that's a lot. Even though he wanted to be a star, you're not ever prepared for it mentally, emotionally,

and especially not when you're in that age. Right. And we'll talk about it more when we get to the screen. but I this is a great time to note I mean that's what this movie is all about this movie is about someone trying to be accepted for who they are not for the status they've obtained which is why he came up with this idea in the first place because this is a part of this huge paramount deal that he gets around this time that I believe it was a five movie deal that they were that they were that they were in talks with him that he could just make whatever he wanted and this was one of his

ideas and this is there's a very fun interview with him and arsinio when they're like behind the scenes on the movie. I saw that interview. Yeah. Yeah. It's so cute. You can just tell actually how young they actually are because they're just being friends and kind of just like fugging with each other in the interview. But they do actually bring that up in that interview that it is sort of based around the same idea of like how do you meet like a serious partner when they know who you are. Yeah. And just surrounded by so many people. I mean, when you become famous, as we all know, you surrounded by all these people who are going to say whatever they can say to make you feel good or whatever. Oh, you see, as we all know as if that's us, but really it's just because we've been obsessed with Britney Spears for the past month.

Yeah. That's really. Release me, Brittany. All right, let's talk about John Landis. Let's talk about not Britney Spears, John Landis. Born into a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, his parents would relocate to Los Angeles soon thereafter. When he was quite young, however, though, he always maintained this, like, deep love of Chicago, which I feel like that personality of Chicago breathes through.

Like, he's got like that John Hughes energy. Yes, very much so. When he was quite young, he saw the epic film, The Seventh Voyage of Simbad, which inspired him to become a director. He said essentially it transported him. I mean, it's this big epic with giant monsters and things like that. And he just super, super fell in love with it. He started out as a male boy, a 20th century Fox, and then as a gopher.

And then as assistant director on various projects, even doing some. Some stunt double work, Natalie. I didn't know that. Weird to think about. I wonder what he did. I guess he did some stunt double work. I don't know. I have to look into that.

Yeah, yeah. This guy that gets kicked in the nuts. I would say that he's well cast. Yes, absolutely. It's too bad too because he is very good at making movies. It just seems like he's very difficult to work with. To the point where he's dangerous? Yeah.

That he's very dangerous. That he wants what he wants and he's going to make that happen. any way possible, which all of these ways, all of these things could be said in a positive light. But unfortunately for John Landis, it's not always in a positive light. No. So, yeah, he, and we're about to get into that. His directorial debut came with Schlock at just 21 years old. It was a tribute to monster movies.

Very similar to like Peter Jackson with, oh, what's the name? Bad taste. Bad taste. Like he made like a really schlocky, horror-be movie. Dead Alive is also one. the best horror movies of all time. It catches the eye of Johnny Carson who invited him on the Tonight Show to promote it,

which gained the movie a cult following. After that, David Zucker sees this Tonight Show appearance and hires him to direct the sketch comedy film Kentucky Fried Movie, which is a classic, definitely for comedy nerds. It's a film of just sketches. It's really weird and silly

and does not all hold up great, but it is such a necessary watch if you're like a comedy per se. person. It's the cult comedy hit lands him, then the director role on Animal House, maybe one of my favorite comedy films of all time alongside Blues Brothers. I mean, Blues Brothers. It's like, it sucks because you, you want to hate John Landis, but then he's made these really amazing movies. Like, Blue's Brothers is is so incredible on some of the level. Also part of the movie, the production money for Blues Brothers was just specifically for cocaine. Oh, I'm sure.

But also, that car chasing in the mall, nothing's better than that. You can feel the cocaine in it. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Super Coke-fueled, bro. Blast and line. I've never done Coke.

Does it sound like I'm not comfortable? John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, of course, star in Blues Brothers. Then he goes and makes, so he's like king of comedy at this point. Then he goes and makes American Werewolf in London. And that is just this quintessential horror film. It's like a horror comedy. It's so, so classic, though. And I bet that is the first time he ends up working with Rick Baker.

That is the first time that Rick Baker and he worked together. And then they continue to work together on lots of other projects. Did Rick Baker work on thriller? He did work on thriller that John Landis also directed. And so he and Rick Baker and John Landis's wife, Deborah Landis, who does the costuming for coming to America, also work together on the costuming for, the thriller music video.

And American Werewolf in London also won, I believe won Rick Baker and Oscar for his makeup and prosthetics work. It's incredible. That transformation scene when he turns in the werewolf, I mean, is one of the most classic makeup jobs, special effects, makeup jobs scenes in

film history. It is just unbelievable. And then of course that brings us to Twilight's in the movie with the decapitation stuff or whatever. We can just keep moving. Wow, that was a lot. So, yeah. A trial. During the filming, a tragedy ensued

involving a helicopter crash that resulted in the death of three actors, two of which were children. And this is what totally it just rocks Lannis' life. And he ends up going on trial with a couple other people for involuntary manslaughter. I will say, we don't have to talk about it, but I will say it is definitely his fault

that it happened. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about it a little bit, a little bit around with the fight that he and Eddie Murphy have. It's like the one dark thing. I think it's the only real dark thing that we're gonna get into in this episode. Pretty much. Just a couple murders real quick. Yeah, yeah. And it's tough.

There's also a, there is a film of it, of the happening. Yeah, it is. I would not recommend. You can watch, you can watch a lot about it. There's that shutter series about, like what you don't know about, yeah, the cursed films. And Twilight Zone movie is on that, so you should look that up if you've got shutter. Yeah, for sure.

And then came trading places. Followed by Spies Like Us and Three Amigos. I mean, unbelievable run. Three Amigos, one of my favorite comedies of all times. Oh, three movies. Oh, definitely. One of the best comedies of all times. I've said that about his movies.

That is the third time I've said. Like, Blue's Book is Animal House. Three Amigos. These trading places, I mean, come on, man. These are like some of the greatest. I know he fucking chopped that kid's head off, but like, these are amazing. Oh, no.

I'm sorry. You cut that off if you want. No, no. And I don't know what happened with the trading places, but for some reason, So originally, which I didn't know this about trading places, originally it was Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder that were cast in trading places. And then John Landis was brought in to direct.

For some reason, Richard Pryor then bows out because Landis was brought in. And then Paramount suggested bringing in Eddie Murphy. So Gene Wilder didn't want Richard Pryor to just be replaced. So Gene Wilder then also backs out of the movie. And John Landis brings in Dan Aykroyd because he had worked with him in the Blues Brothers. I wonder what that other movie would have been like. I don't know, but I watched a different movie.

I wish I could have seen it. Yes. That's such a different movie, honestly. That is really wild. But it is part of this, you know, it is the idea of this brotherhood of Hollywood where they bring in other people, which is usually a, I think, a fun, positive thing about Hollywood

of like, oh, if you enjoyed working with someone, you should bring them in again. I think that that's great. But in this, you will see the down. side of that of bringing in someone to work with on coming to America like like Eddie Murphy does with John Landis and how this can end to this can lead to heartbreak but also speaking of heartbreak I do want to discuss real quick as we jump into the idea of writing the script that there was a huge lawsuit that happened

over the script for coming to America and it has to do with political columnist Art Buckwold. So this is a huge major breach of contract lawsuit. It's Buckwold versus Paramount that writer Art Buckwold alleged at the studio stole his and his producing partner Alan Bernheim's script treatment that eventually became coming to America. Art Buchwald said he sold Paramount a Murphy targeted treatment called King for a day in 1983. So this is five years before coming to America is released.

his $5 million breach of contract suit would dominate entertainment journalism for years. I do remember hearing about this when it came to the movie coming to America, but I didn't really know what exactly had happened. And I guess, so this happens after the movie is released, he sues Paramount and says that he wants $5 million for the breach of contract

and that then Paramount tries to claim that the movie didn't actually like make that much money so they really don't owe him anything, even though coming to America, was a huge cat. How would they even get away with saying that? They said that it was quote, Hollywood math of how Paramount was using like, oh, no, no, we didn't do that. But meanwhile, at the same time, in all of the tabloids, they're all screaming about how Eddie Murphy had $3,800 for his custom motor home that he used on set. There's $1,500 used of the budget for his personal

trainer, $650 for his valet. So the tabloids were ripped it apart of like, how, we're where the money was going on the set if they quote unquote didn't make any money to give to this man. Eventually, Art Buchwald in 1992 was awarded $900,000 for the case, which, I mean, is, I'll take it. I'll take it, I take it.

But if you think about it, he probably would have made a lot more money if he had sold coming to America. Was it a valid accusation? It seems it. It is pretty much, but the problem is, is that Eddie Murphy did have the idea. Yeah, yeah.

And Art Buckwold also had the idea. And it was already written and in Paramount's hands. So really what it is is that Paramount, it's not Eddie Murphy's not at fault for this. It was paramount that was like, oh, Eddie Murphy wants to do this. That's a great idea.

Why don't we just, you know, why don't we not tell them about that we already got this other thing, huh? A production company stole somebody's work. What? And even he had said, the attorney that represents, presented Buckwold said the money was irrelevant to Art Buckwold because he was very well

established financially. He said time and time again that if they could steal from Art Buckwold, who at the time was fairly well known, they could steal from anybody. Which they do all the time. Yes. So for him, it was a very important cause Salibre. Art wasn't worried about his next movie deal or who he might offend. He was very principled in the idea of this. So it wasn't about the money. It was just he didn't, you wanted to be able to, like, protect other people in the future and remind them that, like, if you have this idea and you're already working with a production company, you can sue them if they use it for something else. So the two credited screenwriters are David Sheffield and Barry Blousey. David Sheffield!

Mr. Sheffield! Sheffield wrote on SNL from 1980 to 1983, and his first screenwriting credit is for Police Academy to their first assignment. police academy movies. Guys, I'm sure those super hold of it are in no way problem. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Citizens on patrol. Blaustein also wrote on S&L during those three years and co-wrote the PA, co-wrote the police academy movie as well.

And would later direct Beyond the Matt, which is my favorite documentary about wrestling, but whatever. What about the Andre the Giant documentary? I also love that one, Beyond the Matt is like the greatest documentary about wrestling ever made. I'll watch it. Sheffield claims Murphy approached him with a concept, which was scribbled out on eight or so pages of yellow legal pad. It was originally called The Quest and was Murphy's attempt at, quote, a piece where I would play something other than Eddie. He was saying in every movie he's Eddie Murphy, he wanted it to completely branch out for that by being a hundred people that aren't Eddie Murphy.

The script was written by Sheffield and Blowstein in five weeks and handed in on a weekend. Blasstein said the studio called his first thing Tuesday morning and said, were shooting in January. It was a whirlwind experience that has not been duplicated. They did have to get permission from McDonald's in order to do the whole McDowell's thing, but apparently McDonald's was actually super cool about it. They were very supportive.

I mean, that makes sense to me. During the robbery with Samuel L. Jackson's, one of his first rolls is so good at it. They just wanted the money to be put in a white paper bag, not a McDowell's bag or anything or a McDonald's bag. I was actually very surprised that they were. were so down with it. Maybe it's just because it was, you know, 30 years ago and it was just a different time. But I wonder if they must have cut them some part of it or, you know, it's like,

it, but I love that they also include in the movie the fight between McDowell's and McDonald's. Yes, and McDonald's, which is so funny. And apparently, too, when they started like setting up, so, okay, this was a Wendy's, by the way, and I'm such a American fat boy. You're a way. that I was like, oh, this is clearly a Wendy's interior. It really is. Like, it really is very, if you know your fast food, you definitely can tell it's not a McDonald's that they renovated. But apparently when they started setting up the McDowell's exterior to shoot,

like there was a McDonald's like down the street. And the owner of that McDonald's like ran to the building. It was like, you can't do this. What are you doing? Your overlord said that we could. They had to apparently like talk him off of a ledge because he thought they were like copyright infringing

an actual McDonald's message. I just recently saw that a couple years ago they did a McDonald's pop up in L.A. and I'm so sad that I didn't get to go. I know. You always hear about these damn things afterwards. I think it's because I don't want to say we're old now, but I think it's because we're old.

Well, Natalie, you can, if you look up the address, I think they even say the address in the movie, but if you look it up, Matt Wendy's. It's on Queens Boulevard, baby. It's still there. And you can go. So don't fear not, Natalie, you can still go to the real McDowell's anytime when you come. Wait, what is it though?

It's a Wendy's. Oh, it's a Wendy's. It's still a Wendy's. It's still a Wendy's. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they bought the Wendy's out for $50,000 to transform it, by the way. So there you go. Some more money being thrown around by this evil.

Evil. Oh, but they didn't make any money holding. It was Eddie's, so it was Eddie Murphy's idea to play multiple characters in a barbershop because this was based on a bit that he used to do with his buddy, Clint Smith. They, uh, called Clint and Edmund, where they would just sit around. And, and by the way, David Chafield and Barry Blassey would be around for these sessions. They would just sit around and like, be these characters in a barbershop just for, just for funsies. And so they had done it for so long that the writers had so much material to work with. It's so funny. All those scenes are just so

great. Just so, yeah, it's so funny. So well done. Just I, they kill it. The barbershop scenes are so fucking funny. Eddie Murphy is so transformed in that scene. I mean, you could probably not know that was him pretty easily. Yeah. For sure. It made me, it used to make, I think, for what Stale Magnolias did for me with going to a hair salon, coming to America did for me with a barbershop. Because I also, I had a buzzed head for so many years that I would go to barbershops in Brooklyn all the time because they were so much cheaper. Yeah, totally.

So you could get like a great cut for like 10 bucks. And I just, I love everything about it. Now, since we're talking about all these different characters, I would love to talk real quick about Rick Baker. Beautiful, beautiful Rick Baker, who is the one that transformed them into all of these characters. Now, you'll know the name Rick Baker, if it springs something from your brain space,

who worked on these special effects of The Exorcist. He created the giant gorilla for the 1976 film King Kong. And apparently Rick Baker even wore the suit to play. the part of King Kong, and his acting was not credited. He did a million other things, but in 1982, he won the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for an American Werewolf in London. He says, the big payoff was seeing his face stretch out and change, you know, right before your eyes.

Can you imagine how hard he was when the first time that it actually worked? I would, like, lose my mind for it. You mean, like, erect? Yeah, don't. Just full ejaculation. Yeah, sure. And so Landis brought in Rick Baker because they had worked together on American Werewolf in London and also Michael Jackson's thriller video.

And he really wanted Rick Baker to create the elaborate prosthetics that allowed Murphy and Arsenio Hall to play multiple supporting roles. Now, this is just a fun little side story about creating the older Jewish character for Eddie Murphy. So John Landis, who had just read. read a book about Jewish comedians donning blackface in the vaudeville days suggested flipping the script. He says to Eddie Murphy, Rick Baker can make you an old Jew. And he told Eddie Murphy, and Rick Baker did so successfully that when Paramount executives visited the set while Murphy was made up as Saul, they didn't recognize their studio's biggest star. In fact, Rick Baker told us about a time

when Eddie Murphy, in his soul character, got in a golf cart, took off in Paramount Studios, and went into every office where he knew all these people to see if they would recognize him. And nobody did. He even made a date with an older secretary

and tried to sell a script to sub-producer video footage of that. And so that's, and all of the work that he put into, which, like, Rick Baker is a huge dude in SFX. And to bring them on and for essentially

a comedy, just a comedy. Yeah. This is huge to have this kind of upper level work done on something that is essentially I hate to say

just a comedy because obviously you know what comedy means to me but just a comedy. Yeah, I mean, especially because not a lot of comedies use that much special effects

and makeup itself. Yeah, it's so well done. And so yeah, they just really went for it, I think. Yeah, doll. Hell yeah. So, uh, shall I, shallst I talk speak a pons to the cast? Speak a ponds, bitch. All right, let's start with Arsenio Hall, who plays Simi, Reverend Brown, Morris the Barber, and extremely ugly girl. Which we disagree with. We think she's beautiful. I think she's beautiful. Born and raised in Ohio, Hall performed as a magician as a child and later moved to Chicago

and then Los Angeles to pursue comedy. Oh, he was a magician? Yeah. That's cute. Isn't that fun? He was like, Oh, what's in my pants is like. Whoa, no, Holden. Yeah. That's what you would be like if you were a magician. It's a rabbit. It's a fun pink rabbit. No, I'm scared.

In 1984, he got a gig as Alan Thick's side man on a short-lived talk show. Is it called Getting Thick with Alan Thick? Yes, exactly. I think it was called something like that. Either way, in 1986, here's a bit of a crossover. after Joan Rivers' late night show on Fox ended. Oh, right? Which is like the worst year in Joan Rivers' life is converging with Arsenio Hall's,

kind of his big break. So that show ends. The series was renamed The Late Show, and it had multiple interim hosts, including Hall, which was so successful, he would end up getting his own show, the Arsenio Hall show, just about six months after coming to America released in theater.

I do want to throw this out there real fast. Yeah, he's about to blow up. But I do want to say that I looked into the feud, quote unquote, between Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy, that I will say seems to be completely manufactured by tabloids. Because apparently right after coming to America, Eddie Murphy decided that Arsenio Hall was writing on his coattails too hard. So Eddie Murphy refused to be on the Arsenio Hall show. And then years later, he comes on the show and he's like, remember when like the media, made up that we hated each other and they both laugh about it.

So I guess it's all, I think it's all fake. Well, they also were pitting them against each other before they met. It's like a Britney X-Tna type of thing. It really was. Where it's like there's no need to. They're completely, two completely different actors. But I will say Arsenio Hall did make it clear that he wanted to do the same amount of other characters in coming to America that Eddie Murphy did.

But I don't think that's so much pitting them against each other as like, well, if he's going to do it, I'm going to do it. Yeah, and it can be like a healthy competition in a lot of ways. But I mean, they got they obviously worked things out because they made the sequel and our friend Germain is in it. I know. We got to, we got to get him

and sit down and talk to him about making it. Maybe we'll do that closer to the release of it. Yeah, whenever that is. He finds out that he has his son back in America and he's essentially like James Earl Jones's character, the

Prince Joffrey or whatever is Jaffee is about to he's about to die and give him the kingdom and then he finds out he has a son back in America and he needs to go back to America to essentially make him the prince of the kingdom. So that's essentially what it is. And yeah. Either way, let's talk about James O. Jones. King Jaffee Jaffer. It was right in front of my face the whole time and I'm trying to come up with the name. raised by his maternal grandparents on a farm, starting at the age of five. The transition was so difficult for him.

He developed a stutter so bad that he refused to speak until an English teacher in high school encouraged him to speak. Can you imagine he's got the most notable public. Iconic, yeah, absolutely. Voice of all time. Like, his voice is unbelievable. His voice is incredible. And to think that he didn't start speaking until high school blew me away.

After a brief stint in the military, he began acting at a theater and mission. in it and eventually became one of the best-known Shakespearean actors in the U.S. in the 60s. He made his film debut as a bombardier in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strange Love, which I love. He, uh, his, and I do recall a very young, young James Earl Jones in that movie. Uh, his role as Jack Johnson in the play The Great White Hope was his big breakout and earned him a Tony for Best Actor in a Play. And he would later, that would later be his first leading film role as well when they made the movie. In the 70s, he also most

notably was the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars. Again, so iconic. Can't believe he didn't speak till high school. Which led to several big box office hits for him, such as Conan the Barbarian. It's an incredible film. So good. I love, every time I bring up Conan the Barbarian, I also

have to recommend the DVD commentary for Conan the Barbarian with the director of that movie and Arnold Schwarzenegger is the funniest DVD commentary in the business. You have to listen to it. It's just hilarious. Like, they barely remember the movie.

And, like, it's... Oh, so it was done, like, years later? Their banter is just so funny. That's great. It's just great. I don't know how to describe it. It's just so funny. It's like, oh, yeah, I remember that now.

Oh, very, very interesting. And they just tell funny stories and stuff. It's just a very funny DVD commentary. Either way, you also... Let's now talk about John Amos, who plays Cleo MacDow. the owner of the restaurant and the father of the love interest. Born and raised in New Jersey, he played football for the Colorado State Rams.

It was a golden glove boxing champion. Same as my grandfather, by the way. My grandfather was golden glove boxing champion. Wait, really? That's awesome. Yeah, totally. You should know. Why aren't you boxing?

And look how big and strong I am. You should box or something. You think I should? Yeah, I should get my face beating in for money. I think that you would be, oh my God, you would be so. so scary in the ring. And I think that's really good. I'm scared of you.

Either way. Either way, ladies, please. After a failed attempt at a professional football career, Amos went into TV acting work with his first big gig being irregular on the sitcom Good Times in the mid-70s. But, and I love this move, such a pro move, he left after he had issues with the way the show

portrayed the black community. He put his foot down, which is kind of great. Then he went on to play the adult Kuntikinti and the groundbreaking television miniseries roots. Which is also why it's even funnier than in the barbershop, they refer to Eddie Murphy as good to get. Yes, they refer to it. Yeah, it's so funny.

Ed, Ed, but yeah, again, it's like, if you don't know roots, that was ubiquitous back in the day. That was everywhere. Then we have Madge Sinclair, who plays Queen Elyon Jaffer. Man, I have been in love with her. She is, oh, talk about, oh, I just want, to be magic slid. She's so regal.

She's so perfect for the part. She was born and raised in Jamaica. She first worked as a teacher there until she left in the mid-60s to go to NYC to pursue acting. She did theater work in the late 60s and eventually moved into TV and film in the 70s with her big

breakout, also being the miniseries roots as Bell Reynolds, for which she got an Eminem. Also, to round out the cast, Sherry Headley, who plays Lisa, the love intro. So, such a fucking beautiful. Beautiful woman. And I've just seen, sorry to cut you off.

Oh, no, go for it. Remembered, I just recently saw a video clip of her from like last year and she is, not that it matters, but she is still so stunningly beautiful. Like to this day, it's just like, oh, you're still, it's her smile. Wow, I'd really like to rev her and Jenna. Wow. Yeah, I would as well. I'd also definitely watch the tape of her.

Eric LaSalle, I'm just saying. And she was actually born and raised in Queens, New York. She started out as a model and made her acting debut at the age of 21 on the Cosby Show, which led to work on shows like Miami Vice, Quantum Leap and Matlock before she got this movie. I also wanted to mention your Bay, Eric LaSalle. He was an actor, actor. He went to Juilliard. Yeah, I know.

He was Dr. Benton. Tisch School of the Arts. after that he immediately gets cast after college in a Shakespeare in the Park production of Henry V. Then he just starts doing a bunch of Broadway and off Broadway while also doing daytime TV stuff such as One Life to Live. That makes a lot of sense.

And then that leads up to getting this. And after this, his next big role, of course, is as Dr. Peter Benton in E.R. Oh my God, he's so rational. And you trust him. How dare you hold it? Paul B. I will say I love Christine Lottie,

but ER is leagues beyond Chicago Hope, but we're not going to go down this road right now. Hospital drama. I'm more of the practice guy, and I know that's not hospital drama, but I just a little bit more. I mean, Dylan McDermott, okay. I watched all.

I was obsessed with all of them. I watched all those. I feel like I've never seen hospital drama before. It's probably for the best. I had such a TV schedule, and I definitely would always watch a 10 p.m. Yep. Like, usually a drama.

unless it was like 2020 or something like that like sometimes I'd watch that stuff you know what I mean whatever either way uh you also have we're cool is what we're saying you also have paul bates who i didn't at a glance was able to dig up a lot he's just been a working motherfucking actor since the early 80s like he's just been doing and he will be in coming to america one of things i love about oh by the way coming the number two america not a big fan of that naming convention by the way because it's very confusing when you just say it out loud versus seeing it. But either way, I love about coming to America, which we will close out

talking about the sequel. They brought back most of the cast, if not all the main people, including, like, Louis Anderson and folks like that. Louis Anderson is so fantastic in this movie. But Paul Bates, he's the guy who goes, she's all queen to be. It's that guy.

He's so funny. I'm going to have it sung to me as I walk to. down the aisle if I ever walked down the aisle. Now that it's been stated, you have to do it. He's so like understated, but he has just been in a million different things. It's ridiculous. And he still has a, like looking at his IMDB right now, he still has a bunch of stuff in the works and pre-production and post-production anyway. So he's just one of those steady, regular working actors. Show us the other cast members, such as Frankie Faison from the wire, or you might recognize him from the wire. The intended wife for Akeem, played by Vanessa.

Esabelle. Louis Anderson. And of course, Samuel L. Jackson as an armed robber. And I feel like I got major Pulp Fiction vibes from Samuel L. Jackson in his turn as the armed robber. One of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s first. Yes. He doesn't say anything, right? He just sits in the chair.

Yeah, in the barbershop. In the very beginning, when they first get to America at least. Yeah, he's just sitting in the chair staring straightforward. But yeah. All right. Let's talk about making the. movie, this is where we get into it. Oh, we're going to get into it.

Screw it. It's a bad song. It was on it. The schedule for shooting this movie was intense, almost as intense as the drama that occurred on set. Nuts, man. This is, uh, it's a lot. Eddie Murphy and John Landis really ended up not like.

making each other at the end of this. The timeline was just six months too, which added to the tension on set. Landis said, the guy on trading places was young and full of energy and curious and funny and fresh and great. The guy on coming to America was the pig of the world. That's not good to say. But I still think he's wonderful in the movie. This is what's crazy.

So you have to remember. So John Landis directed Eddie Murphy in trading places. Then everything happens in between with Twilight. and John Landis is down and out. And so Eddie Murphy, who was originally going to direct this movie, decides to bring John Landis in. Oh, it was Eddie's call. It was Eddie Murphy's call.

So he wanted to help him out because of everything that had just happened in the Twilight Zone. So this is where it starts right before we start recording. And also, this is the biggest Eddie Murphy had ever been. Because at the end of that, the guy on coming to America was the pig of the world, he does also continue John Landis and says, Eddie Murphy has the most unpleasant, arrogant, bullshit entourage, and that Eddie Murphy is just an asshole. Jesus Christ.

It is. This is, these, them some fighting words. You were the man who just killed a bunch of people. He just killed them here. Which is we were, you know, it's, it was, apparently he claims that they had a good working relationship, but that it changed over time because Eddie Murphy was a jerk on set. He says, in fact, one of the greatest performances he had ever given because the character he plays in coming to America,

Hakeem is so opposite of what Eddie really was that he's a gentleman. He's charming and elegant as opposed to this jerk off. Someone, I think it was James Earl Jones, used to say that when Eddie came on set, it's like an Arctic wind. This is what Murphy had to say. personalities didn't mesh.

I grabbed him and he thought I was playing. So he tried to grab my balls and I pushed him away. But I wasn't kidding. He was doing some silly shit that made me mad. He directed me in trading places when I was just starting out as a kid. But he was still treating me like a kid five years later during coming to America. And I hired him to direct the movie. He also went on to say,

I was going to direct coming to America myself, but I knew that Landis had just done three fucked up pictures in a row and that his career was hanging by a thread after the Twilight Zone trial. By the way, seriously. Chris Leegos is one of those movies, which I'm so shocked at because like that is one of, again, all-time

classic for me. It seems like they were making those movies while the trial was happening. Because this seemed, at least what it seems like with the timeline is that the trial would like ended right before he started making this movie.

Ah. Murphy went on to say, I figured the guy was nice to me when I did when I did trading places so I'd give him a shot. I'm a popular actor in this town and to have a guy who was as fucked up as he was get a job with me gave him some renewed credibility. I was

going out of my way to help the guy and he fucked me over. Now he's got a hit picture on his resume, a movie that made over 200 million as opposed to him coming off of a couple of fucked up movies which is where I'd rather see him be right now. And he's not wrong. And part of what is

being brought up that is brought up on set over and over again and what it was an issue for John Landis is that Eddie Murphy apparently was asked to come and testify on John Landis's behalf in the Twilight Zone trial and Eddie Murphy declined. So when he was asked, why didn't he testify? And in an interview he was asked, did you think that John Landis was guilty? Eddie Murphy said, I don't want to say who was guilty or who was innocent. But if you're directing a movie and two kids get their heads chopped off at fucking 12 o'clock at night when there ain't supposed to be kids working and you said action, then you have some sort of responsibility. So my principals wouldn't let me go down there and sit in court. That's just the

way I am. If somebody in my family was guilty of something, I wouldn't sit there for them in a courtroom and say, you've got my support. Fuck that. The most of it would be is, hey, you go work that out. I still love you. I'm still your friend. Well, absolutely. And also, I don't really understand what is it was just supposed to be like a character witness or something? Because they had worked together in the past to use to say like, no, since I've worked him as a director, I've never felt in danger while on his set. I mean, that makes sense, I guess. But if you look at what actually happened, Eddie Murphy's 100% correct in that statement. But not only did Landis do that, the guy, obviously. operating the helicopter told him it was too dangerous to do and he said you fucking do it. So he went against safety from professionals. So it is definitely John Landis's fault. Yes, he should have been brought to trial for it. You are responsible for the entire set.

You know what is going on for you a lot. But anyway, so this is part of, this is the bed of them, like, of what was underneath when they were filming this movie. And it drove Eddie Murphy to drink for the first and last time. Murphy said, I drank once while making coming to America. Wow. I had some weirdness with John Landis who was directing the movie. Well, he doesn't drink? No. Wow.

Even though there's no sex in the champagne room, but I guess there's also no drinking in the champagne. No. I guess. We had a tussling confrontation and when I went home, Arsenio Hall gave me some alcohol to settle me down. I thought a drink might help, so I drank a whole quart of absolute vodka. Jesus Christ. I won the most vomit award. I was bit over the toilet for hours.

That was the first and last time. I'll ever drink. I think maybe you could have just started with like a couple of sips, you know. Right. There was also the story they told in that interview with Eddie Murphy and Arsidio Hall that they like, they had a two hour break late at night on set. So they went to a, they called it a disco around the corner, which I think is amazing just to put this in a place in time.

They went to a club. They partied at the club the whole time and then like brought the whole club back to the set with them and like took a bunch of ladies home and stuff. It seemed like a pretty time. Yeah. I will say if there's one thing that it seems pretty consistent, Eddie Murphy is a bit of a ladies man. Yes, he seems to like kissing.

He likes essentially. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Now I want to talk about the dance, but I want to try to redeem myself with a song to introduce that. Now we're going to talk about the dance, romance. There's a little blink 182 in there. Are you trying to hide your erection? for the dance because man, that dance always, I think it is why I took the class African dance

in college. I mean, those costumes left nothing. You better have some toned abs if you're going to wear that shit. Wow, they looked great. Yeah. Yeah, Paula Abdul choreographed the dance scene in Zimunda. Abdul said, I really wanted to create something that was regal, unique, and exhilarating all at the same time.

And at this point, then Paul Abdul goes into a drug-induced sleuth. but then she wakes up five minutes later to say this. John Lewis wanted an unforgettable performance that captured the joy and spirit of Prince A Keem's wedding celebration. She falls sleep again, wakes back up five minutes later. One of the biggest compliments I could ever receive as a choreographer is when I'm told

that it's one of the most recognizable and recreated dance scenes in our pop culture history. Working on this project was one of the most extraordinary experiences that has truly enriched my life. And this is another thing that really probably would be more something that would not happen now where an African-based dance would not be done by an American white lady.

But Paula Abdul is a fantastic choreographer, and this is before she was a pop star, right? Yes. And she had just done the cat music video. Oh, she was like, right? So she was like kind of. Because she was a Laker girl. But this is also right before she started choreographing

the fly girls. Yeah. And so apparently though, John Landis wanted the person that had originally choreographed Janet Jackson because she said that when she got this job, she was still a Laker girl. She said, I went in and he looked at me and said, what are you? A teenager? And I said, yes, I am. He basically was telling me, what do you know about African dancing?

And this is my whole thing when I becoming a choreographer. I'll just tell everyone yes. I know exactly what I'm doing. And I'll figure it out later. I mean, she got some Cajonis. I mean, she figured it out. It is an iconic dance. The dance piece is really fucking beautiful.

Yeah. It involved about two dozen dancers and it took two days to film. That must have been exhausting. That set is so beautiful. So gorgeous and almost as gorgeous as the costumes that were designed for not only the dance, but for the entire movie. So the costume designer is Deborah Landis. She goes by Deborah Naduilman in the.

credits, so I believe it is to distance herself from her husband because they worked together a lot. But she got Oscar nominated for the clothes for the fictional African country of Zamunda in 1988. She'd also worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark. She worked on the thriller video. She's worked on lots of things that have iconic clothing. Again, we keep going back to this more breaking down these movies, like so many of them. The costume designers were very important even if we didn't realize it. Yes. And she did struggle a lot with the idea that she was a white woman making clothing for people from Africa. So she really got into the nitty gritty. But the thing is that she was actually, and why her husband wanted to work with her specifically on this is that she was

actually very into the design of African clothing and culture before she started working on this movie. She said that the style for the fictional country of Zamunda was inspired by Gambia, Senegal, and Scotland mixed together. She also discusses the challenge she faces a white woman designing gowns for an African nation. She says, coming to America was special because it was really holy my creation. Well, I should say the look was wholly my creation, certainly not the film. John, my husband, gave me a brief and said to create this world. And that was my brief. Who are these people, you know? It was very tricky.

For a white designer, it really kept me up at night, every night, trying to consider which way to go. But she said I had started collecting from the time I was in college African arts magazines. So much later on, after I designed coming to America, my friend was like, oh, I see you have African arts magazines. Of course you have that, because you design coming to America. And I said, no, that's not how it works at all. I had African arts magazines in college. I was familiar. I had already internalized some of African design, east, where.

north, south, by the time I had got coming to America. I didn't have time to internalize all that information about all these people in a two-month period. No, no, no, no. I'd love them from the time I was young. And so when I was given the dream project, I had a beginning. I had something to think about. I already had the knowledge.

She's also now working. And it is something that at the time, it was already difficult enough for a woman to be in charge of the entire creating of the. environment for these characters. So you can see that I feel that she was struggling with the fact that she was white and making the costumes for it. But they are so beautiful and so elegant. She's unquestionably a very gifted.

Yes, she's got multiple doctorates in design. She also, she cast every single piece of jewelry herself. And she said the only thing I didn't design was Eddie Murphy's ties. other than that, I very often designed and make the ties, but I designed and constructed and I manufactured every single costume in that film. That's crazy. I was reading this crazy in-depth. She pulled apart how she designed every single outfit in it.

That scene, too, in the wedding and everything, there are, how many people are in that scene? Like a couple hundred. And I noticed, like, I was really caught my eye the fashion in that scene. It's beautiful. And even down to Akeem and semi-suits. So she gets into like the background design that of every character. She said, I had to think about where young Akeem would have gone to school. And I decided because I really needed a direction for the shape of the suits that he would have gone to a boarding school from Africa.

He would have gone to somewhere like Eaton or Harrow in England. And I was really inspired by the young Maharajas of India, all of whom would have gone. went to England for school. And princes from around the world in the 19th century went to England to be educated. So in my imagination, I made this up. She laughs. I totally made this story up.

This is not a line in the screenplay. I was not directed to do this. So in this interview that I watch, they compare the suits that they are wearing in the movie to what young people would be wearing in boarding schools. And you can see how she pulled the design elements from that. Wow, that lady really thinks hard. Yeah, she does think pretty hard, is what I'm saying.

But I understand why she won the Oscar for it because it's so eye-catching. Every outfit, there's so much care and thought put into it, including the oscillot tucks that Akeem wears for the wedding. And they gave her an assolot to use to make for it. And she says, wait a minute, how did this assolet die? And they told me this Oslot lived to a ripe old age. He died of natural causes in a zoo. So I was like, okay, if anyone asks, I have that disclaimer. No animals died in the making of this film.

Good. I have to say, too, that even though his original bride, her dress is basically making her just like an object, I love it still. I don't know what that says about me, but I would wear that dress. So now I will We're going to talk about the score And I want to introduce that with the song To try to make up for the other two Okay

Now we're gonna talk about the score I want another one to come out of the bus The score I killed a guy when I was 17 The score I hit his body Under the green grass of the lawn in front of my house Did you hear what you just said? Did you black out just now? Yeah, we're talking about the score.

I sang a song about how we're going to talk about it, how they made the music for the thing. I think you belong in jail now. You'll never find him. You'll never find out. Oh, it's just under the green. Well, I'm going to assume the green of the college you went to, so we're going to go to Florida State.

There is a green in Florida State in front of the library. Anyways, remember a mystery, whatever. All right, let's get into it. You remember when we went to college a thousand years ago? Yeah, and we were really unhealthy and it was awesome. I did ecstasy. Oh my God, you're so puffy. I was. Either way, the score, this was the first ever score done by Nile Rogers, who is the

co-founder of a disco band called Sheik. Their song Good Times is one of the most sampled songs of all time. It appears in rapper's delight. Another one bites the dust and daft punks around the world. They're responsible for that beat. And he also would end up being like he produced and wrote with Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna. This guy's worked with all, every, all the big hitters.

He also did the soul glow jingle as well and claimed that it was his quote, proudest moment. Guy worked with Madonna and David Bowie and his proudest moment is the soul glow jingle. I mean, it's a great jingle. It's such a good jingle. And of course you have the South African male choral group. Ladiesmith Black Mombazo are the ones who sing Mbubei, also known as the Lions Leaves Tonight in the film's opening. They became well known in the States after collaborating with Paul Simon on his album, Grace Land in 1986. This is just a couple years later.

The soundtrack's four singles were coming to America by the system, better late than never by the cover girls, and come into my life by Laura Branigan and Joe Esposito as well as That's the way it is by Mel and Kim. I do find it very interesting. And this I don't really understand. So apparently John Landis brought in Nile Rogers to do the score and that the, he says, said that he had to do it as they were shooting the film because principal photography had to be done by a specific date because of Eddie Murphy? So this is the way that the story was told to Nile Rogers. John Landis, the director of the film, said Eddie Murphy had seen this film called

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow about the Quadrains of Nostradamus, and he predicted the exact day of the big earthquake where California was going to fall into the ocean. So Eddie Murphy said they had to have principal photography wrapped by that day. So Nile Rogers moved to California with his partner Rich, who created the soundtrack, and they basically said, moved in on the Paramount lot. He said, Rich and I were there 17 hours a day, some days, and some days would be even longer than that. He said, the way I composed for that film, they would give us dailies because they didn't know what part was going to be scored. Normally, you finish the movie, they edit it all together, and then you stand with the director and do what they call spoting. And he goes, okay, right here the villains are doing it, or here they fall in love.

So they'd give me dailies, and I'd have to watch the film and sort of understand emotionally what was going on and write to that right on spot. Take those thumbnails home and work on it. I'd get together with Rich the next day because I had, had a sinclair and we do mock orchestrations of it. Then we'd have to present it for the director. So he's doing this as the movie is being shot for some reason and even said, I was hired to do something that I had to do it. And in my opinion, it had to be great. I couldn't say, oh man, just not feeling it today.

Let me drop a little acid. What? At the end of the day coming so many questions about all of them. I don't really understand why, but that is what Niall Rogers said that he had to. do to create the soundtrack for it. Because Eddie Murphy thought that the, that the ocean, the earthquake was going to destroy.

California was going to the ocean. And so that's why the shooting and why everything had to go so quickly. Well, you know what? That's kind of a great trick to get people to do things. I mean, it will definitely make you jump, man. The world is sinking. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.

We got to finish this movie. So there was, a little bit of a happy ending for Landis and Eddie Murphy of eventually after all. Landis said, Eddie and I had a real parting of ways. It was like, fuck you. We really disliked each one another. And many years later, I was approached to do Beverly Hills Cop 3. And I asked, well, who's playing Eddie Murphy? They said, no, Eddie asked for you. So I met with him and he was pleasant. I still think it was his way of apologizing. But who knows with Eddie? He's so strange, a very odd fellow, but so talented. And even right afterwards, they,

they made a pilot for the movie that was produced by Eddie Murphy that went absolutely nowhere. Eddie Murphy and CBS produced a pilot for the TV version

starring in living color actor Tommy Davidson as Prince Tarek, the now King Akeem's little brother and Paul Bates reprising his role as OHA. But that absolutely went nowhere. So they've been trying

to bring this back around multiple different times and then they finally put it to bed until a couple of years ago, now coming to America is supposed to be, it is slotted to be released in December of this year, but obviously we have no idea if that is going to actually happen. And also a lot of the reviews for coming to America

were pretty great. It went even better than a lot of people thought that it was going to go, which is why they really wanted to capitalize on this even further. and now they're going to. And even Eddie Murphy had come out and saying, of course the big question was, is he going to work with John Landis again? The answer is, no.

Yeah, it doesn't need to be John Landis. Eddie Murphy said in a statement, after many years of anticipation, I'm thrilled to coming to America too is officially moving forward. We've assembled a great team that will be led by Craig Brewer, who just did an amazing job on Dolabite.

Hell yeah. And I'm looking forward to bringing all these classic and beloved characters back to the screen. as well as they were working with Ruth E. Carter. So Ruthie Carter was the first African-American to take home an Academy Award in the costume design category for Black Panther. And so Ruthie Carter will be doing the costumes for the sequel.

But it was cool. And part of that interview that I had read with Deborah Landis was that it was like a passing over with the guards where Ruthie Carter also is in talks with Deborah Landis about like how did you create all of this? Like in a matter of like respect of like, I know. know that this is a huge shoes to fill and I'd like to hear where all of your ideas came from. So obviously, Debra Landis isn't like assisting or anything on it. It's just that they had conversations, which I think is a very respectful, cool fucking thing

to do. Definitely cool. Yeah. Also, so many returning people, Sheffield and Blaustein returned to write script. Mr. Sheffield, remember? They were also joined by Kenya Barris, who co-wrote Girls Trip as well as he did like all the blackish shows on TV. He also, we talked about it on page seven this week, he, uh, he co-wrote on, or he wrote

the new witches movie. Yeah. That's pretty sweet. Which is, which is going to be very interesting, I think. And it, uh, definitely has Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, of course, as well as Sherry Headley. Love her. John Amos.

Louis Anderson, James Earl Jones, all returning to play their original roles. They also added to the cast Leslie Jones, as we are. already mentioned, Germaine Fowler, and by the way, I just want to re-mentioned that we're all friends with him. Yeah, we know him, so it's fine. Like, we're all friends. Whatever. And so we know him pretty well. Wesley Snipes, who was fantastic in Dolomite, and

Tracy Morgan, to round out the cast. Incredible cast. Yeah. Incredible cast. And yes, as we said, Akeem is about to become king when he discovered that he discovers that he has a son back in America, and it has to return to broom his, groom his crown,

groom his crown prince. Yeah, you want to prune his brown? His brown cream? I want to prune his brown on that note, and that is all I've got. This has been our episode on Coming to America. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. I really had a blast re-watching this movie this past week and exploring it. And also, it is difficult in my brain to remember that living in America is not in this movie.

And I always am waiting for it to play. I'm like, no, living in America is not in this movie. Oh, see. Can you see? Yeah, girl. You get it. We love you guys so much. Thank you for joining us again.

My name is Jackie Zabrowski, and I'm your queen to be. You can follow me on Instagram at Jack That Worm. That's right. I'm Holden-McNeely. Catch me on Twitch. Dot TV forward slash Holdenators Ho. Every Friday night I do a stream with Jackie, and we have so much fun. Wee.

Oh, uh, Patreon.com, forward slash page 7 podcast as well. Yo, what's up, Natalie? I'm Natalie Jean. I am disease-free. I am at the Natty Gene on all this stuff. And we are at page 7 LPN. Not living in America. Bye. I'm sorry.

We are. I am. Bye. This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors. You can support our shows by supporting them. For more shows like the one you just listened to, go to lastpodcastnetwork.com.