During Saturday Night Live‘s early years, Bill Murray was a cast member from the show’s second through fifth seasons. Between 1981 and 1999, Murray returned to the show five times as the host. Of course, big names such as Adam Sandler and Chris Farley were thriving on the show in the ’90s. Apparently, Murray was not a fan of those SNL staples. In fact, Rob Schneider, who was a cast member from 1990 to 1994, recently told The Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show (via THR) that Murray wasn’t a fan of his SNL class.
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Before Murray came to host, Schneider recalls being told, “Bill Murray is gonna come, he’s gonna change the dialogue. He’s gonna change things, and it’s gonna be great, but you don’t know who you’re gonna get. Which Bill Murray you’re gonna get. The nice Bill Murray? Or you’re gonna get the tough Bill Murray?” Schneider added, “He’s super nice to fans. He wasn’t very nice to us… He wasn’t very – he hated us on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething. He hated Chris Farley with a passion. Like he was just seething looking at him.”
While Schneider didn’t know for sure why Murrary disliked Farley, his guess is because Farley had a similar energy to Murray’s former SNL cast member, John Belushi. Farley “thought it was cool to be that out of control,” Schneider explained, adding that Murray probably wasn’t a fan of that style. Apparently, Murray also “really hated Sandler too” because “he just wasn’t into that groove of it, you know? And Sandler was just committed to it, and just like… as soon as he would get on, you could see the audience just ate him up.”
What Did Billy Murray Do To Seth Green On SNL?
This isn’t the first negative story to come out this week about Murray and Saturday Night Live. Seth Green recently told Good Mythical Morning (via Uproxx) that he had an unpleasant encounter with Murray on the set of SNL when he was a kid.
“[Murray] saw me sitting on the arm of this chair and made a big fuss about me being in his seat,” Green shared. “And I was like, ‘That is absurd. I am sitting on the arm of this couch. There are several lengths of this sofa. Kindly eff off.’ And he was like, ‘That’s my chair.’” Green said that his mom was also there, and suggested he move for Murray, but he was “indignant” about “this power play” to a 9-year-old.
Green added. “He picked me up by my ankles… Held me upside down… He dangled me over a trash can and he was like, ‘The trash goes in the trash can.’ And I was screaming, and I swung my arms, flailed wildly, full contact with his balls. He dropped me in the trash can, the trash can falls over. I was horrified. I ran away, hid under the table in my dressing room, and just cried.”
Saturday Night Live is currently available to stream on Peacock.
