Why Bill Murray Apologized on Saturday Night Live

Bill Murray has shared the true story behind his notorious on-air apology for not being funny on Saturday Night Live.

“It’s kind of hard to establish yourself when you say [nothing funny],” he confessed on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday, February 11.

Ahead of SNL‘s 50th anniversary special on Sunday, February 16, Murray dropped by host Seth Meyers’ NBC talk show to reflect on his rocky start on the legendary comedy series.

While Murray is often grouped with Saturday Night Live‘s original cast, he actually joined in the second season as a replacement for the departing Chevy Chase. Murray initially struggled to break out in his first several episodes, leading to him issuing a mea culpa to viewers on the March 19, 1977 show.

“I don’t think I’m making it on the show,” he confessed in the sketch.

This comedic apology was seen as a turning point in Murray’s SNL tenure, as he’d go on to become one of the biggest stars in the history of the show. He spoke about how the on-air apology came about during his interview with Meyers.

“No-one ever wrote a sketch for me for like seven months or so,” he remembered. “I was the second cop, the second FBI man, the second plumber. I had like a line or two lines a week.”

Murray felt that the writers didn’t trust him to deliver their jokes, so he agreed to make an on-air apology for his subpar performances in an appeal directly to viewers.

“I had the idea. I thought, ‘God, I’ve got to do something’ because if I were watching this show, I’d say, ‘That guy’s gotta go. They gotta get rid of him soon,’” he admitted. “I felt like I had to cut that [reaction] off. Before I even said it, [producer] Lorne Michaels said, ‘I’ve got an idea for you’… I said, ‘Great minds [think alike], Lorne, great minds!’”

Asked by Meyers if he “felt a difference” after the apology sketch aired, Murray recalled: “I felt like I was really being myself. I felt like people got to see who I really was. I really meant all of that. I meant to be funny [too] and… I was spinning it at 32 RPM.”

Murray was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1976 to 1980, and would go on to host the show five times between 1981 and 1999.

He confirmed to Meyers in their interview this week that he would be appearing during Sunday’s SNL 50 live special on NBC, alongside fellow former cast members Eddie Murphy, Kristen Wiig, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Pete Davidson and many more.

“It’s nice to be back in the building [Rockefeller Center],” he told the Late Night studio audience.

Meyers’ Late Night is also filmed at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, albeit down the hall from Saturday Night Live’s Studio 8H.

Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special airs on Sunday, February 16, with a red carpet special streaming live on Peacock from 7p.m ET and the live show airing on NBC at 8p.m. ET.

Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights 12:35a.m. ET on NBC.