The year 2024 brought us a long-awaited fourth installment of the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise. Led by Eddie Murphy, the action comedy film series began back in 1984, with the comedian and “Saturday Night Live” veteran playing smart-ass Detroit cop Axel Foley, who follows a case that takes him to the upscale Los Angeles locale, where he inevitably stirs up trouble. Riding a wave of stardom thanks to big screen roles in “48 Hrs.” and “Trading Places,” Murphy became a big screen phenomenon after “Beverly Hills Cop,” as he took the lead for the first time and sparked a box office success that resulted in a trilogy of films (though each was worse than its predecessor).
Despite the decline in quality, with “Beverly Hills Cop 3” being an atrocious addition to the franchise, fans still wanted to see what Axel Foley might be up to after all these years. They finally got their wish with “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” and it was a solid return for the franchise, though it didn’t reach the greatness achieved by the original. However, did you know there was once a “Beverly Hills Cop” sequel that would have unfolded in the form of a TV series?
Back in 2012, CBS ordered a pilot for a “Beverly Hills Cop” TV series that starred “Tropic Thunder” actor Brandon T. Jackson as Axel Foley’s son, who had become a cop himself. Eddie Murphy was on board to produce and at least appear in the pilot episode, with the hope of intermittently making a guest star appearance here and there. “Men in Black” director Barry Sonnenfeld directed the pilot, but CBS never picked it up to series. Why?
Well, Eddie Murphy previously explained that the issue was CBS wanted him to appear more often than he was anticipating. Back in 2019, Murphy said, “[CBS] thought that I was going to be in this show, because [the lead] was my son. ‘And you’re going to pop in every now and then.’ I was like, ‘I ain’t popping in s***.'”
However, when we recently spoke with Barry Sonnenfeld in support of his new book out today, “Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood,” he provided more details as to why the “Beverly Hills Cop” TV series wasn’t ordered.
For Sonnenfeld’s part, he loved the experience of working on the “Beverly Hills Cop” TV series, but it didn’t come without hurdles. For example, Murphy, who has been known to be difficult to work with on occasion, was not willing to dip back into his usual comedic antics as Axel Foley. Sonnenfeld told /Film about meeting with Murphy before shooting the pilot:
“Eddie said, ‘Listen, if you think I’m going to do all those Eddie Murphy things, like go [imitates Axel Foley’s distinctive laugh] and all those other things, I’m not going to do any of that s.’ So I said, ‘Okay, Eddie, it was a pleasure meeting you. Thanks. I’ll see myself out.’ And he said, ‘That’s the entire interview?’ And I said, ‘Well, I was going to talk to you about when we should do any key moments from the ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ movies, but if you don’t want to do any of those, there’s really nothing to talk about. But thanks for your time. I’ll see you on the set.’ I started to go, and he said, ‘Hey, can I ask you a question?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure, Eddie.’ And he said, ‘Why the f are you directing this thing?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m a big fan.’ And I left.”
That doesn’t sound like Murphy was too keen on reprising one of his signature characters. But the way Sonnenfeld explains it, perhaps Murphy was just trying to puff up his chest and be a big Hollywood star. The director continued:
“So it’s the first day we’re shooting, and I’m on the set with Eddie. We set up the scene, and Eddie’s supposed to pop up from behind a car, and Brandon, who played Eddie’s son, is supposed to see him, and I would have hoped that Eddie would have gone [imitates Axel’s laugh]. But of course, he said he wouldn’t, so I’m curious what he’s going to do. I say ‘roll camera,’ Eddie stands up, and goes [imitates Axel’s laugh]. And Eddie, the whole time, did everything I would have wanted him to do, but he said he wasn’t going to do!”
For his part, Sonnenfeld said working with Eddie Murphy on the show was a great experience, and he felt the pilot turned out “really, really good.”
So, what happened after the pilot was shot? Well, it sounds like you can blame a star who maybe didn’t have the chops to lead a network TV series, as well as corporate pettiness between a TV network and a movie studio.
Once the pilot was completed, why didn’t CBS pick it up to series? What went wrong? Well, apparently one of the issues came from the show’s star. According to Sonnenfeld, Brandon T. Jackson (seen above in the NBC series “Mr. Robinson”) was not ready to lead a primetime network series. Sonnenfeld put it bluntly:
“Brandon T. Jackson was not good enough to be the starring actor in that show. In fact, there was one night where we were shooting a scene with Brandon and Eddie at a hotel where they’re doing some reconnaissance. Eddie is hilarious — he’s ad-libbing, he’s riffing. And instead of Brandon letting Eddie go, he tries to compete with Eddie and interrupts him and says something funny. Again, [for an ideal] comedy, [you need] one funny guy in the scene, one straight man in the scene. You’ve got Eddie Murphy being hilarious, the other guy better just shut up and react. Brandon kept ruining takes, and I took him aside and said, ‘Brandon, just listen to him and react. He’s hilarious.’ He goes, ‘My fans don’t want to see Eddie Murphy. They want to see Brandon T. Jackson.’ I said, ‘You know what, I have a feeling that in this scene, they really want to see Eddie Murphy.'”
If you look at the work Brandon T. Jackson has done since the pilot was completed, though he’s been working regularly as an actor, he hasn’t become a bona fide star, so there must be some truth to Sonnenfeld’s assessment. Plus, if you watch the “Beverly Hills Cop” pilot, which leaked on YouTube, you’ll see for yourself that the show gets renewed life when Murphy shows up, and it’s just fine otherwise. For the series to be successful, it would have needed a lot more Murphy than he was willing to provide.
But that wasn’t the only problem. It turns out there was a spat between CBS and Paramount Pictures, despite both being owned by Viacom.
Sonnenfeld went on to explain the other problem, which basically comes down to good old-fashioned Hollywood egos. The director elaborated:
“The other issue is CBS and Paramount were both owned by the same Viacom conglomerate. The [then-]head of CBS, Les Moonves, was in a pissing contest with the head of Paramount, who was Tom Freston. Les Moonves literally didn’t pick up a pilot called ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ co-starring Eddie Murphy — in part because of Brandon, and Eddie wasn’t guaranteeing how much he was going to be in the series or not. I will say, if you want to give Les credit for anything, he didn’t know if Eddie would be around enough. But it was really about not giving Tom Freston the hubris, the joy, the victory of having Eddie Murphy star in a television show, and we literally were not picked up. And it was a really, really good pilot … and Eddie was really good in it, and he was playing that guy, you know?”
Murphy was good in the “Beverly Hills Cop” pilot, and he’s previously cited test audiences loving the moments when he showed up. But since he wasn’t willing to dedicate more time to appearing on the show, that was just enough to make it a little less appealing. If Murphy agreed to have a more significant guest starring role, maybe we’d have seen the pilot get retooled with a different lead and find success. But in the end, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” gave us plenty of Axel Foley and scratched that 1980s itch well enough.
If you want to hear more fascinating and hilarious Hollywood anecdotes from Barry Sonnenfeld, such as the woes of working with John Travolta, be sure to listen to our full interview with the filmmaker on today’s episode of /Film Daily below, and check out his book, “Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood,” available everywhere now.
BY ETHAN ANDERTON
