Eddie Murphy directed and wrote the script for Harlem Knights, an old school ’89 cult classic, with his dream cast in mind- Redd Foxx, Della Reese, Robin Harris, and the man whom he credited for his sole reason for becoming a comedian, his idol, Richard Pryor. At the time, Eddie Murphy was seen by Hollywood as the “It” guy because he was killin’ it on every film he touched back then. So he used his star power to give back to the comedians who came before him. A lot of us liked this movie because it had 3 generations of classic comics in it- Foxx, 67, Pryor, 49, and Murphy, 28 and in the Jan. 1990 issue of Ebony magazine, Eddie talked about what this opportunity meant to him:

“This whole thing didn’t happen until we all got together and cooked this up,” Murphy says. “Hollywood wasn’t trying to hook us up. But I think it’s just historic that I get to work with these brothers. The privilege of working with Richard and Redd has been the greatest reward of my career.”

Here’s an Old School fun fact about Harlem Knights:

The movie was actually patterned after Eddie’s uncle, Sugar Ray (played by Pryor), who in fact, owned a bar in Brooklyn. Here’s what Eddie’s uncle, Sugar Ray, said about the movie:

“I owned a bar in Brooklyn called Sugar Ray’s and I used to tell Eddie the stories about when I ran with the mafia that Donnie Brascoe and all of that. In three weeks, Eddie wrote that movie Harlem Nights. That movie was like real, what really happened back in those days. I’m proud to say that my nephew has immortalized me between the movies and all the people I’ve met in Hollywood. I think it’s the most wonderful thing that could ever happen to somebody who comes from the projects.”