Word: role
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Coming to America's answer is much better and much more appropriate for Murphy. He does play a single character who assumes an additional role or two during the course of the film. But he also appears in a variety of sly cameos throughout the film: a garrulous old barber, a schmaltzy, talentless R&B singer and even (thanks to renowned make-up wizard Rick Baker) an old Jewish New Yorker...
Murphy's on/offscreen buddy Arsenio Hall, who also gained TV fame for his mimicry, does the same: in addition to his primary role in America as Murphy's sidekick, he plays a fiery preacher, another old barber and a horny redheaded woman. half the fun of this film is playing Guess The Cameo...
Everything above and beyond the gags and sketches is dressing. Even the characters are secondary. Sure, Akeem is the main role, but he is so nice that he's too saintly to be real. He is funny mostly for his ignorance. In one scene, happy Akeem offers a morning serenade to the city of Queens, which responds with a chorus of "Fuck you," to which Akeem, not understanding, offers his own joyous "Yes, fuck you!" This is about the only time Murphy swears in the film. Akeem is a departure for Murphy, and to his credit, he pulls...
...poisonous wastes. The problem remains: fewer and fewer communities acknowledge that they have any responsibility to share such common, unpleasant burdens. "The ultimate issue of community is, What do we owe other people?" says Dan Lewis, a Northwestern University urbanologist. "In our society, where individualism plays such an important role, we don't have a public ethic about what we owe others...
...Jessica Savitch? Millions of TV viewers knew her as the glamorous and authoritative NBC News anchor who was a role model for scores of aspiring women journalists. To her colleagues on the set, however, she was an anorexic, acne-scarred prima donna who would throw tantrums over the slightest inconvenience or reject a glass of water because it was too warm. And to those who claimed to know her best, she was a vivacious and vulnerable woman who became so debilitated by insecurity and drug abuse that she could barely function without a nursemaid. When Savitch's end finally came...