News flash: “Bill Murray Faces Avalanche Of New Accusations,” a 10.14 Deadline story by Tom Tapp, is basically out of the past. Because two of the “new” allegations are between 29 and 39 years old, having occured in 1983 and 1993.
On a 10.13 episode of “Good Mythical Morning“, Seth Green related how Murray got into a spat with his nine-year-old self during a 1983 taping of Saturday Night Live. It ended with Murray picking up Green by the ankles, saying “the trash goes into the trash” and dumping him into a trash can. And of course, it happened early in the Reagan administration.
Green’s story (which arrives around the 16-minute mark) is bizarre but it’s also…I don’t know how to describe it. Perversely funny by way of mock cruelty? It obviously alludes to a lack of gentle or kindly behavior on Murray’s part, but dropping a presumably mouthy, munchkin-sized, red-haired nine-year-old into a trash can…yes, Murray was being a dick (I certainly would have never done anything like this) but a big older guy dumping a precocious, Howdy Doody-sized nine-year-old into a trash can…I dunno but there’s something mildly funny about that. I don’t approve, of course, but “the trash goes into the trash”…I’m sorry but that’s a funny-cruel line.
Tapp’s Deadline story also mentions a recollection from former SNL star Rob Schneider, about how Murray conveyed an intense loathing for SNL cast members Adam Sandler and Chris Farley when he guest-hosted the show in ’93. Again — a moderately alarming story about Murray’s manner and temperament, but it happened during the second year of the Clinton administration. “The least of the hate was to me,” Schenider said. “I took great pleasure in that [Murray] hated me less, because he’s my hero.”
There’s also a rehash of the Geena Davis / Quick Change story, which happened in 1990 and is revealed in her new book, “Dying of Polteness.” Murray acted is a creepy sexual manner, she recalls.
The Lucy Liu Charle’s Angels story, which haoppened 22 or 23 years ago, is also rehashed.
There’s not much doubt that Murray has been (and possibly still is) an odd ornery cuss from time to time, but Tapp’s article has been triggered by a standard showbiz mob pile-on instinct. Get Bill, beat him up, trash him every which way, etc.