EDDIE MURPHY was so angry at Fox for holding “The PJs” until midseason that he refused to record two of the new season’s episodes.
The show’s producer, Imagine Entertainment, hired actor Phil Morris – the fast-talking Johnnie Cochran lookalike from “Seinfeld” – to fill in for the miffed Murphy.
Morris provided what officials say was a dead-on impersonation of Murphy’s character, Thurgood Stubbs, the star of the show.
“His voice is virtually indistinguishable from Eddie’s,” a show insider said.
Murphy’s anger cooled and he agreed to return to the series, pending some yet-to-be revealed concessions by the network, according to reports.
Officials at Imagine are still not sure though if the two episodes Morris voiced will be reshot with Murphy’s voice.
“There’s a cost associated with re-recording them,” the source said. “When you have a different person doing the exact same line, there’s a different timing to it and we animate right to the frame.”
When The Post reported that Murphy had quit, both Fox officials and sources close to Murphy played down the situation.
One network source even said that a Los Angeles Times report about Murphy’s abrupt departure was “completely untrue.”
“Eddie was ticked off at Fox because of the way that they handled the situation,” said a source close to the actor, who explained that Murphy was furious that Fox did not give much advance notice of the scheduling decision or the reasoning behind it.
Despite Murphy’s refusal to tape the episodes, the show’s lengthy production process demanded that work on the animated series continue in order to keep on schedule.
“There’s no end to it,” the source said. “It’s kind of like this voracious beast – you can’t just shut down.”
Morris – who in the past had filled in for Murphy when various lines needed to be re-voiced due to editing – was available to work.
Sources close to the show say that despite Morris’ impersonation, Murphy – who is also “The PJ’s” executive producer – is invaluable to the series because of his star power.
“Phil is fantastic and brilliant, save for the fact that Eddie is Eddie and there’s a certain kind of thing that he brings to the party,” the source said.
