The comedian and comedy actor Eddie Murphy performed a series of Buckwheat sketches on '' Saturday Night Live '' during the 1980s when he was a cast member . But Thomas 's co-star George McFarland , who played " Spanky " in the '' Little Rascals '' , made it clear that he hated Murphy 's imitations . " I did n't care for them a bit . Mr. Murphy did a very poor imitation . He made Buckwheat into a stereotype that he was n't , at the expense of the people in his family who are still alive . " In a sketch performed on the show in 1983 , Murphy literally killed off the Buckwheat character by having him " assassinated " by John David Stutts ( also played by Murphy ) , who is himself killed by an unknown assailant . The sketches were largely parodies of the shooting of Ronald Reagan and the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald , as well as of TV news coverage in general
the shooting of Ronald Reagan
Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan
Billie Thomas