Bill Murray Makes His View Debut After 25 Years of Avoiding an Early Wakeup

25 years in, The View is still celebrating some important firsts. On Wednesday morning, the co-hosts welcomed Bill Murray on the show for the first time ever, a record that seems shocking given the actor's impressive filmography. When Whoopi asked what kept him away all these years, Murray joked that he's been avoiding The View's early morning call time. "I think you guys wake up too early," he said. "It's so bright!"

Murray appeared virtually on The View to promote his new film, New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization, but that didn't stop him from reflection on some of his previous projects. While the actor praised Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Jason Reitman's recent sequel film, he admitted that the franchise's iconic proton "pack is very heavy," and he struggled with the script's fondness for "throwing us down on the ground" repeatedly. "It's not so much the getting down, it's the getting back up that kills you," said Murray. "If you had to do your show from the floor, you girls would be miserable!"

When Joy Behar asked about "the best time [he's] ever had" on a film, Murray brought up Tootsie, in which he played Dustin Hoffman's roommate, Jeff Slater. "Dustin Hoffman was really, really generous as an actor," he said. "We had a wonderful relationship. And every scene we did together, we just sort of made up, right then and there."

"Every time we got to work, we got to do whatever we thought was funny," continued Murray. "Because Dustin and Sydney [Pollack] had this crazy relationship where Dustin would be very, very demanding. And, you know, as an actor, I knew when Dustin was acting a lot of the time. But it was really fun to just be a fly on the wall and watch these two heavyweights go after it. That was a joyous experience."

Though fans are still waiting for Murray to make his first in-studio appearance on The View, getting him up and ready for an 11 AM appearance is a certainly a win. Here's hoping he doesn't wait another 25 years to return!

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.