The OP is 100% on point with his theory. The people responsible for this movie knew that it would make their target audience "uncomfortable" to see a black man with a white woman.
I know some baby boomers who are disgusted when they see black males with white women. They go nuts.
My employer, a white man born in 1955 has made the comment, "the only place you see blacks with white women is Six Flags, and the chicks are always fat and gross."
Millennial = Homo Sapiens born 1990 or after; Losers who think they know everything but don't

Its pathetic how in this day and age, lifelong male friends can't hug eachother without being called gay. Fwiw, in response to the OP. The film was better for it. Also, am pretty sure interracial relationships were still fairly taboo to the mainstream in the early 80's at least in movies.

Ha! That's exactly what I thought! See my post on their incredible sexual tensionparticularly Murphy's response to Russo.

That's because the main love interest was Axel Foley and Mikey Tandino

It seemed like they were just really good friends from back in the day, which worked for the film, actually.

In all 3 movies Axel had no commitments and was perfectly okay frequenting tittee bars and living his free single lifestyle

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Well, regardless of if they changed the relationship due to iinterracial taboos at the time, the film actually works better that they are just friends. It's one thing I liked about Lethal Weapon 1 over the sequels. Martin Riggs was way more badass and interesting when he was a psychotic loner without a love interest to bog him down.

since i havent seen Beverly Hills Cop 2.i don't know if they fall in love.
No, they don't. She never even came back. If a fourth is made, I wouldn't mind a cameo.
Having watched part 1 last night, it occurs to me Jenny is actually kind of redundant as a character. She's neither a love interest, nor is she even really helpful to Axel or any of the others. She's just sort of tagging along. She's like a plot device and plot convenience. She
works for the villain and is given credit for finding out about Victor's drug smuggling, but in the end she was really just the damsel in distress for Axel and the others to save. She didn't really do anything. She doesn't even show up to say goodbye at the hotel.
The movie is very much about Axel's relationship with these other police officers. Jenny was probably added because it would otherwise be a sausage fest.
This probably explains why the leading lady in 2 was a villain, and the third one was a love interest.
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Axel and Jenny grew up in the same neighborhood, they've been best pals for a long time. Its a common thing that best pals fall in love, since i havent seen Beverly Hills Cop 2.i don't know if they fall in love.
When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.

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There you go trying to interject facts and perspective when someone is looking for ways to take offense.

I think everyone was expecting Axel and Jenny to become lovers by the end of this film. I think the simple reason why they didn't was because Hollywood wasn't comfortable showing a black man and a white woman in that type of relationship.
When Sly Stallone was slated to star in the movie, Jenny was in fact the main character's love interest. That changed when Eddie became the lead instead.
What's your take on the Axel/Jenny relationship?
Didn't Stallone's draft make Jenny the love interest? When they decided not to use his, Axel and Jenny were no longer lovers. I'm not sure if casting Eddie had anything to do with it. Looking at the film now, they're totally just friends. Axel doesn't have a love interest until 3, but avoiding that old cliche is fine with me, regardless of an interracial relationship or not.
I do wish Jenny had returned in the sequels, though. I suppose since she wasn't a love interest, they just didn't bother. Either that or it was because she wasn't a cop, and it would be redundant to keep coming up with ways for her to get involved in Axel's investigations.
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I agree. Romance would have slowed the film. This is one of my favorite action films precisely because it doesn't have a useless romantic subplot the pacing in this film is great. Straight action and comedy.

Personally, I think a love interest would have slowed down the pace of the film.
I'm glad it wasn't in BHC II and it was awkward in BHC III
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It's disturbing that it was changed for Murphy but at the same time I'm sick of the need to interject a love story in every film that has room for it. And if Stallone would have been in the film it would have sucked no matter what.

I agree - they were just friends and it was lovely to see.
I grew up in Philadelphia and hung in a group of people that was black/white/Hispanic/gay/straight and was used to seeing people from different groups being friends.
I would have been majorly disappointed if they had become lovers at the end.

Most of the time, I would agreebut knowing that she was supposed to be the love interest when the lead was white, but is inexplicably no longer the love interest once the lead was black just sends a wrong message, IMO.

I like that they were just friends, don't see that very often in the movies.
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