Original “Saturday Night Live” cast member Garrett Morris, whose characters included the fictional ex-New York Met Chico Escuela, said that being the first Black performer on the sketch comedy show almost 50 years ago came with a price.
“I will say to the end of my days: Lorne’s writers had a lot of racism going on,” Morris told The Guardian recently, referring to “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels. “Lorne himself? Zero racism. Because, remember, when I was hired I was the only Black writer. Lorne wanted to have somebody Black on TV at night-time. People didn’t want that. They were clamoring to make it all white. He didn’t.”
Morris, 87, described what he said was an uncomfortable incident that unfolded before the historic premiere on Oct. 11, 1975.
“It really threw me when we were going through the first show,” he told The Guardian. “I didn’t have a skit, but I was watching another one. I said to Lorne, ‘There’s a doctor in this skit. Why don’t I play the doctor?’ And he says, ‘Garrett, people might be thrown by a Black doctor.’ Now mind you I had come from New Orleans, where you’re surrounded by Black medical doctors and Black PhDs. In all big cities down south, for that matter.”
Morris recently told a similar anecdote to The New York Times, but said it was the show’s head writer, the late Michael O’Donoghue, who made the comment.
“I was breathless at his response,” Morris told the Times.
Morris acknowledged to The Guardian that cocaine addiction led him to make some “bad choices” during his time on “SNL” (though he was hardly the only cast member using the drug). Still, his five seasons on the NBC show paved the way for comedic giant Eddie Murphy’s arrival in 1980 and helped create opportunities for a host of other Black stars, including Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson.
“I feel proud that I was a minuscule part of the beginning of ‘SNL,’ that I created the chair for the non-white performer,” Morris told the British newspaper.
As “SNL” celebrates its 50th season, the achievements of Morris and his fellow Not Ready for Prime Time Players were revisited this fall in “Saturday Night,” a dramatized backstage look at the premiere. Lamorne Morris (no relation) plays him.
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