With Saturday Night Live’s 50th season airing on the 2024 TV schedule, there's been a lot of reflection about the show's history. Like anything, SNL has had its ups and downs, and it's worth talking about it all. Original cast member Garrett Morris recently illustrated that as he candidly explained that while he faced "zero racism" from his boss, Lorne Michaels, not everything about his time in Studio 8H was hunky dory.
Morris was in the main cast of SNL for the first five seasons, and he was the first Black cast member on the variety sketch show. While he was initially hired as a writer, the women of SNL got Michaels to watch him in 1975’s Cooley High. That led to the comedian's audition, and his life changed after that, as he told The Guardian:
Because of that, I was asked to audition for the Not Ready for Prime Time Players [the working title for SNL], and I went from being a writer to being part of the group.
Even though Morris was already landing roles left and right prior to SNL, the series skyrocketed him to new heights, and knowing that he didn’t even expect to join the cast makes the story even better. Not only did his career take off following SNL, it influenced and inspired so many Black comedians who came after him. For example, Lamorne Morris, who portrays Garrett in the Saturday Night movie, previously revealed how deeply he related to the SNL cast member breaking into the industry since he also faced stereotypes like being “the Black dude from that show.”
Despite breaking barriers in the industry, it wasn’t easy for Garrett Morris to do so, especially before he was cast on the sketch comedy show. The actor recalled that while working in the writers' room he faced racism from his fellow writers. He did, however, note that he didn't receive that kind of treatment from Lorne Michaels, as he explained:
I will say to the end of my days: Lorne’s writers had a lot of racism going on. 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.
It's good to hear that Michaels wanted a representative and diverse writers' room and cast. However, Morris still faced racism and rude treatment from his colleagues. Even after making it onto the cast, he was fighting against receiving stereotypical Black roles. It also wasn’t made easier by the fact that the white writers on SNL didn’t appreciate him as a Black performer, with other Black performers following him expressing similar concerns.
Overall, Morris was clear that while he was supported by his boss, he still faced racism while working on the show. However, he ended up performing on SNL for five seasons, and he's now considered a comedy legend.
Since leaving the sketch comedy series, Morris has worked consistently, playing parts in comedies like Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show and 2 Broke Girls. He even reunited with Michaels on 1993’s Coneheads, and he has worked with other SNL greats throughout his career, showing that he has a good relationship with SNL's head honcho.
To go back and see Morris' run on the NBC series, you can stream the early seasons of SNL with a Peacock subscription.