As I write this, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (or SNL as it is often shortened to) is currently in the midst of its 46th season. Among its current cast (including featured players), we have 5 African-Americans; 1 Mexican-American; and 1 Chinese-American. The show has more diversity in its cast than it has ever had in its history.
However.
The sad truth is that this is notable only because for much of the show's history, the show was notoriously horrendous on the issue of race.
The formula for SNL ensembles always seemed to favor those that were white and that was especially apparent in the 1980s when the show had performers appearing not just in blackface but yellowface.
For over a decade, this formula was essentially four men and three women. In 1985, they hired a black female, Danitra Vance, to be the first female main cast member of color while having a black male as a featured player, Damon Wayans. In a way, it almost put forth the idea that the show couldn't have more than one person of color. Therefore, you could say it looked like these performers were "token black cast members".
The concept of the show having what seemed like a "token black cast member" was so well known in the TV world that when the Wayans Brothers brought us their variety show IN LIVING COLOR, their mostly black ensemble was topped off by a token white cast member: Jim Carrey.
I am going to be going on a journey through the history of SNL focusing on certain performers of color and their struggles/successes within the show's hierarchy. To start, we will begin with the original cast that began in 1975.
There were four men: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Garrett Morris
And three women: Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner.
Of that group, Garrett Morris has the status as being the first African-American cast member.
Garrett Morris
The story of Garrett Morris was a lot more unique in comparison to the others in his cast, and I feel it is worth addressing more in depth. In addition to being the show's first African-American cast member, he was also 38, which made him the oldest out of all of the cast members. He was classically trained at Julliard School of Music and earned great respect as an actor/signer/writer in the theatre world. He even toured as a backup singer for the likes of such legends as Harry Belafonte and was an early member of the Black Arts Movement which frequently would have their theatre in Harlem raided by the NYPD and spied on by the FBI.
The Writers Guild sent over Morris to join the writing staff. However, it immediately became apparent that his talent as a writer was not well suited for sketch comedy. He was kept on staff as creator/producer Lorne Michaels had an aversion to firing people and felt Morris' talent as an actor could prove useful and kept him on as a cast member.
Out of all of the original cast members, Garrett Morris is not frequently discussed today, and watching those first 5 seasons, it is easy to see how why.
Obviously, Morris is a talented performer (look at his work in the film Cooley High for example) but the atmosphere at SNL isn't always for everyone (and there have been many a horror story from performers over the years who simply could not handle the pressure). There was also a sense that Morris' lack of experience in sketch comedy combined with the all-white writing staff not being suited to comfortably write for a person of color led to his downfall.
Morris with castmates Bill Murray & Laraine Newman
In fact, one of the show's original and longest serving writers and featured players Al Franken (yes, THAT Al Franken) was once interviewed for the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live about this very issue and was quoted as follows:
"We relied on him to bring some blackness to the show because what's our experience? He had to bring it to us!"
While there is a certain truth to that, Al Franken was also the same man who wrote a commercial parody called TarBrush, the toothpaste that could only be used by black people. This parody never made it to air due to racial insensitivity but those people of color who worked on the staff were livid at the fact that the concept even got as far along as it did.
He often was the subject of the ridicule of SNL's original headwriter, the vindictive "Dark Prince" Michael O'Donoghue. While O'Donoghue was a fascinating figure with his obsession over William F. Burroughs and his desire to promote the darkest comedy possible, there was no denying that he was a truly questionable human being.
He was reported to have once responded to a sketch Garrett Morris wrote about a black superhero, named Colored Man, by holding the script as if it were maggot-ridden, tossing it in the trash right in front of him. He would also comment on Morris' unique stance when addressing the camera in certain bits as if he were "missing a bone in his neck".
During the show's third season, the show managed to have a mostly successful season that has so many iconic and classic bits that you can't help but watch in awe. Sadly, it is the year in which they seemed to have found a formula that they felt worked for Morris: making him do drag.
Thus began the now cringe-worthy pageant where Garrett Morris would frequently play everything from maids to nurses to eventually tackling Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross, Pearl Bailey, Tina Turner (which, to be frank, he actually did a fantastic job with that performance). However, it all came to a head in the 4th season when the legendary Cicely Tyson hosted.
When Don Pardo, SNL's famous announcer for decades, calls Tyson's name before the monolgue, Garrett Morris comes out onstage dressed as Tyson. When the real Tyson discovers him, this exchange, with some subtle jokes, occurs:
TYSON: What do you think you're doing?
MORRIS: Well when I heard that you were doing the show I assumed that it would be a part for me. I was hired by this show under terms of the Token Minority Window Dressing Act of 1968. I will play all parts darker than Tony Orlando.
TYSON: Garrett, what is happening to you?! Look at what you are doing! When we worked together at the Black Resentment Drama Workshop in the 60s, I expected something really very big from you! The range you showed, your talent, your voice...Where's your integrity? What happened to it? You have talent and you're throwing it away. Don't you know you have a responsibility as a black actor to perfect your craft? And here you are on this stage, in front of all of these people on television, acting like a clown. What are you doing it for? Money?!
GARRETT: Well, it doesn't look bad on a resume, ya know? And I get to keep the dresses.
This exchange was born not so much out of the show actually acknowledging it had a problem but more out of Morris' frustrations and particularly those of guest host Cicely Tyson.
Tyson, at that date, may have arguably been the most prominent African-American actress working in the business. She was coming off of her brilliant Oscar-nominated performance in the truly underrated Sounder and also her legendary work in the telefilm The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Tyson was appalled at most of the material that was written for her by the show and refused to be a part of it. A lot of the monologue truly expressed her own sentiment along with many in the African American community.
To make matters worse, a lot of the African-American community at that time turned their backs on Morris. In an interview with Essence magazine, Morris said that he took a lot of abuse from people in his hometown of New Orleans for his "willingness to perform in stereotypical black roles" and that this was the main reason he was "virtually ignored by the black press".
Morris as his most frequent recurring character: Chico Escuela
Morris eventually ended up playing a fairly popular recurring character, retired baseball Chico Escuela ("Base-a-ball been berry berry good to me"), although even that character wasn't exactly flattering stereotype.
That being said, he did manage to have some truly memorable moments in his 5 year tenure otherwise. One of his most iconic bits was being the Headmaster for The School of the Hard of Hearing who would interpret Chevy Chase's Weekend Update top story by simply shouting at the top of his lungs for the deaf to hear (a bit that he himself got to parody on Family Guy which is quite a feat despite that show's erratic quality)
Perhaps my favorite bit and one that is often featured during "Best of" montages is his song during a sketch in the Season 1 episode hosted by comedy duo Dudley Moore & Peter Cook. The "Lifer Follies" sketch is a musical being put up in a prison about men who inhabit it. Morris' song's lyrics are as follows:
"I'm gonna...
Get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see!
Gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see!
When I kill all the whiteys I see,
Then, whitey, he won't bother me!
Oh, I'll get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see!"
Needless to say, this bit wouldn't make it on the air today but Morris' commitment to the bit is quite strong.
Morris did still have that great singing voice based on his previous training and there were a few moments where the show did give him a moment to shine in that regard, like singing a jazzy rendition of Winter Wonderland in the season 1 Christmas episode.
He was also apart of “Bad Clams”, one of the most bizarre sketches in the show's history, where he and bit player Yvonne Hudson (more on her in a future post) host a Baltimore talk show in which they insist on feeding dozens and dozens of spoiled clams to Gilda Radner's Lucille Ball. It is truly ludicrous but hilarious.
Despite all of this, Morris' spirit was crushed and he never achieved the same success of his co-stars. Unfortunately, as if often the case, this led to more tragic and destructive behavior.
SNL was notorious at that time for the copious amounts of drugs that poured through its offices at the famed Rockefeller Center and among the heaviest of users of cocaine was Morris himself.
It was said that he took to freebasing cocaine so he could smoke it at its purest form. This would lead to him become hallucinatory and paranoid and while he would never actually bomb on air or destroy a scene, his performances became a little more hazy at times particularly during his fifth and final season.
I do want to state that Morris has admirably managed to face down his addictions and has kept up a steady career as a character actor to this day. As of 2021, he is 83 years old and just recently finished playing a supporting role on the CBS sitcom Two Broke Girls. He might not have reached the same level of fame as the men he worked with on SNL but he did persevere in the end.
Garrett Morris' story within SNL isn't often discussed about these days and I consider that a shame. It is crucial story within the show's history when it comes to the racial inequality that frequently plagued it.
The ironic thing in the end is that following the departure of the remaining original cast in 1980, including Morris, the show went into a truly legendary downfall in which the press and audience deemed the series a complete disaster. What we shouldn't forget is that it ended up being a young African-American bit player turned featured player turned main cast member (over the span of just 7 episodes no less) to save SNL from demise.
Of course, I am talking about Eddie Murphy.
Stay tuned for...
"How Eddie Murphy Went From Bit Player to Superstar in 2 years"
