Garrett Morris says Lorne Michaels had "zero racism," but the SNL writers had "a lot"

The Guardian has a lovely interview with Garrett Morris today that reflects on his entire storied career, including, of course, his time on Saturday Night Live. Morris was hired for the show first as a writer and then added to the cast after Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Jane Curtin introduced Lorne Michaels to Morris’ abilities via his performance in the film Cooley High. Today, Morris feels “proud that I was a minuscule part of the beginning of SNL… that I created the chair for the non-white performer.” However—as the new film Saturday Night explores—he did have complicated feelings about being the show’s oldest and only Black cast member. 

“I will say to the end of my days: Lorne’s writers had a lot of racism going on,” Morris tells the outlet. “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.”

Even then, Michaels wasn’t exactly going to bat for on-screen racial diversity (if you couldn’t tell by the subsequent 50 years of mostly white casts.) “It really threw me when we were going through the first show,” Morris recalls. “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.”

Despite what you might call a mixed-bag experience, Morris continues to tune into the show to this day, though he has some notes. “I don’t see the courage, the experimental impulses,” he says. “That was the whole core of what happened the first 10 years. I keep expecting it to attack in a funny way and bring out the foibles not only of individuals but of the government and all that. And nowadays, although people still check it out, I think they’re catering to too many people too much of the time.”