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Garrett Morris says that Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels isn’t racist — though he did hire racist writers and didn’t think that America was ready for a Black doctor in 1975.
The only person of color from the inaugural SNL cast has never been shy about discussing the difficulties he experienced during his five-year tenure on the institutional comedy show, and the increased interest in the opening episode of the longest running sketch comedy series in American TV history due to the release of Jason Reitman’s semi-biographical film Saturday Night has allowed Morris ample opportunity to publicly reflect on his time at SNL.
Morris has long been candid about the racism he faced from certain members of the SNL staff (looking at you, the ghost of Michael O’Donoghue) as well as the problems caused by his own drug addiction during the most impactful period of his career, but for all of Morris’ criticisms of those early SNL years, he’s long defended Michaels himself, despite the toxicity of the workplace that Michaels created.
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However, in a recent interview with The Guardian, Morris opened up about that first SNL episode that inspired the fictionalized film about Michaels and his first cast, and he revealed that Michaels refused to cast him in one role that Morris wanted to play in the premiere because, according to Michaels, “People might be thrown by a Black doctor.”
“I will say to the end of my days: Lorne’s writers had a lot of racism going on,” Morris said of his old boss and workplace. “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 has often discussed how he had to fight hard to create roles on SNL that weren’t stereotypical or demeaning as the show’s only Black cast member, recalling to The Guardian, “It really threw me when we were going through the first show. 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.’”
Morris recalled feeling shocked and confused at Michaels’ rebuttal, noting, “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.”
Ultimately, Morris’ role throughout his time on SNL was more of a Black utility player than the empowering, expectations-bucking Black lead he wanted to be, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t grateful for Michaels allowing him to make TV history. “I feel proud that I was a minuscule part of the beginning of SNL,” Morris explained, “that I created the chair for the non-white performer.”
It’s just too bad that the chair didn’t come with a lab coat and a stethoscope.