Glenn Garner
After 50 years, the cast and writers of Saturday Night Live have continuously evolved to reflect the times.
Marking the milestone anniversary, founding cast member Garrett Morris recently reflected on his experience as the NBC sketch comedy show’s first Black performer and the racism present in the writers’ room in when it launched in 1975.
“I will say to the end of my days: Lorne’s writers had a lot of racism going on,” he told The Guardian. “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.”
During his five-year run on the show from 1975 to 1980, Morris pushed back at attempts to pigeonhole him into stereotypical Black roles.
“It really threw me when we were going through the first show,” he recalled. “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.”
Saturday Night Live‘s Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd in 1975.
NBC /Courtesy Everett Collection
Having paved the way for such cast members as Eddie Murphy, Maya Rudolph and Kenan Thompson, the Emmy nominee added, “I feel proud that I was a minuscule part of the beginning of SNL, that I created the chair for the non-white performer.”
Garrett was recently portrayed by Lamorne Morris (no relation) in Jason Reitman‘s Saturday Night, which takes place on Oct. 11, 1975, as a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers change television forever. Formerly titled SNL 1975, the film tells the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the 90 minutes leading up to the first-ever broadcast of SNL.