Garrett Morris details racist experiences with the original SNL writing team

Garrett Morris is etched into the fabric of comedy history. He had crucial supporting roles in classic sitcoms like The Jeffersons and The Jamie Foxx Show, but he's probably best remembered as one of the original cast members on Saturday Night Live.

Morris was on the sketch show from 1975 to 1980. He has spoken at length about his SNL tenure, and the respect he has for SNL boss Lorne Michaels. During a recent interview with The Guardian, however, Morris admitted that he was not as chummy with Michaels' writing team.

Morris struggled to get his sketches approved

Morris claimed that Lorne Michaels did not have a racist bone in his body. It was a different story when it came to the original team of SNL writers, apparently. He was the first African American writer on said team, and he claims to have routinely experienced pushback from his peers as a result:

"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."

Garrett Morris was present during the taping of the first SNL episode, but he did not actually appear. He recalls asking Michaels if he could play the peripheral character of a doctor in a sketch, but the SNL boss told him that viewers might be "thrown by a Black doctor."

Morris believes SNL has lost its creative edge

The SNL experience has changed since Morris' day, but the comedian actually claimed that the show has suffered due to a lack of comedic risk. "I don’t see the courage... the experimental impulse," he opined. "That was the whole core of what happened the first 10 years."

Morris is played by Lamorne Morris, in Saturday Night, which details the taping of the first SNL episode and is currently in theaters.