EOC

NBC recently reran (rerunned?) their special on the first five years of Saturady Night Live. It was quite well done, but one thing bothered me. A couple of the writers lamented that they never gave cast member Garrett Morris good material, or developed characters for him. They're being too nice, even if it's after the fact.

When SNL started, no one knew how it would work, or which cast members would be stars, if any. It was a free for all. If you were any good, you'd get your chance to shine. The truth is, Garrett Morris sucked. He was what we call an Enemy Of Comedy. Sure, he had a few moments, and created a memorable character or two, but, for whatever reason, he didn't just do a weak job--his timing and line readings were so bad he hurt the performers around him and the sketches he was in.

Morris has complained that he was typecast on the show, but if I were a writer around then, I would have fought against using him in anything I did. Compare him to Eddie Murphy, who started not long after Morris left. He was the most talented member of the cast, not the least, so the writers lined up to have him do their material.

Back then no one knew that SNL would someday feature an evolving cast, so Morris stayed on for the first five years. If Morris were coming up today, he'd be on probation the first year and then be let go.

I've met Morris a few times. He's a nice guy, and when he has time to rehearse and can do more than one take, he's a passable actor. But when I think of how bad he was on SNL, I want to slap him.