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Show Monday, January 19, 1987 xHunter' regular didn't really believe role was his until he saw contract By JERRY BUCK AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) response from viewers. "We got letters and letters," he said, "and they made him a part of 'Week- -- When Garrett Morris heard that NBC's ' Hunter' was interested in making him a regular cast member, he figured he'd heard that tune before. "I'd been on the show as a guest star with Isaac end Update.' I loved Chico because I could hide behind him better than any other character. I felt I could do more outrageous things. I'm sorry I can't make as much use of it as I'd like to." Morris is considered a Hayes and Sheryl Lee Ralph," said Morris. comic actor, but said, "Most of my history in "They said they liked me and wanted to bring me back, and I said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' I'd heard that before. It wasn't until I saw the contract that I really believed it." Morris, a member of the Not Ready for Prime-Tim- e show business has been as a serious actor until 'Sat- urday Night Live.' After five years of that, people forgot that I had been a serious actor." He grew up in New Orleans and his work in the Players on the original church choir developed "Saturday Night Live'' TV show, plays a character called Sporty James on the detective drama. "He's a street character," Morris said. "He's a bookie, probably. Been in jail. He has a lot of tentacles on the street. He into a job with the Harry Belafonte Singers. He graduated from Dillard University with a degree in voice and composition. "I still write," he said, "but I have a writer's block I don't even want to dis- cuss." wheels and deals and sometimes sells information to Hunter and sometimes barters it. In one episode he wants to get rid of a pusher who's using They're trying to make him into something more than just a In New York, he lived at the Harlem YMCA, whose Drama Club was then featuring such newcomers as t detective show. Angel, played by Stuart Margolin, was a man with one foot on either side of the law. He walked whichever side was most advantageous at the moment. Morris was also completing a role in a new Rich- - San-for- J 3T II "iiAiSi ..iirnl..i for the movie "Coolie ll Garrett Morris, an original member of 'Saturday Night Live' cast, is on 'Hunter' as Sporty James. ard Pryor film called "Critical Condition." "Richard is a patient through a series of incidents becomes a doctor," he said. "I'm another patient, in the detox ward, playing a junkie, which is a real stretch for me because I know nothing about that kind of thing. I help him fly a helicopter since who my d. Godfrey Cambridge and Diana Sands. Morris soon landed parts in such Off Broadway productions as "Porgy and Bess," "Hallelujah Baby," and "I'm Solomon." He also wrote such plays as "Stagger Lee" and ""The Secret Place." He was hired as a writer If mercenary." Morris was dressed almost entirely in black and wore sunglasses so dark his eyes were invisible. His movements look fluid and effortless. He seems to glide from place to place. He sees Sporty James as the same sort of character as Angel on "The Rockford Files." Stephen J. Cannell, who produces "Hunter," also turned out that classic Cicely Tyson, Clarence Williams III, Isabel character had been a 'copter mechanic in Vietnam. "We're doing the looping for the TV version. Which means we're taking out all the good stuff. I can understand why, but you never get the same quality. In 'Car Wash' I had a line that never came out right for TV. It just wasn't the same without the word." n Morris was perhaps on "Saturday Night Live" for the character Chico Esquela, the Latino baseball player who uttered, "Baseball has been berry, berry good to me." He said Chico was his favorite character and the one that drew the most four-lett- er best-know- High." but ended up with a starring role. He also went to "Saturday Night Live" as a writer and became one of the stars. He was also in such series as "It's Your Move" and for one season of "The Jeffersons." He's also made guest appearances "Murder, She on "227" and Wrote." "I'd love to be on 'Magnum, P.I.,'" Morris said. "I love detective stories." |