Whitest show in America”: Tracy Morgan said he felt “culturally isolated” on early days of “SNL

Tracy Morgan is opening up about the early, difficult days of his “Saturday Night Live” tenure. In Peacock’s “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” documentary, the comedian and actor shared that his experience on the sketch variety show was starkly different than he had imagined because of his race. Morgan joined the show in the show’s 22nd season in 1996, becoming the ninth Black person to be cast in the series.

“I wanted to show them my world, how funny it was. But the first three years, I felt like I was being culturally isolated sometimes,” he said in the documentary.

Morgan admitted, “I’m coming from a world of Blacks. I’m an inner city kid. To be on the whitest show in America, I felt by myself. I felt like they weren’t getting it.”

During Morgan’s first “Saturday Night Live” season, he performed with cast members such as Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Tim Meadows, and Molly Shannon nearly 30 years ago. The comedian was on the sketch comedy series for seven years, until he was a main cast member in Tina Fey’s “Saturday Night Live”-inspired comedy, “30 Rock.”

Even though Morgan was one of few Black people to be the show’s cast at the time, his experience shifted when he had a conversation with his producer Lorne Michaels.

“Lorne Michaels had that talk with me. He said, ‘Tracy, I hired you because you’re funny, not because you’re Black. So just do your thing.’ And that’s when I started doing my thing.”

“SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” is available to stream on Peacock now