Howard Morris, 1919-2005

Comic Actor, Director Howard Morris Dies

LOS ANGELES - Howard Morris, the wry-faced comic who costarred with Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner on the TV classic "Your Show of Shows" before going on to success as a film director, and to fame as poetry-spouting Ernest T. Bass on "The Andy Griffith Show," has died. He was 85.

Morris died Saturday, according to his son, David.

He joined the cast of "Your Show of Shows" a year after it debuted in 1950, often playing the ambitious little guy whose grandiose plans go awry.

The 90-minute show, with scripts written by such luminaries as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen, was one of the most heralded of television's Golden Era. It won Emmys as best variety show in its first two seasons, during which it also placed in the top 10 in audience ratings.

But as television's audience widened, viewers sought less sophisticated entertainment, and the series was canceled in 1954. Morris then joined Caesar and Reiner in another TV classic, "Caesar's Hour."

After that show ended in 1957, Morris moved to Hollywood where he played comedic characters in such films as "Boys' Night Out" and "40 Pounds of Trouble." He appeared with Jerry Lewis in "The Nutty Professor" and "Way... Way Out" and with Brooks in "High Anxiety" and "History of the World, Part I."

He also acted in sitcoms, perhaps most notably as Ernest T. Bass, his recurring role on "The Andy Griffith Show." Although he appeared in only a handful of episodes, his character remains warmly remembered.[emphasis ours]
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It's fairly obvious that we are TV people. Our heritage lies as much in "Andy Griffith", "The Honeymooners" and "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" as it does in Smith, Locke and Madison.

We have never been "fanboy" types -- eager to gladhand our fave athletes or metal heroes. But Howard Morris is one of those people we would have loved to have met and share a few laughs with.

His body of work is massive and impressive (see below), but the character that we carry with us every day is Ernest T. Bass. the whacky, unwashed mountain man he appeared as in five episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show". Not a day goes by when we don't break ourselves up with an Ernest T-ism at an opportune time: "I don't chew my cabbage twice"; "How do you do Mrs. Wi-iley"; "My beloveded Romeena"; "Creechster?! I ain't no creechster!"; "I love you Miss Crump. I looo-oove you!"; "Wanna hear me sing 'Eatin' Goober Peas'?"; "Jelsic, walk with me. Jelsic, dance with me. Jelsic, kiss ma mouth."

For a character that only appeared in a handful of eps, he certainly was quotable. It's nigh near impossible to steal a scene from Don Knotts, but Morris did just that several times.

Watching the eps on TVLand tonight, the stuff is as funny as ever. "I didn't heave it, I passed it!" A great character, lovingly played in a very human way -- Ernest was no charicature, though there must have been the temptation to take him way over the top -- reading from a wonderful script.

As a final tribute to Morris, The Ponderosa Men's Glee Club offers the following:

Old Aunt Mariah, jumped in the fire
Fire too hot, jumped in the pot
Pot too black, jumped in the crack
Crack too shallow, jumped in the tallow
Tallow too soft, jumped in the loft
Loft too high, jumped in the sky
Sky too blue, jumped in canoe
Canoe too rotten, jumped in the cotton
Cotton so white she stayed there all night!


Wanna hear us sing "Eatin' Goober Peas"?

Tributes at the Ernest T. forum

Morris on TV

Morris on film