Howard Morris may forever be remembered by generations of television fans as Ernest T. Bass, the wild-eyed rock-throwing menace of The Andy Griffith Show (who joined such luminaries as Floyd the Barber and Otis the Drunk), but that single character barely scratches the surface of his astonishing career. Morris was a fixture in the early days of live television, a pioneering sketch comic on Your Show of Shows, a respected director of sitcoms and commercials and a prolific voice actor whose work for Hanna-Barbera and others became a soundtrack of Saturday morning. Yet behind the laughter was a man who lived with insecurities, contradictions and a restless need to prove himself.
Morris, who was born on September 4, 1919, remembered that his beginnings were far removed from Mayberry. “I was a Jewish kid from the Bronx,” he told the Television Academy Foundation, noting that he had been drawn to performing almost from the start. After serving in the Army during World War II—where, remarkably, he crossed paths with other future comedy greats like Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner—Morris found his way into acting. Like many returning veterans, he tried the stage first, honing his craft in New York theater, but with certain limitations. “I was very short and could never play the leading man,” he recalled with candor. Instead, he channeled his energy into comedy, where his boundless physicality and high-pitched voice became assets.
That path brought him into comic legend Sid Caesar’s orbit just as television was entering its golden age. When Your Show of Shows debuted in 1950, Morris was not a guest star, not a sometime player, but part of the official ensemble. Week after week, in front of a live audience at New York’s Center Theater, Morris unleashed characters that ranged from the timid to the deranged, usually throwing himself headlong into slapstick. It was the perfect outlet for a performer who had the “funny in him,” as pop culture historian Geoffrey Mark would later put it, and it established Howard Morris as one of the great comic forces of the medium’s earliest decade.
A Quick Look at Howard Morris
- Who was Howard Morris? Howard Morris was a comedian, actor, director, and voice actor known especially for his role as Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show.
- Why is Howard Morris famous? Though he appeared in just a few episodes, Ernest T. Bass became a cult favorite; Morris was also part of Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows and directed many sitcoms and commercials.
- How many times did Howard Morris play Ernest T. Bass? He starred as Ernest T. Bass in five episodes during the black-and-white seasons of The Andy Griffith Show.
- What other work did Howard Morris do? He directed TV shows (e.g. Hogan’s Heroes, Get Smart), performed voice work (e.g. The Flintstones, Jetsons, Garfield), and directed high-profile commercials.
- What was Howard Morris’ comedic style? Highly physical, unpredictable, blending wild caricature with emotional sincerity — he made even the strange feel human.
- When was Howard Morris born and when did he die? He was born September 4, 1919, and died May 21, 2005, at age 85.
Ernest T. Bass on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’
For all the sophistication Morris displayed in the Caesar years, his most enduring role came more than a decade later in Mayberry. Beginning in 1963, he appeared in a handful of episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as Ernest T. Bass, the scruffy, rock-hurling troublemaker who seemed to erupt into town from some primitive corner of the hills.
Author Daniel de Vise admits he once underestimated the character. At book signings for his nonfiction effort Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show, fans would pepper him with questions about Ernest T., and he was embarrassed to realize he hadn’t mentioned the character in the main text. “People love him,” de Vise reflected. “I think of him as the Tasmanian Devil of Mayberry. He’s only in a handful of episodes, but he rampaged with such memorable abandon that he left a deep impression on many viewers.”
Ernest T.’s debut came in the Season 3 installment “Mountain Wedding,” written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum. In it, he menaces Charlene Darling, insisting her marriage is invalid because it wasn’t conducted by a pastor. Morris remembered the props of mayhem— “foam rocks” to smash windows, “candy glass” to shatter with glee—and relished Ernest T.’s anarchic energy. De Vise points out that the climax, with Barney Fife disguised in Charlene’s wedding dress, was “one of the odder things you would’ve seen on primetime television in 1963.”
The character was unlike anyone else in Mayberry. “Ernest T. was rather insane,” he observed. “He was the only truly broad, exaggerated character they had at the time. Viewers might even have thought of him as Andy’s alter ego—a comic Mr. Hyde to Andy’s Dr. Jekyll.”
Geoffrey Mark agrees that what might have been a one-shot caricature endured because of Morris’ humanity. “Probably because Howie was such a lovely human being, he imbued Ernest T. with just enough in his acting that you almost understand why he is the way he is,” he explained. “Despite his incredibly bad behavior, people saw him as an underdog—and they wanted more.”
“My Fair Ernest T. Bass,” a fourth season highlight, was Mark’s favorite. Modeled after My Fair Lady, the story finds Andy and the townsfolk trying to make Ernest T. a gentleman so he can woo a local girl, played by Jackie Joseph. “Jackie is such a warm person,” he recalled. “She made you believe that a woman in Mayberry, educated and charming, might actually fall for him. And together, they sold it.”
Even as the character drifted toward caricature in later appearances, fans remained enthralled. De Vise notes that Ernest T. is a textbook case of how “the ratio of fan interest to the character’s actual prominence” can be wildly out of balance. “Howard Morris would win that contest,” he said. “He was in only a handful of episodes, and yet people always want to talk about him.”
Morris himself looked back on Ernest T. with bemusement. The voice, remember, “came from my groin.” The character’s mania gave him the freedom to unleash every antic he had stored up since Your Show of Shows. And while Andy Griffith’s Mayberry was meant to be an oasis of civility, Ernest T. Bass became its glorious exception: half menace, half clown and entirely unforgettable.
Howard Morris remembered
Howard Morris never pretended that show business was easy. Asked what advice he would give young performers, he said simply, “Don’t. It’s too hard. The propensity for failure is greater than success.” As for directing? “Same thing. Shun it like the plague.” Yet despite the warning, Morris had lived the dream: a working actor, a television pioneer, a director of hit comedies and a voice heard in living rooms around the world.
When the Television Academy interviewer asked how he wished to be remembered, Morris grew reflective. “As a guy who has been able to reveal certain things of humor and reality to the public,” he said. “And my great gratitude for the fans. They’ve always been there.”
Geoffrey Mark, who stood up to speak at his funeral, recalled a room filled with giants: Andy Griffith, Sheldon Leonard, Nanette Fabray, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner and Gary Owens. He told the story of Morris calling him “really, really fat” and then asking, “How do you get laid?” It brought the house down, a final punchline that made people laugh through their tears. “To make those people laugh at a funeral,” Mark reflected, “that was a gift.”
