Ernest T. Bass, love him or hate him, is one of the most iconic guest characters in sitcom history. Very few figures could take over an episode the way Howard Morris did as Bass. When he showed up on The Andy Griffith Show, it may as well have been called The Howard Morris Show for the 30 minutes that followed. 

With such a beloved role under his belt, why would Howard Morris shift away from acting and toward directing? In a 1965 interview with the Decatur, Illinois Herald and Review, Morris discussed his career and the way it changed and developed over the years.

"I started directing about a year and a half ago, I guess," said Morris. "Why? Because it's there. Like Mount Everest.

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"Actually, I like it. I guess I'd rather conduct the orchestra than play piccolo. And that's the way it was getting to be— I was playing piccolo. If I could have played trombone, it might have been a different story. But they never let me play trombone."

Like many of his sitcom peers, Morris found himself stuck with being perceived in a particular way. He was tired of being seen as a bit player, someone who came in and was capable of just one thing. He was never really given the chance to carry any emotional scenes, and Morris felt his talent was being wasted.

"I was getting the reputation of being a 'good comic sketch actor.' I played a dramatic part once on Thriller, but even though a New York critic wrote a whole nice column about my performance, that was it. You can't shake an image. The funny thing is, before [Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows], my acting background was classical and Shakespearian.

"After the Caesar show, it was different. It was a bad period. I spent some of the time starving, some of the time moving to California, and a lot of the time learning about me. Yes, put that in— it's important."

Starring alongside Caesar brought Morris the national recognizability his more theatrical work never could. While his career advanced, Morris traded the chance for actorly opportunities, and in place of that, he had more silly roles. 

"I've had a whole second career in acting out here, The Lucy Show, The Danny Kaye Show, and so on. My most recent film as an actor is Fluffy. I've been lucky. Some people never even have one career, and now, with the directing, I guess I'm starting in on my third. I still get offers as an actor all the time now that I'm too busy to take them. That's the crazy thing about the acting business. When you can't, they've got to have you."

Morris is forever associated with his contributions to television, but he also succeeded on the big screen.

"I'm directing a film called Who's Minding the Mint? for Columbia. It's a comedy, of course. I guess the old image is still operating. So far, all I ever direct is comedies, but I seem to have a flair for it."

He'll always be Ernest T. to some, but Morris had his name attached to some other series that would push comedy forward in new and unexpected ways.

"I've worked on quite a few of the new series that are coming up. I directed the pilot of a show called Get Smart for NBC. It stars Don Adams, who used to be on The Bill Dana Show. He's a very funny guy. In this show, he plays a sort of American James Bond named Maxwell Smart."

"Then there's Hogan's Heroes starring Bob Crane. It's a Bing Crosby Production for CBS. I'm going to direct a couple of those and also some episodes of Hank for Warner Brothers. They're both comedies."