Chevy Chase is breaking his silence over being excluded from Saturday Night Live’s SNL50 special earlier this year.
“Well, it was kind of upsetting actually,” Chase, 82, says in CNN Films’ upcoming documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, which is set to air Thursday, January 1, per People. “This is probably the first time I’m saying it. But I expected that I would’ve been on the stage too with all the other actors. When Garrett [Morris] and Laraine [Newman] went on the stage there, I was curious as to why I didn’t. No one asked me to. Why was I left aside?”
Chase was noticeably absent from stage during the event, which celebrated 50 years of the NBC late-night series by revisiting old sketches and honoring past and present cast members. Chase, who was an inaugural member of the show and creator and co-anchor of long-running bit “Weekend Update,” instead spent the special in the audience.
In his upcoming documentary, Chase wonders why “Bill Murray was there” for the special but he wasn’t — a question he says he doesn’t “have an answer” for. He also recalls bringing the situation up to SNL creator Lorne Michaels via text, but notes that he failed to express how it truly made him feel. (Murray, 75, replaced Chase after his season 2 exit and later took over as co-anchor for “Weekend Update” on seasons 4 and 5.)
“I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne and then took it back,” Chase explains in the doc. “I said, ‘OK, I take it back, silly.’ But it’s not that silly. Somebody’s made a bad mistake there. I don’t know who it was, but somebody made a mistake. They should’ve had me on that stage. It hurt.”
According to Chase’s wife, Jayni, the comedian was initially supposed to be featured in the SNL50 special more heavily. She claims that he was told “up until that day that there were two bits, they were going back and forth.” However, the plans were changed last minute, with Jayni telling the cameras, “All of the sudden, ‘No, there’s no bit.”
Michaels, for his part, addresses the situation directly in the doc, admitting that there were “a couple versions of ‘Weekend Update’” that he went “back and forth” on. Michaels adds that “there was also a caution from somebody that I don’t want to name that Chevy, you know, wasn’t as focused.”
Chase starred on SNL from 1975 through the second season. He exited mid-season that same year in 1976, making him the second original cast member to leave after George Coe’s season 1 exit. In the doc, Chase admits it was a “mistake” to exit the show so early.
Earlier this year, the actor revealed during a February episode that his personal life is what propelled him to walk away. “I left because I was stricken with a girl from L.A. that I met, and in fact married, but for only a couple of years,” he told host Willie Geist, referring to his second wife, Jacqueline Carlin. (Chase and Carlin, who died at age 78 in 2021, were engaged during his time on SNL. They tied the knot in 1976 and divorced in 1980. Chevy was married to his first wife, Suzanne Chase, from 1973 to 1976. He wed Jayni, 68, in 1982.)
“It was strange because I missed it right away. And I still miss it,” he continued. “I loved that show, I loved being with Lorne and the cast — quite a funny cast: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Garrett Morris, Gilda [Radner], Laraine [Newman] and Jane [Curtain]. You know that was a great group of people. So I missed them too.”
Despite being nostalgic for his time on SNL, Chevy faced his fair share of controversies with the long-running series. He made headlines in 1978 for infamously fighting with Murray in Belushi’s dressing room when the Ghostbusters star allegedly made a comment about Chevy’s marital problems. The remark led Chevy to criticize Murray’s appearance, and the two came to blows. (The pair later made amends and even starred in 1980’s Caddyshack together.)
In 2018, Chevy slammed the then-current cast members when sharing his opinion that the show’s comedy had gone downhill.
“I had to watch a little of it, and I just couldn’t f***ing believe it,” he told The Washington Post at the time. “That means a whole generation of s***heads laughs at the worst f***ing humor in the world. You know what I mean? How could you dare give that generation worse s*** than they already have in their lives? It just drives me nuts.”
Regardless of the ups and downs, Chevy returned to host SNL eight times between 1978 and 1997. The show also launched a successful film career for the actor, leading to starring roles in classic comedies like Fletch, Caddyshack, The Three Amigos and the National Lampoon’s Vacation films. He also won two Emmy Awards for his writing and performance on the show.
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not premieres on CNN on January 1 at 8 p.m. ET.
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