Embattled ‘SNL’ Alum Says Being Snubbed During Anniversary Special Was a ‘Bad Mistake’
Despite being one of Saturday Night Live's original cast members, comedian Chevy Chase was not invited back to the show's 50th Anniversary Special last February.
Nearly a year later, Chase is sharing how he really feels about the blatant snub.
"Well, it was kind of upsetting actually," he says in the upcoming CNN Films documentary. I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, per People Magazine. "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?"
"Why was Bill Murray there and why was I not?" he asks later, referencing the "Weekend Update" segment from the special where Murray ranked past anchors from the show. Murray slotted Chase in at fourth, following Brian Doyle-Murray, Norm Macdonald and duo Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd.
"I don't have an answer for that," Chase admits. The Christmas Vacation star and Murray famously got into a fight backstage ahead of an SNLtaping in 1978.
"I did bring it up once in a text to [creator] Lorne [Michaels] and then took it back," he reveals. "I said, 'Okay, 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."
In the documentary, Michaels reportedly clarifies that there "were a couple versions of ['Weekend Update'] and we went back and forth on that," although "there was also a caution from somebody that I don't want to name that Chevy, you know, wasn't as focused."
Chevy Chase's Tenure
Chase joined SNL in 1975, originally as writer for the sketch comedy show, before being added to the cast ahead of the premiere. He was the program's first "Weekend Update" anchor.
Chase ultimately left the show during it's second season, and was replaced by Murray. When he returned to host an episode in season 3, he and Murray exchanged insults and got into a physical altercation. After the incident, he'd host the show 7 more times, but his last stint came with rumors of terrible behavior on set.
“He got a bad break,” Michaels told The Washington Post in 2018 of Chase. “It wasn’t the way I felt. I understood what he was going through — one, because I was his friend, and also because it was a battle, not between us, but a battle for what the show was going to be. Was it going to be ‘The Chevy Chase Show’ with these people, or what we set out to make, which was an ensemble show?”
Other Issues
Throughout his career, Chase has faced multiple allegations of being difficult to work with. On the set of his television show, Community, Chase reportedly made inappropriate racial remarks and reportedly used the N-word. Former SNL star Pete Davidson previously claimed on The Howard Stern Show that Chase was a "genuinely bad, racist person."
In an interview last year, filmmaker Chris Columbus revealed he quit National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation because he couldn't bear to work with the embattled actor.
"I was signed on…and then I met Chevy Chase," he told Vanity Fair. "Even given my situation at the time, where I desperately needed to make a film, I realized I couldn’t work with the guy...I was one of the many who couldn’t work with him."