Chevy Chase Says Being Left Out of SNL50 ‘Hurt’
Chevy Chase isn’t holding back when it comes to his feelings about being snubbed from SNL50: The Anniversary Special.
Nearly five decades after helping launch Saturday Night Live, the comedian is opening up about what he calls an “upsetting” exclusion from the milestone celebration — and admitting the snub stung more than fans may realize.
In CNN Films’ upcoming documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the 82-year-old reflects on watching the February special unfold without him taking the stage alongside fellow original cast members.
“Well, it was kind of upsetting actually,” Chase says in the film, per Entertainment Weekly. “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 — who famously served as the show’s first-ever “Weekend Update” anchor — also questioned his absence during one of the night’s most iconic segments. “Why was Bill Murray there and why was I not?” he asked. “I don’t have an answer for that.”
According to Chase, he briefly raised the issue with SNL creator Lorne Michaels before second-guessing himself. “I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne and then took it back,” he explained. “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.”
The documentary also suggests that Chase’s involvement may have been in flux until the very last minute. His wife, Jayni Chase, recalled being told that he was going to be part of multiple planned segments.
“People told Chevy up until that day that there were two bits, they were going back and forth,” she said. “And then, all of the sudden, ‘No, there’s no bit.’”
Michaels addressed the situation as well, explaining that several versions of “Weekend Update” were considered. “There were a couple versions of [‘Weekend Update’] and we went back and forth on that,” he said, adding that there was “a caution from somebody that I don’t want to name that Chevy, you know, wasn’t as focused.”
Meanwhile, Martin Short noted that even longtime SNL favorites like Billy Crystal didn’t receive speaking roles. After “50 years of casts,” he explained, there were simply “too many people to fill.”
Chase starred on SNL from its 1975 debut through the middle of season two in 1976, quickly becoming one of the show’s breakout stars. The new CNN Films documentary traces his “rise from breakout Saturday Night Live phenomenon to box-office royalty and his equally spectacular fall from grace.”