Chevy Chase said he was “upset” that he was excluded from Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special.
The actor and comedian, 82, revealed in CNN Films’ upcoming documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, that he was “hurt” by not being involved with the special.
“Well, it was kind of upsetting, actually,” Chase said. “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 one of Saturday Night Live‘s original seven “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players” when the series debuted on October 11, 1975. He left the show in 1976, just a few episodes into the second season, and hosted eight times between 1978 to 1997. He is credited with co-creating the show’s satirical “Weekend Update” news segment and was its first anchor.
Chase co-created “Weekend Update.” NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via
SNL commemorated its 50th anniversary in February with SNL50: The Anniversary Special, a three-hour primetime special featuring dozens of former and current cast members, hosts, and musicians who had appeared on the show over the years. Nearly 15 million people watched the special episode.
In reference to the anniversary special’s “Weekend Update” segment, Chase said, “Why was Bill Murray there and why was I not? I don’t have an answer for that.”
“I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne and then took it back,” Chase said, in reference to SNL creator Lorne Michaels. “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.”
Chase’s wife, Jayni Chase, said the show was “going back and forth” on two bits featuring Chase for the episode. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Chase said that the special episode was slated to feature him more, along with his wife, Jayni Chase. She said that people at SNL “told Chevy up until that day that there were two bits, they were going back and forth.”
“And then, all of a sudden, ‘No, there’s no bit,’” she noted.
Michaels explained in the documentary that “There were a couple of versions of [’Weekend Update’] and we went back and forth on that. There was also a caution from somebody that I don’t want to name that Chevy, you know, wasn’t as focused.”
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not will highlight Chase’s “rise from breakout Saturday Night Live phenomenon to box office royalty and his equally spectacular fall from grace,” according to its description. It will premiere on Jan. 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CNN.