{"id":305852,"date":"2025-11-21T21:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/305852\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:02:12","slug":"chevy-chase-finally-admits-quitting-snl-was-a-big-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/305852\/","title":{"rendered":"Chevy Chase Finally Admits Quitting \u2018SNL\u2019 Was a Big \u2018Mistake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knowing when to \u201cleave the party,\u201d as recently departed Saturday Night Live star Ego Nwodim<\/a> put it in her goodbye statement to the show, can be tricky\u2014and now one iconic ex-cast member is expressing regret.<\/p>\n

Chevy Chase said that leaving the show at the height of his success was a \u201cmistake\u201d in the new documentary about his life and career, I\u2019m Chevy Chase and You\u2019re Not<\/a> from CNN Films. <\/p>\n

\"ChevyChevy Chase attends the taping of Taping of “Saturday Night Live” on February 14, 1976. Ron Galella\/Ron Galella Collection via Getty <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mistake to leave SNL,\u201d Chase says in the trailer for the film, which was released on Thursday. A member of the show\u2019s debut cast, Chase left the series midway through Season 2 after establishing himself as the show\u2019s first real breakout star.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forces pulling him were money, power, and all of that. And when Hollywood wants you, they\u2019re pretty good at it,\u201d SNL boss Lorne Michaels says in the doc\u2019s trailer. \u201cAnd when Hollywood wants you, they\u2019re pretty good at it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Lorne\u201cFrankly, I always felt back then that I was smarter than\u201d Lorne Michaels, Chase said in January, \u201cthat I was really the guy who got the show going, not Lorne.\u201d Patrick McMullan\/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image <\/p>\n

Chase admitted<\/a> in Susan Morrison\u2019s biography Lorne<\/a>, \u201cFrankly, I always felt back then that I was smarter than\u201d Michaels, \u201cthat I was really the guy who got the show going, not Lorne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase\u2019s Gerald Ford impressions, physical comedy, and his role as the first \u201cWeekend Update\u201d anchor made him the most recognizable member of the cast to the mainstream. The opportunities outside of the show rolled in, and he quit the series to strike while the iron was hot\u2014starring in Foul Play (1978), Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon\u2019s Vacation (1983), and more. <\/p>\n

\"ChevyChase left the series midway through Season 2, after establishing himself as the show\u2019s first actual breakout celebrity. ABC Photo Archives\/Disney General Entertainment Con <\/p>\n

By the 1990s, however, Chase\u2019s star power began to fade, as more of his films, such as Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Dirty Work, failed to draw viewers. Around the same time, SNL was churning out more breakout stars\u2014Bill Murray replaced him on the show\u2014and Chase\u2019s contemporaries only grew their star power. <\/p>\n

\"OriginalAfter Chase left “SNL,” the show produced bigger and bigger stars as his movie career fizzled out. NBC\/NBCUniversal via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Chase\u2019s reasons for declaring his SNL exit a \u201cmistake\u201d are not revealed in the trailer. And he didn\u2019t quit SNL altogether, going on to host the show eight times, between 1978 and 1997. <\/p>\n

\"I'mChevy Chase said that leaving the show at the height of his success was a \u201cmistake\u201d in the new documentary about his life and career. CNN Films\/YouTube <\/p>\n

Chase told Morrison that Michaels could have kept him from leaving the cast. It \u201cwouldn\u2019t have f—ing taken much!\u201d for him to stay, he said at the time. All Michaels would have had to do was \u201cTell me he loved me, basically. But his nature is to be above it in some fashion.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knowing when to \u201cleave the party,\u201d as recently departed Saturday Night Live star Ego Nwodim put it in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[71599,88,12016,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-305852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chevy-chase","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-snl","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}