\n That anchorman was inspired by local TV journalist Roger Grimsby, but with \u201cWeekend Update,\u201d Chase really invented an outsized version of himself. At once arrogant and idiotic, Chase found a charming cocktail that would make him the breakout star of the nascent \u201cSaturday Night\u201d \u2013\u2013 and made \u201cWeekend Update\u201d the show\u2019s signature segment.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWeekend Update\u201d typically lands shortly after midnight, after the first musical performance and most of the topical, political sketches. In the capable but predictable hands of current anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost, it\u2019s more of a showcase for other cast members who appear as quirky correspondents. In his sole season as an \u201cSNL\u201d cast member, Chase made it must-see TV that he owned.\n <\/p>\n
\n Chase was originally hired as a writer, winning a place in the cast after torpedoing himself into a pothole in the pouring rain after dinner with \u201cSNL\u201d creator Lorne Michaels and NBC executive Dick Ebersol. He sold himself then and there, Ebersol said in \u201cLive From New York.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\t\tComedy Icon Unfiltered | \u201cI\u2019m Chevy Chase And You\u2019re Not\u201d Official Trailer | CNN
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\n The very first \u201cWeekend Update\u201d segment was just over three minutes long, complete with a fake advertisement for arthritis medication and a cutaway segment to Laraine Newman on the scene of a fictional hotel homicide. Chase was self-assured throughout, talking a mile a minute in a plain gray suit and red tie, even though he almost stumbled over the first few words of a now-classic joke: \u201cThe Post Office announced today that it is commemorating prostitution in the United States \u2013\u2013 it\u2019s a 10-cent stamp, but if you wanna lick it, it\u2019s a quarter.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Michaels told the New York Times<\/a> earlier this year that sticking a news parody in around midnight was purposeful: Some stations around the US didn\u2019t start airing the show until around that time, after local 11:30 p.m. news broadcasts had ended. Audiences would join the show in progress, see Chase as a fast-talking anchor and fall right in.\n <\/p>\n \n The segment grew in popularity week-to-week. A few weeks into his run, he started saying, \u201cI\u2019m Chevy Chase, and you\u2019re not.\u201d He\u2019d reliably skewer politicians and public figures (his favorite target was President Gerald Ford, who Chase joked \u201ctied his shoe to his hairblower and inadvertently pardoned Richard Nixon\u201d) and make fake risqu\u00e9 phone calls to an unseen woman. By the end of the first season, \u201cWeekend Update\u201d was extended from three to nearly nine minutes, according to \u201cSaturday Night: A Backstage History of \u2018Saturday Night Live.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Chase was the only cast member to play himself every episode (and sometimes the only cast member to have a speaking role each week). With his regular pratfalls<\/a> and a sketch that could never be dropped between dress rehearsal and the live show, he became the show\u2019s most recognizable face. Chase\u2019s rising fame and immodesty rankled some of his cast mates.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen an audience likes you, they let you get away with more,\u201d Michaels told New York<\/a> in December 1975, just a few months into the show\u2019s inaugural season. \u201cChevy really feels the way he sounds on \u2018Update,\u2019 but he can make the material neutral. He\u2019s not on a soapbox. And he never acts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI happen to come across relatively soft,\u201d Chase said in the same New York piece. \u201cMy hair is short enough, I wear a tie and jacket, so I can do more offensive stuff. But my mind is mean \u2014 I\u2019ve got a lot of things I\u2019d like to get out. And it would be harder for some of the others to do it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Chase was hailed as the heir to Johnny Carson just months into his stint on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d He spent one full season on the show before departing a few episodes into the second season to pursue a film career that made use of his handsome buffoon persona. He told New York that appearing on \u201cSNL\u201d was \u201clike playing at the top of the minors.\u201d He\u2019d later express regret that he left the series so soon.\n <\/p>\n \n After Chase left, Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray hosted \u201cWeekend Update\u201d in different combinations. Since then, the segment has had both solo anchors like Norm Macdonald, whose flattening charisma, like Chase\u2019s, would\u2019ve made it nearly impossible to co-host with, and teams like Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon or Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, who balanced each other\u2019s spikiness and sweetness.\n <\/p>\n \n On \u201cSNL\u2019s\u201d 50th anniversary special, Murray appeared on \u201cUpdate\u201d to rank all the previous hosts of the segment. He ranked<\/a> Chase, his onetime sparring partner<\/a>, fourth, under the duo of Curtin and Aykroyd.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLet\u2019s face it, \u2018Weekend Update\u2019 simply would not exist without him,\u201d Murray said. \u201cSo it would be wrong to have him listed anywhere but number four.\u201d\n <\/p>\n ![\"Chase](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-481489718.jpg\")
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