Chevy Chase Calls Out SNL50 Snub: ‘It Hurt’
In this Feb. 15, 2015 file photo, Chevy Chase attends the SNL 40th Anniversary Special at Rockefeller Plaza, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Chevy Chase, an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, says he felt personally overlooked during the show’s 50th anniversary celebration. The 82-year-old comedian attended SNL50: The Anniversary Special in February but didn’t appear in any sketches or onstage reunions, unlike many of his fellow alums.
In a new CNN documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, airing on New Year’s Day, Chase opens up about the disappointment. “I expected that I would’ve been on the stage too with all of the other actors,” he says, recalling seeing fellow originals Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman take the spotlight while he stayed offstage. “Why was I left aside?”
Chase’s wife, Jayni, adds that he was told until the day of the Feb. 16 broadcast that there were “two bits” he might participate in, only to be informed at the last minute that he wouldn’t be included at all. SNL creator Lorne Michaels confirms the show “went back and forth” on several versions of that night’s Weekend Update segment, which Chase co-created. Michaels also mentions receiving a caution from an unnamed source suggesting that Chase “wasn’t as focused.” Chase had previously criticized the show, calling it “the worst f—ing humor in the world” in 2018.
Defending the show’s decisions, former cast member and longtime friend Martin Short points to the challenge of honoring a 50-year ensemble. “There’s 50 years of casts… It’s just too many people to fill,” he says, noting that Billy Crystal also didn’t get a line. However, Chase’s daughter Caley argues that her father was more deserving of delivering the iconic “It’s Saturday night” line than Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon.
“It hurt,” Chase says. “I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne and then took it back. I said, ‘OK, I take it back. It’s silly.’ But it’s not that silly. Somebody’s made a bad mistake there.”
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