Original Saturday Night Live cast member Chevy Chase admits he was “hurt” that he was excluded from on-stage and sketch performances in SNL50: The Anniversary Special.
“Well, it was kind of upsetting actually,” he revealed in CNN Films’ forthcoming documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not. “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 in the audience for the February special.
The special, which featured a mix of recent and classic SNL characters and cast members throughout its 50-year run, was initially going to include more of the actor, according to the docu. Chase’s wife, Jayni Chase, revealed that Chevy was told “up until that day that there were two bits, they were going back and forth.”
“And then, all of the sudden, ‘No, there’s no bit,'” she shared.
Chase was the first SNL Weekend Update host during the show’s debut season in 1975-1976 and his catchphrase introduction “I’m Chevy Chase… and you’re not” became well-known.
In a later referral in the docu to the Weekend Update segment, Chase questioned”Why was Bill Murray there and why was I not? I don’t have an answer for that.”
Chase reveals in the documentary that he brought up his displeasure once “in a text to Lorne (Michaels_ and then took it back.”
“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.”
Chase starred on SNL from its 1975 launch through the middle of its second season in 1976, earning two Primetime Emmy awards as both a performer and writer out of four nominations.
Per the description, the documentary is an “authorized yet unfiltered” look at comedy legend Chase, who was one of the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players in the first season of Saturday Night Live. The film includes interviews with the Chase family, friends and costars and says it will “reveal what is beneath the surface of his superstar bravado”.
