When did Chevy Chase quit SNL? Comedian opens up about his exit in upcoming documentary

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Chevy Chase opens up about SNL exit (image via Getty)

Chevy Chase was on Saturday Night Live's first season in 1975, and left the sketch comedy show halfway through Season 2 in 1976 to launch his Hollywood career. Chase went on to movies including Caddyshack and National Lampoon's Vacation. In an exclusive trailer for the CNN documentary I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not, Chase admits that "it was a mistake to leave SNL" at the height of his career.

The documentary features filmmaker Marina Zenovich's interviews with Chase, along with interviews with other former SNL stars, Lorne Michaels, Beverly D'Angelo, Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Goldie Hawn, and more.

Goldie Hawn, who featured alongside Chevy in 1978's Foul Play and 1980's Seems Like Old Times, went on to add,

"Chevy has a deep heart, and that's the other part of the wild man."

Lorne Michaels chimes in,

"The forces pulling him were money, power, and all of that. And when Hollywood wants you, they're pretty good at it."

Beverly D'Angelo, Chevy's onscreen wife on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, added,

"The thing about fame is that everything around you changes."

The trailer describes the former SNL star as "a complicated comedy legend."


More about Chevy Chase's SNL career

Chevy Chase was a part of the original SNL cast and was the first anchor on Weekend Update. After one full season and a few episodes into Season 2, Chase left SNL for a film career. Despite leaving the show, Chase returned for multiple appearances throughout the 1970s.

Chase was eventually banned from hosting a gig in the late 1970s after he butted heads with SNL star Bill Murray. The two reportedly threw punches at each other, and as per People, Murray said,

"It was really a Hollywood fight; a don't-touch-my-face kinda thing. Chevy is a big man, I'm not a small guy, and we were separated by my brother Brian, who comes up to my chest. So it was king of a non-event. It was just the significance of it. It was an Oedipal thing, a rupture. Because we all felt mad he had left us, and somehow I was the anoined avenging angel, who had to speak for everyone."

When Chevy asked to return to the show, Lorne Michaels denied him and, as per the Washington Post, claimed that Chevy was too old for the job. Chevy, in response, highlighted that many people older than him were hosting and that he was the person who "made this show really go."

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Edited by Tanisha Aggarwal