Chevy Chase Immediately Regretted Leaving ‘SNL’
Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary celebration will feature tons of celebrity guests, iconic cast members and the guy who bailed on the show 49 years ago.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Chevy Chase would be a part of this Sunday’s SNL 50: The Anniversary Special, presumably because he’s too old to get into any behind-the-scenes fistfights at this point in his life. And now Chase’s participation in the event also includes promoting it in sit-down interviews on NBC.
Chase recently spoke with Willie Geist on Morning Joe, and he took the opportunity to single out his favorite SNL cast member (Dana Carvey) other than himself, naturally. He also slammed Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night movie yet again, arguing that the chaotic film “wasn’t anything like” the real-life experience. “Lorne and I knew exactly what we were going to do. Particularly Lorne,” Chase pointed out. “We were prepared and ready.”
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Of course, it would be impossible to chat with Chase about the history of SNL without addressing his premature departure following the show’s first season. Chase has previously hinted that he regretted the decision to leave, and recently admitted that he would have opted to stay at the show longer had Lorne Michaels manned up and told the comedian that he “loved” him, presumably while chasing him down at an airport terminal, rom-com-style.
In the past 15 years, Chase has clarified that his motivation for leaving the show wasn’t just movie superstardom; he quit because he had promised his girlfriend, and eventual first wife, Jacqueline Carlin that he would move to Los Angeles after one year on SNL. “I left because I was stricken with a girl from L.A. that I met, and in fact married, but for only a couple of years,” Chase told Geist.
Moving on from the fact that he just described his late first wife the way some people describe the plague, Chase then earnestly recalled that his post-SNL regret came immediately. “It was strange because I missed it right away. And I still miss it,” Chase confessed. “I loved that show, I loved being with Lorne and the cast – quite a funny cast: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Garrett Morris, Gilda (Radner), Laraine (Newman) and Jane (Curtain). You know that was a great group of people. So I missed them too.”
Hearing Chase talk about this decision now you almost feel bad for the guy, but then you remember that it’s Chevy Chase we’re talking about here.
After quitting SNL, he bashed the show in media interviews, and when he did return to SNL to host an episode in the third season, he brawled with Bill Murray backstage, and insisted that he should get to anchor the “Weekend Update” segment instead of Curtain, justifying that demand by telling her that he “found women unfunny.”
So while Chase may feel bad about leaving the show, it’s less certain that his co-stars are similarly torn up about it in retrospect.
