Chevy Chase has said he was “hurt” by not being given a speaking role in the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary celebrations.
The three-hour special SNL50: The Anniversary Special aired on NBC in February.
Chase was an original SNL cast member and is credited with co-creating the popular and long-running Weekend Update segment, which he was the first to host.
As People reported, Chase reveals in a new CNN Films documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, that he was surprised that he was not more included.
“Well, it was kind of upsetting actually,” he said in the film. “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?”
In reference to the anniversary show’s Weekend Update segment, he added: “Why was Bill Murray there and why was I not? I don't have an answer for that.”
Chase explained that he told the show’s creator Lorne Michaels about his disappointment: “I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne and then took it back. I said, ‘OK, 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.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, Chase’s wife Jayni said that producers “told Chevy 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.’”
Explaining the decision not to involve Chase, Michaels said that there were a “couple of versions” of Weekend Update, but they ultimately went with a version that he didn’t feature in. Michaels added: “There was also a caution from somebody that I don't want to name that Chevy, you know, wasn't as focused.”
Martin Short also pointed out in the documentary that after “50 years of casts” it was inevitable that many cast members would miss out on screen time, including other notable figures such as Billy Crystal. Short noted that there were simply “too many people to fill.”
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not is set to air on CNN on January 1.
Earlier this year, Chase’s National Lampoon’s Vacation co-star Anthony Michael Hall claimed he was mocked by Chase while the former SNL star was playing his on-screen father.
