Knowing when to “leave the party,” as recently departed Saturday Night Live star Ego Nwodim put it in her goodbye statement to the show, can be tricky—and now one iconic ex-cast member is expressing regret.
Chevy Chase said that leaving the show at the height of his success was a “mistake” in the new documentary about his life and career, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not from CNN Films.
Chevy Chase attends the taping of Taping of “Saturday Night Live” on February 14, 1976. Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
“It was a mistake to leave SNL,” Chase says in the trailer for the film, which was released on Thursday. A member of the show’s debut cast, Chase left the series midway through Season 2 after establishing himself as the show’s first real breakout star.
“The forces pulling him were money, power, and all of that. And when Hollywood wants you, they’re pretty good at it,” SNL boss Lorne Michaels says in the doc’s trailer. “And when Hollywood wants you, they’re pretty good at it.”
“Frankly, I always felt back then that I was smarter than” Lorne Michaels, Chase said in January, “that I was really the guy who got the show going, not Lorne.” Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
Chase admitted in Susan Morrison’s biography Lorne, “Frankly, I always felt back then that I was smarter than” Michaels, “that I was really the guy who got the show going, not Lorne.”
Chase’s Gerald Ford impressions, physical comedy, and his role as the first “Weekend Update” anchor made him the most recognizable member of the cast to the mainstream. The opportunities outside of the show rolled in, and he quit the series to strike while the iron was hot—starring in Foul Play (1978), Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), and more.
Chase left the series midway through Season 2, after establishing himself as the show’s first actual breakout celebrity. ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Con
By the 1990s, however, Chase’s star power began to fade, as more of his films, such as Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Dirty Work, failed to draw viewers. Around the same time, SNL was churning out more breakout stars—Bill Murray replaced him on the show—and Chase’s contemporaries only grew their star power.
After Chase left “SNL,” the show produced bigger and bigger stars as his movie career fizzled out. NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Chase’s reasons for declaring his SNL exit a “mistake” are not revealed in the trailer. And he didn’t quit SNL altogether, going on to host the show eight times, between 1978 and 1997.
Chevy Chase said that leaving the show at the height of his success was a “mistake” in the new documentary about his life and career. CNN Films/YouTube
Chase told Morrison that Michaels could have kept him from leaving the cast. It “wouldn’t have f—ing taken much!” for him to stay, he said at the time. All Michaels would have had to do was “Tell me he loved me, basically. But his nature is to be above it in some fashion.”