Too Mean to Succeed: The Life of Chevy Chase.

“When you become famous, you’ve got like a year or two where you act like a real ***hole,” Bill Murray told Tom Shales and James Miller in an interview for Live from New York. “You can’t help yourself. It happens to everybody. You’ve got like two years to pull it together—or it’s permanent.”
While this quote may be true for much of Hollywood, Murray was specifically referencing none other than Chevy Chase.

The Life And Career Of Chevy Chase

The actors were both working for Saturday Night Live in the late ’70s when they got into a now-famous backstage fight. But Murray wouldn’t be the last person Chase pissed off. In fact, this was just the beginning of the actor’s reputation for being one of the most hated Hollywood stars. But how bad can Chase really be? Read on to learn more about the actor who is just too mean to succeed.

The Origins Of Chase

Chevy Chase is an actor-comedian perhaps best known for his work on Saturday Night Live. Born on October 8, 1943, he wrote National Lampoon and Smothers Brothers when he was only in his twenties. Chevy was initially just a writer but that soon changed after he was hired by Saturday Night Live in 1975 and started appearing in front of the camera.
He quickly achieved breakout status winning Emmy’s for both acting and writing. But amidst his successes, many fans and colleagues claimed that this was when the real Chevy started to surface.
Let’s take a look at his first incident.

Chevy Chase Irks The Saturday Night Live Cast and Crew

Chase has created a reputation for himself as being as one of the most insufferable people to work with in show business. But how? It takes a lot to tick off a whole cast and writing staff, but in the first season of Saturday Night Live, Chase successfully upset nearly everyone.
Jeff Weingrad and Doug Hill have a book titled Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live where they discuss Chase’s behavior. According to the book, he was “a viciously effective put-down artist, the sort who could find the one thing somebody was sensitive about—a pimple on the nose, perhaps—and then kid about it, mercilessly.”
The cast and crew of SNL weren’t the only people Chase upset.

Chevy Chase Throws Shots At Johnny Carson

The next person that felt the jerk of Chase was Johnny Carson. Granted, these two both took digs at each other but Carson being mean was out of retaliation, not so much a thing that was on his mind that he felt the need to say. Chase had to dismiss the rumors that he could be the next Carson by telling New York, “I’d never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities.”
Carson once said that Chase “couldn’t ad-lib a fart after a baked-bean dinner.” That’s an interesting way of insulting someone but it could be effective on some people. Bottomline, Chase rubbed Carson the wrong way.

It’s Always The Ones That Leave You

Despite Chase’s bad attitude and reputation while working with Saturday Night Live, the show was a success and audiences loved him. Chase and SNL producer, Lorne Michaels, developed a good relationship working together and Lorne even considered Chase a friend. But when Chase unexpectedly left the show without warning, things changed.
Chase had been working with SNL for two years when he decided to leave the show and do a handful of primetime specials on NBC because, as Chase said, they gave him “lots of money.”
His departure destroyed the relationship Chase has with Lorne. “Chevy was a scumbag the way he left,” a writer said. “Deceitful and dishonest about the whole thing.”

It Didn’t End After SNL

Soon after his abrupt departure from Saturday Night Live, Chase quickly married Jacqueline Carlin. The relationship was short-lived and Carlin filed for divorce just 17 months after the two tied the know.
Upon filing for divorce, Carlin cited “threats of violence.” After the smoke settled, Chase said his engagement and marriage to Carlin were the real reasons behind him leaving Saturday Night Live. but the cast and crew knew better. The women of SNL openly called it the “blame the b**** strategy.”

Jane Curtin Wasn’t Fond Of His Return

Just like going back to a toxic ex-lover, Saturday Night Live eventually invited Chevy Chase back to the show after his rocky departure. But not everyone was happy about the actor’s return.
Before leaving Saturday Night Live, Chase manned “Weekend Update” segment, but when he left, the role went to Jane Curtin. When he came back to the comedy show, Chase insisted on continuing his former segment. Many people, including Chase, revealed that this highly upset Jane Curtin. However, in Live from New York, Curtin was persistent in saying that she did not care. “Chevy was expecting [a reaction] that he wasn’t getting from me,” she said.

Bill Murray Was Turned Against Him

The battle between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray is one of the more iconic feuds Chase found himself entangled in and ultimately led to an all-out brawl.
According to Chase, John Belushi spent a lot of time pinning the cast against him—espeically Bill Murray. One day, Murray confronted Chase about something and the two end up trading insults (Chase said Murray’s face looked like something Neil Armstrong had landed on). One thing led to another and they ended up in a physical fight. To add insult to injury, Chase’s account of the altercation was very self-serving, with the upper-middle class actor stating how he grew up “on the edge of Harlem” so “it wasn’t as if I was simply some guy who had never seen the other side of the tracks.”

Bad Mouthing Courage

Old habits die hard, right? In 1985, Chase came back to host Saturday Night Live and managed to upset almost everyone…again. His remark to Robert Downey Jr. was especially out of bounds, saying, “didn’t your father used to be a successful director? Whatever happened to him? Boy, he sure died, you know, he sure went to hell.”
He even made fun of the first openly gay cast member, Terry Sweeney, suggesting that the star in a sketch where he would be weighed weekly to see if he had AIDS. Regarding the traumatic incident, Terry said, “So then he ended up having to apologize and actually come to my office. He was really furious that he had to apologize to me.”

Chevy Chase Gets His Own Show…For 5 Weeks

In 1993, Chevy Chase returned to television thanks to Fox for trying to fill the void that Johnny Carson left behind when he retired. It took just five weeks for this show to get the boot. During these five weeks, Chase managed to anger the entire television-viewing public. Before the show even premiered, reviewers thought the show already felt doomed before getting started.
On the show, Chase would play games that involved fans putting rubber bands on their heads and racing by scrunching their faces together. He told TIme he wanted to do something darker and more improv, but the network wouldn’t allow it. He then blamed the network for his failure instead of himself for having a lack of competence.

Don’t Bad Mouth Stern!

Howard Stern is the king of satellite radio. He is known for his crude and sometimes mean jokes and his overall lackadaisical tone towards, well, everything. In 1992, Chase happened to be recorded talking smack about Stern in between commercial breaks on the Larry King show.
Stern somehow got a copy of that recording and played it on his show before calling Chase on-air, who told him to never call him again. The two ended up making up and Stern even invited him to his wedding. However, at the wedding, Chase gave a wild toast that only made Stern dislike him that much more.

You’re Doing It Wrong When Will Ferrell Questions You

With every new season of Saturday Night Live, came new problems created by Chase. During the 1996-1997 season, Chase still had the whole cast against him, including the newcomer, Will Ferrell. While Ferrell is known to have an eccentric personality, he was not quite on Chase’s level.
In an interview with Tim Meadows, the actor said that watching Chase interact with people while filming Live from New York was like “watching a car accident over and over again.” Ferrell echoed this statement after Chase verbally assaulted a female writer, saying, “I don’t know if he was on something or what. If he took too many back pills that day or something.”

Stephen Bochco Had Heard Enough

When Chase was on Politically Incorrect in 1997, things didn’t go as planned. While on the show alongside NYPD Blue creator, Stephen Bocho, Chase would consistently try and take over the conversation so that he could talk about how Bochco’s work was “useless and worthless.”
The Paley Center summarized this incident perfectly when they said that, “shortly thereafter, he admits that he is not terribly familiar with Bochco’s work. When Maher attempts to get the conversation back on track, Chase declares that he disapproves even of Maher’s show.”

A Disaster Of a Meeting

The same year that Chase went crazy on Maher’s show, he pulled another stunt with Kevin Smith. The two were meeting up to discuss relaunching the Fletch series but Smith says that meeting went south due to Chase thinking he’s clearly the funniest man alive.
“At the lunch, Chevy went on to claim he invented every funny thing that ever happened in the history of not just comedy, but also the known world… You ever sat down with somebody who claimed responsibility for stuff he did and didn’t do,” he said. “It’s really off-putting.” Chase later said Smith was lying to him.

What Did The Five Fingers Say To The Face?

Comedian Rob Huebel described himself as the biggest Chevy Chase fan there was. Imagine idolizing someone for so long and then when you finally get to the top of that totem pole to meet them, they are not only a total jerk, but they physically disrespect you.
Huebel got the chance to meet Chase backstage at UCB Theater but that is when things got “funny” because Chase slapped him across the face. “It was done as a joke in good humor,” Chase told New York Magazine. Huebel says he didn’t take offense to it but onlookier Jason Mantzoukas felt a certain way.

Payback To The Jerk

2002 was the only year where Chase was involved with something professionally that actually didn’t offend anyone. In fact, it was the complete opposite because he was the one being offended at the Friars Club Roast of Chevy Chase. This also was the time when people saw how few friends Chase had. It was quite sad.
Nearly no one from the original cast of SNL was there. People who did show up were not close friends but perhaps they just wanted to be cruel to him as he was to all the others over the years.

Chase Vs. The Community

The show Communityis one of Chase’s most recent and memorable pieces of work on television. But the creator of the show, Dan Harmon, has been in an oddly public fight with Chase since the start of the show.
Their on-going feud got personal one day at a party when Harmon sternly directed a “f*** you” to Chase at a party, before leaking a profane voicemail Chase had left him. Harmon would go on to apologize via Tumblr by writing, “I’m a selfish baby and a rude a****** and not a person to trust with your feelings.”

Dino Star Steps In

Now not only was the creator ticked off at Chase, much of the cast was getting to that point as well. Dino Stamatopoulos said that Chase “has a reputation for being an a******. That reputation is earned.” He would insist that he likes Chase and that all he needs is some respect. The younger cast didn’t give him any of that.
Stamatopoulos later revealed that the main reason he was mad at Chase was an incident from ’94. “Chevy mostly pissed me off when I was working on Conan back around ’94,” he said. He had performed a desk piece right before Chase came out to the show and when Chase came out he said, “wow, Conan, that bit sure was… stupid.”

Starburn Tries To Defend Chase

Dino Stamatopoulos didn’t have the same experience working with Chase so how he viewed him is a bit different compared to others who had the displeasure of working closely with him.
“Also just to clarify, I get along with Chevy because I barely work with him and don’t have him constantly ruining whole days when I’m there like he does with the regular cast members,” he said. “I view him now as a confused old man who can’t really hurt me in any way. I understand why the regulars on Community and the full-time writers hate him.

The Community Women Call Foul Play

While no one has come out and said “I hate Chevy Chase,” there have been remarks that hint at those feelings. Yvette Brown didn’t hesitate when she was asked who she would have kicked off the show if she had the choice. Her answer was immediately Chase. Yvette Brown, Alison Brie, and Megan Ganz all gave diplomatic yet edgy responses when asked about Chase.
“His bits are from a different time,” Ganz says. A lot of crass comedy is accepted,” Brie offers. Some people don’t know how to word it the right way,” Brown agrees that some people don’t “know their room… Maybe he was from a time when women weren’t empowered enough to speak up.”