CNN Documentary Explores the Complicated Life and Career of Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase’s complicated life and career are examined in the CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase And You’re Not.

The comedian became a breakout star during the initial season of Saturday Night Live in 1975 — later becoming the first major cast member to depart the comedy institution the following year. (George Coe was technically the first SNL cast member to leave. He was introduced as a “Not Ready for Prime Time Player” at SNL’s October 1975 premiere but was quickly removed from the show.)

Chase rose to become one of the most successful movie stars of the 1980s until he faced difficulties with personal issues, substance abuse, and a series of questionable professional choices.

“Fame is a very unusual human experience,” he admitted in the book Saturday Night. “When you consider that Abraham Lincoln was likely never seen by more than 400 people in a single evening, and that I can enter over 40 million homes in a single evening thanks to the power of television, you have to acknowledge the situation is not typical.”

Chevy Chase's family shares recollections of his struggles with cocaine and alcohol abuse.

Continue reading for some of Chase’s career highs and lows throughout the years.

Chevy Chase Was an Original ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Member

Chevy Chase met future Saturday Night Live colleagues John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner when they all worked on the influential National Lampoon Radio Hour in the mid-1970s. Around the same time, Canadian comedian and producer Lorne Michaels began assembling a new late-night program for NBC to replace Tonight Show reruns on Saturday nights.

Michaels wanted Chase for the first season of NBC’s Saturday Night — later to be renamed Saturday Night Live — but not as a member of the ensemble.

“When he initially offered me the job it was to be a writer. Not acting,” Chase told The New York Times in 2013. “I asked, ‘Can I perform?’ He said no. So I declined.”

Chase eventually changed his mind after a disappointing experience working on a play in California and agreed to take the writing position on Saturday Night. However, Michaels soon realized that Chase could be a breakout star and allowed him into the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” group before the show premiered.

“I didn’t think it would last more than a year,” Chase said in 2013. “I’m not even sure Lorne did. We were going to get our shots in while we could.”

Chevy Chase Didn’t Always Get Along With His ‘Saturday Night Live’ Costars

The cast of Saturday Night Live were enjoying the popularity of their first season in 1976. Chevy Chase was positioned as the central star of SNL, frequently delivering the “Live from New York” opening line and hosting “Weekend Update.”

Chase was well aware that his success could create envy among some of the other “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.”

“I discovered that John [Belushi], who I’d known for years, had been quite jealous about my rise to prominence, and perhaps for good reason,” Chase said on The Howard Stern Show in 2008. “The truth is that John was brilliant and by any real standard, he should have been the big star.”

He continued. “There are things that happen. My name is mentioned every week. Nobody can spell his name!”

Belushi wasn’t the only SNL star to have an issue with Chase. Jane Curtin said in 2018 that she never considered Chase a friend.

“I only worked with Chevy for eight months, so I don’t know Chevy,” Curtin told Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen at the time. “I know that he behaves poorly and I don’t know what’s behind it. I don’t think it’s healthy.”

Chase didn’t have difficult relationships with all of his SNL costars. Garrett Morris told GQ in 2025 that Chase was one of the few writers at SNL to cast him in sketches early on.

“Chevy Chase wrote for me,” Morris recalled. “A few people stepped up and started writing for me. But it wouldn’t be accurate to say there was no prejudice among some of the writers. There was.”

Chevy Chase Was the First Major ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Member to Quit the Show

Chevy Chase left Saturday Night Live during its second season in 1976. He later admitted that his only reason for leaving was to preserve his relationship with his then-girlfriend Jacqueline Carlin.

“Look, I would have stayed. There was this woman I wanted to marry who ended up throwing a candelabra at me,” he remembered in the 2002 book Live From New York. “Lorne knew she was wrong for me, but I thought I was in love. I also felt after one year that we should all leave, that we should all take off at least one year and think this over, because otherwise it was going to become self-absorbed — jokes about ourselves, showcases for characters as opposed to what it should be, which is a vehicle to take apart television.”

He conceded, “I’m still hurting, I still grieve for all those years that I could have had there. And you know, if Lorne had put his arms around me and given me a hug and asked me to stay, then I probably would have. But he didn’t.”

In his 2026 CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the comic once again acknowledged that “it was a mistake” to leave SNL so early in its run.

Chevy Chase Has Been Married 3 Times

Chevy Chase married his first wife, Suzanne Hewitt, in 1973 but their marriage only lasted until 1976.

Less than a year after finalizing his divorce from Hewitt, Chase married his second wife, Jacqueline Carlin, after leaving Saturday Night Live in 1976. Despite the significant role that Chase’s romance with Carlin played in his SNL departure, their marriage ended in 1980.

Chase and his third wife, Jayni Luke, got married in 1982 and remain together as of December 2025. (The Chases share three daughters: Cydney, Caley, and Emily.)

Chevy Chase Battled Addiction

The National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation actor struggled with substance dependence throughout his adult life. In a 1983 interview, Chase credited his third wife, Jayni Chase, with helping him overcome the cycle of addiction.

“I really didn’t have a carefree bachelor life. Mostly, I moped,” he told People in 1983. “Sure, I’ve done drugs. I was growing up in the ’60s, and you could hardly avoid them. There really wasn’t any experimentation with drugs that I hadn’t tried. But I was never an over-the-top guy.”

He continued, “When I met Jayni, what was I, a Bowery bum? She got me right out of the doldrums I’d been in for three years … there is no smoking of pot, no drugs, no drinking. It’s a very clean life.”

A spokesperson for the actor told CNN in September 2016 that Chase checked into the Hazelden Addiction Treatment Center for an “alcohol-related issue.”

Chevy Chase Got Into a Physical Fight With Bill Murray at ‘Saturday Night Live’

Chevy Chase didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome from his former Saturday Night Live cast mates when he returned to host on February 18, 1978. Minutes before air time, Chase got into a backstage altercation with Bill Murray — his replacement in the cast — that was broken up by John Belushi.

“[Bill] was a tough kid from Chicago who probably thought I was from Harvard and had never had a fight. Unfortunately, that’s not true,” Chase told The Howard Stern Show in 2008. “[John had] already worked Bill up a little bit. I went in [to host], I was probably a little full of myself after a year of fame, or whatever, and I think that Bill probably wanted to knock me down a couple of rungs and I think he wanted to take me on.”

Chase and Murray eventually made peace and starred together in the classic 1980 comedy Caddyshack.

Chevy Chase Was Sued By Cary Grant

Hollywood icon Cary Grant filed a 10 million defamation lawsuit against Chevy Chase in 1980 over comments that the comedian made on NBC’s Tomorrow show with host Tom Snyder.

“[Tom] said, ‘People say you’re going to be the next Cary Grant,’ and I said, ‘That’s crazy, there’s nobody like Cary Grant and there will never be another Cary Grant and I understand he was a homo,” Chase recalled on the “Club Random” podcast in 2022.

Grant filed suit the very next day, with Newsweek reporting that Chase eventually had to pay $1 million to settle the dispute.

Chase acknowledged on “Club Random” that his flippant joke about Grant’s sexuality was “one of the stupidest things I’ve ever said.”

“By the way, I don’t think Cary was gay,” he added.

Chevy Chase Is the Father of 3 Daughters

The Caddyshack star has discussed the impact having three daughters had on his career. He told People that he felt “total fear” before his oldest daughter Cyd was born in 1983.

“But when Cyd came out, and I saw it was a girl, I was in love immediately,” he remembered. “I cut the umbilical cord, and I held her for the first hour. She seemed to know my voice because, of course, I had been singing and talking to her through the belly for nine months.”

Chase later decided to take on fewer romantic leading roles because of his growing family life.

“Once I got married and had kids, I moved away from romantic roles because it seemed wrong to have my three-year-old wondering why Daddy was kissing someone else,” he once told a reporter.

Chevy Chase Had a Disastrous ‘Saturday Night Live’ Hosting Stint in the 1980s

By the time Chevy Chase returned to host Saturday Night Live for the fourth time on November 16, 1985, the cast had completely changed. Lorne Michaels had just returned as producer after a five-year absence and restocked SNL with younger stars like Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., and Joan Cusack.

Chase seemingly didn’t make the best impression on the new group of comedy stars. Season 11 cast member Terry Sweeney went so far as to call Chase “a monster” in the book Live From New York.

“I mean, he insulted everybody. He said to Robert Downey Jr., ‘Didn’t your father used to be a successful director? Whatever happened to him? Boy, he sure died, you sure went to hell.’ Downey turned ashen,” Sweeney alleged. “And then Chevy turned to me and he said, ‘Oh, you’re the gay guy, right?’ And he goes, ‘I’ve got an idea for a sketch for you. How about we say you have AIDS and we weigh you every week?’ It was out of place.”

Chase never directly responded to Sweeney’s accusation. Despite his rocky ‘80s appearance, Chase hosted SNL three more times up to 1997 and made cameos into the 2000s.

Chevy Chase Starred in a Festive Classic

Chevy Chase’s portrayal of hapless dad Clark Griswold became one of his most enduring performances. He played Clark in five classic comedies, including 1989’s seasonal classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

The John Hughes-written comedy revolved around Clark trying to give his family the perfect holiday even after discovering he wouldn’t receive his annual Christmas bonus. One memorable scene featured Clark nearly falling off a ladder while setting up an expensive light display on his roof.

“I loved the stuff on the roof, which was typical of Clark Griswold,” Chase told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2o19. “I loved sliding down the roof and hanging on. It was all very funny and I love Ellen [Beverly D’Angelo] coming out and going ‘Um…Clark?’ Nothing seems to bother her. It’s time for dinner and Clark is outside in a bush somewhere. Anything with Randy [Quaid] … that was funny. He’s just the troublemaker and that’s the thing, when you see Cousin Eddie show up, you know the movie is gonna blow up, ya know?”

Chevy Chase Briefly Hosted His Own Late-Night Talk Show

When perennial Tonight Show host Johnny Carson retired in 1992, Fox saw an opportunity to enter late-night TV. The network premiered The Chevy Chase Show in September 1993 but the series only lasted for six weeks.

Chase managed to attract some big names as guests, including Goldie Hawn, Martin Short and Whoopi Goldberg in his premiere week. The Chevy Chase Show even arranged a reunion for its host and his National Lampoon’s Vacation costar Beverly D’Angelo.

Critics savaged Fox’s new late-night show, with Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker derisively accusing The Chevy Chase Show of “giving vulgarity a bad name” and calling its premiere episode “a fiasco.” Less than 2 million people were tuning in nightly by the time of The Chevy Chase Show’s cancellation — a far cry from the 6 million that Fox had been banking on nightly.

“I would never do it again,” Chase told Time in 2007. “What I wanted had a whole different feel to it, much darker and more improv. But we never got there.”

Chevy Chase Had a Messy Exit from ‘Community’

NBC’s Community introduced Chevy Chase to a whole new generation of fans. Chase played the curmudgeonly Pierce Hawthorne in the first four seasons of Community but left the show under a cloud of controversy in late 2012.

Prior to his exit, Community creator Dan Harmon allegedly encouraged the cast to chant “F you” at Chevy during the season 3 wrap party and then played a profane voicemail from Chase at his “Harmontown” comedy event. (Harmon was fired by NBC at the end of season 3 for other reasons but ultimately returned in season 5.)

Deadline reported in October 2022 that Chase had grown increasingly uncomfortable with his character Pierce’s racially-tinged wisecracks. According to the outlet, Chase blew up during a scene where Piece used a hand puppet in blackface and asked if his character would say the n-word next. African-American cast members Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown were reportedly on set at the time. (Chase later apologized.)

In November 2012, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that NBC and Chase reached a mutual agreement that he would leave Community.

A decade later, Chase told CBS This Morning that he wasn’t bothered by complaints from coworkers about his allegedly problematic behavior.

“I don’t give a crap. I am who I am,” he said in 2023. “And I like who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me that I don’t care. And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”

Chevy Chase Complained About Being Excluded From the ‘Saturday Night Live’ 50th Anniversary Special

Chevy Chase was in attendance for Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special in February 2025 but did not have a prominent onscreen role in any of the sketches.

The comedian admitted in his 2026 CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not that his exclusion “was kind of upsetting actually.”

“This is probably the first time I’m saying it,” he said. “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?”

Chevy claimed that he texted SNL creator Lorne Michaels to express his displeasure after the special aired.

“I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne and then took it back,” Chase said in his CNN special. “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.”

For his part, Michaels confirmed that there was some “back and forth” about including Chase in the anniversary special.

“There was also a caution from somebody that I don’t want to name that Chevy, you know, wasn’t as focused,” Michaels claimed.

Chevy Chase Survived Being in a Coma for 8 Days

In the 2026 documentary I’m Chevy Chase And You’re Not, the comic’s daughter recalled that he essentially “came back from the dead” after suffering heart failure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His daughter Caley Chase recalled that Chevy slipped into a coma for eight days in 2021 after developing cardiomyopathy, which the Mayo Clinic describes as a disease that causes the “heart to have a harder time pumping blood to the rest of the body” and can lead to heart failure.

“The doctor had warned us: ‘We might not get him back. We don’t know how present he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.’ He woke up, all he could do was use his voice,” Caley remembered.

However, when he came out of the coma, the actor quickly showed he was the same old Chevy when a nurse came in to adjust his intubation.

“[The nurse] said, ‘I’m going to have to put this in here,’” Caley said. “And he said, ‘That’s what she said.’”