Why now? It’s a reasonable question to ask about CNN’s documentary on the career and life of Chevy Chase, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, which will air on New Year’s Day and stream on demand starting Jan. 2.
It’s not likely the show has snuck up on you. CNN has been all over its airways trumpeting it as loudly as a college marching band in the street below your window.
But Chase is now a fair distance from the bright lights of his career in TV and movies. His last memorable role was performing as a cast member of the NBC sitcom Community, which ended 12 years ago.
If Chase is remembered for that work, it’s mostly because he got bounced (by “mutual agreement”) from the show for being “difficult”—which translated to being a jerk (with suggestions of some light racism).
The answer to “why now” is that there is no specific reason. Chase is not deceased. He’s older and mostly bald, but he’s not incapacitated. He seems lucid. And occasionally still funny.
For anyone who experienced the meteoric launch of Saturday Night Live in 1975, Chase made an indelible impression. He was the unannounced and more-or-less self-declared frontman and star of that show, and that was a legitimate designation. He was the guy who first said, “Live from New York,” and who said it over and over during the show’s inaugural season.
He was also the guy who didn’t sign a contract, which allowed him to precipitously quit the show after that first season and initiate a film career, which had a decent run before fizzling out.
Somewhat surprisingly, this film makes all that familiar territory pretty engrossing, counterpointed with interviews with co-workers, old colleagues and antagonists, and family members today, as well as a somewhat physically diminished Chase himself. He is seen interacting with a loyal assistant, also beating him in chess, while occasionally playing lovely improv jazz piano, always one of his best side-talents.
The film bills itself as “authorized yet unfiltered,” and it lives up to that promise—to a point. Undoubtedly a tougher film could have been made that led with Chase’s often irritating and problematic nature, but it’s certainly dealt with in this version.
Chase is called an asshole, “incredibly mean,” and various forms of maddening to work with. Director John Carpenter, who worked with him on Memoirs of an Invisible Man, says, “I wanted to quit the business after working with him.”
Jim Miller, co-author with Tom Shales of the best-selling oral history, Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, says that iconic premiere season revealed something fundamental about the guy. “Chevy does not care about being liked.” One example: “He annoyed the other cast members by giving them notes.”
Alan Greisman, a producer on the Fletch films, seems weary just thinking about Chase and says, “On the way to the top, he was not a good guy. I can’t imagine how he is on the way to the bottom.”
But Dan Aykroyd calls him “exciting and talented.” Goldie Hawn, who co-starred in Foul Play, says that their comedic styles were perfectly “aligned” and “he has a deep heart and that’s the other part of the wild man.”
And Martin Short and Beverly D’Angelo and Kevin Nealon and Ryan Reynolds all describe a level of awe over his comedy persona.
Of course, the SNL breakthrough gets full attention. How Chase was originally hired as a writer but wanted to be a cast member. A clip from his screen test is included. Chase says on camera, “I invented ‘Weekend Update.’” (Lorne Michaels might have made a contribution.)
But Lorne calls Chevy “fearless,” and he is credited in the doc with making that first season as “dangerous” as it was—illustrated by the classic, spectacular “Word Association” sketch starring him and guest host Richard Pryor.
Michaels and Chase remained close despite his abandonment of the show. Writer Alan Zweibel recalls the staff reaction: “It was shocking. We had just started.”
Chase blames it on his agents, saying, “They had plans—at that time I was hot.”
Michaels concludes, “When Hollywood wants you, they’re pretty good at it.”
But the current Chevy acknowledges: “In hindsight, I felt it was a mistake.”
The drug use comes into play. Apparently Chase became a copious user, to a point where he had a near-death episode. By then happily married to Jayni Chase, and with three daughters, he responded to an intervention and went for what was more or less a visit to the Betty Ford clinic.
Sobriety did result, until alcohol intervened later. Jayni and the daughters are candid, though unswervingly supportive commentators.
Almost two-thirds of the way through, the film takes a turn backward and Chase’s troubled childhood emerges: a stepfather who exacted violence on Chase and a brother, and a mother who had mental illness and did her own share of physical abuse.
As often happens with talented comedians, the funny person can emerge as a defense mechanism to protect the tortured one.
The interviews with Chase today have a bit of sadness to them. The voice of director Marina Zenovich often prompts him in surprisingly aggressive ways. He defends himself against some charges of nasty disposition—the race angle to his Community departure, for example.
There’s an account of a medical crisis he barely survived.
Maybe the saddest moment is a recent one. Though invited to the SNL 50th anniversary special, with some talk about a small role for him, Chase was left out. He says he could have at least said “Live from New York” one last time. (He’s got a point.)
But the ending includes a sweet moment when he and Jayni do what is an annual stage appearance at Christmastime, talking to audiences in movie theaters who have just watched—probably adding to a high-multiple number of times—the always hilarious National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Chase is given a copy of Clark Griswold’s memorable rant at his boss for receiving a “Jelly of the Month subscription” rather than an annual bonus in cash, and he reads it with full Chevy gusto:
“…cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, over-stuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing…” and so on.
So that guy is still in there, under the bald dome and the worn tire-tread of a long, rocky show-biz career.
And yeah, that’s worth watching.
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Chevy Chase had a tremendous career. I greatly enjoyed his work. He was a part of my memorable “youth.” Lol!