Why is the headline, and article, talking about Chevy in the past tense? I had to do a quick DDG to verify that he was still alive because this had me thinking it was an obit!
The long-awaited Community movie seems to have been given the green light, but Pierce Hawthorne doesn’t seem to be returning to its cast.
Well, yeah. Pierce has been dead for like 3 seasons.
Belushi, for example, boycotted sketches written by women.
Finding this out about Belushi was disappointing, to say the least.
The final nail was hammered during his celebrity roast, which was strangely bereft of any actual celebrities, given that Chase had no friends.
Sad. I’m not surprised that he had no friends, but it still kinda makes me feel sorry for him.
No major celebrities, I suppose.
Stephen Colbert’s bit was exceptionally well crafted. I recall it being one of the few that Chevy actually reacted well to.
Colbert still said all the true shit on everyone’s mind but wrapped it up nicely in the joke.
A true craftsman.
I was more than surprised to see him on Community, not just his appearance but also that he was working at all. Once you know what he’s really like, you can’t help but see that in every role he plays.
There is so much lore behind Community and Chevy Chase. My understanding is that Community was supposed to be his show, where he was the good guy and was the main protagonist, not Joel McHale. (You sort of see hints of this in the gas leak year.)
As the series went on, it was clear that Chevy was annoyed about their long hours, shooting schedules, etc. TBF to Chevy, Dan Harmon made every episode into a movie that required a lot of shots, something that made him disliked by network executives. It’s why he got fired over Chevy in season 4.
What every executive failed to realize is that these “movies” were absolutely awesome and that’s why the fans love the show. They were smart, funny, and gave you a sense that they weren’t taking things seriously.
In the end, the show was better without Chevy.
His character is killed off because he couldn’t be bothered to film one of the Post-Credits scenes that was actually well written and emotional, which pissed the director off so much he fired his ass
Do you remember which post credits scene? Going through the show again and trying to think which one it could be.
The one for the game episode with his father. In the post credits scene, Abed comes back and downloads Hilda, but it was supposed to be a completely different scene.
Great episode, shame we didn’t get the other scene. Love that fans went out of their way to recreate the game from the episode.
Oh man, that’s awesome! Was the scene they described actually confirmed? That would have been amazing!
I remember seeing the recreation in the game a few years ago but had no context until now. Guess it came up in a reddit ama I missed. Seems to be the genuine article.
I actually enjoyed his ‘vacation’ movies far more once i knew what a jerk he was since those movies’ make his struugles the punchline.
kinda makes me wonder if part of what makes those movies work is how cathartic watching scenes of chase get hurt was for his director and co-stars.
Taken as a whole, the vacation movies were funny. But not because of anything Chevy did. They could have cast that role with a mop and it would have rated just as well.
Sorry for the Reddit links, but somebody did a great writeup of the infamous roast:
And Yvette Nicole Brown did an AMA where she compliments all of the Community cast except for Chevy Chase:
https://old.reddit.com/r/community/comments/xgc5z/hey_guys_lets_do_this_im_yvette_nicole_brown_ama/
That’s painful to read. How can someone maintain such a collosal air of arrogance after failing time, and time again?
Pretty sure it’s like the definition of narcissism
Holy shit. I had somehow never seen this before and, while I heard Chevy was a grade A asshole, I didn’t realize he was the Japanese A5 Wagyu of assholes (that’s not fair to steak). Damn.
holy shit that was even before they went public about him.
I’m still curious as to why he was so popular back in the day if this arrogance showed through. I guess the public love a heel if they are funny with it?
I’ve seen his movies, and i had no idea he was such a colossol tool behind the scenes. I suspect a lot of other people didn’t know either.
But, on the flip side, back in the day, I think you could get away with a lot more without the media crucified you for it.
Some of his best characters were also perfectly suited to him in hindsight. Spies like us where he was the charming but sleazy face man and Dan Akroyd was a tech nerd, Caddyshack where he was the cocky upstart golf pro…
Man was acting but not by much.
Imagine thinking of being held extremely mildly accountable for your shitty actions as “getting crucified”.
You have to remember, pre-internet he was a tall, charismatic, handsome, very funny man and he was a movie star, of course he was arrogant. The industry knew he was a jerk, but he was a jerk who got everyone paid. He also had family money, which allowed him to call people’s bluffs and take risks most people trying to build a career wouldn’t dare take.
And the fans, the parasocial thing just didn’t exist back then, they weren’t our friends. They were an elite class who could do no wrong. If you wanted to talk to Chevy and he didn’t talk to you, you apologised to him for taking up his time.
I feel like that was a vibe for 80’s comedians. I don’t know if they were all jerks or not. Dan Aykrod, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Danny devito… a lot of these guys played jerks. In a lot of movies and shows.
There was probably a lot of cocaine too. I doubt that helped. I wonder if we underestimate that sometimes.
Because he’s Chevy Chase, and you’re not.
Have you seen the Christmas Vacation?
Favorite Christmas Movie by generation (according to me):
- Silent Gen - Miracle on 34th Street
- Boomers - It’s a Wonderful Life
- Jones/Elder Gen-X - A Christmas Story
- Gen-X/Xennials - Christmas Vacation
- Millennial - Elf
- All of the above - Die Hard
I would like to submit Better Off Dead for consideration for Gen X
EDIT: It certainly is in the “Most Quotable Movie by generation” category.
“I’ve been going to this high school for seven and a half years. I’m no dummy.”
2 DOLLARS
I’d like to subscribe to your lists. Top by generation seems like a unique idea to me.
Kind of similar to those “Pages of Time refrigerator magnets” people have sometimes.
Millenial here! No one agrees with me but my favorite Xmas movie is “The Ref”
I’ve seen at least one national lampoon’s vacation but I have no idea which one it was. I think I’ve probably seen Spies like us the most if that dates me.
It doesn’t date you as much as it confirms that you are a person of class and exceptionally good taste.
“Doctor. Doctor. Doctor. Doctor.”
In retrospect, the womanizing is a bit cringe-worthy and over the top, the rest holds up well.
Hard to avoid in movies, especially of that time.
Oh, I agree, it wasn’t much worse than average for the time, pretty typical for a movie targeted towards men. And still better than the first 15 minutes of Sausage Party.
There are a lot of shitty people in movies and tv that we used to hear nothing about due to the “celebrity” status. Celebrities are to be revered not reviled and so the asshole was and still is overlooked for the so called talent.
He really was not when you compare him to other snl cast like belushi and murphy and murray.
I personally don’t have an answer to that, but then again I was the weird child at 7 watching cartoons Saturday morning and then SNL at night…the shenanigans on that show are deep, deep burnt memories coupled with Monty Python’s Flying Circus on PBS (again, way too young to fully absorb) but probably shaped the type of unconscious humor my person embodies.
Chevy was funny and his behind the scenes performance didn’t interact in a way that was fully appreciated by the regular American audience.
Real life Bojack Horseman
That’s depressingly common.
R.I.P. Fletch
