page_title: Chevy Chase
section_title: Saturday Night Live
hierarchical_section_title: Chevy Chase / Career / Saturday Night Live
context_page_description: Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born into a prominent family, he had a variety of jobs before moving into comedy and started acting with National Lampoon. He became a key cast member in the first season of Saturday Night Live, where his recurring Weekend Update segment became a staple of the show. As both a performer and writer, he earned three Primetime Emmy Awards out of five nominations.
  Chase had his first leading film role in the comedy Foul Play, earning two Golden Globe Award nominations. He is further known for his portrayals of Clark W. Griswold in five National Lampoon's Vacation films and Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher in Fletch and its sequel Fletch Lives. Other prominent titles include Caddyshack, Modern Problems, Spies Like Us, Three Amigos, Man of the House, and Hot Tub Time Machine. He has hosted the Academy Awards twice and briefly had his own late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show. He played the character Pierce Hawthorne on the NBC comedy series Community from 2009 to 2014.
context_section_description: Chase was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live (SNL), NBC's late-night comedy television show, beginning in October 1975. During the first season, he introduced every show except two, with "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" The remark was often preceded by a pratfall, known as "The Fall of the Week." Chase became known for his skill at physical comedy. In one comedy sketch, he mimicked a real-life incident in which President Gerald Ford accidentally tripped while disembarking from Air Force One in Salzburg, Austria. This portrayal of President Ford, as a bumbling klutz, became a favorite device of Chase's and helped form the popular concept of Ford as being a clumsy man. In later years, Chase met and became friendly with President Ford.
  Chase was the original anchor for the Weekend Update segment of SNL, and his catchphrase introduction, "I'm Chevy Chase… and you're not" became well known. His trademark conclusion, "Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow" was later resurrected by Jane Curtin and Tina Fey. Chase also wrote comedy material for Weekend Update. For example, he wrote and performed "The News for the Hard of Hearing." In this skit, Chase read the top story of the day, aided by Garrett Morris, who repeated the story by loudly shouting it. Chase claimed that his version of Weekend Update was the inspiration for later news satire shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Weekend Update was later revived as a segment on The Chevy Chase Show, a short-lived late-night talk show produced by Chase and broadcast by Fox Broadcasting Company.
  Chase was committed contractually to SNL for only one year as a writer and became a cast member during rehearsals just before the show's premiere. He received two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his comedy writing and live comic acting on the show. In Rolling Stone's February 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date, Chase was ranked tenth in overall importance. "Strange as it sounds, Chase might be the most under-rated SNL player," they wrote. "It took him only one season to define the franchise…without that deadpan arrogance, the whole SNL style of humor would fall flat."
  In a 1975 New York magazine cover story, which called him "The funniest man in America," NBC executives referred to Chase as "The first real potential successor to Johnny Carson" and claimed he would begin guest-hosting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson within six months of the article. Chase dismissed rumors that he could be the next Carson by telling New York, "I'd never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities." Chase did not appear on the program until May 4, 1977, when he was promoting a prime-time special for NBC. Carson later said of Chase: "He couldn't ad lib a fart after a baked bean dinner."
  Chase acknowledged Ernie Kovacs's influence on his work in Saturday Night Live, and he thanked Kovacs during his acceptance speech for his Emmy Award. In addition, Chase spoke of Kovacs's influence on his work in an appearance in the 1982 documentary called Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius.
caption: The original cast of Saturday Night Live with President Gerald Ford in 1976
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "6802", "Image ImageLength": "4522", "Image BitsPerSample": "8", "Image Compression": "LZW", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image ImageDescription": "1976, March 24 \u2013 Washington Hilton Hotel \u2013 Washington, DC \u2013 Gerald R. Ford, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, Various Correspondents & Wives \u2013 mingling, individual photo ops \u2013 Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner; US Senator from Minnesota (MN); Comedian; Saturday Night Live Producer Lorne Michaels", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "1", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:03:24 15:08:01", "Image Artist": "Ricardo Thomas", "Image Copyright": "The photograph is in the public domain so you are free to use it.  Your credit line should read \u201cCourtesy Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\u201d", "Image ExifOffset": "796", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "934", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5030", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3610", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2400"}