Invoice Murray And Chevy Chase Received Into A Bodily Struggle Throughout SNL

The late-night sketch comedy collection “Saturday Night time Reside” is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2025. With 5 many years of tv historical past behind “SNL,” it ought to come as no shock that there was loads of drama behind the scenes. Apart from all of the chaos depicted in Jason Reitman’s film “Saturday Night time,” depicting the night of the present’s premiere again in October 1975, the early seasons of “SNL” sparked lots of stress backstage, particularly when the collection turned successful, and beforehand unknown comedians began changing into well-known.

Chevy Chase was the primary and largest benefactor of the success of “SNL” proper out of the gate, largely as a result of, because the host of the information satire Weekend Replace section, he was the one one saying his title on the present regularly (“I am Chevy Chase, and you are not” was his sign-off on the desk). As has been recounted by many who labored at “SNL,” Chase’s newfound fame didn’t sit effectively with fellow forged member John Belushi, who resented Chase’s fast rise, particularly when he left the present to kick off a profession in motion pictures. This was not solely as a result of Belushi wished to grow to be the star of the present himself (regardless of virtually refusing to signal an “SNL” contract at one level), but additionally as a result of it pushed everybody else to the facet in what was inherently an ensemble effort. The remainder of the forged and crew weren’t happy together with his angle within the aftermath both.

Chase left “SNL” throughout season 2, and season 3 introduced in Invoice Murray, who was always known as “the brand new Chevy,” a lot to the chagrin of each comedians. So there was already some built-in stress when Chase returned to “SNL” to host the eleventh episode of the third season in February 1978. That stress was fomented by none aside from John Belushi, although Chase’s status after leaving the present did not do him any favors. The end result was a combat that erupted between Murray and Chase simply earlier than the present went to air.

Within the e book “Reside from New York” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, an oral historical past of “SNL,” Chase admitted that his first mistake was assuming that he would do Weekend Replace, even though forged member Jane Curtin had taken over the desk since his departure from the present. Chase mentioned, “That was considerably selfish of me as a result of Jane had been doing all of it yr.”

In line with Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad’s e book “Saturday Night time,” Chase was extra direct and impolite in his expectations. The e book particulars a gathering within the workplace of “SNL” creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels by which Chase is quoted as saying, “Jane, let’s face it, you may’t be on the display with me on the similar time.”

This did not sit effectively with Invoice Murray. As Chase recalled in “Reside from New York,” “John had additionally, as I later came upon, been spreading some fairly apocryphal tales about me out of his jealousy and anger or no matter to Billy Murray, who was protecting of Jane and in addition, usually talking, a feisty fellow and I am certain Billy wished to take me down, you realize.”

NBC

Why did it fall on Invoice Murray to take Chase down a peg or two? In “Reside from New York,” Murray defined:

“That was as a result of I used to be the brand new man, and it was type of prefer it was my job to try this. It will have been too petty for another person to do it. It is virtually like I used to be goaded into that, you realize, I feel all people hoped for it. I did sense that. I feel they resented Chevy for leaving, for one factor. They resented him for taking a giant piece of the success and leaving and making his personal profession go.

Everyone else was from the improvisational world the place you did not make it about you. You had been an ensemble. You had been an organization. So when he left, there was resentment about that. It was a shock. On the similar time, Chevy was the large potato within the stew. He bought probably the most sketches. He had probably the most affect, he bought probably the most publicity, all of these issues. In order that they did not miss that a part of it. However there was nonetheless a hangover feeling that he should not have left till all people had that.”

After all, it wasn’t simply the “SNL” forged’s resentment of Chase that created the problem. Together with Chase’s fame got here much more conceitedness, and he already had a giant head to start with. Murray famous as a lot when recalling the combat in “Reside from New York,” the place he mentioned, “I bear in mind simply type of a common animosity that they felt, and he did come again as a star. If you grow to be well-known, you have bought like a yr or two the place you act like an actual a**gap. You possibly can’t assist your self. It occurs to all people. You have bought like 2 years to tug it collectively or it is everlasting.”

Chase was nonetheless in that early stage of fame — many would in all probability argue that he by no means shook that immodest ego — however he was a minimum of prepared to confess as a lot whereas recounting the scuffle with Murray. In “Reside from New York,” Chase mirrored:

“I feel Billy was attempting to take me down a rung, and I used to be in all probability up a rung. I used to be in all probability just a little too stuffed with myself, you realize. I spotted once I left that possibly I hadn’t been such a fantastic man. Perhaps we weren’t so shut. Perhaps I might been considerably of an a**gap. I left with self-doubts, and as time went on, it was just a little simpler to do it through the years as a result of, you realize, it was water below the bridge, nevertheless it did change my notion as a result of my notion had been all alongside that that first yr was actually a decent close-knit household and that I simply occurred to emerge due to one thing somebody had written and since individuals had been responding to me as the primary breakaway star.”

Through the week main as much as the present, Murray and Chase had already been poking and prodding one another. The e book “Saturday Night time” recounts among the barbs they threw at one another all through writing and rehearsal. At one level, Murray interrupted a gathering to air some grievances from the forged and crew about his presence through the present’s first season. However maybe the deepest lower was Murray taking purpose at Chase’s publicized relationship points by saying, “Go f*** your spouse. I hear she wants it.” Chase, maintaining his cool, fired again with a jab at Murray’s seems, making a remark about Neil Armstrong landed on his face, a pointed insult at boxcar scars on the comic’s face.

All the things got here to a head on the evening of the dwell present, and simply earlier than Chase was speculated to hit the stage as President Gerald Ford for the present’s chilly open, he went into Murray’s room for a showdown.

Nonetheless, whereas each Murray and Chase took swings at one another, neither of them appeared to have landed a punch, as a substitute solely shouting and rough-housing one another a bit. Through the scuffle, it was truly John Belushi who ended up taking a few hits, as he was hanging out in Murray’s dressing room on the time. Actually, Chase recalled one telling element that incriminates Belushi’s place in all this, “John was just like the Cheshire Cat, sitting there like, ‘Mission completed.'”

Director John Landis (“The Blues Brothers”) occurred to be at “SNL” throughout this kerfuffle, and he relayed his reminiscence of the incident in “Reside from New York,” saying, “Chevy and Billy had been having an enormous screaming combat within the hallway, and [writers] Michael O’Donoghue and Tom Davis had been holding them again, and John and Danny [Aykroyd] jumped in as a result of Chevy and Billy had been actually going to return to blows.” However maybe the funniest element he recalled was that Murray took the time to name Chase a “medium expertise,” which is such a selected, considerate, and hilarious insult.

After all, Chase and Murray had a present to do. In “Reside from New York,” Chase possibly patted himself on the again an excessive amount of when it got here to staying on observe going straight to dwell tv:

“This occurred, however I’ve bought a present to do. Others may need withered. I had a sure tensile power about me from childhood with an older brother who had already kicked the crap out of me via a lot of my youthful life, and there’d been a variety of occasions once I was in violent conditions, so it wasn’t as if I used to be merely some man who had by no means seen the opposite facet of the tracks. I had. And so I assume I merely weathered it. In different phrases, slightly than be stuffed with the adrenaline that provides you the shakes and does not let you focus on what you are doing, that merely handed, and it could be as a result of I used to be in form and I performed lots of soccer and had been in conditions the place I may settle down readily after one thing like that occurred.”

All proper, we get it, Chevy.

Whereas this feud between Chase and Murray would final for years, they’d finally squad their beef throughout manufacturing on the basic comedy “Caddyshack.” Director Harold Ramis, who would later have his personal beef with Invoice Murray following “Groundhog Day,” forged each Chase and Murray in his “slobs vs. snobs” golf film. Actually, their well-known scene collectively (seen beneath) is the rationale the 2 actors had been in a position to put their variations behind them.

In Chris Nashawaty’s e book “Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story,” Murray mentioned he discovered the collaboration simple:

“I might by no means actually accomplished something with Chevy. We would at all times had type of a… humorous relationship. But it surely was like, ‘O.Ok., I preferred that once you did that. Let’s simply hold going.’ We stored going, and it was humorous as a result of Ty Webb’s not removed from who Chevy is. So he was fairly snug in his house. And I used to be snug as Carl. So he might be free to chuckle at me. And if Ty laughed, Carl thought it meant, ‘Hey, he is my good friend!’ It is a actually enjoyable, self-aware instance of regardless of the heck Harold maintains the film is about – standing.”

Chase agrees, as he mentioned in a self-congratulatory means that solely somebody like him can say, “We bought over the whole lot. The stress was short-lived. I’ve nothing however admiration and affection for Invoice. He nonetheless generally is a surly character, to say the least. However in the end, he is man. Though I am the primary star within the film below the title, I will at all times consider Caddyshack as Billy’s film.” It is exhausting to disagree, particularly when Invoice Murray improvised one of many funniest scenes within the film.

The excellent news is that they are nonetheless on good phrases, a minimum of so far as we all know. Throughout an look on “The Howard Stern Present” again in September 2008, Chase mirrored on their battle and mentioned, “We have by no means been shut, however we have been very pleasant, we play golf collectively. […] I feel we have made an effort through the years to get to know one another higher and to place that stuff behind.”