Alex Carson
For Saturday Night Live fans, one of the best parts of watching the beloved show has always been the apparent camaraderie and chemistry between the cast members. However, not all cast members have gotten along so well behind the scenes. One of the most notorious beefs in SNL history occurred between two of it’s most popular cast members. Those cast members were Bill Murray and Chevy Chase. Join Facts Verse as we explore why Bill Murray and Chevy Chase violently hated each other.
Saturday Night Live first started airing in 1975. Chevy Chase was one of the sketch show’s original cast members, alongside such icons as Gildna Radner, Dan Akroyd, and John Belushi. The show became a massive success thanks to their incredible talent, as well as their unique chemistry. However, as with all good things, the show’s original lineup eventually had to come to an end.
After two seasons, Chevy Chase decided to call it quits on SNL. The show scrambled to find a replacement that could match Chevy’s incredible energy. The man they decided on was a relatively unknown comedic actor by the name of Bill Murray. Although this name might carry a good deal of weight today, it didn’t at the time. As a potential replacement for Chevy, Bill was going to have quite a bit to prove.
At the time that Bill Murray replaced Chevy Chase as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live, he didn’t have many credits to his name. In fact, he barely known. Chevy wanted to be more famous than SNL was allowing. He eventually went out and found success in Hollywood, leaving room for Bill to fill his void on the show.
When Chevy Case became an overnight celebrity via his SNL performances, few could have predicted the outcome that was soon to follow. When his run on SNL ended, Chevy proved that he had what it took to make it in Hollywood. However, he still had a little bit of drama to take care of on SNL.
Chevy certainly was aware of Hollywood’s values and knew that his peers were going to always be watching him in some way, shape, or form. This is likely a large part of why he agreed to keep making routine appearances hosting SNL even after he stopped a regular cast member.
Saturday Night Live wouldn’t have progressed without the immediate stature behind its name, but this fact was twofold. It was going to be a tough battle for SNL and Chevy Chase to maintain their success without each other. It’s a miracle that Chevy Chase managed to ride his SNL success as far as he managed to ride it. And it’s also a miracle that the show was able to find a replacement for Chevy as talented as Bill.
Bill and Chevy are both still largely remembered most fondly for their appearances on SNL. They each brought something incredibly unique to the program, and helped it become the television staple that it is today. However, there was a good deal of professional rivalry between the two. In the story of Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, every twist and turn ended up okay. Many choose to believe this was because they were both striving for the best outcome possible, despite their artistic rivalry and creative differences.
Bill Murray and Chevy Chase certainly each brought something unique to the table when it came to their respective performances on Saturday Night Live. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! As well, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among the first to know more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
One of the secondary cast members that poised to takes Chevy Chase’s place after he died was John Belushi’s brother, Jim. However, the staff of the show eventually decided to bring in outside help. Still, Jim Belushi played a pretty significant role on the show during those early years.
Besides the main cast, SNL also featured a group of performers known as the “not ready for prime time players”, a group of secondary actors and actresses that helped carry the show in ways that the main cast couldn’t. The name of the group decided upon due to the fact that the performers had rarely acted prior to their appearances on the program. Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of the group’s name, they played a huge part in the early success of SNL. Jim Belushi being groomed as a potential full-time cast member. When Chevy left, many wondered if Jim was going to take his place for good. However, the show’s staff ended up going with someone else.
John Belushi certainly acted his heart and soul out on SNL, even when the cameras weren’t on. He wanted to seen as the best performer there was. And that included before and after his performance son the show. He was welcome at all the prestigious events, and always seen as his own type of superhero figure. However, John Belushi’s success didn’t guarantee that his brother was going to get Chevy’s role. The staff of SNL considered Jim, but ended up going with Bill Murray due to his unique comedic skills.
For many reasons, the relationship between Bill and Chevy soured as soon as Bill brought on as a replacement. Given the unprecedented nature of Chevy’s replacement, Chevy given pretty much complete control over how to train his replacement. While this personal training allowed Chevy to instill a great deal of his own skills into Bill, it also provided plenty of oppourtunities for onset drama.
John Belushi among the many potential replacements lined up for Chevy Chase should he eventually meet his end. But Bill Murray was the one who gained the position through his own personal confidence and skills. Bill had an incredibly likable personality and brought something different to the series that set him apart from the other performers. This could seen in his broad and likable physical gestures. It’s coincidental that Bill brought on to replace Chevy. Because the two currently stand as two of the most enigmatic and mysterious performers in comedy. Few have managed to maintain the same mystique as either Chevy Chase or Bill Murray. Their unique aspects have ensured that the two are some of the most revered performers in the show’s history.
Chevy’s escape from SNL was just one of the first instances of a celebrity trying to gain exposure from their tenure on the show. After Chevy, the show birthed many more Hollywood careers, including the career of Bill Murray himself. Chevy one of the show’s few original cast members, and he didn’t let that fact be unknown when negotiating his contracts for future Hollywood roles.
Chevy Chase used his Hollywood connections to secure a career outside of SNL, and it went well almost immediately. Contrastingly, Bill Murray initially had a hard time living up to his replacement. Bill notoriously flubbed a couple of lines early on in his initial appearances on the program, while Chevy seemed perfectly poised to transition into Hollywood stardom. However, fate seemed to have a couple of hands up it’s sleeves for these two Hollywood players.
While Chevy had an easy entry into Hollywood, Bill didn’t have quite as easy of an entry into SNL. Bill’s early months on SNL were a little awkward when compared to Chevy’s, resulting in him ironically pleading to the waning audience to laugh at his jokes. From the modern perspective, this could considered groundbreaking anti-comedy. However, audiences weren’t quite as receptive to this kind of humor back then. Bill couldn’t reach the heights of the man he was meant to replace in his early years. However, they would eventually strike even. Today, Bill is arguably the more revered icon, whereas Chevy has cast into the dirges of forgotten stardom.
Eventually into his tenure, Bill began to win the respect of the audience, as well as his coworkers. However, this came as the result of hard work. Billy was able to prove his worth through characters such as Nick the Lounge Singer, eventually finding his own niche on the program. Years later, Bill forced to prove himself against Chevy Chase in a different way.
As per his Hollywood contract, Chevy granted numerous solo appearances on SNL after giving up being a regular cast member. This meant that he often forced to work alongside his replacement, Bill Murray. On one of their first episodes together, the two got into a fistfight before Chevy’s opening monologue. The fight planned, and many other coworkers aware that it was about to happen.
To outsiders, it seemed like a simple case of Chevy resenting his SNL replacement. However there was more to the story. Chevy had developed a tough relationship with a good deal of his costars. In particular, he had rubbed Gilda Radner the wrong way after being given her role as the host of SNL’s Weekend Update. As well, Chevy had previously had a relationship with Bill outside of SNL.
The feud between Bill and Chevy came to a head on the set of the notorious 1980 comedy Caddyshack. While the two actors were both featured prominently in the film, they were rarely on set together. However, that didn’t mean that they didn’t interact at all. In fact, their interactions on the set proved to be the thing that ended their feud. Alongside being a groundbreaking comedic blockbuster, Caddyshack can be said to be the film that healed the friendship of Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.
Although Bill Murray has seemed to have a much greater degree of success than Chevy Chase, both are comedic legends in their own right. Comment down below to share your favorite role from the two SNL performers. Or who you think is the more legendary comedian. As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way! Continue
