Chevy Chase, who starred in the first four seasons of cult classic comedy Community, is now trashing the series by saying it wasn’t funny and he didn’t want to have to be around “those people” every day.
One of Hollywood’s most infamous curmudgeons, Chevy Chase is definitely earning that title by dumping all over one of his own shows, and its cast. The Saturday Night Live alum trashed Community all over Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
Now, Chase and Community had their own controversies, with the actor getting unceremoniously fired after four seasons back in 2012 for using the n-word in front of co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover, per TVLine, while getting into it with creator Dan Harmon (it was not directed at anyone).
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Tension between him and Harmon is at least part of the reason Harmon was let go ahead of Season 4. After a huge drop in quality, Harmon returned for Season 5, though both Chase and Glover would depart.
When asked about his current relationship with the show’s creator, Chase said that he hasn’t seen him since their time together on the show. “I have no idea if we’re okay,” he said. “I’ve never been not okay. He’s kind of a pisser. He’s angry. He called and said he was sorry. I love him now.”
With a decade of hindsight about his time on the show, Chase’s reaction is about what you might expect from his character, Pierce Hawthorne, a rich, politically incorrect and rather terrible, self-centered individual who slowly warmed to the group — well, except for that last part.
Chase summed up his thoughts on Community pretty clearly. “I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained,” he told Maron. “Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard hitting enough for me.”
Community has been praised by fans and critics for many years now for breaking down the expectations of the sitcom format, pushing new boundaries, and satirizing pretty much everything, while staying true to its characters emotional beats and growth.
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Interestingly, despite Pierce being boorish and unlikable for most of his run, Chase said he “didn’t mind the character.” Instead, it seems he had more of an issue with his co-stars
“I just felt that it was… I felt happier being alone,” he said. “I just didn’t want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people. It was too much.” Aside from Chase, Community starred Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash, Brown, and Glover.
On CBS Sunday Morning last year, Chase was asked about accusations that he was unpleasant — or worse — to work with both on Saturday Night Live and Community. The accusations have come from many different individuals over many years.
“I guess you’d have to ask them. I don’t give a crap,” Chase said of his former colleagues. “I am who I am. And I like who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me that I don’t care. And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”
Following its own in-show mantra of “six seasons and a movie,” Community was revived in 2015 by Yahoo! Screen after NBC had canceled it, allowing it to fulfill the “six seasons” part.
Harmon has been working on the “movie” part for Peacock reuniting most of the cast (though likely not Chase). Filming was set to start in June, per McHale, though the whole production was delayed by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
