Bill Murray and Chevy Chase got into a physical fight during SNL

The late-night comedy series “Saturday Night Live” will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025. With five decades of television history after “SNL,” it should come as no surprise that There was a lot of drama behind the scenes. Regardless of all the chaos depicted in… Jason Reitman movie “Saturday Night” Depicting the evening of the series’ premiere in October 1975, the early seasons of SNL generated a lot of tension behind the scenes, especially when the series became a hit and previously unknown comedians began to become famous.

Chevy Chase was the first and biggest beneficiary of “SNL” success right out of the gate, largely because, as host of the satirical Weekend Update news segment, he was the only one to say his name on the show on a regular basis (“I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not “Also” was his signature on the desk). As recounted by many who worked on “SNL,” Chase’s newfound fame did not sit well with his colleague John Belushi, who resented Chase’s meteoric rise, especially when he left the show to begin his career in films. And this wasn’t just because Belushi wanted to become the star of the show himself (Although he almost refused to sign an “SNL” contract at one point), but also because it pulled everyone on side in what was inherently a team effort. The rest of the cast and crew weren’t happy with his attitude in the aftermath either.

Chase left “SNL” during the second season, and the third season brought in Bill Murray, who was constantly referred to as “the new Chevy”, much to the dismay of both comedians. So there was already some internal tension when Chase returned to “SNL” to host the eleventh episode of the third season in February 1978. This tension was sparked by none other than John Belushi, although Chase’s reputation after leaving the show was not affected. Do him a favor. The result was a fight that broke out between Murray and Chase just before the show aired.

In the book “Live from New YorkBy James Andrew Miller and Tom Shiels, an oral history of ‘SNL’ Chase admitted that his first mistake was assuming he would be doing Weekend Update, despite the fact that cast member Jane Curtin had taken over the desk since his departure. “It was “That’s a little selfish for me because Jane’s been doing it all year.”

According to the book by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad “Saturday night“,” Chase was more direct and blunt in his predictions. The book details a meeting in the office of “SNL” creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels where Chase is quoted as saying, “Jane, let’s face it, you can’t be on screen with me at the same time.”

This did not sit well with Bill Murray. As Chase reported on Live From New York, “John was also, as I later found out, spreading some made-up stories about me out of jealousy and anger or whatever to Billy Murray, who was protecting Gene and also, in general, a bitchy guy and I’m sure Billy… He wanted to take me down, you know.”

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Why did it fall to Bill Murray to take down Chase with a peg or two? Murray explained on “Live from New York”:

“It was because I was the new guy, and it was like it was my job to do it. It was so petty for someone else to do it. It’s like I was rushed into it, you know, I think everyone was hoping for it. It was I felt like I think they resented Chevy for leaving, for one thing because he took a big part of the success and left his career.

Everyone was from the improv world where you don’t make it your own. You were a band. I was a company. So when he left, there was resentment about it. It was a shock. Meanwhile, Chevy was the big potato in the soup. He received the largest number of drawings. He had the most impact, got the most publicity, all of those things. So they didn’t miss that part of it. “But there was still a feeling that he shouldn’t leave until everyone felt that way.”

Of course, it wasn’t just the “SNL” cast’s dissatisfaction with Chase that created the problem. Along with Chase’s fame came more arrogance, and he already had a big head to begin with. Murray pointed this out when recalling the fight on Live From New York, saying, “I remember kind of the general hostility they felt, and he actually came back as a star. When you get famous, you have a year or two where you act like a real idiot.” , and you can’t help yourself, it happens to everyone, and you have about two years to get it together, otherwise it will be permanent.

Chase was still in that early stage of fame – Many would argue that he never shook that arrogant ego — but he was at least willing to admit it while recounting the fight with Murray. On “Live from New York”, Chase reflected:

“I think Billy was trying to take me down a rung, and maybe I was up a notch. Maybe I was a little too full of myself, you know. I realized when I left that maybe I wasn’t a great guy.” Maybe we weren’t that close, maybe I was a bit of a fool, and I left with self-doubt, and over time, it’s been a little easier to do over the years, you know. , it was water under the bridge, but it “changed my perception because my perception all along was that that first year was a really close-knit, close-knit family and that I had just come out because of something someone had written and because people were responding to me as the first breakaway star.”

During the week leading up to the show, Murray and Chase were already teasing and prodding each other. “Saturday Night” recounts some of the barbs they hurled at each other during writing and rehearsals. At one point, Murray interrupted a meeting to air some complaints from the cast and crew about his presence during the show’s first season. But perhaps most profoundly, Murray was taking aim at Chase’s stated relationship issues by saying, “Go to your wife. I hear she needs it.” Chase, keeping his cool, responded with a jab at Murray’s appearance, and made a comment about Neil Armstrong falling flat on his face, an apparent insult to the boxcar scars on the comedian’s face.

It all came to a head on the night of the live show, and before Chase hit the stage as President Gerald Ford for the show’s cold open, he went into Murray’s room for a showdown.

However, as both Murray and Chase were swinging at each other, neither of them seemed to throw a punch, instead yelling and attacking each other a bit. During the brawl, it was John Belushi who ended up taking a few hits, as he was hanging out in Murray’s dressing room at the time. In fact, Chase recalls one important detail that incriminates Belushi’s place in all of this, “John was like the Cheshire cat, sitting there as if to say, ‘Mission accomplished.'”

Director John Landis (“The Blues Brothers”) happened to be on “SNL” during this altercation, and he relayed his recollections of the incident on “Live from New York,” saying, “Chevy and Billy were having a huge screaming fight in the hallway, and (the book) ) Michael O’Donoghue and Tom Davis were holding them back, and John and Danny (Aykroyd) jumped in because Chevy and Billy were really about to fight but perhaps the funniest detail he remembers was that Murray took the time to describe Chase as “Average talent,” which is a specific, thoughtful, and funny insult.

Of course, Chase and Murray had a show to do. On “Live from New York,” Chase probably patted himself on the back a lot when it came to staying on track and going straight to live TV:

“It has happened, but I have a show to play on. Maybe others have withered. I’ve had a certain pull inside me since childhood with my older brother actually kicking me for most of my young life, and there were a few times I was in violent situations, so it wasn’t As if I was just someone who had never seen the other side of the tracks that I had seen before, and so I guess I simply got over it. In other words, instead of being filled with adrenaline that causes you to shake and doesn’t allow you to focus on what you’re doing, I simply passed it, maybe. It was because I was “I was in good shape and played a lot of football and I was in situations where I could calm down easily after something like that happened.”

Okay, we get it, Chevy.

Although this feud between Chase and Murray would continue for years, they eventually reconciled their beef during the production of the comedy classic “Caddyshack.” Director Harold Ramis who would later have his own beef with Bill Murray after “Groundhog Day,” He cast both Chase and Murray in the golf movie “slobs vs. snobs.” In fact, their famous scene together (seen below) is the reason the two actors were able to put their differences behind them.

In Chris Nashawaty’s book “Caddyshack: The Making of a Cinderella Story in HollywoodMurray said he found the collaboration easy:

“I never really did anything with Chevy. We always had kind of a…funny relationship. But it was like, ‘Okay, I liked it when I did that.’ Let’s just keep going.” We kept going, and it was funny because Ty Webb is not out of character with Chevy, so he was very comfortable in his space, and I was as comfortable as Carl, so he could laugh at me, and if Ty Webb laughed I thought that meant, “Hey He’s my friend!” It’s a really fun, self-conscious example of what Harold claims the film is about — status.”

Chase agrees, saying in the self-congratulatory way only someone like him could say, “We got through it all. The tension was short-lived. I have nothing but admiration and affection for Bill. He can still be a tough character to say the least, but in the end , he’s a good guy, even though I’m the first star in the movie under the title, I’ll always think of Caddyshack as Billy’s movie. It’s hard to disagree, especially When Bill Murray improvised one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

The good news is that they’re still on good terms, at least as far as we know. During his appearance onThe Howard Stern ShowIn September 2008, Chase reflected on their conflict and said: “We were never close, but we were very friendly, and we played golf together. (…) I think we’ve made an effort over the years to get to know each other better and put these things behind us.”