Name: Chevy Chase Was Happy To Leave "Saturday Night Live" | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-12-04T16:00:43.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Chevy Chase Was Happy To Leave "Saturday Night Live" | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-12-04. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Chevy Chase Was Happy To Leave "Saturday Night Live" | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-12-04. Transcript available.

My first guest, everyone knows him from Saturday Night Live
and movies like Foul Play and Caddyshack.
Welcome, please, Chevy Chase.
Nice to see you, Chevy.
Have a seat.
Nice of you to be here.
I appreciate that.
Let me ask you about working with Goldie Hawn, first of all.
All right, I think if you're a writer, she'll do it with you, yeah.
Pretty much work with you under those circumstances?
With you, not me.
Is that fun?
Is she a nice person, smart?
She's a hell of a high-caliber man.
Yeah, she is.
She's lovely.
And it was, I mean, interesting?
Gratuitous.
No fistfights or anything?
She's not temperamental?
No, no.
Her husband was rough on me.
No, she was fine.
She used to, oh, guess what?
This is true.
A friend of mine, Billy Adler, gave me this.
I just flew in on what's called a red eye.
For those of you who don't know what that is, I don't either.
It's a very late flight at night, and he wanted me to give you this, a gift
from him.
I don't know much about what that is.
I've never seen one or heard of it, but it's called, what is it?
A miracle fish.
Now, according to the directions here of this thing, what does it say?
Place fish in the palm of hand, and its movement will indicate.
This fish, yeah.
This fish, yeah.
Moving head indicates jealousy.
Moving tail, indifference.
Moving head and tail.
They get the same chart up in the commissary.
Moving head and tail indicates in love.
Thank you.
But look, I mean, seriously, open it up.
I like guys like that.
They assume you're complimenting them, whatever you say, you know.
Great weather lately here.
Oh, thank you.
My pleasure is all yours.
So what are we going to do with this?
Well, you're going to put it in your hand, and we're going to see if your head
or your
tail moves.
Oops, I'm jealous.
You didn't expect this.
I know we didn't rehearse the fish bit.
Apparently, the show's in the dumpster.
The moving tail.
You got me, kid.
I don't know about this either.
I think the moving tail indicates a very lonely guy.
No, indifference.
No, it says indifference.
Whoops, it's coming down.
We'll be maimed.
We'll be maimed later.
Moving head and tail, curling sides.
If it says turns over, then it says fails.
No, I'm just indifferent about the whole thing.
So is the fish.
Yeah.
But seriously, in answer to the question now being asked all over this great
land,
yes, this is network entertainment.
Well, that was very nice.
I'd like to put some faith in that work.
That was very nice.
That was real nice.
Let me ask you, can we get back to this?
Because I have a couple of questions.
I, myself, have written for shows.
Sorry to hear it.
And it was always kind of an uncomfortable experience because we would spend
six weeks writing.
The producer would come in and say, okay, now what are we going to do?
But when you were working on Saturday Night Live as a performer and a writer,
I get the feeling that those may have been optimum conditions.
In what sense?
As a writer, you mean?
As a writer, performer.
It looked like a really fun place to be.
Like they were receptive.
It was.
It really was.
Yeah.
But that was the first year.
I mean, I left after the first year, of course, just to get the big bucks in
Hollywood.
Because it wasn't tiring or anything.
And after that, I understand that it just, you know, went downhill.
Really?
I mean, the optimum conditions, not the show.
The show went uphill.
When you left, and because it was not instant, you know, you didn't leave one
day and star in a movie the next day.
No, no, no, no, no.
Did you ever have any nagging doubts in the back of your mind thinking, oh, I
wish I was back in New York being on TV?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I did.
But I actually was happy to leave because I was exhausted.
The conditions that you speak of, which are optimum, are probably much like
yours, which are that you don't sleep.
You're writing all night and you sleep in a cot somewhere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, for me, it was, I mean, it was, it was wonderful.
In that first year, it was wonderful.
It felt that after that year that we all won Emmys, that maybe we'd sort of
done what we wanted to do, and that it's not going to be as good anyway next
year, you know?
You kind of get the feeling, geez, what's the sense in going on?
We've already been the best thing heretofore, so why, why knock ourselves out?
Well, thank you.
Uh.
Oh, that wasn't it?
No.
Let me ask you about the, now, the show, is it an interesting year?
Am I wearing a hat?
I got it.
The show, Saturday Night Live, now, is at an interesting, uh, turning point
here.
The all-new staff, but yet it's coming back on.
That's what I heard.
Yeah.
Who's in it?
I don't know yet.
I honestly, uh.
Should we try out?
Uh, I got a tape, I got a tape up there, yeah.
Uh.
Did they sing to work?
And, uh, you will be singing, I understand, in a couple of minutes.
You mind if I ask you another question about Saturday Night Live?
Very much.
Okay.
Uh, where do you buy your shoes, then?
I don't, uh, I borrow them.
I lease these.
You know, I couldn't find a pair.
I, I arrived, uh, about, uh.
What happened?
I don't know, I don't know.
I arrived on the Red Eye, as I said, and these were given to me on the flight.
Right, very nice.
Uh.
Where are my feet killing them?
When you, uh, uh, do you still keep in touch with those people you started out
with on the show?
No, I don't like them.
Don't need them.
Yeah, I do.
In fact, I saw Billy, uh, Murray recently, and, um, uh, Brian, well, people don't
know Brian as well.
He's, his brother, and he writes, and he's an actor, too.
Uh, Belusha I haven't seen in a while, but I think few people have.
Unless you want to hunt in Oregon and look for prints.
Uh, I don't see Danny much.
He's, he's hunting in Oregon.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, or Jane, uh, Guild, I've heard about that whole free base thing, and I'm
sorry for her.
I think, let's just, uh, let's just point out that that may have fallen into
the category of joke, huh?
Might have been just a joke on Chevy's part.
Well, he wrote it.
I, he.
Um, okay, now, about your new movies.
Yes, I do see.
You do?
Okay.
Uh, I enjoyed Foul Play a great deal, and you just did another one with Goldie.
What is that about?
It's, uh, what's it about, or what's it called?
Either one.
Just what's it about.
The hell with the name.
Uh, it's, uh, it's called Seems Like Old Times.
It just, tell us about your next movie.
That'd be interesting, yeah, they don't title them.
You've got to identify them by plot.
There is no title, really.
It's just basically the plot, and you sort of hear about it.
It's called Seems Like Old Times, and it was written by Neil Simon, the very
famous writer.
Uh-huh.
And, who is, in fact, a delightful and hilarious man, and, um.
When can we look for that at our local theater?
Well, you can't.
You have to ask me personally.
I guess it's in December.
I'm not supposed to push it, because we're on strike.
Okay, all right.
Now, uh, tell us about the song.
I was incorrect.
It's not from your new album.
Oh, uh, well, in fact, uh, I'm not going to sing a song from my album, and you
know why?
The album stinks.
Let's look at it, won't we?
I don't know you don't.
On this particular album, I do all the voices.
It's all music, and it's all comedy, and boy, is it funny.
The song I'm singing will not be from the album, because it's just not that
good.
In fact, what I'm doing is going to go over to the piano there, which I play by
ear, and
that's a funny enough thing to see.
A man, a jazz pianist named Bill Evans, recently passed away, and he was a
brilliant man, and,
um, there was a song that he, uh, wrote called Waltz for Debbie, and a man
named Gene Lees
wrote the words to it.
It's about, uh, his niece, Bill's niece.
And it's very pretty and sweet, and, uh, basically not in my voice range or
anything,
but the words are nice, and I'm just going to go do it.
Okay, wonderful.
Okay, so go on over there, and I'll wait for you.
Debbie Chase.
Debbie Chase.
As I say, uh, Scotty, is this okay with the mic?
Thank you.
Basically, this is the way it was written by Bill, and the words are put on
later.
Okay, Hugh, one.
In her own sweet world, populated by dolls and clowns, and a prince and a big
purple bear,
lives my favorite girl, unaware of the worried frowns that we weary grown-ups
all wear.
In the sun, she dances to silent music, songs that are spun of gold, somewhere
in her own little
head.
Didn't say I could play.
One day, all too soon, she'll grow up, and she'll leave her dolls, and her
prince, and her silly old bear.
And when she goes, they will cry, as they whisper goodbye.
They will miss her, I fear, but then so will I.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Jeffy. We'll be right back.
Thank you.