Bill Murray And Chevy Chase Got Into A Physical Fight During SNL

The late-night sketch comedy series “Saturday Night Live” celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025. With five decades of television history behind “SNL,” it should come as no surprise that there has been plenty of drama behind the scenes. Apart from all the chaos depicted in Jason Reitman’s movie “Saturday Night,” depicts the show’s premiere night back in October 1975, the early seasons of “SNL” fueled a lot of tension backstage, especially when the series became popular, and unknown comedians began to rise to fame.

Chevy Chase was the first and biggest benefactor of “SNL’s” success out of the gate, mainly because, as the host of the news satire Weekend Update segment, he was the only one who regularly said his name on the show. (“I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not” was his applause at the desk). As stated by many who worked at “SNL,” Chase’s newfound fame did not sit well with fellow cast member John Belushi, who resented Chase’s rapid rise, especially when he left the show to start a career in films. This was not only because Belushi wanted to become the star of the show himself (despite almost refusing to sign an “SNL” contract at one point), but also because it pushed everyone else to the side in what was essentially an ensemble effort. The rest of the cast and crew were not happy with his subsequent attitude either.

Chase left “SNL” during season 2, and season 3 brought in Bill Murray, who was constantly referred to as “the new Chevy,” much to the chagrin of both comedians. So there was already some built-in tension when Chase returned to “SNL” to host the 11th episode of the third season in February 1978. That tension was tempered by none other than John Belushi, although Chase’s reputation did not leave the show. do him any favors. The result was a fight that broke out between Murray and Chase shortly before the show went to air.

In the book “Live from New York” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, an oral history of “SNL,” Chase admitted his first mistake was assuming he would do Weekend Update, despite cast member Jane Curtin taking over the desk since he left the show.

According to Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad’s book “Saturday night” Chase was more direct and rude in his expectations. 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 the screen with me at the same time.”

This did not sit well with Bill Murray. As Chase recalled in “Live from New York,” “John also, as I found out later, had been spreading some pretty apocryphal stories about me out of his jealousy and anger or whatever to Billy Murray, who protective of Jane and also, generally speaking, a vigilant fellow and I’m sure Billy wants to take me down, you know.”

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

“That was because I was the new guy, and it was probably my job to do that. It would have been too petty for someone else to do it. It’s almost like I was lured into that thinking that everyone was hoping for it. I could sense it.

Everyone else was from the improv world where you didn’t make it about you. You were an ensemble. You were company. So when he left, there was resentment about that. It was a shock. At the same time, Chevy was the big potato in the stew. He had the most sketches. He had the most influence, he got the most publicity, all of those things. So they didn’t miss that part of it. But there was still a hangover feeling that he shouldn’t have left until everyone had that.”

Of course, it wasn’t just the “SNL” cast’s anger at Chase that created the issue. Along with Chase’s fame came even more arrogance, and he already had a big head to begin with. Murray noted as much when recalling the fight in “Live from New York,” where he said, “I remember a kind of general animosity that they felt, and it came back as a star. When you become famous, you have You have like a year or two where you act like a real a**hole. It happens to everyone.

Chase was still in that early stage of fame – many would probably argue that he never shook that conceited ego – but he was at least prepared to admit as much when recounting the scuffle with Murray. In “Live from New York,” Chase reflected:

“I think Billy’s trying to pull me down, and I’m sure I’m up. I guess I’m a little too full of myself, you know. I realized when I left that maybe I wasn’t been such a great guy. Maybe we weren’t that close. , it was water under the bridge, but it changed my perception because that first year was a very close family in truth and that I happened to emerge because of something that someone had written and because people responded to me as the first breakout star.”

In the week leading up to the show, Murray and Chase had already been poking and prodding each other. The book “Saturday Night” recounts some of the barbs they threw together throughout the writing and rehearsal. At one point, Murray interrupted a meeting to voice some complaints from the cast and crew about his presence during the show’s first season. But perhaps the deepest cut was Murray taking aim at Chase’s publicized relationship issues by saying, “F*** your wife. I hear he needs it.” Chase, keeping his cool, fired back with a jab at Murray looking, commenting about Neil Armstrong landing on his face, a pointed insult on boxcar scars on the comedian’s face.

Everything came to a head on the night of the live show, and just before Chase was due to hit the stage as President Gerald Ford for the show’s cold open, he entered Murray’s room for a showdown.

However, while Murray and Chase took swings at each other, neither seemed to land a punch, instead just yelling and homing in on each other a bit. During the scuffle, it was actually John Belushi who ended up taking a couple of hits, as he was hanging out in Murray’s dressing room at the time. In fact, Chase remembered one obvious detail that indicts Belushi’s place in all this, “John was like the Cheshire Cat, sitting there like, ‘Mission accomplished.'”

Director John Landis (“The Blues Brothers”) happened to be on “SNL” during this kerfuffle, and he relayed his recollection of the incident on “Live from New York,” saying, “Chevy and Billy have a huge screaming fight in the hallway, and (writers) Michael O’Donoghue and Tom Davis hold them back, and John and Danny (Aykroyd) jump in because Chevy and Billy are really going to come to blows.” But perhaps the funniest detail he remembered was that Murray had taken the time to call Chase a “mediocre talent,” which is such a special, thoughtful, and funny insult.

Of course, Chase and Murray had a show to do. In “Live from New York,” Chase may have patted himself on the back too much in staying on track to go straight to live TV:

“This happened, but I have a show to do. Others may have withered. I had a certain tensile strength about me from my childhood with an older brother who had already kicked the crap out of me through much of my younger life , and there were a number of times when I was in violent situations, so it wasn’t like I was a man who had never seen the other side of the tracks. In other words, rather than being filled with adrenaline that gives you the shakes and doesn’t allow you to concentrate on what you’re doing, which passed, and maybe it was because I was in shape and I played a lot of football- foot and have been in situations where we can calm down easily after something like that happens.”

All right, we get it, Chevy.

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

In Chris Nashawaty’s book “Caddyshack: Creating a Hollywood Cinderella Story” Murray said he found the collaboration easy:

“I’d never really done anything with Chevy. We always had kind of a funny relationship. But he was like, ‘Okay, I liked that when you did that. Let’s keep going.’ Still going, and it was funny because Ty Webb is not far from who Chevy is So he was quite comfortable in his space And I was comfortable as Carl So he could be free to laugh at me thinking that it means, ‘Hey, he’s my friend!’ It’s a very fun, self-aware example of whatever Harold claims the film is about – status.”

Chase agrees, as he said in a self-congratulatory way that only someone like him can say, “We got over everything. The tension was short-lived. I have nothing but admiration and affection for Bill. He still to be a surprising character, to say the least. But ultimately, he’s a good guy. It’s hard to disagree, esp when Bill Murray improvised one of the funniest scenes in the film.

The good news is that they are still on good terms, at least as far as we know. During an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” Back in September 2008, Chase reflected on their conflict and said, “We’ve never been close, but we’ve been very friendly, we play golf together. (…) I think we’ve made an effort over the years to get to know each other better and to put that stuff behind.”