Chevy Chase made an oddly-timed exit from NBC’s Community on Thanksgiving Eve Wednesday, effective immediately. Deadline reports that Chase’s departure was a mutual one with producers, which is no surprise considering how rocky his relationship with the show has been for the past four seasons. Chase had a well-documented feud with Community creator Dan Harmon before Harmon was let go from the show in May after publicly leaking some profanity-filled voicemails from Chase. Chase also recently made headlines after using the N-word on set while complaining about the direction of his racist character and bad-mouthed Community to the press, despite it being the best thing to happen to his career, both creatively and financially, in 20+ years. He told The Huffington Post UK:
“It was a big mistake! I just sort of hung around because I have three daughters and a wife, and I figured out I might as well make some bread, every week, so I can take care of them in the way they want… The hours are hideous, and it’s still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television.â€
Chevy Chase will still appear in Community’s season finale, according to Entertainment Weekly. All but two of Season 4’s 13 episodes were filmed before Chase’s exit, and apparently, the finale was shot early. Chase will be missing from these two unfilmed episodes, which will come sometime in the middle of the season. It’s kind of expected that Chevy Chase’s Community stint would end abruptly, given how his other two TV gigs both did too. He bailed on SNL in its second season to pursue his movie career like a hot shot in 1976 and Fox yanked his disastrous talk show four weeks in in 1993. Now, though, being rid of that frustrating Community job will free Chevy Chase up to star in a recently-announced series of Christmas Vacation-themed Old Navy ads. Onwards and upwards, Chevy. Onwards and upwards.