Chevy Chase Leaves NBC’s Community
Community and Chevy Chase are officially parting ways.
TVLine has confirmed that Chase and producers have come to a mutual agreement that finds the comedy vet departing the cult NBC series effective immediately. The sudden ouster means that he will not appear in one or two of Community‘s final Season 4 episodes, which have yet to be shot.
Our sister site Deadline first reported the news.
Because Community is shooting the end of its upcoming season out of sequence and production on the finale has already wrapped, Chase’s unlovable curmudgeon Pierce will likely appear in the season ender but not in the handful of installments leading up to it.
VIDEO | Community Stars Explain the Crazy Shift Going on With the Season Premiere Date
Chase’s exit is unsurprising given his tumultuous relationship with the still-benched sitcom. In early October, the actor found himself at the center of an on-set controversy when he dropped the N-word in the presence of his African-American co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover.
He was also embroiled in a much-publicized battle with Community creator Dan Harmon at the end of last season, which, along with other alleged issues, ultimately led to the showrunner losing his job.
Community, meanwhile, is slated to launch its long-delayed fourth season on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 8/7c.
Will you miss Pierce Hawthorne — or Chevy Chase, for that matter? Hit the comments!
does that mean that we can have Dan Harmon back?
Does this really make a difference? Haven’t they shot most of the 13 episodes already for season 4, and with the way things are blowing at NBC, a 5th season seems like a longshot.
Yeah but to fire Chevy for two episodes and break his contract seems an awful lot of work and redundant for NBC unless there was some notion of another short season…although NBC’s as unpredictable as it’s ever been so who knows?
It’s a ‘mutual agreement’ – so lets not say NBC ‘broke his contract’. If everyone wants out, the only complicated thing is to figure out how to make sure it doesn’t affect the show too much, regardless of whether there is more seasons or not.
Couldn’t they have just written him out? Like, from the whole season? Can they refilm everything he did this season with a different actor? Can they do that with all the previous shows? Can everybody else in Hollywood FINALLY stop hiring him?
NO!!! Six seasons and a movie goda–it!
Sing it.
i hope so.
Can’t see Chase getting hired again for anything else on TV or major film-wise. He’s pretty much killed his career again now. You’d think an actor who has experienced the Hollywood wasteland would be a little more respectful to the people who actually gave him a chance.
Seriously, there is a limit for this kind of behaviour….right?
Thank God!!
I agree,chevy,whoopy,roosanne.(DISLIKE)
Community is one of my favorite shows and i’m quite happy about it. Chevy was always the weakest link IMO.
Mine too. Bye Chevy! He’s been a dark and disrespectful cloud over the cast.
Absolutely correct.
Completely agree. Not that Harmon wasnt wrong for the stuff he did. But iv never been a fan of Chevy, never saw him when he was “big” (im 24), he seems like a old egotastical assh*ole whos out of his prime and cant accept it. Not to say just cause hes old he couldnt be awesome on a show/movie…but obviously hes not. He cant even separate the racism of his character from himself. You wont be missed, you were barely funny, weakest link, and IMO if the show gets a season 5, it will be stronger for not having you.
if you’d actually read any unbiased articles about it, you’d know Chevy is far from a racist. A complete asshole, sure. but not a racist asshole. He dropped the N-word in protest of how much of a bigot they’d made Pierce, saying something like “before you know it, i’d be calling Donald or Yvette a [word]”.
Don’t like the man, don’t find him overly funny, but i think that one incident has been easily taken out of context too often.
No i know hes not racist, what i mean is part of his big blow out with saying Ni*ger is he was upset and didnt understand why his character was so racist and he didn’t like it. My point is he cant even get that, thats the character he plays since day one. The old white guy whos kinda racist. And like i said hes all ego, people have said on here and i agree, he used to get the lead roll like Joel has, him being the lowest on the pole of roles on Community, let alone all his character being good for is being the bad guy and semi racist jokes.
–
He couldn’t understand that’s his character, and he couldn’t not take it personally that his character was so 2 dimensional. Your a actor, you play the character, you dont get to step outside the character, judge him and be like “wtf?!”. Esp when its a insane comedy that is out there most of the time and not very realistic. And lets be honest, if theres anyone you’d expect to make racist comments, it would be a old white guy in his late 60’s like Pierce/Chevy…so its not even that unrealistic for his character.
That good news… How many episodes are already produced – just to know how much more we will watch his face?
THANK GOD.
YESS!!! YES!!! I am SO HAPPY with this news. Now I’m actually excited for the new season. YAY COMMUNITY!
I am very relieved to hear this. It seems that his presence has become far more trouble than it’s worth, and I don’t think that has been fair for the rest of the hard-working cast and crew. Good riddance.
Can’t say I didn’t see this coming…
I feel the same way because the way Chevy and Dan Harmon clashed over creative ideas on his character. Now, Dan is gone and Chevy is clashing with the new showrunners over his character, again. Augh! I wish it was Chevy instead of Dan NBC chose to get rid of last season.
So does that mean there’s a high chance for Season 5? I mean Season 4 must nearly have finished filming and so firing Chevy would be a redundant move unless Season 5 was in the works…probably another 13 episodes mind you if any.
I think so because Season 5 would push them well into Syndication episode numbers…And im guess Community would sell and would probably let the ratings also
16 episodes more would give them 100 if my calculations are correct. Not too much to ask really
yeah i think that sony will offer NBC another season for really cheap so that they can get close to 100 episodes
It’s already been sold to syndication(Comedy Central), so it will reach 88 one way or another.
I’m not the least bit surprised. While I’m sure Chase is difficult to work with, I also get the feeling he’s been villainized a bit.
Pierce has gone so off the rails that I don’t think I’ll miss him at all.
Not surprised but they’ve filmed the finale episode already but haven’t filmed the 2 in between so how will they get around that? It’s confusing. I always thought they’d kill him off if he wanted to leave but there’s no chance of that now. OMG.
He will just be absent for two episodes,they will say like he went traveling or somethig
Jeez, it’s not like they decided yesterday that he’s leaving right? They probably knew it for some time, and since he wanted to be done as soon as possible, they shot his last episode earlier.
predictable but still…damn!
I think a lot of people probably saw this coming. I like Chevy Chase but Pierce isn’t really needed on the show anymore so it’s probably for the best.
yeah he’s ungrateful and they don’t need him bring Dan Harmon back.
He was truly funny on Community, but it’s too bad that he is too much of a prima donna to suck it up for a few more episodes. I wonder if he’ll ever get his head out of his hindquarters in time to realize Community was the best thing to ever happen to his (deservedly) sagging career.
[Mouth drops open]. [Annie-like gasp]. Actually, I am a little surprised. With only 1 or 2 episodes left, he couldn’t stick it out til the end? Even if on the long-shot they got a season 5, he could have just left between seasons. He really couldn’t stick out the last two episodes of season 4??? What the freak happened over there that was so bad he had to be let go so close to the end? I knew the new showrunners were lying when they said they were having no problems with him and he was fine to work with.
… It’s always a little weird when series regulars leave the shows.
BUMP LEONARD TO A SERIES REGULAR!!!
Leonard likes this post.
Best. Post. Ever.
good ridance, he was always expendable and after all the drama he created ive got no problem with him leaving
Hasn’t it been well documented that Chase had nothing to do with Harmon leaving? Even if Community gets a fifth season, which is a long shot unto itself, it’s even less likely that Harmon would be asked back.
Its not really a long shot. It all about that Syndication money which Community will get it if heads into the 100 episodes Range. If NBC doesnt let it hit Syndication numbers then letting it stay on all these years with bad ratings would have been for nothing
nbc would not get any syndication money sony owns the show
You don’t need 100 episodes for syndication. 88 has been the number for quite some time now.
Yup, 88 is the magic number nowadays and S4 will put it at 84. For for S5 to happen, Sony would have to drastically cut the licensing fees to tempt NBC to put up with another season of horrible ratings. Chase leaving may cut down production costs, so Sony might be willing to give the show away for practically nothing, but it’s doubtful that NBC would be bite. Then again, anythings possible but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Geez, the season has not started yet and you’re already talking about horrible ratings… give it a chance fist! if it holds its own, I believe NBC will be willing to renew it
I’ll miss him. He can be funny, and it looked to me like the writers didn’t give him a lot to work with. While I’m sure he can be difficult, it also looks like he was demonized a bit. Even in this article it says he “dropped the N-word”, but it is clear from the link and many other sources that he did not use it against his co-stars in any way (yes, it’s a bad word, but context is important). The writers have been making Pierce into more of a jerk, and I think he was very frustrated with the direction of the character.
Regardless, I generally found him unfunny. Can’t really say how much of that was him and how much was the writing. Either way, he is not coming off well and I don’t think he’s going to get another chance on a different tv show. As to him using the n-word you’re right, by all accounts he didn’t use it to refer to anyone, which is good, but doesn’t that make you curious in what context he did use it? I dunno, I find the whole situation strange, but if the miraculous 5th season does occur, the show is better off without him.
After all those news about him, I thought he had already left… He should have left when he had that fight with Harmon, or when he used the n word (honestly, I think this was propably not the first or the last time he did something offensive like that, probably just the worst)…
I don’t think Harmon will want to come back, but it seems that everyone that works there will be happier from now on and hoppefully the chances renewal will increase…
Woooo! See ya Chevy, long live Leonard!
Six seasons and movie.
I liked Pierce because he was unlikeable. That was kinda the point of his character. They spent much of last season softening him up, or at least making him less of a bastard towards his friends. It’s going to feel odd with him missing in a few episodes and I’m really curious why this was really necessary. I get that most people would rather hang out with Pierce than Chevy, but is he really such a huge baby that he can’t enjoy playing a bad guy role? To Pierce. May he rest in Pierce.
Yes, I agree. I liked the character and found it really funny when he was behaving badly. The Dungeons and Dragons episode still makes me die with laughter. I think he should have been more professional and just performed what the writers wrote and done it to the best of his ability. He could have grown as a comic actor if he had done that. Look at someone like Bryan Cranston. His Breaking Bad character is a pretty horrible person, but he owns the role and loves playing it and has become an acclaimed actor because of it. Chevy should have taken that attitude towards playing the character. He can’t just play Fletch and Clark Griswald his whole life.
Precisely. It’s shocking that an actor has this kind of attitude when you hear so much about actors who want to be the villain or the anti-hero because it tends to be the more interesting role. It reminds me of being a kid, pretending to be GI Joes and Cobras and there was always a kid who didn’t want to be Cobra.
I’m still waiting for October 19th.
Amen.
october 19th is on our hearts… it’ll come eventually