Chevy Chase Leaves ‘Community,’ Quits Mid-Season

Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase hasn’t been shy lately about how much he dislikes his own show “Community,” a sitcom about a group of community college students. The actor is now leaving the show effective immediately due to creative differences with NBC. Chase is leaving by mutual agreement between him and the studios, but his absence won’t affect the the fourth season too much (all of the shows have already been taped except for the last two).

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Chase commented, “I probably won’t be around that much longer, frankly.”

“I have creative issues with this show,” he said. “I always have. With my character, with how far you can a take character … just to give him a long speech about the world at the end of every episode is so reminiscent. It’s like being relegated to hell and watching ‘Howdy Doody’ for the rest of your life. It’s not particularly necessary, but that’s the way they do these things. I think it belies the very pretenses that his character, Jeff, has, that he’s giving these talks. They’re supposed to, in some way, be a little lesson to people who watch sitcoms … to that degree, I can’t stand sitcoms. … I think, if you know me and my humor over the years, you know that this is certainly not my kind of thing.”

Just last month, the ex-Community actor got into a heated argument on set about his character and his development and yelled out, “What’s next? Am I gonna say the word ni**er?”

Chase apologized for the use of the N-word shortly after.

The actor also stirred up controversy when a fued with the show’s creator and former showrunner Dan Harmon resulted in Harmon cursing at Chase during the show’s wrap party and putting angry voicemails from the actor on public display.

It’s not a terrible surprise that Chevy Chase left “Community,” but I have a feeling the vibes on set are going to be less tense from now on.