Overview
- I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not premieres Jan. 1 on CNN, tracing the comedian’s career alongside controversies and personal struggles.
- Chandrasekhar says he was directing the night Chase was effectively fired, alleging the N-word was used and describing a subsequent on-set “full meltdown” after a leak to the press.
- The confrontation grew out of a scripted “blackface” hand puppet bit, Yvette Nicole Brown left the set pending an apology, production halted, and Chase exited after season 4 with a brief 2014 return.
- Director Marina Zenovich says nearly all Community principals, including creator Dan Harmon, declined interviews, while Chase, his family and collaborators like Dan Aykroyd, Beverly D’Angelo, Goldie Hawn, Lorne Michaels, Ryan Reynolds and Martin Short appear.
- The film situates Chase’s public persona in the context of childhood abuse, addiction and a 2021 heart failure and coma, and opens with him telling the director, “You’re not bright enough.”