Chevy Chase Leaves ‘Community’ Cast Before Season 4 Is Finished

By Tom Herrmann | November 23 2012 1:43 PM

The NBC sitcom “Community” hit another roadblock in its quest to get back on the air. After having its fourth-season premiere date pushed back many times, with the first episode now slated for Feb. 7, the Wrap reports that Chevy Chase is leaving the cast.

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

“Community” star Chevy Chase has apologized for an obscenity-laced rant he went on last Friday, in which he used a racial slur.

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According to the Wrap, the 69-year-old comedic actor is leaving the show's cast after what the publication describes as a “rocky run.” Chase’s departure is apparently the result of a mutual agreement with the producers of the meta TV show; Chase's character, Pierce, will not be in the final one or two episodes of the show's run.

The ex “Saturday Night Live” star had a public feud with series creator and showrunner Dan Harmon that made things tense on the set. Apparently, the issues didn’t subside when Harmon was unceremoniously removed from the set and new showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio took over the series for the abbreviated fourth season.

There were allegations that Chase used the N-word in an on-set tirade last month while complaining about how racist his character Pierce Hawthorn was. The quote wasn’t racist in context, as the actor was concerned that his time on the show would lead to him having to use the word, and he later apologized for speaking it, the New York Daily News reported.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as Chase told the Huffington Post, "I probably won't be around that much longer, frankly." That quote was given in March.

"I have creative issues with this show," Chase said in the HuffPost interview. Chase continued with strong words, saying, "I always have [had issues]. With my character, with how far you can take [Joel McHale's] 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."