Chevy Chase is out on “Community” — but he won’t be absent from TV for too long.
Chase — who left the low-rated NBC sitcom by mutual agreement Wednesday after years of battling the show’s creators — will appear in a series of five Old Navy holiday ads reuniting him with the cast of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
Chase, 69, will once again play Clark Griswold, the character he made famous in three “National Lampoon” movies, including 1989’s “Christmas Vacation.”
Beverly D’Angelo and Juliette Lewis, who co-starred with Chase in “Christmas Vacation,” will also return.
Meanwhile, Chase’s exit from “Community” — where he’s played wealthy bigot Pierce Hawthorne since the show’s 2009 premiere — is effective immediately, though his absence is not expected to impact the show much.
The NBC series, which returns in February, has already shot most of its season, but Chase is not expected to appear in what will likely be the series’ finale.
Chase has griped about his role from the very beginning, criticizing the show’s writing and its structure.
“I sort of just hung around because I have three daughters and a wife, and I figured I might as well make some bread, every week, so I can take care of them in the way they want,” Chase told Huffington Post UK in September.
“The hours are hideous, and it’s still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television.”
Chase also battled with series creator Dan Harmon, who left last May after posting online a nasty voice mail Chase had left him.