Chevy Chase has waved goodbye to his role on the hit US sitcom Community, with Sony Pictures Television releasing a statement last week (Nov 22) saying that Chase had left the NBC show by mutual agreement with its producers.

The veteran funny-man played the role of Pierce Hawthorne, a bored millionaire who enrols in the community college where the show is set, since the sitcom first aired back in 2009. With the fourth season of the show scheduled to begin in the US in February (13), a number of episodes have already been filmed for the upcoming series, with Chase featuring in each of them. Luckily for the show's producers, their team of writers should hopefully come up with something to ease Chase out of the show.

Chase's time on Community has not been the easiest of rides, with the former Saturday Night Live comic being engaged in a very public feud with the show's creator and former executive producer Dan Harmon. Allegedly Chase was dissatisfied with the way that Harmon was running the show. The feud was thrust into the public's view last year when clips of Harmon's voicemail were posted online in which Chase went for the jugular and accused Harmon of not understanding "what it is I do that's funny" and describing the show as a "mediocre sitcom".

Although no official reason for Chase's abondonment of the show being revealled just yet, few are guessing that anything other than the feud was responsible of Chase's exit.