A brief chapter in Chevy Chase‘s illustrious comedy career is his ill-fated late-night talk series “The Chevy Chase Show,” which ran on Fox for six weeks in 1993 and was cancelled after scathing reviews and low ratings.
In the new CNN documentary “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” Chase opens up about his experience hosting a talk show — and the disappointment that followed. “I never took anybody’s advice about how to do a talk show. I can do it, I kept thinking,” he said in the doc. “It was hideous. I just didn’t really have a sense of what you do on a talk show.”
Chase’s representatives and collaborators explained in the documentary that the show, which debuted Sept. 7, 1993, failed because it had “old-time” TV producers and needed a new vision. Plus, while Chase was a gifted comedic actor and movie star, he was less skilled in stand-up comedy.
Chase’s eldest daughter, Cydney, remembered visiting her dad on set of the talk show. “He felt nervous to me,” she said.
Andy Aaron, a writer on “The Chevy Chase Show,” recounted, “The reviews were universally terrible, and Chevy literally would come into the writers room and say, ‘You guys are doing a great job. It is not your fault, it is my fault.’”
“I don’t know how people like Letterman and others do it,” Chase said. “It’s beyond me. You can say, ‘Well, it’s interesting to have different people…’ Yeah right. We’re all the same, pretty much. It’s not that interesting.”
The staff found out the show had been pulled by Fox at the end of Chevy’s 50th birthday party. CAA leader Michael Ovitz, Chase’s agent at the time, asked him if he wanted to go a couple more weeks. “‘Couple of weeks?‘” Chase recalled in mock surprise. “I think we’re finished.”
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Chase’s daughters talked about Chase’s mental health struggles after the series’ cancellation. “It was kind of a weird environment after his talk show,” said Cydney Chase. “I know my dad has been depressed. I knew that at a young age. That was sort of hard for me because I would go in and, like, tug on his shirt and he’d say, ‘Not now, honey.’”
Chase’s daughter Caley added, “One thing that was interesting about our household is that my parents were pretty open with some of the things going on that were deeper, depending on our ages. My parents were communicating enough to say, ‘There’s something called depression, and it is hard for people to get out of bed.’”
“He would get in bed and not come out,” added Chase’s wife, Jayni. “I didn’t understand why.”
Chase would go on to star in a handful of films after the talk show ended, and eventually he would have a career resurgence playing Pierce Hawthorne on the sitcom “Community,” which ran from 2009 to 2014 on NBC.
In 1993, “The Chevy Chase Show” arrived in a moment of frenzy around late-night television. Johnny Carson’s retirement from “The Tonight Show” one year earlier opened up opportunities, and Arsenio Hall was already hosting a successful, syndicated late-night yakker, “Arsenio,” which was an immediate draw with younger, multicultural viewers in big cities. Distributed by Paramount, “Arsenio” was the first competitor to go up against Carson that stuck around and made a dent in his audience.
The Fox network saw “Arsenio’s” success and decided to take a swing with a late-night show. It marked Fox’s second attempt to establish a foothold in late-night. In October 1986, Fox Broadcasting Co. was born when it tapped Joan Rivers to host “The Late Show” in the hopes of taking on Carson with one of his longtime guest hosts. But Rivers’ show had a rocky run and was axed by May 1987. It was replaced briefly by the offbeat, proto-“Daily Show” newsmagazine-style “The Wilton North Report.” That show lasted about three months. After that, Fox was out of late-night, turning its focus to primetime and finding traction with hits like “Married With Children” and “21 Jump Street.”
Five years later, Carson’s retirement set off the Leno vs. Letterman battle that ended in Leno taking “The Tonight Show” throne and Letterman moving on to launch a new franchise on CBS. Letterman’s “The Late Show” launched on CBS with great fanfare on Aug. 30, 1993, after Letterman famously had to wait out the rest of his contract as host of NBC’s post-“Tonight Show” hour, “Late Night With David Letterman.” (The open slot at “Late Night” eventually went to Conan O’Brien, who was famously renewed in six-week increments in his first few months.)
So into this mix came Chase to do battle against Leno and Letterman, who were both revved up to prove themselves as the top-dog in the time slot. The whole fracas was quickly dubbed “the late-night wars” in media and pop culture.
Even though it was short-lived, the arrival of Chase’s show as a Fox network offering spelled the end for Hall’s show in syndication. That’s because a number of the stations that carried Hall’s show in major markets were Fox affiliates. When the Fox network decided to go for “Chevy Chase,” those affiliate stations were under pressure to drop Hall’s show to make way for the network offering. Most of them did. Despite Chase’s quick hook, the damage was done. “Arsenio” aired its final episode on May 27, 1994.
“I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not” premiered on CNN on Jan. 1.
Here’s the first episode of “The Chevy Chase Show,” via YouTube:
From Variety US