I’ve heard many times (and just read it again recently) that “The Chevy Chase Show,” a talk show of 10 or 15 years ago, is considered by many to be the worst talk show ever. In fact, this article said that the premier of the show could rightly be considered the worst hour of television ever. Chase was said to be awkward, uncomfortable, and visibly sweating. Supposedly, even the studio audience was embarrassed to be there. I guess Chevy made Magic Johnson look like Johnny Carson out there.
Something that bad had to be entertaining to watch, in a warped way. Did anyone here actually see it? Was it as bad as they say?
(I wonder if somewhere on this planet, a tape of this episode exists so I could see for myself how bad it is.)
From my memories of watching the first few weeks, it was very bad, one the worst talk shows I’ve ever seen but maybe not quite the worst.
It was never entertaining in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way, although the comments on IMDB seem to say differently. The best words for it would be painfully boring, to the point that time would slow down while watching it. There were times I thought it was a 90 min show rather than an hour, because it seemed that long.
I think some viewers. like me, were expecting him to be in “Fletch” or “Weekend Update” mode: cracking wise, smarting off, murmuring little snide comments, etc. Instead he was mostly dull, and sappy when interviewing friends. He was the wrong guy in the wrong type of program.
And nobody could make Magic Johnson on The Magic Hour look like Johnny Carson. Chevy was boring, unfunny, and could induce sleep. Magic was irritating and spent all his time gladhanding every guest and kissing their ass. And since it’s too easy to poke fun of his speaking voice, I won’t.
No, it is absolutely not true that it was the worst talk show ever. Who’s going to compare? Who even remembers Whoopi Goldberg’s talk show, or Alan Thicke’s, or Joan Rivers’ or David Brenner’s?
It’s probably hard to say that it even was worse than some talk shows that are popular now but needed to improve tremendously over their first few weeks. Both Leno and Conan had disastrous starts, e.g.
There is an article in the latest Time magazine about Joel Stein programming the cable channel Trio for a week (this week, I believe.) He wanted to do a series on awful, quickly canceled programs, but the company that owns the Chase show wouldn’t show just one episode. They will only allow all 30 shows to sold as a block. That’s why nobody will rerun it.
Like the other posters have said, this program’s reputation as one of the worst network talk shows of all time is pretty well deserved. Granted, Conan was pretty awkward for about the first year or so, but a lot of it was due to his inexperience in front of the camera. Chevy, on the other hand, had nearly 20 years of experience prior to his talk show (and had even guested for Carson several times) so there hardly was an excuse for his stiff, “deer-caught-in-headlights” style. The fact that his performance didn’t seem to improve during his short run also didn’t help.
In any case, even before the show started, I don’t think too many people thought the show would be that successful given how Leno and Letterman had already evenly divided up the talk show market. Still, as much of a ratings and artistic fiasco as the show was, I didn’t expect Fox to cancel it after only four weeks. (I thought they were going to give him at least 13.) I was also a bit surprised and how the show’s failure almost completely sucked the momentum out of Chevy’s career (yes, he did have one at the time).
Lord, it was bad. Stilted, uncomfortable, dying pathetically right before my eyes. I felt so bad for everyone involved. It was just so damned embarrassing! I was just hoping someone would step out in front of the camera and say “Sorry folks, this just isn’t working, we’re pulling the plug now. We regret the inconvenience we may have caused you.”
It may not have been the worst talk show ever, but it was the worst I ever saw.
For me it wasn’t so much that it was the worst talk show ever, but that it was the most disappointing. I would never have sought out Whoopi Goldberg’s or Joan River’s talk shows, but I was the target audience for this one. I was looking forward to it, I tuned in eagerly, and after the very first gag (he was going to place his hands in cement in front of the Chinese Theater and fell all the way in - ho, ho) I was in pain.
We talked a bit more about his failed talk show in this thread.
I watched it from beginning to its ignominious end a mere five or six weeks or so later. It was enthralling to me, because I had never seen a show so poorly done.
First let me say that I had a fair amount of respect for Chevy Chase before that show. I was fairly well acquainted with his work, but I didn’t know anything about the guy personally.
Well, one found out real quick what kind of a guy he was. Rude. Inflexible. Inexperienced. Anxious. Prone to blaming others for failed segments while still broadcasting. Depressed. Not particularly creative. Very easily distracted–like for example by Goldie Hawn. Not a particularly inspiring keyboard player.
He seemed to have certain guests on his show entirely for the purpose unleashing a demeaning ambush. I wish I could give some examples, but I just have a vague recollection of Chase being an asshole to Dr. Ruth.
In one of his last episodes, I recall him limping through a conversation with a guest and then suddenly turning to face the camera and muttering something like, “this job sucks.”
His set was lavish, but even that turned out to be a curse. The enormous fish tank which was the backdrop he used in lieu of a Letterman-style cityscape was apparently sabotaged late in the show’s run and turned into what looked like a giant vat of sewage. Eventually I think they just drew the curtains over it–a perfect little metaphor for a nasty show which exposed Chase as a rather nasty person.
everyone here seems to have forgotten the pat sajak show!
that aside, the cc show was almost as bad as the pat sajak show. hold on…maybe worse!
cc had fallen considerably by this time. the show was pure-dee crap.
example: (i can’t remember if tom selleck was the guest, but the dialog is almost verbatim)
selleck: “…[that time] i really made a mess…”
chevy: (uncomfortable pause, squirm) then…“uhhh…in your pants?”
that was the sophisticated stuff that got him cancelled. also, it was the high end of his show.
I remember in one episode he tried to do a Lettermanesque gag where he went to the roof of his studio and fired water balloons from a slingshot across the street to a parking lot. Way off in the distance was a convertible which was hit several times while its owner walked around around, bewildered, looking fruitlessly for the source of the missiles.
…Except, I recognized the car’s “owner” off in the distance as Fred Wolf, one of the show’s writers. Get it? Firing high-speed water balloons at a stranger would be mean-spirited to the point of being legally actionable, so the Chase show had to make sure they had complete control over the situation.
As a result they presented a gag that was completely insincere and unbelievable, and therefore not the least bit amusing or entertaining.
It was horrible. Vomitously bad. It was bad in every sense of teh word badness. It was insipid in its writing vile in its execution. Mildly retarded in its aim and oafish in its appearence. what was with those stupid singing heads!!! was that supposed to be cutting edges. It was a horrible trainwreck of a show that shot have been aborted rather than put out of its misery! It was everything that is horrible about television and the human race in general all rolled up into an electronic nightmare of a rupugnent nature. It was…
well… maybe not all that bad but lord it wasn’t good.