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Community WAS his redemption, and he blew that too. Dudes 70 years old and STILL making enemies

Chaos theory: If Chevy had made that basket the show would have become a huge success and would have dominated TV for 20+ years.

I was the bass player in the Chevy Chase house band for those painful few weeks on Fox. Yikes!!! A Wonderful and Horrible time in my life!!!

"That was over faster than Chevy Chase's talk show!" -Krusty the clown in the Simpsons: Road Rage

Good LORD. I remember crying because my mom wouldn’t let me stay up late to watch this. Mama knows best.

According to Chevy years later on Letterman, Carson called him just after the first showed aired and said: "Not as easy as it looks, is it?"

I worked in film for over 25 years and these two stories that got passed down to me tell you everything you need to know about why Bill Murray is still a success while Chevy Chase is not. Around the mid to late 1980's Bill Murray developed a habit of getting up very early in the morning before his call time so he could go to set and help the grip and electrical department. Now he wasnt rigging lights or dolly tracks. He was mostly just helping to unload trucks which is hard physical labor. Why did he do it? Because Murray respected the work these guys did and said that had he not become an actor he would have loved to become a grip, one of those faceless people on a film set who actually make the scene happen. As tbe story goes the G&E union doesnt allow non-union members to even touch an item on or off a truck but he had such goodwill from the people he had worked with that eventually he became the 1st and only "honorable member' of that union. Last I heard Murray was still doing this when he was in his mid-60's on the set of St. Vincent. Chevy Chase was an asshole. People thought it was part of his schtick but no, he is an asshole. So much so that there was a rider in his contract that NOBODY was to talk to him outside of the cast and director. If anybody else wanted to speak with him they had to go through his assistant on that project. If somebody even said "hello" to him they would be fired. The problem was that be went through assistants like toilet paper, particularly when he was still a box office draw. During Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Chase reportedly went through over 20 assistants over the 12 week shoot. At a certain point the running joke was that if you needed to get Chevy from his trailer then you had to find the newest face on the set that day and speak with that person. On top of that, Chase would "prank" the people he didnt like on set. Now pranks are common place on film sets but there was that extra touch of cruelty that Chade put into his pranks that made them unforgivable. During one shoot on location, Chase didnt like the cinematographer so he would anonymously call the police and say that he saw a crazy person with a gun going into the hotel room the DP was sleeping in. He then anonymously called the wife of the DP and told her that her husband was sleeping with his wife and so on and so forth until the DP quit the job along with the entire electric department. This led to some major overages in some of his movies. Chase did this ALL OF THE TIME. His meltdowns that youve heard of have nothing on the stories tbat didnt get publicity. He made a LOT of enemies because of this and eventually those A List scripts stopped showing up as you can see by the quality of films he did during the late 80's/early 90's. This is why he tried to take the talk show route. The problem was that he went through writers like he did assistants that by the time the sbow aires he was on his 4th or 5th writer's room and those comedy writers who he really wanted to hire all shied away from the job offers because word got out about how he was poison to work for or with.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 took a jab at the Chevy Chase Show in episode 517- Beginning of the End. In Segment 4, Tom Servo does a painfully unfunny standup routine about Grasshoppers, and after realizing that he isn’t good enough to be on the Tonight Show or Letterman, Mike suggests that Servo send a tape of his performance to Chevy Chase.

I thought this was a joke from the simpsons when Troy McClure refers to "Five Fabulous Weeks of the Chevy Chase Show." I didn't know it was real.

Goldie Hawn singing to Chase is clearly an attempt to recreate the magic of the moment when Bette Midler sings 'One for my Baby' to Johnny Carson on his last show. Which makes it even more cringe-worthy.

This guy was ALMOST handsome enough to be a hollywood stud, ALMOST funny enough to be a legendary comedian, and ALMOST charming enough to make people stand his terrible personality.

😂 Watch closely Chevy's eyes when Goldie is singing to him....he keeps looking down her top, like a lot. 😅

This video is the closest thing we have to "Five Fabulous Weeks of The Chevy Chase Show" presented by Troy McClure

Its weird that Chevy looked young well into his 50s despite being less relevant, yet suddenly he aged dramatically after 2000.

“Mom, I wanna watch the Eric Andre show” Mom: “We have the Eric Andre show at home”

Hello I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such Fox Network specials as "Alien Nose Job" and "Five Fabulous Weeks of The Chevy Chase Show!"

So basically he was doing Jimmy Fallon’s shtick years before Fallon.

The clips of his show are physically painful to watch

I haven't seen everything Chevy Chase has been in, but honestly he never struck me as an "off-the-cuff, think-on-feet comedian" and the clips of this show really confirmed it.

I think Chevy fell into the same trap as Dan Ackroyd. They were really funny and popular at one point and that convinced them that everything they did was funny and nobody had the guts to tell them otherwise. So we ended up with a lot of schlock with their names attached. Don't get me wrong, both of these guys can still be really funny when they have strong writers and editors.

Anyone else remember the afternoon Howie Mandel Show? There was an episode where he says "People ask me what I had to do to get a talk show, and I say if you you stick around in Hollywood long enough they just offer you one." And that quote sticks with me to this day...

I saw every episode. Each one was like watching a car crash. Unbelievable.

Hosting a talk show is not easy. The great ones make it look easy just like Michael Jordan made basketball look easy, and Eddie Van Halen made playing the guitar look easy. But it's a rare skill, and most people who try it struggle. Chevy struggled a lot, and really looked self-conscious and uncomfortable most of the time, while Carson and Letterman seemed to thrive on the difficult nights. Add to that the fact that Chevy was genuinely despised in the industry, and it really took a toll on his career.

Can we just appreciate the fact that Goldie Hawn was 48 in that clip? Spectacular genes.

Chevy Chase with his own late night vehicle could've worked if they had him do what he did well on Weekend Update: Make snide comments about current events. The mistake they made was asking him to interview guests. Chevy's weakness is, whether intentional or not, he behaves as if he doesn't give a shit about other people and that's a horrible thing for an interviewer to be.

Can't believe you didn't mention what Johnny Carson said about him: "Chevy Chase couldn't ad-lib a fart in a baked-bean factory."

Honestly, I think a talk-show with Dolly Parton would be super entertaining. She’s so simultaneously witty and genuine.

I remember being in the sixth grade when the first episode premiered and I’d just come back inside from taking the trash out. And I was like, “Why is he free throwing basketballs?!” 😳😬

It seems like what Conan was able to do on Late Night was what Chevy Chase wished his show could have been.

Chat shows are always cancerous, but Chevy delivered his opening monologue like Fox were holding his kids at gunpoint.

I've enjoyed some of Chase's performances through the years, but I've consistently gotten the impression that Chevy Chase the person is kind of a mean-spirited jerk who would happily humiliate a stranger if doing so might get him a laugh. It's that that persona that informs "The Chevy Chase Show", the "laugh, or I might turn on you next" feeling, that just makes you want to put doors and walls between yourself and the host. The number of other comedians who don't seem to want to work with him again these days sadly affirms that view.

"We watch bad TV so you don't have to." Thanks for sharing and verifying what I thought I already knew. IMHO Chase got his $3M and could not have cared less about the show's success. And his performance on Community verifies he doesn't deserve redemption.

I can't remember who but I heard an interview with a comedian and writer who worked on both Jay Leno and Chevy Chase shows. He said it was staggering the differences between the two. Leno would re-watch every show the following day, trying to learn what he could have said or where he should added a joke here and there. Leno would rehearse the monologue and other bits with the writers before they shot in front of the crowd. He said Leno was always at the studio before everybody else and left after everybody else. You could tell Leno was serious about his job and wanted it to succeed. Meanwhile, Chevy would show up right before the show taped and asked what they were going to do tonight and then sometimes he'd refuse which left the writers with no time to come up with something new. There were no rehearsals, and Chase would leave to go get drunk after the show was over. The writer said he couldn't believe what an opportunity Chase was throwing away because Fox had invested so much money into this project and he as a comedian himself was angry because this role could have been a great vehicle for someone who had the dedication and understood what kind of opportunity this could be.

I saw that Star Wars Holiday Special director Steve Binder was attached as producer and director to this show. That explains a lot.

You hit it on the head. It's about connecting with the audience. Despite everyone on the internet liking Dave over Jay, the fact was Jay connected more with a mass audience like Johnny did and Chevy just felt uncomfortable and it showed.

If you want to do deep dives on failed talk shows, you should do an episode about the Magic hour. NBA legend Magic Johnson's failed venture into late night. I remember it being a thing and it went away just as fast as the Chevy Chase show.

When you have so much contempt for your audience it's impossible for a show like this to work.

"Chevy couldn't ad lib a fart at a Boston baked bean supper." --Johnny Carson

I bet Chevy loves talking about this show to random people while he's out and about everyone ask him about it.

A Chevy Chase variety show sounds awesome! Could have been like a PG-13 version of the Muppets Show But a late night talk show starring Chevy was just doomed from the start

The kind of weird, awkward, anti-humor of The Chevy Chase Show would not be out of place on [Adult Swim] nowadays.

I think I have an idea of why Dolly Parton was considered to be the host. A few years earlier she was the guest host on SNL and it went over pretty well. She was funny, self-depreciating, and pretty quick on the jokes. Add to that her talent, being comfortable on stage, hosting a short-lived variety show and Dolly would make a great talk show host. But of course her manager shot it down because she makes several times more money with half the work. Turns out it was a great decision.

Narrator: Chevy Chase you either love him or hate him. There’s no in between! Me: I think he’s okay. 6/10

Several times during the Summer of 1993 I heard that this show would be huge. It just goes to show how wrong people can be sometimes.

I imagine the many people Chevy Chase treated like garbage in his life enjoyed seeing him flop.

One of my best friends and I were both huge Chevy Chase fans, mainly from SNL, Caddyshack, Vacation, and Fletch. We were so excited for this show. I mean, if anyone was going to watch a Chevy Chase late night show, it was us. I can still remember the shock and bewilderment at how bad and unwatchable it was. Chevy seemed uncomfortable on TV like I had never seen a professional performer. I don't think I made it past the 2nd episode. Since then I have learned a lot about Chase, very little of it good. His tale is a sad one.

Kudos to the maker of this “doc”. Entertaining and spot-on editorial.

The cold opening with Dan Aykroyd was kinda funny.

Fun fact: The studio where The Chevy Chase Show was taped later became Nickelodeon on Sunset, where most of the network's live action programming during the 2000s and 2010s was filmed Nick has since vacated the premises and it's being renovated for new programming

After a cricket chirping interview where Chevy thought everything he said was hilarious, jovial irish chat show host Terry Wogan had to tell him "Youre a funny man but not tonight."

this was a very kind revisit of this program. Thank you for being so nice.

I was actually excited for this show. I was one of those kids that stayed up to watch Letterman every night so a new late night show with Chevy Chase as a host seemed like a winner.

I haven't forgotten this show. When a comedian has a talk show that only lasts five weeks, that's noteworthy!

Peter Griffin: “Oh God Brian we messed up bad! We messed up really bad!”

I recall Chevy Chase was on another talk show around this time (Letterman maybe, or Arsenio), and mentioned that he asked Johnny Carson for advice, and Johnny told him "Don't do it". I guess he should have listened.

The faux-"Weekend Update" segments were scheduled to start at 11:35, the time when Leno and Letterman's shows were just starting. The hope was that people would be more interested in seeing Chevy do that than watching Leno or Letterman's monologues. Obviously this strategy didn't work.

The Magic Johnson Show was even more awkward

This channel is quickly becoming my fav little gem

I've really been enjoying watching him on Community lately. Good to see older Chevy can still hang.

I actually went to a rehearsal taping of this. The guest was Gabrielle Carteris of 90210. She gave him some gift and he threw it into the fish tank... which probably contributed to the fish dying. He did the landshark bit from SNL and then got up on the roof and fired water balloons at people. The entire show was strange, and he spent a good bit of time bagging on SNL. I never will forget he said -- when Carteris asked him about it -- "I created it; I wrote it; and I starred in it. Then, they fired me." Which I thought was odd, since I don't believe that was true. For example, I know he quit (wasn't fired) to pursue a movie career. The whole thing was surreal, and I think I still have a hat from the Chevy Chase Show somewhere in my attic.

13:31 "Although I think he's burned plenty of bridges in his time..." Now that's an understatement - it would be easier to make a list of the co-workers that Chevy Chase _didn't_ burn bridges with.

He should have played it as an inept talk show host.

Thank you again for showing us this one!! This is excellent.

The best thing about the Chevy Chase show was the Doritos commercial after the show was cancelled.

His interview with Jim varney is one of the most infuriating interviews. Chevy had no idea what was doing but at least Jim was able to keep it interesting with his instrument playing.

It's interesting to compare this to Conan's show which debuted around the same time. Both shows started with some clever filmed bits and both Chevy and Conan were visibly nervous on stage when they did their monologue. However, it was clear that Conan wanted to be there and his first guest segment with John Goodman was a hit. While it was clear that Chevy wanted to be anywhere but where he was at. And watching it live gave me an inkling of what it was like to be in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937, looking up, and watching the Hindenburg blow up.

Chevy's Dad: "Why couldn't you be more like Bill Murry."

I remember watching this show and suffering from some of the most extreme cringe I'd ever endured thus far.

I also remember seeing a huge billboard for this show (“Still Not Ready For Prime Time”) on route 16 in Revere, Massachusetts. For whatever reason that billboard was still up there six months after the show was canceled. Literally a monument to failure. Edit: thanks for all the likes! 😁

"Nothing funnier than a guy falling down" is Chevy Chase's entire comedy oeuvre.

I'm surprised The Chevy Chase show lasted even a month, just seeing those minute clip's was chringeworthy!!!

"The stop-motion is really well done for the time." This implies that stop-motion is better now than it was then, and it isn't.

Chevy Chase is the William Shatner of comedy: Everybody who's ever worked with him hates him.

You forgot the part where in the later episodes he just started literally doing Johnny Carson bits because everyone had given up. Also he's supposed to be an awful, awful person.

Chevy Chase was a really great comedic actor… I’ll just leave it at that.

Oh my god, you'd like to see Chevy Chase in more movies? The true lesson here is that it's okay to retire. Thank you for this recap. Chevy does not connect with people, that's the beauty of his comedy, and I guess what contributed to his talk show collapsing.

Chevy looks like David Byrne in those giant suits. I think Goldie Hawn singing to him was supposed to mirror Bette Midler singing to Johnny Carson on his farewell show. They probably thought of it as a 'passing the torch' moment, but it just didn't land.

His role in Dirty Work is the embodiement of what his best comedy is.

I had just started 3rd Grade when this aired and I Loved it actually! I would stay up past my bed time and sneak out of my bedroom to watch, I Loved this show! Watched it with my Big Bro!

This completely explains that joke in the first Interdimensional Cable episode of Rick and Morty where they freak out when they realize Chevy Chase is doing late night in an alternate universe

My God, his first monologue is like that awkward kid who dreads giving oral presentations in front of the class. Chase is totally sweating bullets under that suit. I've never seen someone so uncomfortable in a long time.

Chevy is super talented guy with some deep insecurities. While he was going from major success to major success in the 70s and 80s he was confident enough to be present and creative. When the misfires began to mount, his insecurities took over and he became inhibited, fearful, unresponsive and trite. It's a sort of borderline personality disorder he contends with.

Just found this channel, love it! It has the same vibe as “Yesterworld”. Also a great channel

Excellent analysis. Nice job.

so much CRINGY

This show wasn’t streets ahead, if you know what I mean.

Considering his reputation for constantly denigrating, alienating and harassing everyone around him, it's hard to imagine someone more likely to fail as the host of a latenight talk show.

Entertaining and spot-on editorial.

I remember his final episode. He just sat there like a boring bump on a log frittering all the time away. Then in the final minute, he gets up, drops his pants, and sticks his bare backside right into the camera. What a class act.

It wasn't a forgotten failure. I remember it very well, the epic failure that it was.

This was so well done... you have a new subscriber...

The Nothing but Trouble reaction clips to the weird parts of his show are probably one of the best things I've seen in a while lmao

When I met Chevy, he was getting high with a group of decades-younger college students. His humor in person--if you call it that--was very dry. He didn't answer any of my (few) questions with anything I could take away. I concluded that what you see in movies is a greatly amplified real-life Chevy. He's extremely fortunate to have had such a great career. He's a very good musician; I heard him sit in on piano with a very good cover band.

That Goldie Hawn segment was terrible. Holy shit. I feel bad for her son.

I had such giant hopes for this show. My brother and I were(are) huge fans and we watched the premiere together. It was one of my earliest memories of what I would call “cringe”. Excruciatingly so.

When I was a kid I loved those Chase's funny movies. If he's on it has to be fun, I used to think. I wasn't aware of this show though.

I'm dying of second hand embarassment

Poor young little Oliver Hudson sitting there like “What a weird birthday.” 😂😂😂

I like this video a lot because I love the advertisements for the show. It reminds me of when I was little. I would see this kind of advertising in the 90s. It makes me feel like I'm sitting on the living room floor watching tv while my mom cooks dinner.