Talk show forgiveness
Yesterday during the Superbowl, Oprah helped Dave and Jay reach a detente of sorts, leaving all of us to hope that the long national nightmare of warring talk shows and network ineptitude is finally behind us. I was beginning to worry someone was going to send Jimmy Carter in to alienate everyone further.
I’d like to offer another sort of late-night bridge building. Seventeen years later, I think it’s time we finally forgave and forgot “The Chevy Chase Show.”
I was among those who tuned in on that first night in 1993 and couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing: a talented comic actor who was used to working live, bombing utterly before a national audience. At the time I thought he was arrogant and over-reaching, and I’m not proud to admit that I enjoyed his flameout as much as everyone else seemed to. But recently I saw Chase on “This Emotional Life,” and was struck by his honesty and his hard-worn grace. At one point he said — and I’m paraphrasing — “Do I have a lot of friends? Oh, sure, I’ve got a lot of friends.” And he mimed counting on his fingers and concluded: “Three. I’ve got three friends.” That was brave, especially in Hollywood. So was talking about his extended depression — and how the debacle of “The Chevy Chase Show” sent him into a years-long tailspin.
Now I look at the debut of that ill-fated show a little differently. I still don’t think Chevy should have been there. He’s not well-suited to hosting a talk show, but I now wonder: Who could have known that in advance? He’s obviously nervous and, worse, he seems tonally wrong: soft-spoken and earnest, when high-energy and sarcastic were the order of the day. His timing is also off — a little slow, and too extended. Again, surprising, given how good his timing had been earlier on “Saturday Night Live” (although — that had been 17 years earlier). This opening shows only a hint of how bad it would get — I remember tuning in a few nights later and seeing Chevy nervously sweating and casting about for something to say. Take a look for yourself at the clip below and let me know what you think.
But also, think about this: Isn’t it time to let this go? Time heals all wounds — except when your wound is on YouTube. Search “Chevy Chase” on YouTube and you get “spectacularly bad talk show” as a result. How did I come across it myself? Because I Googled the term “bad talk show” — and guess what came up. Conan O’Brien will be back (as will Jay Leno), and even Marion Barry got re-elected after the drug bust(s), and lately I’ve seen Eliot Spitzer as an “expert commentator.” Perhaps we can forgive and forget the worst celebrity talk show in network history.