That movie was in the end directed by John Carpenter who additionally had nothing good to say concerning the undertaking. The movie was a catastrophe by the point it got here out in 1992, and shortly afterward Chase would pivot once more to the undertaking he would in the end do as a substitute of The Santa Clause: The Chevy Chase Present.
Chase’s contentious historical past with late evening truly went again additional than his film profession, with the comic being eyed as a possible successor for Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Present as early as 1975. After the primary episode of Saturday Evening, Dave Tebet reportedly mentioned to different executives, “Chase is the one white gentile comic round right this moment. Suppose what meaning when Johnny leaves.”
And in a profile cowl story in New York journal, Chase publicly toyed with the thought earlier than dismissing it: “I’d by no means be tied down for 5 years interviewing TV personalities.” Maybe that line is why Chase was by no means invited to visitor host The Tonight Present like NBC executives dreamed, or why it will be one other half-decade earlier than Chase was invited once more to be a visitor on Carson’s present.
Circa 1993, nonetheless, issues had been completely different. Chase’s pivot to “dramatic” work had gone up in smoke. In the meantime studios had been nonetheless providing him roles like enjoying… the Santa Claus. So within the wake of Carson lastly retiring for realsies from The Tonight Present, and his throne remaining in query as David Letterman defected to CBS, Chase took a $3 million supply from Fox Broadcasting to change into their very own late evening gamble—after Dolly Parton handed.
Along with signing Chase for $3 million, Fox spent one other $1 million renovating Los Angeles’ Aquarius Theater into the renamed “Chevy Chase Theater.” And on Sept. 7, 1993, The Chevy Chase Present debuted on Fox, per week after Letterman’s new CBS premier and just a little over a 12 months after Jay Leno’s ascent on CBS. The Fox contender was canceled six weeks later.
In an announcement to The New York Instances about his present’s ignoble finish, Chase mentioned he discovered speak exhibits to be a “very constraining format” and that “my hat is off to these guys who do this sort of work. It takes an amazing effort and lengthy hours of dedication.” However in a telling additional pivot, he mentioned he was already wanting ahead to the opposite film he shot in early ’93: Cops & Robbersons, a late jumper on the buddy cop film bandwagon that paired Chase, enjoying a street-wise criminal, with Jack Palance as a “too-old-for-this-shit” cop. It was a flop.
