Our hero, the “contrarian librarian,” Clemens Samuel, is prone to take an offbeat position. In this case, he has a soft spot for the critically-savaged The Chevy Chase Show, which lasted on Fox for the shortest duration of a major talk show, a mere 29 episodes (September 7 – October 15, 1993). One could argue that this was just a blink of an eye and that Chase needed to have had robust network support and far more time. It’s not like Chase hadn’t proven himself on numerous fronts, including many guest host appearances on The Tonight Show. Looking back on it (and you can literally look back on every episode on YouTube!) the show was definitely guided by some highly irreverent vision. And that, my friends, is the Chevy Chase style of comedy: cavalier and devil-may-care. With enough time, who knows if the general thinking, both in creating and experiencing the show, would have evolved. That said, apparently there are a good number of outright haters of the show, if you believe every kooky peanut gallery comment you read. Rabid hatred is not exactly reliable. The appreciation of humor, like art, is very subjective. Ultimately, the professional media consensus is that this show gave every indication that it was going to continue to be something of a loose cannon and would likely never lift off in any conventional sense, establish a stable brand and make a lot of money. So many factors go into a winning show. Who would have thought Dean Martin would have gotten away with his shtick and yet he did. He probably negotiated a much better contract too. Of course, Chevy Chase is not losing any sleep over this and rightfully so! Chase took a big risk doing his show the way he did and that’s about it.
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