Chevy Chase, Magic Johnson and their late-night horror shows

nypost.com:

The Chevy Chase Show” premiered Sept. 7, 1993, on Fox — a week after “The Late Show With David Letterman” dropped on CBS — and was canned six weeks (and 29 episodes) into its run.Chase, whose movie career was on the skids after a string of flops (“Nothing But Trouble,” “Memoirs of Invisible Man”) was not Fox’s first choice to host its first foray into late-night following “The Joan Rivers Show” — which lasted seven months from October 1986 to May 1997 — and “The Wilton-North Report,” a hybrid sketch-comedy/talk show that aired for four weeks.Fox wanted Dolly Parton as its late-night star but her manager, who also represented Chase, recommended him.

Chase, who was 18 years past his initial “Saturday Night Live” fame, was reportedly paid $3 million, and Fox spent another $1 million renovating the Aquarius Theater in LA — renaming it The Chevy Chase Theater.

Goldie Hawn was the first guest on “The Chevy Chase Show,” which opened to scathing reviews — “Don’t watch. Don’t listen. Don’t even think about it,” one critic wrote — and it was all downhill from there.

Chase appeared to be unprepared, never got into the rhythm of late-night television — despite guest-hosting “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”— was not a good interviewer, and was steamrolled by Letterman’s “The Late Show” and Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” on NBC.