Chairman of the Board (film)
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''Chairman of the Board'' is a 1998 American comedy film directed by
Alex Zamm Alexander Zamm (born in Woodstock, New York) is an American film director and screenwriter. Zamm has directed such films as ''My Date with the President's Daughter'', '' Tooth Fairy 2'', ''The Pooch And The Pauper'', '' Dr. Dolittle: Million Doll ...
, and starring Carrot Top in his only lead role in a feature-length film. In the film, a surfer and inventor named Edison inherits and runs a billionaire's company. It was poorly received by both critics and audiences, and was a
box office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
. Both Carrot Top and
Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer ...
received
Golden Raspberry Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
nominations for their roles in the film.


Plot

Edison ( Carrot Top) is a poor, failed inventor and surf bum who's spent his rent money on another unsuccessful invention. After failing to make money at a variety of jobs, Edison soon runs into a wealthy business magnate Armand McMillan (
Jack Warden Jack Warden (born John Warden Lebzelter Jr.; September 18, 1920July 19, 2006) was an American character actor of film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Shampoo'' (1975) and '' Heaven Can Wait ...
), whose car has broken down on the side of the road. After Edison uses his inventions to assist Armand, the old man becomes impressed with his ingenuity, and the two go surfing together and quickly become friends. When Armand passes away shortly thereafter, he leaves Edison 45% of the shares in his large invention corporation, and leaves Bradford ( Larry Miller), his jealous nephew and only living relative, a surfboard as his only inheritance. Bradford attempts to derail Edison's success by stealing his formula for glow in the dark, which does not exist in the world of the film. Bradford shares it with a consumer who covers himself in it and alleges that Edison's prize invention—a portable TV/
TV dinner A frozen meal (also called TV dinner (Canada and US), prepackaged meal, ready-made meal, ready meal (UK), frozen dinner, and microwave meal) is a packaged frozen meal that comes portioned for an individual. A frozen meal in the United States a ...
combo—leaks radiation. When Edison reveals that radiation causes sickness and death, but not a literal glowing, the company is saved, Bradford is arrested, and Grace Kosik (
Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer ...
) makes a deal with the company to testify against Bradford. In the end, Edison appoints his girlfriend Natalie Stockwell (
Courtney Thorne-Smith Courtney Thorne-Smith (born November 8, 1967) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Alison Parker on ''Melrose Place'', Georgia Thomas on '' Ally McBeal'', Cheryl Mabel in ''According to Jim'' and her recurring role on ...
) to run the company.


Cast

* Carrot Top – Edison *
Courtney Thorne-Smith Courtney Thorne-Smith (born November 8, 1967) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Alison Parker on ''Melrose Place'', Georgia Thomas on '' Ally McBeal'', Cheryl Mabel in ''According to Jim'' and her recurring role on ...
– Natalie Stockwell * Larry Miller – Bradford McMillan *
Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer ...
– Grace Kosik *
Mystro Clark Mystro Clark (born December 29, 1966, in Dayton, Ohio) is an American entertainer who was the second permanent American host of the syndicated version of the series '' Soul Train'' from 1997 until 1999. He went on to become a film and televisio ...
– Ty *
Jack Plotnick Jack Stuart Plotnick (born October 30, 1968) is an American film and television actor, writer, and producer. Career Plotnick is possibly best known for his role as Edmund Kay in the 1998 period drama '' Gods and Monsters'', which won an Ac ...
– Zak *
Jack Warden Jack Warden (born John Warden Lebzelter Jr.; September 18, 1920July 19, 2006) was an American character actor of film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Shampoo'' (1975) and '' Heaven Can Wait ...
– Armand McMillan *
Estelle Harris Estelle Harris (''née'' Nussbaum; April 22, 1928 – April 2, 2022) was an American actress and comedienne, known for her exaggerated shrill, grating voice. She was best known for her role as Estelle Costanza on ''Seinfeld''. Her other roles in ...
– Ms. Krubavitch *
Bill Erwin William Lindsey Erwin (December 2, 1914 – December 29, 2010) was an American film, stage and television actor and cartoonist with over 250 television and film credits. A veteran character actor, he is widely known for his 1993 Emmy Award-nomi ...
– Landers *
M. Emmet Walsh Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television series, including small but important supporting roles in dozens of major studio features of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in ''Bl ...
– Freemont * Jack McGee – Harlan Granger *
Glenn Shadix William Glenn Shadix (April 15, 1952 – September 7, 2010) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for his role as Otho in Tim Burton's horror comedy film ''Beetlejuice'' and as the voice of the Mayor of Halloween Town in ''The Nightmare ...
– Larry *
Fred Stoller Fred Stoller (born March 19, 1958) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and author. He is best known for portraying Gerard on ''Everybody Loves Raymond''. He is also the voice of Stanley in the ''Open Season'' series, Fred the Squirrel in ' ...
– Toby, McMillan Gate Guard *
Taylor Negron Brad Stephen "Taylor" Negron (August 1, 1957 – January 10, 2015) was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Milo in the 1991 buddy cop action comedy film ''The Last Boy Scout''. Early life Negron was born in Glendale, C ...
– Mr Withermeyer * Jack Riley – Condom Boss *
Rance Howard Rance Howard (born Harold Engle Beckenholdt; November 17, 1928 – November 25, 2017) was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He was the father of actor and filmmaker Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard, and grandfather of actr ...
– Rev. Hatley * Mark Kriski – Newscaster *
Cindy Margolis Cynthia Dawn Margolis (born October 1, 1965) is an American glamour spokesmodel and actress. Personal life Margolis was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Karyn O. (née Cleere) and William C. Margolis. According to an intervi ...
– Tennis Instructor * Butterbean – Museum Security Guard *
Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " ...
– Himself


Production

Phillip Goldfine, who served as senior VP of Trimark Pictures, is credited with green lighting the film. The film was shot in
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
whereas Carrot Top himself comes from Florida. On May 15, 1997, Courtney Thorne-Smith made a guest appearance on '' Late Night With Conan O’Brien'' to promote two projects she was involved in: the season finale of ''
Melrose Place ''Melrose Place'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on Fox from July 8, 1992, to May 24, 1999, for seven seasons. The show follows the lives of a group of young adults living in an apartment complex on Melrose Place, in ...
'' and ''Chairman of the Board''. Comedian
Norm Macdonald Norman Gene MacdonaldThe capitalization of Norm Macdonald's surname has been inconsistently reported in publications such as ''TV Guide''. Books that discuss him, such as ''Shales'' (2003) and Crawford' (2000), as well as other sources such as ...
was a fellow guest on that night and, sitting next to Thorne-Smith, he heckled both Carrot Top and the film Thorne-Smith was promoting, incredulous that Thorne-Smith had left ''Melrose Place'' to star in a film with Carrot Top. When O'Brien asked Thorne-Smith the name of the film, Macdonald interjected, "If it's got Carrot Top in it, do you know what a good name for it would be? ''Box Office Poison.''" After Thorne-Smith revealed the ''Chairman of the Board'' title and O'Brien challenged Macdonald to make fun of it, Macdonald quipped, "I bet the 'Board' is spelt B-O-R-E-D!" Macdonald said he apologized to Carrot Top, saying he "felt kind of bad after that" and that he had not considered that Carrot Top might have been watching that night. Following Macdonald's death in 2021, Courtney Thorne-Smith later told '' Vanity Fair'',


Reception

''Chairman of the Board'' received negative reviews. On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it has an approval rating of 13% based on reviews from 8 critics. David Kronke of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' referred to the film as "a standard-issue rags-to-riches plot, enlivened by only by a
tchotchke A tchotchke ( , ) is a small bric-à-brac or miscellaneous item. The word has long been used by Jewish-Americans and in the regional speech of New York City and elsewhere. It is borrowed from Yiddish and is ultimately Slavic in origin. The wor ...
-heavy production design that might engage those entranced by bright, shiny objects", and compared the film to "
Good Burger ''Good Burger'' is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and written by Dan Schneider with Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert. Starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, it is based on the comedy sketch of the same name on the Nick ...
, but with French tickler jokes." Jay Boyar trashed the film in the ''
Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
'', giving the film just one star.
Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013. Career She has been featured on CNN, co-hosted '' Siskel & Ebert at the Mov ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave the film a D−. The film also resulted in Carrot Top being nominated for Worst New Star, and Raquel Welch being nominated for Worst Supporting Actress at the 1998
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
.


Notes


External links

* * * * {{Alex Zamm 1998 films 1990s screwball comedy films American business films American screwball comedy films Films directed by Alex Zamm Films set in Los Angeles American surfing films Trimark Pictures films 1990s business films 1998 directorial debut films 1998 comedy films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films