"In the last episode of 'Hail to the Chief', Oliver, the President's husband, went crazy, because Julia, who is the President, is always working, and Julia's a little crazy because Oliver can't make love. But the craziest thing of all is that an officer went crazy, took over a missile base, and threatened to launch a nuclear strike to rid the world of Communism. Julia briefed her advisors about the emergency, and they're all going crazy, because time is running out, plus which, none of them are crazy about each other. Luger, the National Security Advisor, is really crazy, because this crazy crisis is forcing him to break some big dates with women he's crazy about. Oliver has a mistress who's making him crazy. Randy, the President's Secret Service agent who happens to be crazy about men, knows what Oliver is doing and warned him he'd be crazy to continue. Oliver, thinking the world was going to end, went crazy and confessed his affairs to Julia, which made her completely crazy. Crazy? You won't be after this episode of 'Hail to the Chief.'"
— The Previously on… for the second episode. Yes, all that happened in the first episode, and more.
Hail to the Chief was a short-lived 1985 sitcom on ABC, in which Patty Duke played Julia Mansfield, the first woman President of the United States. The show was created by Susan Harris, the creator of Soap, which Hail to the Chief was a Creator-Driven Successor to: a half-hour sitcom with open-ended storylines that parodied soap operas while skirting what were then the edges of acceptability on American broadcast TV.
Other characters include Julia's philandering husband, their three children (two oversexed teens and an eight-year-old), her husband's mistress (who is a Soviet agent), the mistress's boss (the head of the KGB and identical twin of the Soviet premier), her National Security Advisor (who is even more oversexed than the previous), her Token Black Friend Secretary of State, her General Ripper head of the Joint Chiefs, her friend and Only Sane Man Southern Gentleman Senate majority leader, and her Camp Gay Secret Service bodyguard.
The series did reasonably well for its first episode, but ratings dropped like a stone after that, and it ended up cancelled after just seven episodes.
As a sitcom mocking drama tropes, there are a lot of tropes in it, both the drama tropes it's mocking and the comedy tropes it's using to do so.
Confused? You won't be after we list the tropes in Hail to the Chief.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Muffin's involved with at least two guys.
- All Jews Are Cheapskates: Luger tells Julia not to call the Russian premier about Major Brower because, among other things, if she waits until after 5 the rates are lower.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Luger is played by a Jew, and has incredibly Jewish characteristics (see All Jews Are Cheapskates, above), but denies being a 'hymie' during the first episode.
- Arsenal Attire: Phelps has a poison dart gun hidden in his eyeglasses.
- Artistic License – Military:
- It's highly unlikely that Oliver would be allowed to remain on active duty while married to the Commander-in-Chief.
- Randy wouldn't have been able to get a security clearance, as being gay was (until 1995) absolute grounds for denial due to blackmail risk. Anyone guarding the President must have Top Secret clearance and a comprehensive background check due to the likelihood they will overhear classified information.
- The Atoner: Oliver goes to take down Major Brower to atone for cheating on Julia.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Randy, as a Secret Service agent.
- Badass Boast: Randy, after Oliver threatens him.Listen, flyboy, I am the most lethal pansy in the U.S. of A, so watch it.
- Blackmail: Zolotov blackmails Oliver with film of Oliver and Darlene having sex.
- Blatant Lies: Luger's response to Stryker telling him that the girl in the photo is his daughter: "I never saw her before." This after he's waxed rhapsodic about her...flexibility.
- Camp Gay: Downplayed for Randy. He has camp speaking mannerisms and attitudes, but he's also a top Secret Service agent, a Badass in a Nice Suit, and Julia's personal bodyguard.
- Can Only Move the Eyes: Stryker, after he's hit by Phelps's poison dart.
- The Casanova: Luger. While dealing with the Brower crisis, he complains about having to miss a date with someone on Dynasty.
- The Chew Toy: Oliver. He flagrantly cheats on his wife, is casually racist, and gets humiliated repeatedly by his own actions.
- Comedic Sociopathy: All over the place.
- General Stryker talks about nuking the world, because, "What the hell, we're here."
- Secretary of State Hawkes's response to General Stryker being hit by a poison dart that will kill him in three minutes unless he gets the antidote is "Let's go get lunch."
- Comically Missing the Point: General Stryker and Secretary of State Hawkes, discussing nuking the world. Stryker mentions Indians having bad teeth, and when Hawkes protests the idea of killing God's children, Stryker says, "No, you negro guys have great teeth!"
- Dirty Communists:
- Premier Zolotov's response to Brower's demands is to immediately try to backstab Fidel Castro.
- Ivan Zolotov and his agents, trying to damage Julia's credibility by putting her husband in a Honey Trap.
- Dirty Old Woman: Julia's mother. When we first meet her, Oliver accuses her of sleeping with half the House of Representatives...and she doesn't deny it.
- Dumb Blonde: Muffin, when we finally meet her.
- Eagleland: Oliver in particular seems to come from here. When his younger son says he's being bullied by an Arab boy over their mutual interest in an Indian girl, his initial response is to tell Willy to beat up the Arab, then (on finding out about the Indian girl) to drop her and find an American girl.
- Equal-Opportunity Offender: Word-for-word in the ad shown above.
- Establishing Shot: Often showing The White House or Air Force One.
- Every Episode Ending: Every episode (except the last) ends with a recap of what happened in this episode and what questions should be answered in the next one. Played for Laughs: often the questions are trivial ones like "Which star from Dynasty is Luger's date?"
- Exact Time to Failure: The antidote to the CIA director's poison dart has to be given within three minutes exactly.
- Femme Fatale Spy: Oliver's mistress is actually a Russian spy.
- Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: Luger's description of Stryker's daughter is all about her flexibility."Ah, my little acrobat girl, the things she can do. She's made of rubber, she's incredible."
- Four-Star Badass: Oliver, at least historically. The first time we see him, the camera pans over his Air Force dress uniform (brigadier general), a picture of him as a football quarterback, a picture of him in an astronaut's space suit, and then a picture of him and Julia, with smaller photos of their children in front. He later proceeds to single-handledly take down Major Brower.
- Gay Best Friend: Randy plays this part for Julia, being her bodyguard and confidante.
- General Ripper: General Stryker. On hearing about Major Brower's threat to nuke Russia, his response is, "I say push the button. What the hell, we're here."
- Good Ol' Boy: Reverend Bickerstaff and Senator Cotton.
- Gratuitous Russian: The very last line of the show, which doesn't even make sense:Bickerstaff: Tovarisch, y'allnote .
- Hayseed Name: Reverend Billy-Joe Bickerstaff.
- Hero Secret Service: Randy, as a representative of the real Secret Service.
- Honey Trap: Oliver's mistress is actually a Russian spy. Their last meeting is recorded by the KGB to force him to betray Julia.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Both of Julia's teenage children. Doug is sleeping with (among others) Muffin; Lucy is trying to sleep with Raoul (and succeeds).
- Hotline: Julia calls Premier Zolokov on the red phone to tell him about Major Brower. His wife answers, and tells Julia he's asleep. Notably, the phone she uses is on Air Force One.
- Human Mail: Not actually mailed, but Oliver is stashed in a box to sneak him in and out of Zolotov's office.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Randy warns Oliver about this after telling him he knows about Oliver's affair.Randy: If you hurt her...I'll ruin you.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Luger's response to Stryker telling him that the girl in the photo is his daughter: "I never saw her before." This after he's waxed rhapsodic about her...flexibility.
- Instant Sedation: Being shot by the CIA director's poison dart has that effect, causing General Stryker to immediately be immobilized.
- Just a Stupid Accent: There are some very, very bad Russian accents in this show. Madame Zolokov has one of the worst, and uses the same accent when talking to Luger (presumably in English) and her husband (presumably in Russian).
- Left Hanging: All the plot arcs, due to being cancelled after seven episodes. The last scene of the last episode shows Zolotov's newest agent, who he intends to put into the White House: Reverend Billy-Joe Bickerstaff.
- The Mistress: Darlene, Oliver's mistress, secretly a Femme Fatale Spy.
- No Guy Wants an Amazon: Implied to be part of why Oliver is cheating on Julia. He's a Four-Star Badass, but she's the President.
- Not Actually His Child: Luger is accused of being the father of Muffin's child, but it's actually Doug.
- Nuke 'em: Major Brower's plan for dealing with the Dirty Communists.
- Oh, Crap!: Luger, when Stryker tells him the woman in the photo (whom Luger has been praising the flexibility of) is his daughter, and that she's pregnant.
- Only Sane Man: Senator Cotton. When Stryker is hit with the poison dart, he's the only one who suggests actually applying the antidote.
- Our Presidents Are Different: Julia is President Minority. The opening caricatures show all the Presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, and then her; however, she notes that she was Vice President and became President when the President "can't fulfill his term".
- Playing Sick: Willy tries this, but doesn't know what disease to try.Willy: I have an enlarged prostate, Mom.
- Power is Sexy: Subverted for Oliver; he finds making love to the President a daunting task.
- Previously on…: Used for comedic effect, as Soap did before it. A condensed montage of what happened in the previous episode, frequently focusing on one word (such as 'crazy') points out the absurdity of the plot, ending with "Confused? You won't be after this episode of Hail to the Chief."
- The Quarterback: Oliver was the quarterback on a school team, at least according to the photos in his introductory scene.
- Redemption Quest: Oliver goes to stop Major Brower to redeem himself for hurting Julia.
- Saying Too Much: Premier Zolotov, talking to Julia about Castro, mentions giving Castro missiles...which she didn't know about. He immediately backtracks, saying, "I don't know what I'm talking about."
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Randy knows Oliver's cheating on Julia, and tells Oliver to stop it before Julia finds out.
- Sex Comedy: A lot of the humor in the show is about people having sex, or trying to have sex. Oliver has a mistress, both Luger and Doug are having sex with Muffin, Lucy is trying to have sex with Raoul...
- Sinister Minister: Reverend Bickerstaff, willing to work with anyone to take down Julia, up to and including the Dirty Communists.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Part of Oliver's problem; he's an Air Force general and his wife is his Commander-in-Chief.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Major Brower has taken over the Launch Command Center and plans to start World War III. If he were higher-ranked, he'd be a General Ripper.
- Southern Gentleman: Senator Cotton, the Senate Majority Leader and a good friend of Julia's.
- Take That!: In the first episode, Senator Cotton comments that "If you'd been one of those cowboys, it might have been all over already." Given how Ronald Reagan was often portrayed as a cowboy, this seems somewhat targeted.
- Teen Pregnancy: Muffin, with an adult (the National Security Advisor) as a potential (but not the actual) father.
- Tempting Fate: Oliver having one last fling with Darlene, after his wife forgave him.
- Token Minority:
- Secret Service agent Randy is the token gay.
- Secretary of State LaRue Hawkes is the token black.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Randy.Oliver: You know, I could break you in half, you homo.
Randy: (gleefully) Oh, good gracious, could you really? - Twin Threesome Fantasy: Oliver was cheating on Julia with Vietnamese twins at one point.
- Volleying Insults: Luger, on the phone to the Ayatollah to postpone their meetings. He finishes with a calmer, "Call you tomorrow."
- The White House: Frequently shown in Establishing Shots, and the primary location where the show takes place.
