Chevy Chase's character may be reminiscent of his role in the National Lampoon's Vacation films, because Chase plays the father character in them, as well.
(Also, as Palin testified, the cut left the father character inexplicably soaked at the end of the edited sketch).
The set-up here is another step removed from third person and allows Grass to appear as the unnamed father character rather than the narrator.
He also talks about how he wrote the actions of the father character in a way that interrogates his own anxieties about parenthood.
My father said to me once, "In half of your stories the father character dies and in the other half he is just plain stupid, but in all of them I feel that you love me".
Mr. Clapp (an Emmy winner for "NYPD Blue") asked if the father character would whistle "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," which the actor had begun to do in one scene.
The room had filled, and Reiner leaned in to make himself heard: "As Nick learned that I wasn't evil, the father character changed to become much less of a one-dimensional asshole.
First thing the next day, I made all the girls listen to the new tape, telling them what was and wasn't working from our last session, telling them to play up the Disneyland storyline, that the preacher father character had been cut, so-and-so was now a boyfriend with a motorcycle, etc.
My father said to me once, "In half of your stories the father character dies and in the other half he is just plain stupid, but in all of them I feel that you love me". I think many stories say something that is more complex, ambiguous, and contradictory than just a clear, if coded, message.
Rather than include a mother and father character, the brothers hire a charming schemer type to stand in as their parent after their real dad is imprisoned.
