In 1987, sitcom legends Dick Van Dyke and Redd Foxx joined forces for a TV movie titled Ghost of a Chance, a year after Foxx had worked with Van Dyke’s son, Barry, on the short-lived Redd Foxx Show. Van Dyke starred as Bill Nolan, a detective who accidentally shoots Foxx’s character, Ivory Clay, while in pursuit of a suspect. Ivory isn’t destined to rest in peace, however, and is forced into haunting Nolan instead. Ironically, it was the memory of working with Foxx on this movie that would haunt Van Dyke in the long run.
As Van Dyke mentions in his 2011 memoir My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business, things weren’t so great on set from the get-go. Foxx’s way of prepping for a scene was by drinking Grand Marnier and snorting cocaine. Being drunk and high the entire time didn’t do his mood any favors, nor did it help his interactions with his co-workers. He was constantly on edge and prone to outbursts, as the director of the film, Don Taylor, was about to find out the hard way.
Taylor was having a conversation with a Black member of the film crew one day that Foxx happened to overhear. Taylor said something along the lines of “boy oh boy,” and that was all it took to set Foxx off. Apparently, Foxx heard “boy” and interpreted it as a racial slur. Van Dyke, for his part, maintains that Taylor didn’t intend it that way.
Regardless of the intent, Foxx was not happy about it. After glaring at Taylor for a moment, Foxx reached down and pulled out a large knife that he had concealed in his pant leg. He then looked up and told Van Dyke, “I’m going to cut him up.” At that point, Van Dyke had no choice but to act.
He wrapped his arms around Foxx and thankfully was able to restrain him for long enough to convince him that he’d misheard the exchange. Somehow, they were able to finish the movie after the incident, but Van Dyke said that it was the most tense he’d experienced on a set in his entire career. It was also the first time he’d been involved in a physical altercation since he was in kindergarten.
Foxx weirdly had nothing but good things to say about working with Van Dyke afterward. He told Jet magazine in the issue that came out the day before the movie, “I think we have a winner with Ghost. I feel in my heart that it’s good. There’s charisma happening between us, which I expected when I took the part.”
But if Foxx was as upset as Van Dyke said he was over someone using the word “boy,” he couldn’t have been too happy when he saw the way CBS promoted the movie later on; the narrator during the commercial actually said, “If you wanna watch a funny movie about a white man who has to put up with a Black ghost, and a touching story about a boy without a family, watch Ghost of a Chance.” Take a look for yourself below.
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