When I saw this poster from 1983 everything fell into place, Chevy Chase is Tarl Cabot.

The timeline fits, ginger hair, masculine and ripped, former-free-women at his feet, there's even a tarn overhead to quench any doubts.
When Tarl/Chevy moves on to make the sequel, those fallen-free-women will become bitchy-slaves on the 80s dial-up Internet running their own IRC channels. And so it began.