In 1990, Chris Elliott took his wacky man-child persona and screwy comic attitude from Late Night with David Letterman to his own sitcom, Get a Life—one of the early attempts by the then-fledgling Fox network to carve out a distinct identity. Elliott plays 30-year-old paperboy Chris Peterson, who lives above the garage at the home of parents Gladys and Fred (Elinor Donahue and Elliott's real-life father, Bob Elliott, of “Bob and Ray” fame, spending his days hatching crackpot schemes and becoming involved in ridiculous adventures, from embarking on a modeling career, to rehabilitating a street gang, to adopting an extraterrestrial and traveling through time—all with disastrous results. The show pushes the conventional sitcom format into silly, surreal, even sometimes dark and disturbed territory. Long before Kenny in South Park, Elliott's character would even periodically die, only to return unscathed in the next episode. Pretty daring for the time, the show doubled down in its abbreviated second season, when it added Bob Odenkirk (HBO's Mr. Show) and Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) to the writing staff. Although not well known to the general public and certainly not for all tastes, it's become a cult favorite for fans of offbeat comedy. Compiling all 35 episodes from the 1990-92 two-season run, extras include audio commentary featuring creator David Mirkin, and featurettes with cast and crew members (although Elliott is absent). Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Get a Life: The Complete Series
Shout! Factory, 6 discs, 840 min., not rated, DVD: $59.98 December 3, 2012
Get a Life: The Complete Series
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