Get a Life

Plot synopsis:
Chris Peterson is a carefree, childlike bachelor who refuses to live the life of an adult. At the age of 30, Chris still lives with his parents and maintains a career delivering the St. Paul Pioneer Press; a job that he has held since his youth. He has no driver's license (instead, riding his bicycle wherever he goes). He is depicted as being childish, naive, gullible, foolish, occasionally irresponsible, and extremely dimwitted. His lack of intelligence is exaggerated to absurd levels: at one point, he tries to leave his parents' house but is unable to operate the front door. He also fell out of an airplane after opening the plane's airlock, believing that the "EXIT" sign was a restroom.
Chris' parents (Fred and Gladys Peterson) are a vapid middle-aged couple who are almost always seen in their pajamas and robes (even when they leave the house). They are often shown doing something abnormal like polishing handguns, or trying to shoot the deer that ate the flowerbulbs out of their garden. Gladys (Elinor Donahue) is a smiling, caring mother who doted over Chris, though often makes cynical, passive-aggressive comments about him and his lifestyle. Fred (Bob Elliott) is a much more blunt, wise-cracking old man, who is constantly exasperated by his son, and seems to have a reckless disregard for Chris' well-being (on one occasion, Chris demonstrated how his father taught him to use a shotgun by placing the barrel in his mouth).
In the early episodes, Chris wanted little more than to spend his days reliving his childhood with his father and his best friend, Larry (Sam Robards). Larry was Chris' friend since childhood, but unlike Chris, Larry has since "grown up", owns a house, works a dead-end job as an accountant, and has two children and a wife, Sharon (Robin Riker). Sharon is an overbearing housewife who does not want her husband associating with Chris, preferring instead that he make friends with more sophisticated socialites that better befits their image. Sharon despises Chris, and Chris takes any opportunity to irritate her. Larry is envious of Chris' carefree lifestyle, and is often coerced by Chris into joining him in his adventures, despite his wife's wishes. To Chris' dismay, Larry eventually heeds his advice and leaves his wife and children at the beginning of the second season. This leaves Sharon traumatized, and she becomes more and more obsessed with killing Chris in revenge.
In a defiant nod to Fox Network demands that his character "be more independent", Chris Peterson was moved out of his parents' house at the beginning of the second season, much to his parents' amazement and joy, and into the garage of ex-cop Gus Borden, played by Brian Doyle-Murray, who had been fired from the police force for urinating on his boss. He is a gruff, demeaning sociopath with minimal tolerance for Chris' antics, which Chris seems to be oblivious to, while looking up to Gus as a sort of paternal figure. For that reason, Gus serves as Chris' comic foil throughout the second season.
One of the more controversial episodes featured a character named Spewey the Alien (a parody of the films Mac and Me and E.T.), an extraterrestrial who secretes mucus from under his scales (which Chris proceeds to drink and call the "nectar of the Gods") and projectile vomits when he becomes emotionally overwrought. At the end of the episode, Peterson and Gus barbecued and ate Spewey, although the creature was resurrected inside their refrigerator.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
If you've seen "Cabin Boy", you'll love Chris Elliott in this show.When "There's Something About Mary" came out, I saw it and was reminded instantly of the sort of outlandish humor both that and "Get a Life" used.My favorite episode is definitely the one where Chris is mutated by nuclear material and becomes a spelling bee wizard before it wears off and he badly misspells the word "pants".If you haven't seen it, check it out..
Nutso, schizo, and totally hilarious, the ultimate Chris Elliot vehicle.
It's been over a decade, and many of us still double-over with laughter just thinking about episodes of this insane sitcom, a Hellzapopin revue for the goofy, mannered talents of Chris Elliot.
There aren't many absolutes in life, but this is one of them:  You'll either love or hate this show (and your feelings will be inextricably tied to how much you like Chris Elliot).
And in a plain vanilla world of network television, that's a good thing!For me, my life is always a whole lot better when I think about "Spewey the Alien," "Zoo Animals on Wheels," and the "Toolbelt Wars."  Those episodes are as fresh today as they were in the day.
The trouble with Chris Elliot, I think, is that he has such a bizarre, almost off-putting sense of humor that a little of him goes a long way.
Chris Elliot is Chris Peterson, a thirty year old newspaper delivery boy who still lives with his parents.This show should be resurrected.
My favorite episode is when Chris orders a submarine via the mail and he builds it in his bathtub.
To look at Chris and Bob Elliott you'd never know that the two were even related.
I really enjoyed Get A Life but it's just too bad that the show was canceled after only 2 seasons.The people who were in Get A Life were funny and witty but there was just something about the chemistry between Bob and Chris that really appealed to me.
A lot of television humor is recycled from past shows, or just the same theme over and over again.
This show, however, was original and showed the world that Chris Elliot is a brilliant comedian.
Does anyone remember that Elliot got his start on "David Letterman" on NBC as the "Conspiracy guy", who would stand up in the audience, interrupt the show, and accuse Letterman of some "cover-up" involving missing files and Connie Chung?
"Get a Life" was very funny and quite original.
I guess my favorite episode was the one where the alien Chris found would ooze out some vile, and disgusting stuff out of his body, and Chris ate it.
I really liked this show and I wish Fox had kept it on longer..
Half the episodes didn't make any kind of point, but it was funny just the same.
The show was basically about a middle aged boy named Chris Peterson who had a paper route and lived with his parents, at least in the 1st season and above all else, HAD NO LIFE!
During the 2nd season Chris moves out of his parents house and into the basement of retired police officer, Gus who was his landlord-friend.
Why FOX didn't keep the series on longer I don't understand because the show had many amusing episodes, corny but funny.
I do miss this show I look back and remembered laughing my self silly watching this show every week.
But, as usual FOX always cancels the good TV Shows..
I think the humor was ahead of it's time.
My favorite episode was when the construction workers were doing some work in Chris' parent's kitchen, and they taught Chris how to yell out catcalls to women as they passed by.
Yeah, you have a very nice skirt on today."  I hope Rhino comes out with more episodes on DVD..
The episodes are like a cartoon; anything can happen and it is not bound by normal rules.
It only has four episodes but they are great no matter how many times I watch them.
My favorite episode is when Chris finds a dead rat in his milk carton and decides to become a food inspector.
One of those things where a bunch of guys sit around eating those long sandwiches?"  Then he laughs like an idiot.
One of my favorite episodes was the satire of the musical "Cats." Chris Elliot's parents were particularly good and if you like Chris's style / humor, you can't help but enjoy the show.
This is one of the funniest series i've ever seen, even though or probably because the stories are so tremendously bizarre (or stupid, for  people who don't see what's so funny about a 30 year old guy who still lives with his parents) If you like the humor of There's Something About Mary, you should see one of the episodes of these series..
Somewhere in the early nineties a Dutch TV station bought a dozen of episodes of Get a Life and it was one of the funniest, if not THE funniest thing I have ever seen.
The funny thing is though, that the good friends I have had, when I mentioned Get a Life, they have freaked out; they say it's one of the best things they ever saw!
Everybody should watch it at least once when given the chance cos it's quite unique and if it IS your kind of thing, you probably will never see anything funnier..
There are only three shows that guaranteed a good laugh any time you watched them: Married with Children, Nightstand, and Get a life.
One episode, Chris got a wheel-barrow full of spoiled shrimp and served it to his friends.
They didn't die, but fell into a trance-like condition which Chris exploited.
At the end of the show he found a label warning him, "do not hypnotize friends if they eat the shrimp." The episode ended ala "Night of the Living Dead." Just one of the many shows.
There was one episode that he built a submarine in his parents bathroom I mean how many children wished they could?
Even with his bitingly sarcastic father constantly trying to slap him in the face with reality, Chris's character maintains his hilarious naiveté, to such an extent that he often convinces the world to join him in it and bend to his will.Anyone who remembers their childhood and what it was like dreaming mail-order dreams that fail when the postman finally arrives cannot help but admire and envy Chris's tenacity in holding onto those dreams forever.
Even now, more than a decade later, just the thought of Chris the infantile adult ordering a submarine kit through the mail then building and using it in his bathtub/shower has me laughing to the point of tears..
I wish they would release this whole series on dvd.
My favorite episodes were the father/son american gladiators, the toolbelt wars, and handsome boy modeling school..
Others remember the show as extremely funny and original.
I choose the latter.Chris Elliott, Adam Resnick and Dave Mirkin created perhaps single most disturbing sitcom to ever grace the FOX Fall lineup.
They had the greatest show in the history of mankind, "Married...with Children," and several other favorites such as "The Ben Stiller Show," "Drexell's Class," "Herman's Head," "In Living Color," "Martin," "Roc" and "The Simpsons" when it was still laugh out loud hilarious, or decent for that matter.
In my mind, with the exception of "Married," "Get a Life" was their best show, and as you can tell, it had quite a bit of competition with the previously mentioned sitcoms and dramas such as "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Melrose Place" and the network's eventual saving grace, "The X-Files."Look for "Get a Life" on DVD.
Rhino has not released individual seasons (both seasons) of the series, but you can find best of volumes everywhere from Media Play to Circuit City."Get a Life" was righteously excellent.***1/2 out of ****..
The adventures of a 30-year-old paperboy getting into wacky and stupid situations is sometimes odd, sometimes weird, and nearly all the time funnier than hell.
And the man behind it, David Merkin, also deserves a lot of the credit (you can see where this show and it's short-lived successor, 'The Edge,' meet on the comedy axis).
I haven't seen this show in over 8 years but I can still remember the episode where all the paperboys were fired.
It was so funny,and every week our hero a 30 year old paperboy found some way to get himself killed(South Park rippped it off) Chris would die of eating poison fish, or one of the others would rip off his head, and kick it around like a soccer ball.
I used to laugh until i was on the floor every week, and i hated Fox for canceling this show.
I had the opportunity to work on the TV series "Get A Life" over at Sunset-Gower Studios as a Production Assistant to the Cinematographer in the first season.
Chris is a great person to work with and his Dad is very funny and the nicest guy you could meet!
If you've seen the show you probably remember that Sam Robards's played Chris's best friend on the show.
I remember he was living in Colorado at the time and would fly in every week for filming.
Sam, like everyone else (cast and crew), was also a bright, funny guy.
FOX television,while a fairly savvy network through much of its run since 1990,seemed to be un-in-love with this show from about the first three or four episodes on and it could be seen as a minor miracle that they even bothered to retain it for a second year!
Needless to say,the ratings would drop and it gave FOX all the excuse it needed to officially dump the show at last.Chris Elliott's charm(or lack thereof)and grotesque goofiness was honed on David Letterman's NBC show through the 1980s,and is plugged into this wildly drawn premise of an overgrown paperboy.
Great supporting turns by(among others)Bob Elliott(Chris' dad and accomplished comedian in his own right),Elinor Donahue,Robin Riker and Brian Doyle-Murray made this show fitfully funny and completely lacking sentimentality or schmaltz.I hope this show makes it to DVD(preferably sooner than later),assuming it hasn't already.
I only taped 2 episodes, which I have dubbed to DVD, and watched a million time....
I only taped 2 episodes, which I have dubbed to DVD, and watched a million time....
A 30-year-old paperboy who still lived at home and never quite grew up, acting like a child, was the main focus of the show and well-played by Chris Elliott.
The episodes themselves were unpredictable and often times bizarre.
Chris Elliot is an underrated genius!!!.
Chris Elliot is an underrated genius!!!He's at his finest as the paperboy Chris Peterson in this hilarious "sitcom".
Probably the best slapstick tv show of its time.
Too bad it had to go away.Also notable is the presence of his real life father, Bob Elliot, who's also extremely funny as Fred Peterson, Chris' sarcastic father.
It was like a live action cartoon and way funnier than that crap Family Guy!
Chris Elliot and Brian Doyle Murray made one helluva comedy duo.My favorite episode was when Chris discovered the alien in his yard and they ended up eating it!
Whenever I bring up Get a Life, that's always the first episode discussed.Another favorite was the episode where Chris makes his own time travel drink to stop Gus from urinating on his boss!I wish someone would release the whole series on DVD instead of making everyone have to deal with the internet extortionists wanting an arm and a leg for two out of print volumes..
He, along with the fact the writers ran out of good ideas, after season one, ruined the series.
I do not know why Elliot, and the other writers, retooled the series after its first year.
I hope Elliot has another series in him..
I remember at the time arguing with my dad about what was funnier this show or Cosby and I liked both shows but this was more my or a younger sense of humour but my dad could not understand me liking this show at all.
It was so different and Chris Elliott was great as the useless loser 40 year old who still had a paper route and lived with his parents, who were always sitting around in their housecoats and didn't even like him.
No way to really describe the show other than that, you have to see it and love it or hate it you have to admit it is a great show as far as being different from anything else on TV at the time.
It had an early "greatest hits" type release about a decade ago, but then finally got a complete series release with a good amount of extras in 2012.
I wouldn't exactly say it's a great series, mostly because it takes a season and a half to work out some kinks and then it got canceled shortly thereafter.
Chris Elliott stars as a 30 year-old paperboy who lives with his parents.
The show really picks up when Chris moves from his parents' house to the garage of a retired cop (Brian Doyle-Murray).
Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray's brother, is hysterical and, for a long time, was my favorite of the Murray brothers because of this series.
"GET A LIFE," in my opinion, is an absolute FOX classic!
I don't think I've seen every episode, but I still enjoyed it.
It's hard to say which episode was my favorite.
Despite the fact that it was a short-lived series, it would have been nice if all the main characters had stayed with the show throughout its entire run.
Like most innovative and smart TV comedies it died way, way ahead of its time, as well.
There are two Rhino DVDs with 4 episodes each on them, but that isn't enough!
To think that there are episodes of this amazing show sitting on a shelf somewhere, not being laughed at by the public is a damn shame.
I remember this show being a cult classic when it was on, and I was only ten years old!
Chris Elliot is a comic genius and this show is his masterpiece.
After all, I loved this show and watched every episode when it first aired.
I also think that MANY people have a hard time suspending disbelief and just didn't know what to think about these rather surreal episodes.
I loved ZOO ANIMALS ON WHEELS, Chris going in search of his REAL Amish parents or the automated newspaper delivery machine that nearly put this 30 year-old newspaper boy out of business!
What a show--too bad it was canceled and too bad only selected episodes are available on DVD.UPDATE: The show has finally been released on DVD.
You will most likely notice that season one was MUCH better.
Chris Elliot is god..
i've only seen a few episodes but i can tell this is one of the greatest things ever to come out of the 1990s.
it's about a 30 year old paperboy and his extremely insane adventures.
i love the episode where they are both stuck in the roller coaster.
Get A Life is one of the funniest shows ever.That's why it got cancelled.The average person would rather watch a bunch of fools learning important life lessons.That's their idea of comedy.Not only was this show extremely funny, they made very weird story choices that always worked.The show starts off being about a 30 year old paperboy, his parents and his best friend.In early episodes they try to give Chris other paperboy friends but they quickly disappear.Almost every episode contains a ridiculous musical montage and it never gets old.At one point in the first season they start having Chris die in most episodes and every time it's funny.For the second season,Chris moved into the garage of Bill Murray's brother and his parents only make a couple appearances after that.But the weirdest change they made is when Chris' best friend leaves his wife and she becomes the co-star of the series, even though her and Chris hate each other and she was barely in the first season.And it worked!This is by far one of the best TV shows ever.If you read this go find everything by Chris, Eagleheart, Cabin Boy, old Letterman clips, whatever you can find.You won't regret it..
A truly original, fresh, and creative television series starring Chris Elliot.
This is one of the genuinely funny and touching shows ever produced and at times is absolutely brilliant.
Chris Elliot is admittedly an acquired taste but here he's superb even when he's at his most irritating.
Chris's real life father Bob Elliot is amazing in the program and his dry delivery of lines stunningly hilarious.
Sadly, this series was short lived and wasn't given the chance it deserved.
However, it remains a bright spot in the early days of Fox and a high point in television comedy history..
It's about a bald old man in his 30's-40's who lives in his parents house still, played by Chris Elliot who was famous from his days on David Letterman.He is still a paper boy and everyone teases and makes fun of him, but he thinks he is awesome.
He gets into all kinds of weird situations like he makes his only friend from next door skip work and go to a theme park then they get stuck on the roller coaster upside down and put on the TV news.Watch it it's very funny!.
Get a Life on DVD/ Blu-ray Now!.
There is only one TV series that I truly wish to own on DVD and it's Chris Elliott's Get a Life!
Unfortunately, Get a Life is the only series out of seemingly thousands that is not available in its entirety on DVD.
In several interviews, Elliott has blamed the "suits at Sony" for not releasing a Get a Life complete DVD set.