Got It

Over the past few weeks I've watched all 35 episodes of the sitcom Get A Life, recently made available on DVD. The show, which aired for one and a half seasons in the early 90s, starred Chris Elliott as Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old paper boy living with his parents.  Chris (the character) is naive, incredibly dense and greets the world with a fatuous laugh, since he thinks it's everyone else who doesn't get it.

The show had some initial interest--both from critics and the TV audience--but ultimately didn't make it.  What's surprising is anyone took a chance on it to begin with. The concept was bizarre and it's not as if Elliott, who at the time was best known for his recurring characters on the David Letterman show, was a big name.  But the fledgling Fox network wanted to be noticed, and was going for edgier material.  So they allowed the show to reflect to comic worldview of Elliott and co-creators Adam Resnick and David Mirkin.  And what a bizarre worldview it is.

From the start Get A Life was an anti-sitcom, not doing what the average TV viewer would expect, and it only got stranger as it went along. It would sometimes feature a classic sitcom trope--Chris and his dad go to a father/son picnic, Chris has to stay overnight in a haunted house, Chris owes someone money so works it off as a houseboy, Chris gets stuck in a meat locker--but the take would be so off that it was more a comment on what other sitcoms do than a plot meant to be taken seriously.  More often the story would explore bizarre territory--a beautiful model falls in love with Chris for no good reason, Chris builds a small submarine and almost drowns in his bathtub, Chris is exposed to toxic waste and becomes a master at spelling bees, Chris goes back in time to stop a friend from peeing on someone. The show also loved musical montages--I'd say more episodes than not have them.  It also loved seeing Chris getting beaten up--that happens almost as much. (It also has an annoying laugh track, though the DVD allows you to remove it for many of the episodes.)



In addition to Chris, the first season featured his parents, played by real-life father Bob Elliott and TV face Elinor Donahue. They're usually sitting around the breakfast table in their bathrobes (even when the go outside they often stay in their bathrobes), barely putting up with Chris and his shenanigans. There's also Larry (Sam Robards), Chris's best friend, a meek, conventional guy, who goes along with Chris's schemes--the pilot has the two playing hooky, getting stuck upside-down on a roller coaster. Then there's Larry's wife, Sharon (Robin Riker)--the strongest presence on the show after Chris--who hates Chris and tries to get him out of her life, sometimes through violent means.

In the shortened second season, Chris moves out of his parent's place and into the garage of a house owned by Gus, a grumpy, retired cop (Brian Doyle-Murray). We see his parents a lot less while Larry (who was probably invented as a sounding board for Chris but otherwise added little) runs away, leaving Sharon around to torment Chris on her own.



In addition to Adam Resnick and David Mirkin, other writers included Bob Odenkirk and Charlie Kaufman.  But it must have been hard to write for the show, since there's no core.  There's the childlike Chris at the center, but there's really nothing to believe in.  Sitcoms aren't just about jokes--they're usually about reasonably consistent characters put in reasonably plausible situations.  However, nothing effects Chris--he even dies at the end of several episodes. But I suppose that's the cost of creating such a strange show.  You can only do it if you're unmoored from reality. And really, that's the show's greatest appeal--a willingness to be as strange as it dared.

I wouldn't call Get A Life a forgotten classic, but it's a lot of fun (though how much you enjoy largely depends on how much you're willing to put up with the Chris Peterson character).  In fact, if it were around today, it'd probably be a long-running cult hit on cable.  But maybe because it helped create a new landscape where such shows are possible.