Customer Reviews

Get a Life - Vol. 1

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

_Get a Life_ might just be my favorite show ever, but I'm not going to shell out for these discs with a mere 4 episodes.

Issue a complete set, and I'll advance order it the second I hear about it.

And while you're at it, include a commentary track for each episode by Chris Peterson and Gus Borden. Thanks.

It's safe to say that without Chris Elliott's GET A LIFE, we probably would never have seen the success of the Farrelly Brothers or ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. GET A LIFE set new frontiers in TV comedy by taking the standard sitcom format and turning it on its head.

The premise was simple: a 30-year-old paperboy still lived at home with his rather less-than-concerned parents (played by Elinor Donahue and Chris' real-life father, Bob Elliott) who tolerated him as best they could while he got into one mess after another.

But this was no LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. Whereas most sitcoms would take such a premise and turn it into a formulaic, feel-good giggle-fest, GET A LIFE dared to make its lead character into a bizarre man-child who could never see how truly ridiculous his inane behavior was to others. He lived in his own self-contained world where he was the coolest and hippest guy on the planet. What saved the character from being either a creep or the butt of everyone's joke was his underlying naivete and childlike innocence, which, in the end, was often enough to help him (barely) triumph over the evil forces in his neighborhood.

Embodied perfectly by Chris Elliott, the indestructible "Chris Peterson" was a brilliant sitcom creation who managed to last two seasons on Fox. But that was only half the story. The other great thing about GET A LIFE was how the series took standard-issue sitcom plots and twisted them into deranged new forms. This was like the TWIN PEAKS of sitcoms in the way it constantly challenged the boundaries of both good taste and common sense in order to get a reaction from its stunned audience. The humor ran the gamut from low-brow to madcap to surreal. In the 2nd Season, almost every episode ended with Chris getting killed.

The GET A LIFE VOL. 1 DVD collects four great episodes from the first season, including the hysterical "The Prettiest Week of My Life," in which Chris trains to be a runway model. One of the funniest bits is a takeoff on the infamous Irene Cara scene from FAME.

It's a shame that Rhino never got around to releasing the entire series on DVD, but at least the 8 episodes available on VOL. 1 and 2 are enough to give viewers a sizable appreciation of this short-lived but memorably off-beat sitcom.

There is nothing funnier than Chris Elliott on this DVD but a mere 4 episodes is a joke. Please provide more and you're likely to get more buyers.

Chris Elliott is a real loser -- a paperboy who lives in his parents' garage and .... well, isn't that enough? Each week for almost a month he'd get himself into some silly predicament because his vision of the world was so weirdly skewed. Like scratching $60 together so he can enroll in the Pretty Boy Modelling School, or falling in love with the woman who runs over him, or finding the most disgusting alien ever to set foot in our atmosphere. The supporting cast is great, and the scripts are quite funny.

There is absolutely nothing extra here except one longish uncut scene. You may also view the episodes with the original audio or without a laugh track.

It's great to see this very funny though short-lived sitcom available on dvd.

This DVD offers a rare opportunity to some of us; the diehard fans of this sitcom, which appeared on Fox Network in late 1980s and 1990s. This is one of the few funniest TV comedies ever created that did not succeed in TV ratings because it was not aired on a major network. This show is about a 30 year old paperboy who never grows up in every sense of the word. He lives with his retired parents and run into all kinds of zany, sometime off-beat antics that provides entertainment to young and old. It was quite disappointing to many of us that it did not reappear in reruns, but this DVD offers a rare opportunity to view four episodes. The Prettiest Week of my Life is hilarious. Spewey & Me is a grotesque episode that producers could have spared the fans from seeing it; you feel like puking to see Chris drink body-exudates of an alien, and at the end he cuts it open and eat the cooked meat. This is gruesome to say the least for a sitcom. The producers could have sold better and funnier episodes of the show; let us hope the success of this DVD may persuade producers to of the show to market all episodes, and a DVD with 12 episodes are made available to all the fans.

I've waited along time to see Get A Life reruns and finally it's here. Chris Elliot was way ahead of his time. I feel if this show was out now it would be one of the highest rated shows on T.V. This DvD doesn't have much in extras but who needs them when you have 4 great episodes. I wish there was more. I want all 35 hopefully Rhino will release more.

I didn't remember many of the details about "Get A Life" when it was on TV - just that Chris Elliott was a major looser as a 30-year-old paper boy living in a garage. And that it was one of the funniest shows I'd seen in a long time. So, I ordered the DVD, hoping to recapture the guilty enjoyment of a twisted comedy that I remembered.

All I can say is: Girlfriend 2000. Oh... My... God! THAT'S what was so funny about the show! The episode opens with Chris on his bike, getting plowed down by an SUV. He ends up falling in love with the driver after she re-sets his mangled legs and repairs his totaled bike on the spot, and sets out on a stalking spree. Animotion's "Obsession" playing while he follows her around is pure brilliance. This is the forth episode, and it's about here where Elliot really finds his character.

The other three are very good as well, especially "Spewy and Me" which features a projectile-vomiting alien. All through the show he's throwing up, and it just gets funnier and funnier! Please Rhino, PLEASE may we have another?

You know...I was 13 or 14 when Get a Life was on air! I freakin loved this show!!! Soooo damn funny! But WTF! 40 bucks for 4 episodes? I totally agree that they need to make a full season disk for maybe $30, just like all the other damn sitcom season disks out there. Rhino does this alot. They do the same thing with MST 3000. You have to shell out like $70 to get 2 episodes that they dont include on their Volume disks. What a Rip off!

I was thrilled to see that "Get A Life" was available on video. It was without a doubt the funniest television series I've ever seen. The 2 episodes on Volume 1 are classics. I feel they are a good representation of what the show had to offer. The scene when Chris poses "shirtless" in "The Prettiest Week of My Life" and the scene when Chris tries to counsel the teens in "Bored Straight" are hilarious! People who watch this series and come away saying it's stupid amuse me. You either get it, or you don't. I look forward to more volumes being released. My favorite episode was "Zoo Animals on Wheels."

Get A Life was literally so far ahead of it's time it only lasted 3 seasons, and part of me is AMAZED that it lasted that long. Vol 1 only encompasses 4 of the 36 original Get A Life episodes, and though the 4 it does have are damned funny, they're not worth $10 a peice to own.

It seems like everyone I know remembers the misadventures of the 30+ year old Paperboy with the title track of "Stand" by REM. And almost all of them kind of wonder "what the hell happened to that show?" OR they wonder "what the hell was that show all about?".

Basically, the show was the father figure to such weird, off based shows such as Malcolm In The Middle or Arrested Development, because it uses a very dark, twisted "what the hell?" kind of humor that is only believeable in television, but all together hilarious. If you think Arrested Development was "ahead of it's time" (critics claimed this regularly) then that would be Get A Life would be the equivilent to a Caveman holding a quarter pounder, a flashlight, and a glock with a laser sight.

This show was great and needs to be re-issued on DVD (preferrably in 12 episode, FULL SEASON, DVD's)