Action Family

My roommate and I rented this on video about 10 years ago at an indie video store in Minneapolis, MN., and I thought this was a great early nugget showcasing Chris Elliott's "annoying but hilarious" persona... If it surfaces on DVD or cable TV this is worth a spin just for David Letterman's blistering cameo where he ball busts Chris at a stop light. There is also a delicious lampooning of both British TV (it's shot on film for outdoor scenes and video live before a studio audience with a laugh track allowing Elliott to jump between the two mediums) and makes fun of the Partridge Family (the family is also a band). Plus there is a dream sequence where President Abe Lincoln spanks a crying Chris Elliott (Lincoln also shows up again in "FDR, A One Man Show"). Worth ferreting this one out if you're a fan of this brand of humor...

Before assuming I hate Chris Elliott, understand that I did enjoy his surreal and often dopey series "Get a Life" which came out two years after this failed TV pilot. It think it's mostly because although Chris behaved strangely in both shows, "Get a Life" was usually clever and funny. As for "Action Family", it has a few clever elements but makes little of them because I just didn't find it funny or professional looking...and I can only assume the folks who rejected the show felt pretty much the same.

The show is almost like two separate shows. On one hand, Chris plays a private eye and on the others he's a dopey dad with a goofy family...complete with one of the most god-awful laugh tracks I have ever heard. Because of this, it makes the show come off like it THINKS it's really funny and clever....but it just isn't. The plot, if you care, is about a serial killer as well as Chris and the wife trying to make their awful children happy.

The bottom line is that some of the weird surreal ideas did later make their way to "Get a Life"...so perhaps it's good Elliott got to try and fail and learn from it. Overall, horribly unfunny and stupid.