FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Dear Tom => Topic started by: nec13 on February 27, 2009, 12:03:59 AM
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Tom,
I understand that you are (or were) a fan of Chris Elliott. What is your favorite project or role of his? Mine is "FDR: A One Man Show." Agree? Disagree?
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Action Family
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I'm not Tom, by the way
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That's alright. Anyone who wants to answer the question is welcome to.
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Cabin Boy.
(that period means "end of discussion")
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I was and am and will always be a fan of Chris Elliott.
I love his Letterman work, I love the FDR/Action Family shows, Get A Life is perfect. He has done more good stuff than can be expected from one man.
I salute you, Chris Elliott!
Tom.
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Get A Life is one of the funniest shows ever created. Whoever is keeping it from DVD will be declared an enemy combatant. If Joe Biden has anything to say about it.
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I am reading a book from him called Daddy's Boy which is pretty great. In it, he tells of his life being raised by a celebrity and since he would've been sued otherwise, his dad is allowed to rebut each chapter. It's great so far.
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I In it, he tells of his life being raised by a celebrity
Ah! I never made the connection.
Who knew that Sam Elliott was his father?
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Shroud of the Thwaker is perfectly ridiculous.
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That's next!
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Either 'Dance Flick' or one of the Scary Movies.
Actually: Get a Life... oooooh sooooo goooood!
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From his Letterman days:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Fp82xdtCc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI3FfP6vapk[/youtube]
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Does anyone know WHY Get a Life has never been released on DVD? I have old VHS dubs as .avi files, but they look horrible. Oh, what I'd give for a barebones dvd of this series.
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They did release two "best of" Get A Life dvd's a few years ago. However, they quickly went out of print and are expensive to buy resale. I think there's two reasons why they haven't released the entire series on dvd. One, Fox probably wouldn't sell enough copies to recoup the costs of producing the dvd's. Second, I heard that it would probably cost a lot to buy the music rights for the show. For example, when USA ran Get A Life in syndication they had to remove the show's theme which was "Stand" by R.E.M. because they didn't want to pay for the rights to the song. I don't think there's enough of a market for dvd's of Get A Life, although I wish there were.
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Get a Life! I want it on DVD but at the same time I feel like I would miss the poor quality VHS dubs I have, with all the snippets of commercials for long forgotten early-90's Fox shows.
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Keep the VHS tapes because Get A Life won't be coming out on DVD anytime soon.
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Keep the VHS tapes because Get A Life won't be coming out on DVD anytime soon.
Yep, I know. Been waiting for years.
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that Morton Downey Jr. thing is so funny.
It's weird to think about how influential and hilarious Letterman once was.
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I picked up the first DVD they released when it came out, but didn't bother with the second based on the quality of the first. It just sort of felt thrown together, so I figured I could show a little restraint and wait for the real deal to come out. It's now almost ten years later and I regret not picking up the second one.
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the entire Get A Life series is out there for whoever (whomever?) wants it. Because they're not selling it, you don't even have to feel particularly bad about stealing it.
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Is having him on the show as a guest a possibility?
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That would be awesome. Make it so, Tom!
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Here's something nice that I didn't know existed till yesterday-
http://fora.tv/2007/11/14/Chris_Elliott_in_conversation_with_Dave_Eggers
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this was always one of my favorite sketches from the letterman days.
http://www.youtube.com/v/_QJ7SU7Jfq4&hl
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This is great also.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwUl9HjahRg[/youtube]
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His old Letterman clips are genius. GET A LIFE was also genius. They need to work out the DVD set already. This show is a national treasure.
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It's weird to think about how influential and hilarious Letterman once was.
It's sad that when most people think of Letterman now, they think "Who's he going to be a cranky asshole to tonight?"
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At one point I sent some guy in God Knows Where a check and 3 weeks later I got a 6 hour VHS tape of all (or most, at least) of Chris' Late Night appearances/bits. It was unbelievable, and being the jerk that I am, I have no idea what I did with it. Most of it I had seen already, but there was a few from when Letterman did some shows in Chicago. It was brilliant, and I'll probably never see it again. Damn you organizational skills!
Having said that, the Chris Elliot Jr. shows were among my favorites...and Get a Life of course - I think season 2 took it up a level, which is probably why it was canceled.
Now he's just underexposed.
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Tonight's Chris Elliott interview was the best radio I've heard in a LONG time.
Thank you, Tom.
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Classic Dave - Chris Elliot Jr. show promotion, 11/22/88 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShOIjkohkOw#)
The Chris Elliott, Jr. Show! (1989) - "convenience stores" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw5ogvGoStA#)
Chris Elliot as Marlon Brando (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwUl9HjahRg#)
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That interview/conversation was tremendous. I thought he would be on for 20-30 minutes tops, but on for well over an hour! So awesome.
I love his banana dance.
Chris Elliott - Rocketman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56g2gNdWxxw#)
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There is no one answer to the question of "What is Chris Elliott's best project/bit/role?"
That said, his best bit ever is "Chris Elliott: Television Miracle."
It's amazing.
Chris Elliott: Television Miracle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QJ7SU7Jfq4&feature=youtube_gdata_player#)
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I always thought Morton Downey, Jr. was a David Johansen character.
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I wish I was just a little bit older so I could have watched Late Night in the eighties.
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The original incarnation of Letterman was on as 11am weekdays in New York. It was hilarious. The fact that I was cutting school while watching it made it that much funnier.
I think I remember Elliott doing bits on there. That show was more bit oriented that Late night if i remember right.
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Oh, no doubt about it: The guy under the seats... Runner up: The conspiracy guy...
I seem to remember him pulling this bit on Letterman once where he claimed to be James Clavel. Letterman keopt hyping that the "Shogun" author would be on the the show and then voila, it's Elliott. Am I remembering this correctly? Does anyone else recall this?
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Awesome interview last night. Although it may be beneath him, Chris Elliot would be the perfect replacement for Steve Carrell in The Office.
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Awesome interview last night. Although it may be beneath him, Chris Elliot would be the perfect replacement for Steve Carrell in The Office.
That'd be perfect. I could see his character being kind of a combination of the Michael and Creed characters.
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There is no one answer to the question of "What is Chris Elliott's best project/bit/role?"
That said, his best bit ever is "Chris Elliott: Television Miracle."
It's amazing.
Wow. Haven't seen this in years. Thank you!
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Brando and Morton Downey Jr are my favorite Letterman bits, I watched every frame of Get a Life, I love Cabin Boy, and I even remember Daddy's Boy. Pretty much everything. All of it. I even liked that band Handsome Boy Modeling School because of the name.
I was pretty much a total spaz on the phone last night. My heart was beating like a bunny rabbit when I was waiting on hold.
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I loved his persona and characters on Letterman in the '80s. That core of disdainful hostility he would bring... it just cracked me up and wasn't like a joke you could repeat, if that makes any sense. I need to comb YouTube again for Chris Elliott clips from those days... I think I liked The Guy Under The Seats best but, he was always fun. I also have fond memories of his stint in Mummenschanz and from the Late Night episode (actually it might've been a week?) when people's parents were there and Chris's parents didn't show up, and the false front he put up about how great it was no 'old people' were in his office.
I also remember enjoying the short films he did for whichever Letterman show in the early '90s. Poolside Ecstasy, The Traveling Poet... I know there were more.
And of course I loved Get a Life. I think the 'Cousin Donald' episode was my favorite.
He is just so funny.
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Oh and, I really thought the 'Sky Crime' (I don't know the exact episode name - it was on last week) of Eagleheart was hilarious, and the humor so put me in mind of Get a Life.
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Chris Elliott's "F.D.R: A One-Man Show" (Part 1) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7zaIzalVEY#)
Chris Elliott's "F.D.R: A One-Man Show" (Part 2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiIRa8U-fVU&feature=related#)
Chris Elliott's "F.D.R: A One-Man Show" (Part 3) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8aagGL365w&feature=related#)
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Hadn't thought of Elliot-Letterman dynamic in years, but the show on Tuesday reminded me of how it is similar to Wurster-Scharpling.
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Oh, no doubt about it: The guy under the seats... Runner up: The conspiracy guy...
I seem to remember him pulling this bit on Letterman once where he claimed to be James Clavel. Letterman keopt hyping that the "Shogun" author would be on the the show and then voila, it's Elliott. Am I remembering this correctly? Does anyone else recall this?
I remember that bit - "James Clavell" came out from behind a giant mock-up of Shogun accompanied by some stereotypical Asian music; once he sat down he couldn't give Dave any convincing answers about the book, Japanese history, or anything else and was booted off the show as a fraud.
I don't remember it being Chris Elliott though. I may be wrong Rick - I was pretty young (and also living in Salt Lake!).
I think FDR: A One-Man Show might be my favorite Elliott project for sheer sustained insanity, though I've read Daddy's Boy enough times that I could happily recite it.
Immediately after posting this I went looking to see if Elliott was in that bit and found that he was in the cast of 2007's Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage! There are a couple trailers on IMDB but here's a full breakdown on The Onion:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/commemorative-keepsake-yuletide-case-file-152-thom,36618/ (http://www.avclub.com/articles/commemorative-keepsake-yuletide-case-file-152-thom,36618/)
The first clip features Chris Elliott's character, who's exactly like something from early Letterman. I thought this movie was a joke at first, but I guess it's not. I love how consistent bad wigs are throughout Chris's oeuvre.
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This is some of the best news I've heard all year.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/get-a-life-the-complete-series-is-finally-coming-t,71726/ (http://www.avclub.com/articles/get-a-life-the-complete-series-is-finally-coming-t,71726/)
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This is some of the best news I've heard all year.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/get-a-life-the-complete-series-is-finally-coming-t,71726/ (http://www.avclub.com/articles/get-a-life-the-complete-series-is-finally-coming-t,71726/)
Wow. That is some good news. If it's being produced by Shout Factory, then you know it will be accorded the care and respect that it deserves.
Now if Criterion would be nice enough to release FDR: A One Man Show, that would be even better.
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This is some of the best news I've heard all year.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/get-a-life-the-complete-series-is-finally-coming-t,71726/ (http://www.avclub.com/articles/get-a-life-the-complete-series-is-finally-coming-t,71726/)
(http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/162/317/2vA1a.png?1313349760)
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Can't wait for this - I had those dumb videotapes from a billion years ago, and they have long since disappeared.
I don't think I could watch them anyway because the little button knobby-thing for Play/Rwd/FF/Stop broke off my VCR.