Shout! Factory has become the go-to place to find underwatched but beloved cult series on DVD. Over the past decade Shout! has put out DVD releases for shows that were otherwise long-shots to get one, such as Andy Barker, P.I., Dark Skies, The Middle Man, and Max Headroom. It's a godsend for devoted TV fans whose viewing tastes rarely align with those of the masses. Now Shout! is working their magic again by releasing a show you've either never heard of, or have been quoting to your friends for the past twenty years: Chris Elliott's Get a Life.
Get a Life aired in relative obscurity on the young Fox network from 1990 – 1992. Elliott played a thirty-something man-boy who worked as a paperboy, lived above his parents' garage, and frequently died at the end of the episodes. Yes, he was sort of a live-action Kenny years before South Park came along. The show's surreality didn't stop with Chris' frequent onscreen deaths. Over the course of the series, he got stuck at the top a of roller-coaster loop, attempted to set a world record by having things piled on top of him, and befriended a vomiting space alien named SPEWEY (it stands for "Special Person Entering the World…Egg Yolks."). The show also boasted the involvement of several writers who were destined for success, including Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk and Being John Malkovich's Charlie Kaufman.
According to The Onion's A.V. Club, Elliott says the Get a Life DVD release is in the works, although there's no official release date hammered out yet:
Get a Life is going to be coming out as a complete series on Shout Factory. I’m not entirely sure when—I think probably in the fall?—but, yes, it will be actually coming out…finally! At the end of April, we’re going to be doing the special features. Commentaries and that sort of stuff.
Get a Life was a show way ahead of its time. Now that it's finally getting the DVD release some of us have waited two decades for, expect it to earn quite a few new fans.
