The show starred Elliott as a 30-year-old paperboy named Chris Peterson. Peterson lived in an apartment above his parents' garage (Elliott's parents are played by his real-life father, comedian Bob Elliott, and actress Elinor Donahue).
The show was a creation of Elliott, Adam Resnick (like Elliott, a writer for Late Night with David Letterman who would also go on to write the future cult classics Cabin Boy and Death To Smoochy), and writer/director David Mirkin (former executive producer/showrunner for Newhart and later for The Simpsons). Notable writers of the series included Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter of Being John Malkovich, and Bob Odenkirk, co-creator of Mr. Show and star of Better Call Saul.
The show was unconventional for a prime time sitcom, and many times the storylines of the episodes were surreal. For example, Elliott's character actually dies in twelve episodes. The causes of death included being crushed by a giant boulder, old age, tonsillitis, stab wounds, gunshot wounds, falling from an airplane, strangulation, getting run over by cars, choking on cereal, and simply exploding. For this reason, it was a struggle for Elliott and Mirkin to get the show on the air. Many of the executives at the Fox Network hated the show and thought it was too disturbing and found Elliott's character to be too unlikeable and insane.
The whole run is out on DVD but all the episodes are on YouTube. Here are the essentials from its two-season run:
TERROR ON THE HELL LOOP 2000 (S01E01): In the pilot, Chris Peterson was a fully functioning, wisecracking adult who is beating the system. However, as the series went on, he became a darker, more psychotic, character. According to Mirkin, the main character was made more likeable in the pilot to get the network to agree to order the series, and once the series was ordered, the producers took the character in the darker direction that was always intended. In other words, this is the closest thing to a normal episode the show did, and even then its leads spend half of it upside down.
THE PRETTIEST WEEK OF MY LIFE (S1E02): aka the episode that took on a bizarre afterlife as the inspiration for the early 2000's music duo Handsome Boy Modelling School. In this episode, Chris decides to become a male model, changes his name to Sparkles, and gets his first taste of the filthy side of the business.
BORED STRAIGHT (S1E09): While delivering papers in the bad side of town, Chris meets a group of young hoodlums and he decides to "take back the streets" by helping the kids.
ZOO ANIMALS ON WHEELS (S1E10): Chris auditions for and gets the lead part in a local community theatre production of Andrew Todd Keller's musical "Zoo Animals on Wheels", a parody of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals "Cats" and "Starlight Express". If you don't shed a tear during the giraffe's first song, well... I couldn't blame you.
THE BIG CITY (S1E19): During a visit to "The Big City" (somehow set in the 1930s or 1950s and played out in front of vintage ear-projected vintage film footage) that resembles New York City, Chris believes his wallet was stolen after he was slipped a "mickey". Chris soon becomes a celebrity known affectionately in the City as "Walletboy". Without giving away the ending, I think the writers of Futurama may have ripped it off.
NEPTUNE 2000 (S1E20): A bottle episode set inside of a submarine, which is inside of a shower stall in Elliott's parents' garage. Chris is trapped inside the sub (ordered from the back of a comic book) with his father and their oxygen is running out. The way the real life father and son play off of each other is truly something to watch. The elder Elliott was quite the deadpan.
CHRIS MOVES OUT (S2E01): In a defiant nod to Fox Network demands that his character "be more independent", Chris Peterson was moved out of his parents' house at the beginning of the second season, much to his parents' amazement and joy, and into the garage of ex-cop Gus Borden, played by Brian Doyle-Murray, who had been fired from the police force for urinating on his boss. Gus is a cranky, demeaning sociopath with minimal tolerance for Chris' antics, to which Chris seems oblivious, while looking up to Gus as a sort of paternal figure. Gus serves as Chris' comic foil throughout the second season.
GIRLFRIEND 2000 (S2E08): At this point in the show's run, Get A Life had become Frank Reynolds -- they didn't know how much longer they had, so they were gonna get weird with it. This one begins with Chris being run over by a car and ends with him getting stabbed to death.
CHRIS' BRAIN STARTS WORKING (S2E09): This one was written by Simpsons staffer Steve Pepoon, and I think if he'd written this as a Simpsons episode, switching out Chris and Gus for Bart and Homer, it would be a well-remembered and oft-quoted one. The plot is simple: Chris is exposed to a massive amount of nuclear waste, and is now a genius. So he decides to win every spelling bee he can. Look for future X-Files actor Mitch Pileggi in a cameo.
BAD FISH (S2E10): Bob Odenkirk wrote this one and it's all kinds of crazy. After eating bad shellfish, Sharon and Gus get amnesia, and Chris seizes the opportunity to convince them that they are his best friends. The first time I saw the end of this episode I laughed myself sick.
SPEWEY AND ME (S2E11): One of the shows most controversial episodes. Fox did not want the episode "Spewey and Me" to be aired. However, Peter Chernin, who was in charge of Fox, proclaimed the episode to be one of the series' funniest and ensured that it would be broadcast. This E.T. parody is pretty weird, even by today's standards.
1977 2000 (S2E12): aka the episode written by Charlie Kaufman. Chris travels in time to stop Gus from doing something dumb, only to find out messing with the past can cause ripple effects in the future.
CLIP SHOW (S2E13): In the final episode, Chris falls out of an airplane and reminisces on the past two seasons of antics as he falls to his death.
Had the show continued beyond its second season, Elliot, Mirkin and Resnick would have depicted Chris becoming a hobo, which would drop Fred, Gladys, Gus, and the others characters from the storyline. As Mirkin explained, he wanted to do a series that changed every year and did something different each season; "Chris would have moved out of Gus' garage and become a homeless drifter. And he would have traveled the country, in every place touching someone else's life and making it a little bit worse"
