Chris Elliott's "Action Family" (1986)

"At work, Chris is a hardboiled no-nonsense detective who's investigating a series of brutal murders of jazz musicians. At home, he's a family man straight out of sitcom who has to satisfy every whim of his wife and kids."
Credit to the original source and uploaders. Admittedly not the best copy. Ripped from Daily Motion (parts 1-3) and assembled into one file.

[@MartinThomas59]

I wrote the music to the theme and much of the back ground music. Matt Wickline wrote the lyric to the theme. They wanted a cross between the Brady Bunch and Mannix theme. The credit is one frame at the end.

[@Redhotlugnut]

Very cool. Who played bass on it?

[@MartinThomas59]

@@Redhotlugnut I don't remember. I wrote the part but a great LA session player was referred by the trombone player Gary Tole.

[@Redhotlugnut]

@@MartinThomas59 Is such a unique part to write. My close friend in Canada is a composer now. I've drummed on a handful of tracks that were on reality shows and one I whistled on got onto the Disney Blueray DVD. What other stuff have you done?

[@MartinThomas59]

@@Redhotlugnut thanks and nice work. I haven't done a lot of commercial work since then. A few friends have recorded some of my songs but nothing on a large scale and I have been performing, before lockdown, more than pitching my music/songwriting skills. since lockdown, I've been working on my recording/writing skills on computer.

[@Redhotlugnut]

@@MartinThomas59 Nice. Yeah, lockdown has changed the world. I'm from Vancouver Island Canada but now live in Uganda and luckily things have been close to normal since Jan 1 other than the elections on Jan 14th. So I've had time to do things I had never planned. I actually wrote a song (not done that before, I just performed and a bit of producing) that's a dancehall type of song that's popular here. My cousin in NYC will do a remix he works with the label Mad Decent. So maybe you're gonna write a score for a tv show or something you write will get licensed and you can enjoy the money rolling in!

[@Ambignostic]

My favorite thing is how the "action" segments are shot on film while the "family" scenes are on video. It's a little hard to tell with the compression on this version but it was a smart visual joke on the original broadcast.

[@TokyoXtreme]

Ambignostic Somewhere I’ve seen Action Family within the past ten years that had the proper separation of film and video, but now I have no idea where I’ve seen it. Maybe it was deleted from KZbin, or it was on video. There’s a famous Monty Python sketch that uses the same gag, perhaps it was Chris Elliott’s inspiration for this piece.

[@dantyler6907]

John?

[@ozzielee9058]

Chris Elliott: Comic genius. I didn't know this existed. Thx for the upload.

[@KLAYM0RZ]

I've been stuck in a Chris Elliott rabbit hole lately. Loved it.

[@yaywhewclips242]

Get a life was so brilliant!!

[@bobbycv64]

CHRIS ELLIOTT, CAN DO NO WRONG

[@williamparrish2436]

Special Person Entering The World... Egg Yolks

[@YouTube-tied]

@@williamparrish2436 Spewey! The self-saucing alien!

[@YouTube-tied]

I've been down the Chris Elliot rabbit hole since 1985. Thank God for KZbin because my VHS tapes of Letterman from back then were almost worn out to the point of snapping.

[@MoCWord]

I honestly thought this would suck. I thought Chris Elliot just got some money to make something and he decided to waste it... I was wrong. This is comedy gold. Chris Elliot had a plan and it was to destroy every TV trope ever created and if this had become a series it would have changed television forever. He goes out of his way to set up the universe that his character lives in and then he destroys it just seconds after you finally think you know where things are going. He manages to do this 10 times in 28 minutes and even the ending of the show itself smashes everything you just watched. Let me say, I wasn't a huge Chris Elliot fan before this. I loved his bits on Late Night. I enjoyed Cabin Boy, I thought a few episodes of Get A Life were great but, to me, he could be just as annoying as he was funny... this video turned me into a fan. Wow - just wow Chris. You fucking nailed it sir!

[@MoCWord]

Oh and big props to dorky kid brother Seth Green!

[@casualcausalityy]

I would recommend Eagleheart if you liked this. 15 minute episodes it started as a Walker Texas Ranger parody but quickly expanded to smash more tropes

[@einsteinadonis4544]

Chris Elliott was a genius ahead of his time

[@dantyler6907]

Very funny... A bit of a stretch to call him a genius but, still , a funny guy.

[@TokyoXtreme]

30-40 years, I would say.

[@pyenapple]

…is ?

[@willysmythe7026]

RIP

[@Jizbam]

"Stirrin' fudge in the slammer for ten years really makes you appreciate a real woman."

[@billslocum9819]

I enjoy the subtle tone shifts you hardly notice.

[@williggg]

Several references to the 70s series “The Partridge Family”. The wife’s name is Shirley and the son’s name is Danny, a sassy articulate young redhead guitar player. The final singing scene was how all the Partridge Family episodes ended, with a song performance with everyone wearing matching outfits with ruffled shirts. Classic cheesy 70s TV. Great parody material.

[@MichaelCoffman]

I remember seeing this when it came out (I think it was on Showtime or HBO?). As a kid who watched his fair share of The Partridge Family, when I saw that last scene - and set to a classic PF track! - I nearly died.

[@Richie-Rich855]

Lol...Chris's dad as a hot dog vendor

[@MerkinMuffly]

Chris Elliott should be getting royalties from Beastie Boys for ripping of Action Family.

[@METALFAN4EVS]

This is so Sabotage.

[@jasonreese4573]

Not to mention the Partridge Family

[@chriscoletti4852]

Chris Elliot is an underrated genius who never got the platform he deserved. Perhaps, sadly, his best work was on the old Letterman show...

[@leastlikedcritic7529]

love the way it parodies 70's detective TV dramas, and 70's sitcoms.

[@divingduck1970]

That might just have been the greatest thing I've ever seen. Thank you.

[@moneymentum]

How did I ever miss this gem back then.

[@edwolf6017]

I had an old VHS tape that had this and "FDR: A one man show" :)

[@peaceandlove544]

The great Chris Elliot. Today everyone tries to be funny in a witty, different, wacky way, but only Chris really is, and was and a very few others.

[@johnp4008]

Watching Chris Elliott in these videos is the perfect way to pass time during this coronavirus shut-in time

[@sunnyshonte5367]

thats what im doing too

[@williggg]

Me too

[@altohippiegabber]

a parody of 70s tv-sitcoms and cop-shows combined into one, done brilliantly by the always funny Chris Elliott; this was a great find, thanks for uploading!

[@itsnerdography9122]

The definition of an underrated comedian

[@namj8145]

Seth Green plays his kid!! Plus so many great lines. "You know, stirring fudge in the slammer for 10 years really makes you appreciate real chicks!"

[@JoeEnglandShow]

Bizarre... I would swear this was something thrown together by Adult Swim... I mean, people talk about stuff that's "ahead of its time," but this honestly seems to mimic the modern day brand of hyper-ironic, self-aware retro humor that wasn't popularized until decades after the time period it mocked.

[@Polyfusia]

Have you seen Comedy Bang Bang the TV show? Scott Aukerman seems to be channeling Chris Elliot, down to the little laughs after saying things. WAY underrated as a comedian. Chris should be bigger than he is.

[@GhoulOfficial]

Check out Kurtzman era MAD magazine. This stuff goes pretty far back.

[@gauloise6442]

Elliot got his start on Letterman, and the very old Letterman shows were the true pioneer of this type of ironic pop culture humor. If you like this, try watching early 80s Letterman skits on youtube, he was so edgy and subversive.

[@colonialstraits1069]

Pink Puffin Due in no small part to Chris Elliott, who was a writer for Letterman.

[@colonialstraits1069]

Joe England Chris Elliott is a genius.

[@billkarmetsky4003]

I must say the closing segment, the Partridge Family type segment, this was a GREAT production! The musicians must have been LA's top session cats! The song itself is brilliant as is the arrangement! I don't know who produced that segment but Elliot and this cast are a complete scream! The show is exuberant in every aspect.

[@billsmith5166]

It was the Partridge Family kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4nOYmiqpcuXb7M&ab_channel=partridgefamily4ever

[@williamparrish2436]

As soon as the bassline kicked in I felt like a kid again haha. I am two seconds in, and I already know how awesome this is going to be. It's like I just found a lost episode Get A Life, The One Where Chris is a Bad Ass Detective

[@salwood]

what an amazing premise that i'm surprised wasn't picked up or duplicated here's a quarter why dont you go to college cool baby

[@SlapthePissouttayew]

" I cooked it for three hundred and twenty five hours at 3 degrees." LMFAO!!

[@TeddyLeppard]

"You don't have a squirrel in your purse, do you?" LOL

[@brentdey2244]

"How much is that in quarters?"

[@bobbycv64]

CHRIS ELLIOTT, so hilarious, Get A Life Intro, never gets old

[@halfabeet]

As usual, Chris Elliott was ahead of his time - fast forward to 2021 and you had Kevin Can F**K Himself, blending and alternating between sitcom tropes and dark drama.

[@felicity4711]

Were those stills from the _Star Trek_ closing credits?! LOL :-)

[@johnnavarra4970]

Brilliant!

[@nmb5588]

The Partridge Family satire is hilarious.

[@moseva]

This is ahead of its time in 2018

[@Hs3u39]

“I can’t either, I think it’s Bob!” This shit is classic!

[@snowmonkey6961]

Jazz musicians! What a paranoid nut.

[@_Gord_]

This originally aired on HBO as part of their "Comedy Experiment" series in the mid 1980's. It was and is hilarious.

[@markmurex6559]

Meta humor. Ahead of its time.

[@jrpipik]

This show is amazing. The fight between Chris and his dad is hilarious. How did I not know about it before? (Didn't have cable in the 80s, of course.)

[@calvinsaxon5822]

So, this was ahead of Adult Swim shorts like "Too many cooks" and "Unedited footage of a bear" or the SNL 80's/90's sticom parodies with Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett (and Ryan Gosling and Larry David) by around 30 years.

[@winonafrog]

Gosh the outro song is so 💯 … makes me think of Snuff Box … definitely worth seeing!

[@meshell7648]

Was that a young Seth Green?

[@davidlakin467]

It looks like him

[@chuckscumm3466]

It sure is.

[@tateyambrose7290]

Yep.

[@zoperxplex]

Remember, David Cassidy died to save you from your sins.

[@lockandloadlikehell]

David Cassidy was always sacrificing for the common good.

[@neverjethot]

I like watching this with a squirrel in my pocket.

[@jetpackband3523]

The best gag of the show doesn't come across in this upload, unfortunately. The sitcom was filmed at the larger video frame rate and was purposely, obviously jarring when Chris entered the house vs. outside cop life. That's why there is the repeat entrance when he first enters. Still, nice it is up for all to see.

[@DaveKovalComedy]

This is off the wall and I’m here for it

[@MisterHPlays]

This was awesome. Just was toss out there that I initially looked this up because Dan Harmon, creator of Community, cited this as one of his earliest influences.

[@NegroJonesStrikesAgn]

I've never heard of this show. Why didn't anyone tell me!?

[@4kirin4]

Is the kid Seth green

[@Hs3u39]

Gotta be

[@Triumph2024.]

It is

[@hughgrection9439]

Best dramatic music ever

[@Rampageotron]

This feels like a prototype Eagleheart.

[@paulhewak499]

...I wish all t.v. shows could be like this.....and the world.....

[@robbunn692]

Fantastic Partridge Family song.

[@billsmith5166]

I think Melissa was Gina Martin, the wife of Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys and the daughter of Dean Martin. Not sure though..

[@Zoltar0]

17:42 extreme laugh track is extreme!

[@frankburns8871]

Take that, The Godfather!

[@ja3482]

This is the most too-ahead-of-its time pilot I've ever seen. If Chris tried to make this in the post-2005 era of "Peak Television" he could have destroyed.

[@shawnmahan3040]

I love all of this but especially the on point of the Action Family band fading out at the end of the song while they're still playing ala The Partridge Family.

[@vipermad358]

"I'm the ape-boy. Is that what you're trying to say?"

[@othervoices76]

I remember that from the HBO promo they’d run for this .

[@TokyoXtreme]

Is there a party going on over there?

[@mjp96]

Chris has had an amazing career, but this is the pinnacle!!!!!

[@lasagnahog7695]

"stirring fudge" holy shit

[@adamdiedrichs8216]

I actually loved it. It was fun and ridiculous. And I loved the song segment. It was groovy

[@jeremy-dq8ge]

This is a fever dream come to life.

[@winslowredcross2835]

I haven't seen this since it aired in the 80's. LOL

[@haywardjeblomey6505]

lol dave letterman

[@YouTube-tied]

His shoes here and in The Fugitive Guy skits always look like they're at least 2 sizes too small.

[@mjb0183]

Lorne Michaels (1983): Hey Chris, we think you have talent and can be a supporting character on SNL. Chris Elliot: “Hold my beer, Lorne…..”

[@LurkingCrassZero]

Way, way ahead of his time.

[@MrBigcityal]

Cinemax Comedy Experiment. The Tim Stack Sinatra one I've been looking for too.

[@peaceandlove544]

Great song at the end, 14:42 the great Bob Elliot, Chris' father. Do you know where I can watch or get the movie You ve reach the Elliot's?

[@diecheneydie]

At 18’ Chris and the cast break character to take a bow from the overly enthusiastic audience.

[@robbunn692]

Seth Green's second greatest role.

[@cameronpickard7456]

funniest sitcom dad ever

[@TraitofSiNN727]

RiP Gary Howard Klar who plays the boyfriend and known in George A. Romero's "Day of the Dead" as Pvt. Walter Steel.

[@sha11235]

The opening credits are a takeoff on Brady Bunch. Wonder if Sherwood minded that?

[@mulemule]

*_Holy-cr^p!_** Is Shirley played by Doris Roberts of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame?!*

[@thatericsteele]

Caddyshack minute podcast brought me here

[@lw1391]

What on earth was the original context for this? Its too long for a Letterman skit, predates DVD extras ... I cant figure out when / how this aired?

[@orangepineapplephoto]

Apparently it was a weird Cinemax comedy special

[@MartinThomas59]

It was pitched as a series on Cinemax but never got picked up. I wrote the theme and back up music and Matt Wickline wrote the lyric to the theme.

[@winonafrog]

16:44 to put it briefly

[@jonprude2557]

Uh, that was awesome...thanks!

[@danielshea4941]

This is the best show ever made

[@dougie0109]

Is that red headed kid Seth Green?

[@SlowLew222]

Richard Still yep. About the time he played young Woody Allen in Radio Days

[@gymnastix]

Correctamundo!

[@billymac72]

Oh man, so glad this still exists! I ran across this on TV one night when I was in high school. I remember laughing my ass off when they cut to the Partridge Family bit! It was just so on the nose with how they had characters from that episode in the audience and Elliott was doing the Cassidy moves. Hilarious. And it’s the ENTIRE song! His comedy was very ahead of its time. He’s not so much making fun of the Partridges as much as all these absurd TV tropes that we had grown so used to over the decades. Every little closeup or whatever was making fun of another sitcom convention that we saw over and over.

[@glenncook6734]

0:40

[@VomitPinata]

this was REALLY fucking funny!

[@soonieoonie]

Beautiful

[@lugie69]

chris elliott invented comedy

[@BobbySyGo]

What in sitcom hell did I just watch???

[@moseva]

Better than get a life. Gosh this is a gem

[@GANDORF57]

Chris Elliott Chris Elliott ... Chris Seth Green Seth Green ... Danny Elliot Beth Holland Beth Holland ... Shirley Gary Howard Klar Gary Howard Klar ... Zack (as Gary Klar) Lucy Landau Lucy Landau ... Aunt Lucy Gina Martin Gina Martin ... Melissa

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Seth Green as Danny

[@javery999]

Without Chris Elliot there would be no Tim Heidecker. LET. THAT. SINK. IN.

[@howardkerr8174]

Like a ridiculous mash-up of The Brady Bunch and Mannix? Fairly funny, but I don't think it could have made it past the first season.

[@Hs3u39]

Not the point. It’s a timeless nugget of brilliance we can all enjoy now and forever.

[@vipermad358]

It was a one-off comedy special.

[@SidneyBroadshead]

It's sad how that Seth Green kid who plays Danny never went anywhere.

[@haywardjeblomey6505]

It's the hannah montana that we all need.

[@sashazazzi7381]

Wig and everything

[@funactdinkness]

25:45

[@goodnightcharly5135]

Keith rangers

[@joeclarke9782]

Did Seinfeld steal this opening bass line?

[@paulferranti8536]

This is the worst tv show ever

[@squidfartz]

That wasn't bad at all. With a little tightening, it might've made a nice short subject or HBO bumper comedy skit. Sure was better than DC follies.

[@caspian4469]

Hilarious

[@c.s.mcleod7383]

Sorry to hear Chris Elliott passed away. He was a genius. R.I.P. Chris.

[@uncletony6210]

He's still very much alive. why would you say that?

[@sashazazzi7381]

@@uncletony6210 guess it's an interesting celebrity death humor to start

[@DrMackSplackem]

@@sashazazzi7381 I don't get it either, but it's likely akin to the whole "RIP, Joe Rogan" deal. Online, there's far too many facile appeals to jokes implying punchlines not in evidence.

[@funghazi]

"Stirring fudge in the slammer" is quite a turn of phrase.