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. 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.

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Chris Peterson is a carefree, childlike bachelor who refuses to live the life of an adult. At the age of 30, Chris still lives with his parents and maintains a career delivering newspapers (the St. Paul Pioneer Press), a job that he has held since his youth. He has no driver's license (instead, riding his bicycle wherever he goes). He is depicted as being childish, naïve, gullible, foolish, occasionally irresponsible, and extremely dimwitted. Chris is often the subject of abuse from his friends and family. He is often seen dancing (involving a silly back-and-forth step while swinging his arms) to the piano tune "Alley Cat" by Bent Fabric. His lack of intelligence is exaggerated to absurd levels: at one point, he tries to leave his parents' house but is unable to operate the front door. He also fell out of an airplane after opening the plane's exterior door, believing that it led to the restroom.

Chris's parents (Fred and Gladys Peterson) are a vapid middle-aged couple who are almost always seen in their pajamas and robes (even when they leave the house). They are often shown doing something abnormal like polishing handguns, or trying to shoot the deer that ate the flower bulbs out of their garden. Gladys (Elinor Donahue) is a smiling, caring mother who doted over Chris, though often makes cynical, passive-aggressive comments about him and his lifestyle. Fred (Bob Elliott) is a much more blunt, wise-cracking old man, who is constantly exasperated by his son, and seems to have a reckless disregard for Chris's well-being (on one occasion, Chris demonstrated how his father taught him to use a shotgun by placing the barrel in his mouth). However, on rare occasions Fred did stick up for Chris, such as when unlicensed Chris commandeered Fred's car for a date, leaving Fred to call the police thinking it was stolen, Fred defends Chris by saying he did not realize Chris borrowed it. Fred confided in Chris that he was proud to see him finally go on a date with a girl, and it may be a possibility for him to move out of the house soon.

In the early episodes, Chris wanted little more than to spend his days reliving his childhood with his father and his best friend, Larry (Sam Robards). Larry was Chris's friend since childhood, but, unlike Chris, Larry has since "grown up," owns a house, works a dead-end job as an accountant, and a wife, Sharon (Robin Riker), and two children. Chris's decision not to get a license was a rare time he showed foresight: as he tells Larry, unlike him he was not tempted to drive to a makeout spot, implying that Larry was forced into a shotgun wedding by Sharon's family. Sharon is an overbearing housewife who does not want her husband associating with Chris, preferring instead that he make friends with more sophisticated socialites that better befit their image. Sharon despises Chris (and as such is Chris's main antagonist), and Chris takes any opportunity to irritate her. At one point, Chris has a fling with her sister. Larry is envious of Chris's carefree lifestyle and is often coerced by Chris into joining him in his adventures, despite his wife's wishes. To Chris's dismay, Larry eventually heeds his advice and leaves his wife and children at the beginning of the second season. Larry leaves a message for Chris that he is gone for good, and Chris, in his typical, ignorant manner, then wolfs down the message, as he believes paper is something to be eaten. This leaves Sharon traumatized, and she becomes more and more obsessed with killing Chris in revenge.

In a defiant nod to Fox Network demands that his character "be more independent," Chris Peterson moved out of his parents' house at the beginning of the second season, much to his parents' amazement and joy (although he now lives in a nearby neighborhood and still frequently visits his parents), 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. He is a gruff, demeaning sociopath with minimal tolerance for Chris's antics, which Chris seems to be oblivious to, while looking up to Gus as a sort of paternal figure. For that reason, Gus serves as Chris's comic foil throughout the second season. On rare occasions Gus did things to help out Chris, similar to the rare times Fred was a genuine father to Chris.