This Was One Of The Strangest Sitcom Cameos Of A Post-Apocalyptic Movie Car: Cold Start

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Remember Chris Elliot? Sure you do. I always liked Chris Elliot’s cocky moron sort of persona that I used to see on the old David Letterman show, and sure, even if “Chris Elliot” was just the product of mid-1980s animatronics and special effects, he was still hilarious in his own strange, surreal way. He also had a goofy and short-lived sitcom from 1990 to 1992 called Get A Life which was about Chris as a 30-something guy who still lived at home and had a paper route; the show seemed on the surface to be like a fairly normal sitcom, but was more of a parody of sitcoms and progressively got more and more unhinged. For example, here’s how Wikipedia describes an episode that was a sort of parody of the movie E.T.:

One of the more controversial episodes featured a character named Spewey the Alien (a parody of the films Mac and Me and E.T.), an extraterrestrial who secretes mucus from under his scales (which Chris proceeds to drink and call the “nectar of the Gods”) and projectile vomits when he becomes emotionally overwrought. At the end of the episode, Chris and Gus barbecued and ate Spewey, although the creature was resurrected inside their refrigerator.

You can see the whole thing right here, because all the episodes seem to be online now, thanks to I guess Fox assuming there’s zero value here. Anyway, it’s nice and strange. There’s an automotive reason I’m bringing all this up, of course: one episode featured a massive truck custom-built by famous car customizer Dean Jeffries (the man who pinstriped James Dean’s “Li’l Bastard” Porsche 550 Spyder, worked on the Batmobile, and made famous show rods like the Mantaray) which was built for a goofy 1970s post-apocalypse movie called Damnation Alley. Here’s the trailer!

That massive truck-like-thing that looks a bit like a more elegant Cybertruck is the Landmaster, and it’s really incredible because it’s about as fully functional as a movie prop fictional vehicle is likely to get. Built on an articulated truck military vehicle chassis, the 11-ton machine actually drove and could hit speeds of 55 mph thanks to its 6.4-liter Ford V8, The Landmaster used the rear ends of two commercial trucks, an Allison truck transmission, and, as is mentioned in the movie, as many off-the-shelf commercial truck parts as possible so repairs and scavenging parts will be easier. It was great at crawling over obstacles and jumping small holes, and it was even amphibious.

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I remember seeing this thing outside of Jeffries’ shop near Burbank when I lived in Los Angeles; I’d drive past it and wonder about just what the hell that thing was, especially the remarkable tri-wheel setup it sported, which allowed it a remarkable ability to traverse obstacles and rough terrain, and probably rocks or large, stubborn tortoises. It’s said to have survived a 25-foot jump with no damage!

After it was used in the movie, the Landmaster did manage to pick up a few small roles here and there, but I think the most fascinating one is when it got a starring role in an episode of Get A Life, where it played the Paperboy 2000, a sophisticated robotic newspaper delivery system that had been banned in Eastern Europe. The episode focuses on Chris Elliot and all the other paperboys being replaced by the Paperboy 2000, and the sort of John Henry-esque man-vs-machine struggle that follows.

Here, you’re already not working, you may as well watch the whole episode!

Not to spoil anything, but the episode does end with what seems to be the Paperboy 2000 killing Chris. Of course, Chris dies in about half the episodes anyway, so that barely matters.

I really like how little was done to alter the appearance of the Landmaster; the only changes involved were slapping a bunch of signs that read PAPERBOY 2000 on it and removing the side gun barrels, which were now newspaper-launching ports.

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The gag that this newspaper delivery robot is an 11-ton colossal, exhaust-spewing deathtruck I think works very well.

I’m not sure there’s another relatively famous hero vehicle that has gone from a grim and gritty Mad Max-type of movie to playing a role on an absurd sitcom other than the Landmaster, so you really have to admire the flexibility of this incredible machine.

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The Landmaster is still around; in 2016 it was bought by Gene Winfield’s Custom Shop and is now around Mojave, California, where it can be seen from the road by the shop. I don’t know if it still runs, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That thing is a beast.

Too bad it goes into murderous rampages when delivering newspapers.

77 thoughts on “This Was One Of The Strangest Sitcom Cameos Of A Post-Apocalyptic Movie Car: Cold Start

  1. Idk man. Chris Elliott’s character in Schitt’s Creek was not a good character. Then again, Schitt’s Creek wasn’t really a good show, so it’s not his fault.

      1. I remember him from such movies as “There’s Something About Amy” and a small part where he plays a normal human being as part of the bridge crew on the Benthic Explorer in “The Abyss”. Feel free to read that in the voice of Troy Mclure.

        1. Think you meant ‘Something About Mary’

          Am a fan of Chris Elliots work on Letterman!
          Wish the late night comedy shows would go back to non-political humor, at least for most of the content. (Hard to avoid it though, when a certain orange clown is always writing your material for ya)

          1. No, I was thinking about the sequel, “There’s Something About Amy” 🙂
            Yes, I realized my mistake after the timer expired to edit and figured I would let it fly.

  2. Idk man. Chris Elliott’s character in Schitt’s Creek was not a good character. Then again, Schitt’s Creek wasn’t really a good show, so it’s not his fault.

      1. I remember him from such movies as “There’s Something About Amy” and a small part where he plays a normal human being as part of the bridge crew on the Benthic Explorer in “The Abyss”. Feel free to read that in the voice of Troy Mclure.

        1. Think you meant ‘Something About Mary’

          Am a fan of Chris Elliots work on Letterman!
          Wish the late night comedy shows would go back to non-political humor, at least for most of the content. (Hard to avoid it though, when a certain orange clown is always writing your material for ya)

          1. No, I was thinking about the sequel, “There’s Something About Amy” 🙂
            Yes, I realized my mistake after the timer expired to edit and figured I would let it fly.

  3. That show was effin’ hilarious, and predicted the whole failure-to-launch thing by about two decades. I remember his dad reminded me so much of my dad because he called everybody a “horse’s ass”.

    1. I think the best episode was when Chris and his buddies put on the musical “Zoo Animals on Wheels”, and Chris’s sitcom dad (his real-life dad, comedian Bob Elliott!) in the audience asked his wife “Is it possible to die from embarrassment?” It was a truly demented show!

  4. That show was effin’ hilarious, and predicted the whole failure-to-launch thing by about two decades. I remember his dad reminded me so much of my dad because he called everybody a “horse’s ass”.

    1. I think the best episode was when Chris and his buddies put on the musical “Zoo Animals on Wheels”, and Chris’s sitcom dad (his real-life dad, comedian Bob Elliott!) in the audience asked his wife “Is it possible to die from embarrassment?” It was a truly demented show!

  5. I wonder which came first: the idea for an episode about and automated paper delivery truck, or one of the writers seeing the Landmaster and thinking there might be an episode in it.

  6. I wonder which came first: the idea for an episode about and automated paper delivery truck, or one of the writers seeing the Landmaster and thinking there might be an episode in it.

  7. “Tri-wheel” is cool, and it has been used in mobility scooter prototypes that can climb stairs. What strikes me as odd, it doesn’t appear to have suspension. Looks hard mounted to the chassis, relying on air pressure of bulbous tires as the only shock absorption.

  8. “Tri-wheel” is cool, and it has been used in mobility scooter prototypes that can climb stairs. What strikes me as odd, it doesn’t appear to have suspension. Looks hard mounted to the chassis, relying on air pressure of bulbous tires as the only shock absorption.

  9. To make the decade arc of this whole thing perfect, don’t forget that Damnation Alley starred two soon to be ’80s tv icons, Jan Michael Vincent and George Peppard!

  10. To make the decade arc of this whole thing perfect, don’t forget that Damnation Alley starred two soon to be ’80s tv icons, Jan Michael Vincent and George Peppard!

  11. Oh, yes, the Landmaster/Paperboy 2000!!
    “You can see the whole thing right here, because all the episodes seem to be online now, thanks to I guess Fox assuming there’s zero value here.”
    They actually released a complete DVD set of the show!! (From Shout! Factory.) Last summer I checked it out from my public library and proceeded to watch all the episodes over a few days during an unusually rainy spell; I couldn’t quite binge-watch the show because sometimes all that Chris Elliott would just get overwhelming so I would switch to a film and then switch back (there were holds on the DVD set at the library so I couldn’t renew it, hence the marathon viewing.) The first time I took such a break was after the Paperboy 2000 episode (season 1 episode 6) and the film I started watching was…Damnation Alley. My surprise at the concidence was such that my utterances of astonishment startled my poor napping cats awake (worry not, they quickly resumed their napping.) Somehow such serendipitous synchronicity felt most Chris Elliott-esque.

    1. Damnation Alley famously saw its special effects budget get raided to cover cost overruns on the other sci-fi film released in 1977. So they had George Lucas to thank for the cockroach carpet and bad color-keying of the sky.
      I rewatched it a couple years ago after a similar incident at a northern Jutland gas station involving midges. And, having read that Roger Zelazny denounced the movie, I read the original short story too. Let’s just say that Zelazny’s original plot of a biker taking a vaccine cross-country to save Boston isn’t exactly a prescient masterpiece. I mean, Harry Harrison got rightly pissed off when the execs decided that his tale of the 2020s, featuring global warming, mass extinctions, and an ever-wider gap between the wealthy elite and the rest of humanity, needed to have cannibalism in it as well. But Damnation Alley? That car is awesome.

  12. Oh, yes, the Landmaster/Paperboy 2000!!
    “You can see the whole thing right here, because all the episodes seem to be online now, thanks to I guess Fox assuming there’s zero value here.”
    They actually released a complete DVD set of the show!! (From Shout! Factory.) Last summer I checked it out from my public library and proceeded to watch all the episodes over a few days during an unusually rainy spell; I couldn’t quite binge-watch the show because sometimes all that Chris Elliott would just get overwhelming so I would switch to a film and then switch back (there were holds on the DVD set at the library so I couldn’t renew it, hence the marathon viewing.) The first time I took such a break was after the Paperboy 2000 episode (season 1 episode 6) and the film I started watching was…Damnation Alley. My surprise at the concidence was such that my utterances of astonishment startled my poor napping cats awake (worry not, they quickly resumed their napping.) Somehow such serendipitous synchronicity felt most Chris Elliott-esque.

    1. Damnation Alley famously saw its special effects budget get raided to cover cost overruns on the other sci-fi film released in 1977. So they had George Lucas to thank for the cockroach carpet and bad color-keying of the sky.
      I rewatched it a couple years ago after a similar incident at a northern Jutland gas station involving midges. And, having read that Roger Zelazny denounced the movie, I read the original short story too. Let’s just say that Zelazny’s original plot of a biker taking a vaccine cross-country to save Boston isn’t exactly a prescient masterpiece. I mean, Harry Harrison got rightly pissed off when the execs decided that his tale of the 2020s, featuring global warming, mass extinctions, and an ever-wider gap between the wealthy elite and the rest of humanity, needed to have cannibalism in it as well. But Damnation Alley? That car is awesome.

  13. I remember this episode of Get A Life. We had a 30 year old paperboy, and Doogie Howser, a 12 year old doctor. Times were strange back then. Anyone remember Fox’s sitcom about survivors of a nuclear holocaust? I had to Google the name, Woops! Someone should revive The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.

    As a huge Airwolf fan, it should also be mentioned that Damnation Alley starred Jan-Michael Vincent.

      1. Definitely the best from the 80’s, along with the first minute of “Buck Rogers” (before it goes all disco).
        Not quite Five-Oh, which had both the best song and the best opening video.

        1. I own it on Blu-Ray and still enjoy it. Except “Tracks”. Airwolf vs lunatic with a bow and arrow; and not those fancy explosive ones Rambo had.

    1. Also, production on Damnation Alley apparently stopped for several days because Vincent wandered off on a peyote trip and couldn’t be located

  14. I remember this episode of Get A Life. We had a 30 year old paperboy, and Doogie Howser, a 12 year old doctor. Times were strange back then. Anyone remember Fox’s sitcom about survivors of a nuclear holocaust? I had to Google the name, Woops! Someone should revive The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.

    As a huge Airwolf fan, it should also be mentioned that Damnation Alley starred Jan-Michael Vincent.

      1. Definitely the best from the 80’s, along with the first minute of “Buck Rogers” (before it goes all disco).
        Not quite Five-Oh, which had both the best song and the best opening video.

        1. I own it on Blu-Ray and still enjoy it. Except “Tracks”. Airwolf vs lunatic with a bow and arrow; and not those fancy explosive ones Rambo had.

    1. Also, production on Damnation Alley apparently stopped for several days because Vincent wandered off on a peyote trip and couldn’t be located

  15. I demand a comparison test between this, the Ark II, and the Dobbertin Surface Orbiter. You can throw in a WW II DUKW as a baseline.

    Yes, I know the Ark II doesn’t float, but hey it’d be a reason to show off the Brubaker Box.

    1. The Ark II + the Brubaker-based Roamer is all I need in my post-apocalyptic 2-car garage.

      I also love how a model of the Ark II was the basis for the Seeker spaceship in Space Academy, made by the same studio.

      1. Ark II was my favorite Saturday morning show. My weekends were nothing until I had my half-hour fix of the Ark, the Roamer and Jean Marie Hon.

        And then there was Jason of Star Command, with Sid Haig as Dragos. It was a kid’s show, but to me Darth Vader was a rank amateur.

        Filmation was good when it was hot. Too bad Lou Schiemer screwed up everything.

  16. I demand a comparison test between this, the Ark II, and the Dobbertin Surface Orbiter. You can throw in a WW II DUKW as a baseline.

    Yes, I know the Ark II doesn’t float, but hey it’d be a reason to show off the Brubaker Box.

    1. The Ark II + the Brubaker-based Roamer is all I need in my post-apocalyptic 2-car garage.

      I also love how a model of the Ark II was the basis for the Seeker spaceship in Space Academy, made by the same studio.

      1. Ark II was my favorite Saturday morning show. My weekends were nothing until I had my half-hour fix of the Ark, the Roamer and Jean Marie Hon.

        And then there was Jason of Star Command, with Sid Haig as Dragos. It was a kid’s show, but to me Darth Vader was a rank amateur.

        Filmation was good when it was hot. Too bad Lou Schiemer screwed up everything.

  17. I loved that show. It came in during my late high-school days when stupid and weird are at their highest value. I actually own a Get a Life promotional robe that a former Fox employee friend had but couldn’t bear to throw out. Anytime I see a guy with long dreads, I automatically think about the episode when Chris is the Health Inspector and a guy with long dreads is stirring them in a big kettle of soup

  18. I loved that show. It came in during my late high-school days when stupid and weird are at their highest value. I actually own a Get a Life promotional robe that a former Fox employee friend had but couldn’t bear to throw out. Anytime I see a guy with long dreads, I automatically think about the episode when Chris is the Health Inspector and a guy with long dreads is stirring them in a big kettle of soup

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