In "Action Family," two great belittling comic mentalities merge, the Letterman school and the fringy cable franchise. Elliott is a Letterman writer (two others worked on the script) and has made frequent facetious-audacious appearances on the show.
Letterman makes a churlish cameo flyby on "Action Family," pulling up to a stoplight at which Elliott, in character, is waiting. "Hey, jerk|" Letterman says. Told he's in a Chris Elliott comedy special, he scoffs, "Well, they'll put anything on cable, heh heh heh."