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Almost Live!
It's Almost Live!
The Almost Live logo
StarringRoss Shafer, John Keister, Pat Cashman, Tracey Conway, Nancy Guppy, Barb Klansnic, Joel McHale, Bob Nelson, Bill Nye, Bill Stainton, Lauren Weedman, Steve Wilson, and Ed Wyatt
Country of origin United States
No. of episodesunknown
Production
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkKING-TV
Release1984 –
1999

Almost Live! is a local sketch comedy television show in Seattle, Washington, USA, produced and broadcast by NBC affiliate KING-TV from 1984 to 1999. A re-packaged version of the show also aired on Comedy Central from 1992 to 1993.

History

Original format

Almost Live! began as a weekly hour-long talk show created and hosted by Ross Shafer and closely patterned after Late Night with David Letterman, airing at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. The show became so popular that it was expanded from a half hour to one hour and shown twice a week. After four years and nearly 40 Emmy Awards later, Shafer left to host the Fox Network's The Late Show.

John Keister and a change in format

After several guest hosts were used, John Keister became the permanent replacement. Until that time, Keister was an occasional supporting performer. It was apparent that Keister's talents weren't served during interviews, so the guest interviews and live band segments were dropped. The focus changed to sketch comedy and the show was shaved back to a half-hour format.

The format of the show during Keister's tenure as host always included an opening monologue. Much of the material had a local flavor to it. In addition to Seattle politicians and celebrities, regular targets of the show’s barbs were various Seattle sports teams, local stereotypes, Seattle neighborhoods such as Ballard (home of elderly Scandinavian Americans), Fremont and Wallingford (home of middle-aged hippies and new-agers), and suburbs such as Renton and Kent (perceived by the show’s young, urban viewers as a low-income, "white trash" town) and Bellevue and Mercer Island (which had a snobbish, ultra-rich image). Other targets outside of Seattle proper included Olympia and Bellingham, both of which have hippie/pothead stereotypes. Most, but not all, of the local references were removed for the Comedy Central version. The show also had promos for fake TV shows billed as "new shows on KING 5 for the upcoming season".

Air times

The show was broadcast on Saturday nights at 11:30 p.m., pushing Saturday Night Live back to midnight.

Cancellation

Almost Live! was canceled by KING-TV in 1999 because it was not making enough profit. The station has aired reruns of the show ever since, now in the time slot following Saturday Night Live. In fall 2000, Keister created a new sketch comedy show for competing station KIRO-TV, titled The John Report with Bob, essentially a carry-over of the news report segment he had done on Almost Live!, with Bob Nelson in tow. The new show was canceled after a year, again because it was not making a profit.

Reruns

Reruns are broadcast on KING-TV in Seattle at 1:05 a.m., following Saturday Night Live. KING aired a reunion show on September 12, 2005, featuring the cast of the final ten years.

KING-5 aired "Almost Live! Back At Ya", a series of "best of" shows, on Sundays starting September 10, 2006 at 9 p.m.[1]. The series aired until December, and are not on the air at the moment.

Sketches

Cast of Almost Live!

Some of the recurring sketches featured on Almost Live included:

  • "Bill Nye the Science Guy"
  • "Capable Woman" (super heroine who "rescues" men too "manly" to admit they can't do everything)
  • "Jet Guy" (parody of Republic Pictures' 1950s serial character, "Commando Cody")
  • "Lowered Expectations" video dating ads
  • "Me" ("talk show" hosted by egotistical woman who acts as if she is smarter than everyone else)
  • "Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan" (parody of Bruce Lee’s martial arts films)
  • "Nature Walk, with Chuck" (reckless alcoholic outdoors man and naïve young assistant)
  • Parody of Cops set in various Seattle neighborhoods
  • "Speed Walker" (super hero who fights crime while adhering to the standards of competitive speed-walking)
  • "The High-Five’n White Guys"
  • "Ineffectual Middle-Management Suck-ups"
  • "The John Report" [1990-95]/"The Late Report" [1995-end of run] (weekly news-parody, similar to Weekend Update)
  • "The Lame List (Or, "What’s Weak This Week)" (local members of "Seattle's heavy metal community", such as Kim Thayil of grunge band Soundgarden yelling "lame" to whatever topic the announcer would present). Also in a rotating schedule were Collin Matson, Brad Hull, and Tony Benjamin of local Seattle band Forced Entry as well as members of other local bands. When an especially difficult topic or question would arise, everyone would stare and go "Huh?" with blank stares until the announcer gave up and asked a more simple question to which everyone would yell "Lame" in understanding.
  • "Sluggy" (a parody of "Lassie" about a boy and his pet slug)
  • "The Survivalist" (paranoid man with program from his underground bunker)
  • "This Here Place" (a parody of the show "This Old House")
  • "The Worst Girlfriend In The World" (dating "horror stories")
  • "Uncle Fran’s Musical Forest" (embittered children's show host)
  • "Urban Wildlife"
  • The Surprisingly Well Adjusted Vietnam Veteran.
  • "Street Talk," which dubbed in voices for people unknowingly videotaped on city streets. This bit was later used as the basis for a CBS pilot co-created and produced by Scott Schaefer and hosted by Bill Maher.

Some sketches were borrowed for the Fox TV series Haywire in 1990.

Bill Nye

Ross Shafer is credited as the man who invented Bill Nye the Science Guy, encouraging Boeing aircraft engineer Bill Nye to demonstrate science experiments on the show. Nye later turned it into the Bill Nye the Science Guy show on PBS. A recurring segment on the PBS show was "Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan", which was originally a recurring sketch on Almost Live!

Cast members

Besides the host, regular cast members included Mike Neun, Pat Cashman, Tracey Conway, Nancy Guppy, Joe Guppy, Barb Klansnic, Joel McHale, Bob Nelson, Bill Nye, Bill Stainton, Bill Jeakle, Darrell Suto, Lauren Weedman, Steve Wilson, and Ed Wyatt. Writers included Scott Schaefer, who later went on to win three National Emmy Awards for writing on Bill Nye the Science Guy, and original Head Writer Jim Sharp, who is now Senior Vice President, Original Programming and Development for Comedy Central in Los Angeles.

  1. ^ http://www.patcashman.com/
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