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"Almost Live!" (1984) More at IMDbPro »

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Comedy We Could Call Our Own!!, 25 August 2003
8/10
Author: goleafs84 from Seattle, Washington

Almost Live! actually had 2 different formats, but had one theme; Comedy.

The first, was hosted by Ross Shafer (1984-88), which had a "Tonight Show" type of format; Sketch comedy, local and some national celebrity appearances and stand-up comedians were showcased, whether it be local comedians like Chris Alpine or up and comers at the time like Jerry Seinfeld or Drake Sather.

After Ross left the show in 1988, to become Joan River's replacement on Fox's late night talk show, "The Late Show", John Keister took over as host.

He tried to use the same talk show format, but in the summer of 1989, they changed it to all sketch comedy and the show really took off from there.

What made this show great was, it was humor we in the Northwest United States could relate, enjoy and call our own. It's very rare when you see humor based on this region; Usually, shows like this are based on New York, the east coast and California (mostly Los Angeles) humor.

In my humble opinion, here's my top 10 list of the best skits "Almost Live" had:

10. "Grape Nuts" commercial parody. The old Grape Nuts commercial theme from the late 80's was used, but it celebrated the party animal in us.

9. Ross Shafer's video "Too Many Ties" with the "Almost Live Band". Dedicated to all those who get nothing but ties for gifts.

8. "Mind Your Manners With Billy Quan". Wonderful parody of all those bad Kung Fu movies of the 70's and 80's.

7. "The High Five'in White Guys". Pointless, dumb, but hilarious.

6. "Cops in (name of city here)". Parody of Fox's "Cops". Made fun of virtually every community in the greater Seattle area.

5. "The Lame List". Dumb, but hilarious. Featured "Soundgarden".

4. "Ballard Driving School". If you've been in Ballard, you'd get this.

3. John Keister's April Fool's Joke Of 1989. Did a fake news bulletin, that the Space Needle fell like a chopped tree. Funny, but Keister got into a lot of trouble when people took it seriously.

2. "Ballard Vice". One of their most popular sketches. Parody of "Miami Vice". Filmed in the Ballard neighborhood. The Beginning was hilarious, when the camera chased after Canadian Geese, than the pink flamingos you see in the actual show.

1. "Ballard Vice: The Movie". This 15 minute short movie featured, 2 ex-Seattle Seahawks, Hydroplane driver Chip Hanauer among the cast. Hanauer plays an "H" smuggler (halibut), ex-Seahawks Jim Zorn and Michael Jackson play the well dressed Ballard Vice officers, while John Keister and Ross Shafer play the 2 slob Ballard Vice officers.

Honorable Mention: "This Here Place". Pat Cashman parodied PBS' "This Old House" and my sides would be aching from laughter every time.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Funny, low budget, local humor!, 15 November 2004
Author: ellis-feaster from Orlando, Florida USA

Almost Live was one of my favorite shows, ever! Local TV stations rarely makes their own product anymore, outside of newscasts, but KING TV in Seattle ran this local comedy show for 15 years up until 1999. I would count down the hours to see the next episode every Saturday night! Billy Kwan, The High Fivin' White Guys, Speed Walker, Sluggy, Cops in Ballard/Issaquah/Renton/Mercer Island, The John Report, The Worst Girlfriend in the World, Pat Cashman in D.J. Priest/D.J. Cop/D.J. Dentist, Roscoe's Carpet Emporium (Going out of Business since 1958!), The Ineffectual Middle-Management Suck-ups, Uncle Fran's Musical Forest, Ballard Driving School, The Street Walking Lawyers of Aurora Ave, & Jet Guy!!! This show was a great example of how creativity and localisms cam make a show work without having a big budget, or being based in LA or NYC.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
very funny show; would love to see it again!, 29 November 2004
Author: CryFi from Lansingburgh, New York, USA

This was a funny show. We used to watch it a lot in 1992 or so along with the original UK Whose Line Is It Anyway? in college when our college cable picked up Comedy Central. Reading some of the user comments it's coming back to me a little more.

I remember one skit was a game show called "Who Killed J.F.K. Today?", in which contestants had to present their conspiracy theories as to how JFK was killed. Bill Nye's character won, because his took the least time to explain: "A tiger ate 'im!"

I also recall Bill Nye did science demonstrations. He tested the urban legend about "if you jump up at the last minute in an out of control plummeting elevator, you'll survive" years before MythBusters even started. Of course, he didn't use a dummy in a real elevator, but an egg in a small model elevator - but he came to the same conclusion.

This is actually much more deserving of being on DVD than SCTV, in my opinion.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely Genius Show!, 2 February 2004
10/10
Author: kent-like-what from New Haven, CT

I grew up in Seattle and this show chronicled the rise of Seattle from a sleepy little nowhere town to the height of grunge and back down. However, I would imagine it would be a little hard to get if you aren't from Seattle (though, I think they edited out stuff that was totally Seattle-based on the Comedy Central version)... but if you are from Seattle (or rather Kent) like I am... this is an absolute classic. I give this show ***** out of *****.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
I watched this regularly., 3 April 2002
Author: katana_one from Jacksonville, FL

I used to watch this show on a regular basis when it was airing as re-runs on Comedy Central. I loved it! I wish it would make a come-back!

Some of my favorite skits include "Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan" or "The High-Fiving White Guys" or the adventures of the "Speed Walker" who was a superhero who, well, he speed walked around Seattle fighting crime. Just looney. Of course, who could forget the skit about a hunting season for street mimes? "Wait! You can't shoot him, he's behind an invisible wall. It would be unsportsman-like" or something to that effect.

I agree with other posters here who say this show was better than the crap they were doing on SNL at the time. I miss it.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The best American comedy show of recent years, 25 June 1999
Author: Jessica Easton (evergreengrrrl@hotmail.com) from Maple Valley, WA

I have grown up in the Seattle area, and my daddy weaned me on "Almost Live." Consistently funny, great timing, and some truly inspired skits make for great Saturday evening viewing. I have been known to leave parties to come home and watch it, then go back. The local NBC affiliate that shows it, KING 5, airs "AL!" at 11:35pm, then "Saturday Night Live" at 12:05am. In my almost 15 years of watching "Almost Live", I have never seen it resort to the 'dick and fart jokes' that I saw on SNL time and time again. There are so many things in the Seattle area to make fun of (Kent, Lynnwood, Ballard, the entire east side of Lake Washington), there's no reason to fall into toilet humor as the more recent years of SNL did. I guarantee that any way you can get ahold of an episode of "Almost Live", it will be worth it, a million times worth it.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Best intro for Washington State, 22 November 2003
Author: thekaj from Kent, WA

As a native Washingtonian who grew up to Almost Live! the thing that worked best for me was that the show was basically one big inside joke for those of us who knew the area. Sadly, this is why the show really wasn't all that funny in syndication. When I met out of state residents at college, I would insist that they watch the show in order to understand the area. That way, they could learn that Scandinavians live in Ballard, yuppies live on the East Side, and rednecks live in the South End. These are vital things to know!!! It's no small coincidence that Almost Live ended up coming out with a guide to the northwest video.

It was always great to watch this show before SNL, and take pride in the fact that a bunch of local talent consistantly creamed the pathetic attempts at comedy produced by the national "talent" in New York. I just wish KING TV wouldn't have decided to pull the plug on the show (it was making money, but they wanted to make MORE money), and that stars like John Keister and Pat Cashman would have been able to springboard into the national scene to share their talent with the rest of the country.

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Unimpressive "Navel-Gazing", 12 April 2009
3/10
Author: H G from Seattle

I had no idea this show existed until moving to Seattle a couple of years ago. I stumbled upon it after SNL one night. Every once in a while I'll sit through a bit of it. I can never make it through all of it though.

While the show does deserve credit for its effort and consideration for the era in which it took place, the humor is so excessively "backyard" and so "inside joke" that it's hard to take seriously (and yes, I do understand and get the regional jokes). That isn't to say that any comedy that's quality comedy has to be global comedy, but the short-sighted and monotone degree to which this show gropes these regional jokes totally kills the validity that any of the decent writing in the show has.

Sure, SNL may slip in a joke here that's NY-centric, but the fact of the matter is that everyone does essentially and generally know NY *because it is New York city* (or LA for that matter). Their writers aren't dumb to this fact. They know this and understand this, just as they understand that a butt-and-fart joke now and then is appreciated and enjoyed because we all have a butt, and we all fart, and it's funny, and we've all laughed at them before and as much as we'd like to kid ourselves we will laugh at them again.

Anyway...

The point is that with Conan Obrian, or SNL, or Leno, or what have you, the general approach is based on appealing to a global audience - inclusion - and then slipping something in here or there that's locally-geared every now and then. With "Almost Live!" the opposite occurs: exclusion first, and then global content second. In the end all you're left with a crippled show with seemingly clueless writing that doesn't invite an audience. Maybe "Almost Live!" intentionally went out of their way to be separatists like that, but honestly, who willfully digs their own grave? Wow. Good job.

So, in short, the show sucks and comes off as a small-town attempt at what the big kids are doing. The "oh, well, *you* might not get it because you aren't from here, but believe us Mr. Outsider, it's funny" argument is feeble (I've had it with folks before), because when one does understand the incessant local jokes (which don't take a genius to get), they aren't that funny and are often lamely executed. And when that isn't killing the experience, the super low-budget production is. It's no surprise the show didn't make it.

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I loved this SHOW!!!, 15 October 2006
Author: dogeymon from United States

I remember being a small kid and seeing all of Billy Quan's antics, and I was in San Mateo, California. So this show obviously was going strong there. It was part of the great series of shows we would watch on FOX. Including Get A Life with Chris Elliott, and the Simpsons. For years I thought Billy Quan was on the cult show Night Flight, airing on TV in the same year, but I guess I was confused. ALMOST LIVE ROCKED!! I remember it now!! I remember my sister and me used to imitate the Billy Quan routines in our own tape recording with sound effects and imitating the dubbed voices. OH THE MEMORIES!!

I have got to get this series on DVD!

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Signs of civilization .........., 19 November 2005
Author: siouxsiecue from Kansas

At last! Someone else knows what I'm talking about when I mention "Songs for the Slightly Inebriated" or picture Joel McHale dressed in a kilt instead of his "The Soup" wardrobe of grown-up attire. I watched Bill Nye on Disney with my kids, but still yearn for the cultural splendor of "Green River Dance". Not to mention the various and sundry items tossed, dropped, blown up or otherwise destroyed in some manner every week. Has anyone followed the careers of other cast members ? "Almost Live" was one of my favorite things from WA state. I recently bought a "J.P. Patches" DVD, if anyone remembers him. Does anyone know how to get KONG TV on my Direct TV satellite ?

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