Almost Live!

Almost Live! was a sketch comedy show that aired on Seattle’s KING-TV, an NBC affiliate, from 1984 to 1999. A reworked version appeared on Comedy Central between 1992 and 1993, and during the late 1990s, episodes also ran on WGRZ-TV and other stations owned by Gannett. In Seattle, the program aired Saturday nights at 11:30, which pushed Saturday Night Live to midnight; on other Gannett stations, it aired after Saturday Night Live.

The series started as a weekly half-hour talk and comedy sketch show, created by then-Vice President of Programming Bob Jones and hosted by Ross Shafer. It was closely modeled on *Late Night with David Letterman* and originally aired Sundays at 6:00 p.m. From the start, it spoofed local and national television, series like *Star Trek*, and Seattle-area neighborhoods such as Ballard, Green Lake, Lynnwood, and Kent. The show grew so popular that it expanded to an hour and aired twice a week. After four years and nearly 40 local Emmy Awards plus several national honors, Shafer left to host Fox’s *The Late Show*.

The program had featured early local musicians in what would later be called grunge, following the local music show *Rev*, which had John Keister as a frequent contributor. Keister became the permanent host after Shafer left. He hosted for one season (1988–89) in the one-hour Sunday 6:00 p.m. talk show format. After a “Greatest Hits” special aired at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, the show moved into that slot. Keister had been a regular supporting performer from the start, and many of the award-winning elements were his work, so the format shifted to highlight his abilities and those of other cast members in video sketches. Guest interviews and live band segments were dropped, and the show was cut back to a half-hour sketch comedy format. Because of its popularity among station staff, KING-TV asked NBC to air *Almost Live!* at 11:30 p.m., delaying *Saturday Night Live* locally by half an hour. NBC allowed a six-month trial; host John Keister noted that *Saturday Night Live*’s local ratings tanked, and the show won a major award (best local show in America from the National Association of Television Programming Executives), so the trial continued indefinitely.

During Keister’s tenure, each episode began with an opening monologue, and much of the material had a local flavor. Targets included Seattle politicians, celebrities, local sports teams, stereotypes, and neighborhoods—such as Ballard (home of elderly Scandinavian Americans who parked cars halfway onto sidewalks with seat belts slammed in doors), Fremont and Wallingford (middle-aged hippies and New Agers), and suburbs like Renton, Kent (portrayed as low-income white trash), as well as Bellevue and Mercer Island (upscale and snobby). Outside Seattle, Olympia and Bellingham were stereotyped as hippie/pothead towns. Most local references were removed for the Comedy Central version. The show also ran promos for fake TV shows billed as “new shows on NBC for the upcoming season.”

Regular cast members included Mike Neun, Pat Cashman, Tracey Conway, Nancy Guppy, Joe Guppy, Barb Klansnic, Joel McHale, Bob Nelson, Bill Nye, Bill Stainton, Andrea Stein, Lauren Weedman, Steve Wilson, Ed Wyatt, and Darrell Suto as Billy Quan. Writers included Scott Schaefer, who later won three National Emmy Awards for writing on *Bill Nye the Science Guy*, and original Head Writer Jim Sharp, who became Senior Vice President of Original Programming and Development for Comedy Central in Los Angeles. Later seasons occasionally featured Seattle-area comedian and voice actor David Scully, who joined the core cast in the final season.

KING-TV canceled *Almost Live!* in 1999 because it was not generating enough profit for Dallas-based Belo Corporation, which had acquired the station’s owner King Broadcasting Company two years earlier. KING-TV (now owned by Tegna) aired reruns from 1999 until fall 2019; repeats reappeared on the station’s streaming channel, KING 5+, in fall 2022, and episodes are also on KING-TV’s YouTube channel. In fall 2000, Keister created a new sketch comedy show for competing station KIRO-TV called *The John Report with Bob*, essentially a carry-over of the news report segment he had done on *Almost Live!* with Bob Nelson. That show was canceled after two seasons, again due to lack of profit.

KING aired a reunion show on September 12, 2005, featuring the cast from the final ten years. It also aired *Almost Live! Back At Ya*, a series of “best of” episodes, on Sundays from September 10, 2006, through that December.

In July 2012, clips appeared on YouTube promoting a sketch comedy series called *The (206)*, referencing Seattle’s area code. These clips featured John Keister and Pat Cashman and strongly suggested it was a successor to *Almost Live!*. *The Seattle Times* published a blog article about the sequel, including behind-the-scenes glimpses of a sketch being filmed. The new show also had a presence on social networking sites like Facebook. The show premiered.