Misplaced Pages

#310689

19-397: Almost Live! began as a weekly half-hour talk and comedy sketch show created by then VP of Programming Bob Jones, and hosted by Ross Shafer and closely patterned after Late Night with David Letterman , airing at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. From the beginning, it featured many spoofs and satires of local and national television, series such as Star Trek , and unique locales in and around

38-541: A keynote speaker and leadership coach in the areas of market share growth, customer friction, and workforce motivator. Billy Quan Billy Quan was a fictional television character who originated in the Seattle TV comedy series Almost Live! in the 1990s. Quan was featured in a series of recurring skits called Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan , intended as parodies of the films of martial arts star and former Seattle resident Bruce Lee . The general format of

57-497: 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 two seasons, again because it was not making a profit. KING aired a reunion show on September 12, 2005, featuring the cast of the final ten years. KING-TV also aired "Almost Live! Back At Ya" , a series of "best of" shows, on Sundays starting September 10, 2006 at 9   p.m. until that December. In July 2012, clips surfaced on YouTube that appeared to promote

76-449: A preposterous two-legged martial arts kick. The camera would show Quan's two legs aiming toward Keister, who often ran away. Quan's legs would stay in the air and follow Keister, sometimes around corners or waiting outside of doors. In the end, Keister was always defeated. The announcer would close with "Remember, kids: be like Billy. Behave yourself!". Quan was played by Almost Live! cameraman Darrell Suto. The voice and mouth movements of

95-598: A presence on social networking Web sites such as Facebook . The show premiered on Sunday, January 6, 2013 on KING-TV after Saturday Night Live . The series would be revamped as Up Late NW (pronounced Up Late Northwest) in September 2015, and ran for one season, ending in 2016. Some of the recurring segments featured on Almost Live! included: Some sketches were borrowed for the Fox TV series Haywire , in 1990. Ross Shafer Ross Alan Shafer (born December 10, 1954)

114-409: A sketch comedy series called The (206) , referring to Seattle's area code . These clips featured John Keister and Pat Cashman and hinted strongly that the show would be a successor to Almost Live! . Subsequently, The Seattle Times published a blog article about the sequel which included behind-the-scenes glimpses at one of the sketches being filmed for the new show. Additionally, the new show has

133-517: Is an American comedian , network television host, and motivational and leadership speaker/consultant. He has authored nine business books, and earned six Emmys as a network talk and game show host. Born in McMinnville, Oregon , Shafer graduated from Federal Way High School in Federal Way, Washington . As a high school All-Conference football player, he received a scholarship to play linebacker for

152-502: The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington , where he earned a business marketing degree. Shafer said, "I had trouble finding anything that I was passionate about, or that made me happy." He then opened a "combination pet and stereo store". His first act came in the form of a community play; afterward, he tried out for a stand-up comedy competition. From 1984 to 1989, Shafer hosted

171-596: The National Association of Television Programming Executives], so the trial was allowed to continue [indefinitely].” 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 who parked their cars halfway onto sidewalks with

190-552: The Science Guy , and original Head Writer Jim Sharp, who is now 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 during the final season. Almost Live! was canceled by KING-TV in 1999 because it was not making enough profit for Dallas -based Belo Corporation , which acquired

209-489: The city such as Ballard , Green Lake , Lynnwood , and Kent . 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 local Emmy Awards and several national awards, Shafer left to host the Fox Network's The Late Show . As a follow-up to the local music program Rev which had John Keister as a frequent contributor, Almost Live! featured some of

SECTION 10

#1733116366311

228-451: The earliest local musicians in the format that would later be called grunge . Keister became the permanent replacement after Shafer left the program. Keister hosted for one season (1988-89) in the one-hour, 6   p.m. Sunday slot (and in the talk show format), but, following the lead of a "Greatest Hits" special that aired at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, the show moved into that slot. From the show's start until he became host in 1989, Keister

247-578: The local Seattle-based talk and comedy show, Almost Live! , and also hosted Fox 's late night talk show, The Late Show . In the 1986–1987 season, Shafer hosted the Canadian game show Love Me Love Me Not . It also aired in the United States on the USA Network and ended after one season of 130 episodes. From 1990 to 1991, Shafer hosted a short-lived revival of Match Game on ABC. Ross works as

266-591: The local references were removed for the short-lived nationally aired Comedy Central version. The show also had promos for fake TV shows billed as "new shows on NBC for the upcoming season." Besides Keister, 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 went on to win three National Emmy Awards for writing on Bill Nye

285-475: The seat belts slammed in the doors), Fremont and Wallingford (home of middle-aged hippies and New Agers ), and suburbs such as Renton , Kent (perceived by the show's young, urban viewers as a low-income, white trash town) as well as Bellevue and Mercer Island (both of which have an upscale , snobby image). Other targets outside of Seattle proper included Olympia and Bellingham , both of which have hippie / pothead stereotypes. Most, but not all, of

304-456: The skits, which averaged one to two minutes long, featured Quan being offended by the rude manners of another unnamed character, usually Almost Live! host John Keister . When Quan pointed out the offensive manners, Keister's character would challenge Quan in a highly exaggerated martial arts battle using such things as pool cues, golf clubs, bowling balls and garden tools. The skits would usually end when Quan would launch himself toward Keister in

323-455: The station's owner King Broadcasting Company two years earlier. KING-TV (now owned by Tegna ) aired reruns of the show from its cancellation in 1999 until the fall of 2019; repeats of the show reappeared on KING-TV's streaming channel, KING 5+ in the fall of 2022; the episodes are also on KING-TV's YouTube channel. In fall 2000, Keister created a new sketch comedy show for competing station KIRO-TV , titled The John Report with Bob , essentially

342-475: The station's staff members, KING-TV asked NBC to broadcast Almost Live at 11:30 p.m. slot, delaying Saturday Night Live locally by a half hour. The station received permission from the network to broadcast their show at that timeslot for a six-month trial basis, but host John Keister stated “ Saturday Night Live tanked [in the ratings locally], and we won a big award [being named best local show in America by

361-414: Was a regular supporting performer. Many of the initial award-winning elements of Almost Live! were his efforts, so the program quickly changed formats to feature more of his abilities, as well as other cast members, in video sketches. 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. Because of its popularity among

#310689