Almost Live!: The Show that Wouldn't Die

by Bryan Johnston

The success of Almost Live! is ridiculous.
A two-bit comedy show, no budget, dropped into a black hole of a time slot; it loses its host, goes through a schedule and format change, airs sketches that almost get the station sued and the show canceled.
Oh, and for good measure a cast member dies on set.
In any sane universe these television experiences would be filed under How to ensure unmitigated failure. But in the bizarre world of Almost Live! apparently normal reality doesn’t exist.
Over fifteen years the show racked up more than 100 Emmy® Awards and becomes a ratings juggernaut. How the hell?
Hear first hand accounts from the cast and crew, and relive memories of one of the most beloved and influential television shows in Seattle history. Billy Quan, High Five’n White Guys, The Lame List, Ballard Driving Academy, Cops in Kent, they’re all here.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Tv

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Bryan was a television and video writer/producer for nearly three decades during which he received 11 Emmys along with several other national awards. He is the author of several books and has written for numerous magazines and websites. He was also blessed with being an on-air movie reviewer for ten years--according to Bryan the greatest gig on the planet.
He currently lives in Lake Forest Park, Washington, just outside of Seattle with his wife, two kids and one very large Goldendoodle. He is a devout movie lover, sports fan and avid reader. He hopes the Seattle Mariners make it to the World Series before he dies, and he's still bugged the referees didn't even give the Seahawks a chance to win Super Bowl XL. Bryan bats right, throws right and has a terrible sweet tooth that he believes will be his undoing. His favorite color is purple (which thrills his daughter), he takes immense pride in his Norwegian-ness, and never did learn to hit the curve ball. (According to Negro League legend, Buck O'Neil, it's because they were throwing it right) He had a pretty dreadful jump shot but a surprisingly passable low-post game. He loves prime rib, ice cream and has discovered that asparagus, when prepared correctly, is actually quite good. He'd played competitive softball for thirty years and believes one of the greatest moments in life is when they dim the lights before a movie. Bryan is a mediocre golfer.

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that there's a book about Almost Live!, a classic TV show in the Seattle area. However, the book could have used another pass at editing. It seems like there are quite a few times when I'm irked by punctuation, but also the fact that this is basically an oral history causes its own challenges. As someone who transcribes interviews, I can appreciate the difficulty in punctuating natural speech, but this definitely needed some help with punctuating their speech, and editing out some repeated and accidental words, so it's more readable and less rambling.

One other thing I didn't like was that Johnston gives you a rundown of who the big players in the story are, but there are a lot of times when he quotes someone without saying who they are, especially in relation to this story, and I wonder to myself, "Wait, why do I care?" or "How do they know?" or even just "Who's this person?"

But let's go back to "Oh my God, there's a book about Almost Live!!" Editing aside, oh my God, there's a book about Almost Live!! How many long-time residents of Western Washington wouldn't love that??

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great memories from the show, many anecdotes and behind-the-scenes included here. Book is written as a series of transcribed interviews or email threads. Not nearly enough pictures. Finishes with scripts from some of their best bits - esp. Ballard Driving Academy.

[Diane Beason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, this brought back a lot of memories... I remember a lot of the sketches they talk about, but would like to go back now and watch them again.

Great show, and great book.

[Sarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Almost Live!, and when I found out there was a book about Seattle's best show, I put a library hold on it immediately. I loved learning all about Almost Live!; tore through the book in a matter of days. But! Technically - only technically! - speaking, this is a bad book. It's incredibly poorly written - multiple spelling errors on pretty much every page (the author even misspells the names of the cast members and the book's other contributors, and spells Sydney Pollack's name two different ways in one paragraph), it bounces back and forth between poorly punctuated and not punctuated at all, apostrophes are used to pluralize (NEVER DO THIS!), the author never once uses [sic] to mark an error by a speaker/respondent, the transcribing is inexpert at best, and so on. I'm not sure if the book had an editor, or it just needed another (or a whole team), but so many of these errors are elementary school-level. The poor quality of the writing and editing were constant distractions from the subject matter, which was frustrating, because I couldn't have been more interested in the subject. Still, I loved delving into Almost Live!'s history - the show deserves a much better book.

P.S. A public service: "yea" and "yeah" are NOT the same word, nor are they interchangeable. "Yea" is pronounced "yay", and while it means "yes", it's used in the context of an affirmative reply or a yes vote - like in Congress - and is the opposite of "nay". It is not ever another version of "yeah".

[A_Place_In The_Orchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you lived in Seattle during the 80s and 90s, Almost Live! could easily hold mythical status in your memory, and deservedly so. For local residents, enjoying the weekly jabs at different neighborhoods, it was the sharpest comedy around... out of town, who knows? But it ran happily on Comedy Central for a couple of years, and clips are all over YouTube.

The book tells the story of the show in "oral history" style, and for what it is, it's very enjoyable. But reading it is frustrating - there's a lack of context that memory cannot always fill in; specific (or even general) dates are infuriatingly absent; and there should have been far more space dedicated to individual and on-going sketches. As it is, the book is infuriatingly brief and scant on fact, and Almost Live! deserves a far deeper examination.