Almost Live! lives again!
Apparently there is a reunion show airing next week. How do I know? I was at the taping yesterday. All this upcoming week (Sept. 6-9) Pat Cashman is hosting Evening Magazine (I BELIEVE that's at 7:30 on KING), and they're doing pieces on many members of the cast. Although apparently not on Ross Schaffer or John Keister. Make of THAT what you will--apparently John did. HOwever, if you are looking for it, bear in mind that the Labor Day episode will be a rerun. The rest of the week is Pat Cashman guest hosting.
Then, apparently on Sept 12 (Monday), they will be airing the reunion episode taped yesterday. I think they said it would be at 8 PM.
I was surprised to see Joel McHale there. I assumed that since he's hosting Talk Soup or The Soup or whatever it's called these days that he would have to stay wherever that's filmed, but since I guess many talk shows are in reruns right now, he's free. And they had him doing a lot.
Similarly, I was disappointed that Lauren Weedman WASN'T there. I liked her a lot on Almost Live, and I LOVED her on the Daily Show. I also saw what I THINK was her first one-woman show after she left the Daily Show, "Rash," which was hilarious. I'd been hoping to find out what she's doing. I've seen her on Reno 911! a couple of times, but that can't be her full-time gig.
Ross Shaffer was also not there. We suspect that he has other things to do in California. Plus, I know a lot of folks who thought the show didn't really take off until he left the show. I didn't even start WATCHING it until after he left.
Bill Nye WAS there, and even did a Science Guy segment. Things explode, as should happen in any good science guy segment. I have to watch it on TV (as I was going to do anyway) because they had a camera set up directly above the explosion, but I only saw the very end of it in the monitor since I was watching Bill and John.
There was another great segment featuring Pat Cashman as an executive trying to explain things to hapless folks. Not unlike the sketch where he tries to explain the concept of WSU becoming a "dry campus." There's a gameshow about testing your Seattle IQ. Yet another Late Report. An interesting aside about the Late Report. I had hoped, since they were doing the reunion, that it would be the John Report. Since it wasn't, I wonder if KIRO owns the title "The John Report" now.
Ed Wyatt was also not there, which I confess I might not have noticed, except they were showing clips from their classic sketches, and there was one with Ed featured pretty prominently. I wonder where he was. And last night during the weekly Saturday at 1 AM rerun, they used the same opening credits sequence that they used in the reunion show, which doesn't include Joel McHale. But DOES include Ed Wyatt. Now, I knew they had edited Ed out, but it occurs to me right now that there was a credits sequenced filmed later without Ed but WITH Joel. Don't know why they didn't just use that. Bill Nye wasn't in either of those sequences, so he was screwed regardless, but still....
Most of them look pretty good and not THAT different from when they were on the show. Tracey Conway's hair is shorter and lighter, and Bill Stainton may be a little more bald. His hair is shorter than I think it used to be, too. Though the shorter thing may be what's making me think he's more bald.
The obvious exception would be John Keister, bless his heart, who is much more gray and quite a bit heavier. He'd actually been gaining weight during the last couple of seasons of the show, which was about the time he started wearing black shirts all the time. And it had actually worked pretty well-I hadn't noticed he was gaining weight until I went to a live taping. He was significantly heavier when he did the John Report with Bob in 1999-2000. The strange thing was that he was wearing a purple shirt yesterday-VERY cool shirt-but it wasn't his "usual" slimming black. THen again, he may have figured (probably not without some degree of accuracy), that a black shirt wouldn't help that much anymore. He did make fun of the weight gain, at least. I think he might have even done it "on the air," but I don't totally remember now.
Afterwards, I got to meet some of the cast members: John Keister, Bill Stainton, Tracey Conway (whom I've met once before, but clearly she didn't remember it), Pat Cashman, and Bill Nye. I did consider asking Joel McHale if he had finished any other movies or Burger King ads, but I didn't want to sound like a crazy stalker.
However, Chris Cashman was in the audience, which struck me as kind of a shame, because I thought, after all, he was in a couple of sketches, I assumed he'd get some sort of Seat of Honor. So I went up afterwards and introduced myself, and said it had bugged me for YEARS, and I wondered if he was, in fact, the kid who had been in "The Miracle of Sluggy." Yes, he said, he was. Apparently much of that was filmed at his house, the wood chips he rolled around in were wood chips he was supposed to rake up or spread out or something, the slime left by the slug was the hair gel out of his room (well, it was the early 90s. Or possibly the very late 80s. But either way). So that was nice. I told him HIS installment of the Sluggy saga was my favorite. He said his wife had been excited when they started running clips from the classic sketches, and one of them was a Sluggy bit. Unfortunately, the were running Sluggy, Come Home, which featured a different kid and a MUCH worse-looking slug. But anyway, so that was nice. Oh, and he said that when he was a kid, he had always gotten to come in through the back entrance, so it was kind of nice for him to come in through the front of the studio for once. Shows what I know. ;)
Featured clips include a bit from Billy Kwan, The Worst Girlfriend in the World, the High-Fivin' White Guys (All riiiiiiiiiight!), Ballard Driving School, Uncle Fran's Musical Forest, DJ/Waiter (probably the best DJ/_______ sketch), and of course, Speeeeedwalker. No Jet Guy, though.
Oh, but afterward they took a few questions from the audience. I could have asked Joel McHale about the movie thing THEN, but I didn't want to sound like a crazy stalker then, either. Anyway, someone asked about whether DVDs would be coming out. Apparently they used so many music and video clips without permission that putting it out would be hard. Or an invitation for a lawsuit. Which they didn't make any better by playing more music during the bumps illegally. Keister said he was considering putting it out himself, because there wouldn't be anything to take if he got sued. So he'd let us know if anything was coming. Don't know if there was any truth to any of that, but I reported it anyway.
I didn't know the reunion thing ws coming. I heard from my mom, who is friends with Tracey Conway and Bill Stainton. And a friend of mine also hadn't heard. So set your TiVos to Sept 12, KING5, 8 pm, I think. And catch Evening all this week.
If you get those shows. Don't if you don't.
And remember kids: Be like Billy; Behave yourself!
Then, apparently on Sept 12 (Monday), they will be airing the reunion episode taped yesterday. I think they said it would be at 8 PM.
I was surprised to see Joel McHale there. I assumed that since he's hosting Talk Soup or The Soup or whatever it's called these days that he would have to stay wherever that's filmed, but since I guess many talk shows are in reruns right now, he's free. And they had him doing a lot.
Similarly, I was disappointed that Lauren Weedman WASN'T there. I liked her a lot on Almost Live, and I LOVED her on the Daily Show. I also saw what I THINK was her first one-woman show after she left the Daily Show, "Rash," which was hilarious. I'd been hoping to find out what she's doing. I've seen her on Reno 911! a couple of times, but that can't be her full-time gig.
Ross Shaffer was also not there. We suspect that he has other things to do in California. Plus, I know a lot of folks who thought the show didn't really take off until he left the show. I didn't even start WATCHING it until after he left.
Bill Nye WAS there, and even did a Science Guy segment. Things explode, as should happen in any good science guy segment. I have to watch it on TV (as I was going to do anyway) because they had a camera set up directly above the explosion, but I only saw the very end of it in the monitor since I was watching Bill and John.
There was another great segment featuring Pat Cashman as an executive trying to explain things to hapless folks. Not unlike the sketch where he tries to explain the concept of WSU becoming a "dry campus." There's a gameshow about testing your Seattle IQ. Yet another Late Report. An interesting aside about the Late Report. I had hoped, since they were doing the reunion, that it would be the John Report. Since it wasn't, I wonder if KIRO owns the title "The John Report" now.
Ed Wyatt was also not there, which I confess I might not have noticed, except they were showing clips from their classic sketches, and there was one with Ed featured pretty prominently. I wonder where he was. And last night during the weekly Saturday at 1 AM rerun, they used the same opening credits sequence that they used in the reunion show, which doesn't include Joel McHale. But DOES include Ed Wyatt. Now, I knew they had edited Ed out, but it occurs to me right now that there was a credits sequenced filmed later without Ed but WITH Joel. Don't know why they didn't just use that. Bill Nye wasn't in either of those sequences, so he was screwed regardless, but still....
Most of them look pretty good and not THAT different from when they were on the show. Tracey Conway's hair is shorter and lighter, and Bill Stainton may be a little more bald. His hair is shorter than I think it used to be, too. Though the shorter thing may be what's making me think he's more bald.
The obvious exception would be John Keister, bless his heart, who is much more gray and quite a bit heavier. He'd actually been gaining weight during the last couple of seasons of the show, which was about the time he started wearing black shirts all the time. And it had actually worked pretty well-I hadn't noticed he was gaining weight until I went to a live taping. He was significantly heavier when he did the John Report with Bob in 1999-2000. The strange thing was that he was wearing a purple shirt yesterday-VERY cool shirt-but it wasn't his "usual" slimming black. THen again, he may have figured (probably not without some degree of accuracy), that a black shirt wouldn't help that much anymore. He did make fun of the weight gain, at least. I think he might have even done it "on the air," but I don't totally remember now.
Afterwards, I got to meet some of the cast members: John Keister, Bill Stainton, Tracey Conway (whom I've met once before, but clearly she didn't remember it), Pat Cashman, and Bill Nye. I did consider asking Joel McHale if he had finished any other movies or Burger King ads, but I didn't want to sound like a crazy stalker.
However, Chris Cashman was in the audience, which struck me as kind of a shame, because I thought, after all, he was in a couple of sketches, I assumed he'd get some sort of Seat of Honor. So I went up afterwards and introduced myself, and said it had bugged me for YEARS, and I wondered if he was, in fact, the kid who had been in "The Miracle of Sluggy." Yes, he said, he was. Apparently much of that was filmed at his house, the wood chips he rolled around in were wood chips he was supposed to rake up or spread out or something, the slime left by the slug was the hair gel out of his room (well, it was the early 90s. Or possibly the very late 80s. But either way). So that was nice. I told him HIS installment of the Sluggy saga was my favorite. He said his wife had been excited when they started running clips from the classic sketches, and one of them was a Sluggy bit. Unfortunately, the were running Sluggy, Come Home, which featured a different kid and a MUCH worse-looking slug. But anyway, so that was nice. Oh, and he said that when he was a kid, he had always gotten to come in through the back entrance, so it was kind of nice for him to come in through the front of the studio for once. Shows what I know. ;)
Featured clips include a bit from Billy Kwan, The Worst Girlfriend in the World, the High-Fivin' White Guys (All riiiiiiiiiight!), Ballard Driving School, Uncle Fran's Musical Forest, DJ/Waiter (probably the best DJ/_______ sketch), and of course, Speeeeedwalker. No Jet Guy, though.
Oh, but afterward they took a few questions from the audience. I could have asked Joel McHale about the movie thing THEN, but I didn't want to sound like a crazy stalker then, either. Anyway, someone asked about whether DVDs would be coming out. Apparently they used so many music and video clips without permission that putting it out would be hard. Or an invitation for a lawsuit. Which they didn't make any better by playing more music during the bumps illegally. Keister said he was considering putting it out himself, because there wouldn't be anything to take if he got sued. So he'd let us know if anything was coming. Don't know if there was any truth to any of that, but I reported it anyway.
I didn't know the reunion thing ws coming. I heard from my mom, who is friends with Tracey Conway and Bill Stainton. And a friend of mine also hadn't heard. So set your TiVos to Sept 12, KING5, 8 pm, I think. And catch Evening all this week.
If you get those shows. Don't if you don't.
And remember kids: Be like Billy; Behave yourself!