Northwest now is supported in part by viewers like you.

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Seattle, Washington.

Considered one of the country's most livable cities.

And yet it's a place shrouded in mystery, engulfed in enigma.

What are these stories?

What are these mysteries?

What is the deal with all the damn smoke here in the studio?

We unsolved mysteries of Seattle.

Well, Pat Cashman is certainly no mystery.

For more than 40 years, he's delighted Pacific Northwest television viewers playing a wide range of sketch comedy characters we all came to know and love.

But don't let Pat's comic antics fool you.

He's got more than two dozen Emmy Awards under his belt and is known for his roles as a writer, director and producer.

Pat Cashman joins us tonight on northwest now, You.

we all know Pat Cashman best for his run on Almost Live, where he typically played a fake news anchor or pitchman, a game show host, and other roles that took a little gravitas, but with a comic twist that, like the rest of the show, skewered everything and everybody who maybe took themselves just a little too seriously.

Pat was part of a beloved cast that all got together at the request of The Seattle Times to celebrate Almost Live's 40th anniversary, and our Steve Keegan's was there.

The rumble of memories past.

That's funny.

Builds to giggles.

Doesn't matter how many decades were in between.

Yeah.

You get together with this group of people and everyone instantly.

You remember all the stuff we did on The Comedians who trailblazing local television history on King Five's Almost Live.

We united this June.

Nearly every member of the show's cast came together at Seattle Space.

Now that's run by Northwest Icon.

That often became a punchline on TV.

Our head writer, Jim Sharp, said this like 30 years ago.

He goes, you know, these are the good old days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it was prophetic in a way.

Yeah.

Now all this time has passed.

And he was right.

And demand almost live hit the air in 1984 with Ross Schaefer as host when an inflatable gorilla loomed atop the needle.

The team took the wind out of the air.

Let's go boys.

We interrupt.

Later in 89, when John Keister was host in April Fools Day skit trick viewers when a fake news report claimed the needle had toppled rumor about the needle.

We've attacked the needle.

Many times over the years.

It's always been kind of a comic staple, and for some reason they went along with us.

Okay, everybody.

Almost live lampooned local stereotypes and rivalries.

A Seattle Times photoshoot captured the cast reunion, where one Seattle icon birds another, all to celebrate the show's exhibition at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry.

Just think, it's really cool that we're now going to be part of that big collection, you know?

It feels very nice.

It feels good.

Yeah, that feels good.

Until we learned that Bill Nye he's getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He also has a live exhibit at the Smithsonian.

Yes.

He used to live his Forrest Gump life.

Just sort of walking through speed, walking right through all speed, walking through it all.

Yes.

At Seattle Center, Steve Keegan's northwest now.

You can find the times articles in the August 25th Sunday Magazine and more in the paper's arts and entertainment section.

The almost Live celebration at Mohi runs through February of 2025.

While we best know Pat as a character based on his comic television roles, he's also a prolific writer, producer, radio host, video game voiceover artist, and public speaker.

Pat Cashman, thanks so much for coming to northwest.

Now, you've been on my list for a long darn time, and we finally been able to get our schedules coordinated to do this.

Talk to me a little bit.

Start with the start.

And that is you growing up in bend, Oregon.

talk about your childhood.

You did a great bit on video recently where you went back to your hometown and nobody knew you.

Nobody cared.

They must know who you are and what you've done.

That wasn't a bit that's actually they don't know and they don't care.

I did.

I grew up in a little town called bend, Oregon.

It was a little town when I grew up there.

Yeah, maybe 12,000 people.

It's ten times that size now.

And, we had two radio stations.

Just two.

And so when I got out of high school and college, I wanted to get into radio, and I thought, well, there's only two stations.

So one of them played music that your parents would like to listen to.

Andy Williams.

you know, the Ray kind of singers, stuff like that.

But the other station was the cool station.

They played rock and roll music, and that's the one I wanted to work at.

But they weren't hiring at the time.

So I went to work at the other station, and I got a call one day from the program director at the cool station, and he said, hey, Pat, I heard you on the air over there.

Would you like to work over here?

And I said, well, well, maybe, he said, let me ask you this.

How much money are you making over there at that other station?

I said, well, I'm making $400 a month.

He said, how does 425 sound?

Ooh, money talks.

Yeah, I took the gig.

Big, big, big role in back then.

Yeah, 425 a month.

you ended up producing commercials in Seattle, working on radio.

Did you ever think about taking a crack at Hollywood, moving down to LA and and trying acting, or what was your initial dream?

Was it an acting dream?

Was it a TV dream?

How did how did you see yourself early on?

Well, I, I guess I just was enthralled with the idea of broadcasting as a kid.

And I would set up they had a thing called record players.

In those days.

I can explain that technology to you now.

We don't have the time, but they, I had it in my room, and so I would do my own little fake radio shows.

Yeah, down there.

And I'd make my brothers.

I had four brothers.

They'd have to come and listen.

and so I was up to 4 or 5 listeners that at the time.

Yeah.

But I just loved it so much.

I wanted to pretend like I could be in that business.

I loved, you know, just just listening to old radio shows that my parents still had around.

And I thought, man, this this is the business for me.

I didn't know how I would get into it, but that's what I want to do.

Yeah.

And as far as going to Hollywood, I got a couple of opportunities to do that.

one of them was I was going to be the a news anchor at a at a station in Nebraska somewhere.

I used to be a network anchor.

And now, like, my fortunes have fallen and now I'm just working in a relatively small market.

And, that was the premise of the show, and it was going to be on five days a week.

So it was scripted five days a week, and it'd be like being in a soap opera.

You're going to have to go home every day, learn your lines for the next day.

Yep.

And so the money they were talking about, I wanted at least $425.

I was gonna say 450 was probably your price, right?

Yeah.

And the money was lousy, and then I'll never.

So I said, you know what?

I'm not going to do it.

And and they said the woman agent said the famous words that I hoped I would hear.

And she said, you're never going to work in this town again, mister.

I said, well, that's okay, because I've never work there in the first place.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Right.

You know, I don't think you being a news guy is so far fetched.

You have the voice.

You have the presence.

you you with a change in mindset and a little work in journalism, I think you could have done it.

Did you ever actually get pitched for that?

No, I did try out a couple times, but my problem was I'd always be looking at the wrong camera.

Yeah, that'll slow you down.

Yeah, it really was a handicap for me.

But, now I just.

I love the news.

I love, I love talking about politics and stuff, but I just never took myself seriously enough to.

Yeah, think that I would be credible as a news person to make that transition.

And yet that's the character you consistently played in almost life.

You were the talk show host, you were the news anchor.

You were the CEO doing the press conference.

There was a certain amount of gravitas that you brought to those rules, but with a twist and an ironic sense of humor poking fun at those who maybe took themselves a little too seriously, which I think everybody appreciates.

I think pomposity was my specialty.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you play pomposity.

Well, thank you for that comes naturally to me.

So it's very easy.

Yeah, yeah.

So talk about the almost live gig.

How did you come to Seattle and how did you find yourself in in that on that show?

I had come to Seattle to be a commercial producer.

In other words, a person that produces commercials.

Yeah.

TV stations have sales departments.

They go out and they get accounts, and then they have to produce a commercial to put on the air.

People that don't have an ad agency that does that for them.

That would be my job.

I'd go out and go to the business and we'd go out and I'd write a commercial.

We'd go out and shoot it and put it on the air.

And along the way, King TV was the place where I was plying that trade, and they decided they wanted to put a promotion department of their own.

They used to have ad agencies.

They would do promotions.

Stations have promotions.

Cbdc does.

I'm sure.

And they said, why don't we just do that here at the station?

Why are we hiring this ad agency cash?

Wouldn't you be the creative director and you'll write commercials basically for, to sell our news product and our other programing.

And so that's what I did.

And they gave me the opportunity not just to do standard promos, but I wanted to do funny ones, or at least personality driven promos.

great news anchor named Jean Anderson, for example.

I wanted to show her at home with her kids or humanize them with her dad out fishing, that kind of stuff.

And when and when we could, we would try to make have a little twist funny ending to them as well.

So that's kind of how I got in the door there.

And then of, about 1984, in fact, exactly 1984, a program director wanted to put on a local comedy TV show, and they tried a couple of times.

They did some pilots, none of them quite worked.

And, but finally they did a vehicle called almost Live and they, they went on the air, I think they were an hour long.

It was on Sundays and 6 p.m. terrible time slot for would be comedy show.

And I always equate it to like, a student newspaper.

students disgruntled.

Say, that's old crummy newspaper.

We'll start our own newspaper.

Well, that always worked for, like, 1 or 2 issues, and then you're out of ideas, right?

And that's kind of what happened with Almost Live.

They had a small staff, and pretty soon this hungry animal needed more food to feed that goat.

So they started going around, hey, can you do a vet, could you, and cash with you?

You write funny commercials, why don't you write some funny bits?

So I wasn't really part of the show initially, but I just would contribute things once in a while.

It's kind of an enviable position to be in.

And then you became, I would say you're arguably one of the driving forces on that show.

Well, I don't know about that.

but I'll say it.

All right.

Good.

Yeah.

Can you say it again?

Sure.

You were one of the driving forces on that show.

I can't with that said, do you think that show would work today?

What made it work?

And are we too sensitive and to tender and too politically correct for that show to work today?

Well, it's hard to go back almost 40 years now.

When the show started.

but I think what made it work, it's not even a, it's not even a guess is what made it work is that we, focused on local neighborhoods and communities and the people who populated them.

that's what people tuned in for.

They can they can watch any number of other national comedy shows for for those kind of laugh.

But this was this was particular and it was parochial, and it was about where people live in the neighborhoods.

And if if you lived in Ballard and they did a Ballard joke on Almost Live, man, you couldn't wait to tell your friends about it on Monday.

And, and, and so for the most part, that's that was his life.

But let's keep it local.

Let's make jokes about Kent and Lynnwood and Bellevue and Mercer Island and and we would take a lot of existing franchises and make them morph them.

There'd be like cops from the island, cops from with a bunch of bored guys.

Yeah.

There's no crime, you know.

Yeah.

That that's that's basically what the cops in Leavenworth, they, the, the policemen wore leader hoses and and they played bad boys on one of those long horns, too.

A couple months ago in this this past summer, you were part of a Seattle Times cover story shoot for the 40th anniversary of almost like.

Go figure.

And, in August, they started the exhibit at Mojave, Mojave for the show.

That seems like a pretty, pretty big honor.

That, too.

Does it feel like 40 years ago?

No, no it doesn't.

I don't even know what 40 years feels like.

But I always thought it would take longer than than the 40 years have.

They've kind of flown by.

But it's funny, when we got back together again, it's.

Try as we might, you do lose touch, with some of your colleagues from those days.

It's inevitable.

So when we all got back together again, it's like we've just picked right on.

Yeah.

You know, you always hear that.

But it really was like that again.

And we would ruminate about, could we do jokes about, I don't know, Seattle's, city council now.

Yeah.

Prostitution on Aurora with the lawyers.

I mean, something like that.

No, no, because now it's about human trafficking.

That's right.

That's not funny anymore, Pat.

So my point is, I guess if I had one, is, is that you could do a show like that, it just would be different now.

You'd have different sensitivities.

We look at some of the old bits we did on Almost Live and Co, and I don't think we could do that now, but we could do that if we changed it this way.

Sometimes we would do things that were, so controversial or so.

so fraught with peril if you.

Yeah, that we would just avoid that.

And I'm thinking of one in particular.

It's tawdry.

I'm sorry, but there was a fellow who, years ago down in Unum Club, I believe it is, had I his way, shall I say, with a horse.

Right.

It made the news.

So we said, what are we going to do?

We got to if everybody's talking about it, we got to do something.

So we just simply began the show.

John Keister came out and was doing his monologue, and we got two interns to walk out, in a horse outfit.

And then John was just able to look over and say, no, we're not going there in that.

But so we made enough said.

And I said, yeah, nothing, nothing would be funnier than that.

And or should be at least, was, was working on that show a riot or was it hard or were people competitive and trying to get bits on the air?

What was the what was the tone and the tenor of working that program?

Well, I've always heard in a read a lot about place places like Saturday Night Live, where it would be very competitive.

Yeah, it would be a lot of backbiting.

You're desperate to, you know, get something on the air.

they're not they have not done any of my bits.

I'm really getting frustrated.

if none of that was my experience, it almost live.

It was a very collegial, there was certainly competition, but it wasn't as overt as it would be.

Yeah, in other places.

And basically our mission was we got to get this show on the air and we welcome, any and all good ideas, and we got to execute them.

We don't have a month to plan this thing.

We got two days.

Yeah, to get going here and go shoot a bit.

And so there was a bit of pressure that way.

But it it never felt like a pressure cooker to me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was just fun.

40 years ago since the program start, started here in 2024, 25 years since the show ended.

and it kept on in syndication and it's been in reruns, which is possibly why people still know about it.

I think you're right and are still familiar with the cast.

talk a little bit about what you do to keep from looking backwards too much.

I think that's a trap that people here in our profession can fall into sometime.

Hey, those were the good old days, man.

In the 90s, we did this.

We're flying around with our hair on fire out of a helicopter covering news stories.

Well, what are you.

What are you working on now?

What are you doing?

How do you.

How do you do that when people immediately want to go back to almost live with you?

what is kept you occupied?

And what has kept you from being too rearward looking?

Well, my, my paper route, I still have a paper route, so I always come during the media.

You don't always fall back on that.

And I was a food taster for a number of years for, the Alpo factory.

but, basically almost live, provided I think all of the people on it with a platform that people said, oh, I've seen you on I know who you are.

Yeah.

That that was greatly beneficial when you're looking for other kinds of work and, they would think of you to do a be in a commercial or to think of you to be on another TV show or, or to write something.

so it was just a great springboard for other things.

Other than that, I don't look back at it and gee, I wish I was still doing it.

It was a 15 year moment in time.

Yes, but it was it was a, remarkable opportunity, I think, of so many brilliant people walking around this area that would have been way better than me on that show.

But they just didn't get the chance.

Yeah, I just happened to be in the building.

Well thank goodness.

Yeah, I'll say that there.

Well, you probably have a lifetime golden ticket to Taco Time.

I would guess.

so you can eat whatever you want.

So I don't know if you're still working, but, I mean, you do do public speaking, so that's a, lot of private speaking to make sure you do.

Yeah, let's keep that on the deal.

So what do you what do you do to to fill that time?

That's what I do.

I do that I do a couple of podcasts.

I do there's one if anybody is interested in Almost Live, I interviewed each cast member.

the old producers, almost anybody tangentially involved with Almost live in a whole series of interviews on a website called Almost Live, Still Alive.

dot com.

Okay.

And that's the other miraculous thing.

Those were all still alive.

Yeah.

That could change before this interview goes on here.

Yeah.

Let's hope not.

Keep it together over there.

Pat.

It's not me.

I'm a little busy right now.

Yeah.

Try not to stroke out here at northwestern for all, though, because I keep touching my microphone.

Yeah, you're a real probably no audio, guys.

You got to go to broadcast school to learn that one.

Yeah.

you did, talk a little bit about the 206.

That was an attempt to spin off almost live and to kind of reinvigorate it.

it was on then it went away, but then you got picked up in some other markets.

I'm a little fuzzy on that.

How did that come about and what ended up happening with it?

yeah, it's a tool.

We only use the product of Almost Live as a way to say, well, let's see what they got.

You know, if we were just a complete unknowns trying to start a local comedy show again, it might have never happened.

So we kind of engineered it, engineered it in a back, weird sort of way.

We we, went to a couple of comedy clubs.

We did a little stand up, we being my son Chris, me and John Keister and.

And then we would play some videotapes at the comedy venue of bits that we had shot maybe a couple of weeks ago.

We were just trying to get it, the temperature of the audience and see, this is stuff that people still want this kind of thing over here.

Well, they did, and it seemed to us that they did.

So that's how the show got, on the air.

King TV ran it, but it wasn't produced to King TV.

We just did it ourselves in a local studio, mostly at Fremont Studios.

Yeah.

in, in north part of Seattle and, and that and that was it again, stressing local ness as much as we could.

Yeah.

Then at one point, we got an opportunity to get on in other markets.

Right.

And that was going to be Boise.

That was going to be Spokane, Portland, Eugene, Medford, Oregon.

So we thought, well, the 206 that's a title wouldn't make any sense there.

So we changed the show's name to Up Late Northwest.

Okay.

And we thought because we're on on all these markets now, advertising was going to be a breeze.

Right?

People will be knocking at our door.

Of course.

Come on, let's.

Schwab.

Yes.

Come on in.

Yeah, but it didn't work that way.

In fact, we found it even more difficult to find sponsors and and it got to the point where, my son and I were paying the staff and the crew and everybody, and that was it.

The money was gone after that.

So much as we loved it, we realized we can't sustain this.

Talk a little bit about the demise of local production in local television.

You and I both remember a times when TV stations would have a cooking show, and a kids show and a and in Seattle's case, a comedy show, which was unusual for this market.

But generally speaking, local production was a thing.

If you owned a local TV station, it's so sad to see it gone.

there is news, of course, that's locally produced, but everything else is gone.

And it added such a vitality to the TV station when there are many things going on an afternoon talk show and those staffs and those crews, what happened there and why can't we have it anymore?

I don't know, I wish I knew the answer to that.

a lot of local TV is not owned locally.

That, that's the fact.

I mean, King TV now was owned for a while by a company in, Rhode Island.

And then now I think it's an outfit out of Texas, but it's not local ownership any they don't have a lot of skin in the game.

Yeah.

Because they got other stations around the country.

so that's part of it, I think.

But it's a really sad that it's not that way anymore.

Well, it's in the eye and ear of the beholder, I guess a younger person, 20s and 30s, they don't they don't know what kind of television you were talking about.

Yeah.

Just now Tom.

So they don't miss it because they never know it.

Yeah.

And then go on YouTube, create their own thing with an iPhone.

Absolutely.

And they have a show.

Yeah.

It's always occurs to me when I'm driving down any neighborhood that I said, I bet there's at least four studios just in this blocks.

Indoor people have in their in their house.

Everybody's got that capability now and can go out and shoot their own stuff.

Yep.

That's that's pretty good.

What did you consider to be your secret sauce?

Is it Pat Cashman kept working.

He kept finding the next gig.

Why I don't I don't know, I, I guess I just, when I drive down the street, go into a supermarket and go into a mall or, you know, church or wherever.

I'm always looking for stuff.

Always looking for what?

Something that's funny.

Or isn't that a weird thing?

I wonder if anybody else ever noticed that.

Yeah.

You know, and it can be just something simple like that.

I remember I did a bit.

I used to come in from the parking garage at King TV every day, and there'd be a big sign on a door in front of me that said, not an exit, I think, well, why is the door even there if that's not an exit?

And then that developed into a whole bit.

Yeah.

Where there's a committee of people, a safety committee, because the bit starts with a guy going out that door just to see why it's not an exit.

And then he falls five storey straight below.

Then then they, panelist safety committee say, now why is this keep happening?

Yeah.

Could it be something to do with the door saying not an exit?

Yeah.

It doesn't tell you what the consequence would be however, if you did go out that door.

So we need to put more information on there.

And then one timid guy says, I got an idea.

Why don't we, why don't we just brought it up so nobody can go through it and everybody goes, that's a stupid idea.

You know?

They put him down, he backs down and said, no, you're right.

Yeah, yeah.

No, that's the way that would be.

No.

So that and that innate observational capability and creativity is not the best example.

But that's what it is.

Yeah.

You're constantly going through that process.

In our last 60s here, I, we joked about you having a stroke here on the southern northwest.

Now, let's hope you have many good years in front of you.

But when you think about legacy, what do you want people to remember or to know about Pat Cashman, and what are you most proud of?

I paid most of my taxes.

I, I, I never killed a guy, intentionally.

no, seriously, I, I don't think about, much about that, those things, if they meant something to somebody, that's great.

But, nothing lasts.

forever.

Just for me, it was just a wonderful opportunity to get to do something that I really didn't deserve to get.

It was just kind of a series of lucky accidents.

And the next thing you know, you look back and say, hey, that was that was quite a ride.

Yeah.

I can't believe I managed to jump that train.

Well, in your case, here's to happenstance.

we are glad to have you.

Thanks so much for coming to northwest now, Pat.

Thanks, Tom.

Where's the exit?

The term treasure is thrown around pretty easily these days.

The bottom line Pat Cashman is a treasure with a long history of entertaining all of us here in the Pacific Northwest.

My thanks to Pat for coming to northwest now.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

You can watch this program and find it on the web at kbtc.org.

Stream it through the PBS app, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

That's going to do it for this edition of northwest now, until next time, I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching.