Genuine Northwest Video: The Stan Boreson Show Video review for the Stranger, 5/5/92 You who did not have childhoods here do not know the roots of Northwest humor. Lynda Barry, Gary Larson, and Almost Live have at least some inspiration in the deceptive wackiness propagated at KING-TV, with its "Cartooning Weathermen" and with the kids' show KING's Klubhouse, later retitled The Stan Boreson Show. A home-video retrospective of the Boreson show has been out since last Christmas. It's one hour of fuzzy black and white films of Boreson's songs and gags. You can buy it from better video stores; Tower on Mercer rents it. Boreson toured 25 countries as a young USO musician during World War II. As a GI Bill student at the UW in 1949, he got onto a student-talent show on KING, the region's first TV station. From there he got his own weekly variety show. He told Scandinavian-dialect stories and skits and sang corny songs, accompanying himself on accordion and piano. In 1956, KING assigned Boreson to create a kiddie show. He teamed up with Doug Setterberg, who'd been doing his own dialect humor on KOMO's Scandia Barn Dance. Instead of stealing concepts from Howdy Doody or Bozo, Boreson and Setterberg combined their salty-Swede comedy with shticks inspired by the best prime-time comics, especially Ernie Kovacs. Kovacs' "Mr. Question Man" was ethnicified into Setterberg's "Swedish Answerman." Setterberg was also Uncle Torvald, the other half of Boreson's drag character Grandma Torvald. But mostly Stan was the straight man of the team. He made the live appearances at supermarkets and schools. He hawked the Twinkies in the live commercials. He sang the opening theme ("Zero-dochus, mucho-crockus, hallazaboobabub, that's the secret password that we use down at the club") and the Friday-afternoon pean to family values ("Let's go to Sunday school, learn about the Golden Rule"). Boreson and Setterberg made several "Stan & Doug" albums for national record labels. In addition to their own songs, they remade songs done in the 1940s by Yogi Yorgeson (a character created by network radio comedian Harry Stewart), with names like "Frida the Clamdigger's Sweetheart". A Yorgeson song became Boreson's annual holiday tune, "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas." Setterberg got equal billing on the records, but was uncredited on the show except for the final episode in 1968. In 1965, doctors diagnosed Setterberg with cancer and replaced his larynx with an electronic voice box. (The man who played the computer voice in the movie Alphaville had a similar implant.) Setterberg came back as three new characters: a puppet frog, a Harpo-like mime, and an old man with the appropriate (for his voice) name of Foghorn Peterson. The most poignant moment on the video shows Setterberg as Foghorn, reciting bad poetry (another Kovacs swipe), costumed with a big scarf to hide his electronics, carrying on as a real trouper. Setterberg's final TV appearance is not on the video. After the show ended, Boreson made one more Stan & Doug album, singing both parts. They appeared on KING's morning talk show, with Setterberg talking in his electronic voice. Then they lip-synced from the record, with Doug mouthing Stan's impersonation of Doug's former voice. Doug died soon after that, but Stan's still with us. He's run a series of business ventures over the years, and now packages tour groups. He still performs across the country, and has appeared six times on Garrison Keillor's radio shows. But to know what he was really about, you've got to see the video. It's not slick, it's not fast, it's not outrageous. It's not "funny" in today's aggressive way. It's a quirkily bizarre humor, played against Boreson's deceptively plain persona. It's a pleasant trip to a distinctly Seattle brand of light absurdity.

2001 COLUMNS 2000 COLUMNS 1999 COLUMNS 1999 COLUMNS 1998 COLUMNS 1997 COLUMNS 1996 COLUMNS 1995 COLUMNS 1986-94 COLUMNS ESSAYS FICTION X-WORDS 'THE BIG BOOK OF MISC.' THE BOOK 'LOSER' MISCmedia, THE MAGAZINE FUTURE PROJECTS CYBER STUFF THINGS I LIKE 'MISC. TALK' DISCUSSION FORUM CLARK'S CULTURE CORRAL: BOOKS, MUSIC, MOVIES REVIEWED AND SOLD Books Popular Music Classical Music Video (Support MISC. Media; make your Amazon.com purchases thru this link.)