"Let's Bowl" looks for big laughs between the gutters - News, Notes & Quotes - Brief Article

Bowling Digest, Feb, 2002 by Brett Ballantini

CAN A BOWLING ALLEY be transformed into a courtroom? "Let's Bowl" producers Tim Scott and Rich Kronfeld want you to think so, figuring that if there's a gripe to settle, it might as well happen on the lanes.

Picture the scene taking place inside St. Paul's Wells Lanes: Ernie Jansen's Mega-Jam churns out riffs on the organ. A rowdy crowd has sidled in, ready for some unorthodox tenpin action. The Queen Pins (Amanda Brewer and Audrey Crabtree) stand on either side of the playing alley, executing synchronized moves as balls crash into the pins. And central to the action are two bowlers with beefs, facing off to settle their disagreement and potentially take home a grand prize such as a 1973 Dodge Charger, a used snowmobile, or thousands of dollars in scratched furniture.

"Let's Bowl" has been a staple of the Minnesota viewing diet for years. And now it's just completed its first season as a national spectacle, airing Sundays at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on Comedy Central.

The program by and large turns a "Bowling for Dollars" format into big laughs. But don't think this kitsch merely coasts on bowling's new-school cool (as seen in the wave of new "retro" bowling shirts and bags and NBC's "Ed"--which also combines comedy, bowling, and law). "Let's Bowl" is less mod, more Minnesota.

Steve "Chopper" Sedahl plays the straight play-by-play man to neurotic, unhappy commentator, Wally Hotvedt (Kronfeld). The two wear circa-'70s powder-blue polyester suits and vintage headsets. While Sedahl tries to treat the bowling (and bowlers) with respect, Kronfeld taunts contestants and complains for the duration of the show.

The program is comprised of a normal 10-frame game. Who bowls first? Whoever has the largest credit-card debt. When a polka-dotted headpin appears (the "Polka Frame"), the bowler who rolls a strike wins a year's supply of Polish sausage or a quarter-cow's worth of beef. Once a game, bowlers can use a "distraction option" by sounding an ak horn to startle his or her opponent.

Comedy sketches, such as "Inside Bowling" (featuring useful instructionals like "How to Dispose of an Old Bowling Ball," which suggested throwing old balls in a ditch, flushing them down portable toilets, or mailing them to Wally's ex-wife), run throughout the game. There also are biographical segments on Wally's and Chopper's pre-"Let's Bowl" lives.

"Let's Bowl" started its run several years ago on a St. Cloud UHF station. It eventually hopped to the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis before finding its nationwide home on Comedy Central. If you enjoy the show, check out its entertaining, interactive Web site (www.LetsBowl.com), which features the Ten Frames of Fury game and invites devoted viewers into the Alley Cat Fan Club.