For many, the weekend is a time for viewing rituals. Some tune in to see Saturday Night Live as it’s airing. Others appoint one of the weekend evenings to be movie night. Many make time between Friday and Sunday nights to watch sports and binge TV shows. And if you live in select Wisconsin markets, weekends are a prime to check out some televised polka action.
Yes, our heavily-Polish-populated state has its very own polka-based program. Fittingly, the show is called Polka! Polka! Polka! and it has been a public access television fixture on select Wisconsin stations since (at least) the late 1990s. This extremely niche show is a labor of love for creator, director, producer, and host Colleen Van Ells.
Though the structure has changed a little through the years (such as ditching in-person interview segments), the crux of the Polka! Polka! Polka! format has remained unaltered throughout its approximately 30-year run. Van Ells sets up cameras in the periphery of places where polka is being played in Wisconsin and then films those performances. Footage is shot at rural supper clubs, public parks, far-flung venues, full-fledged festivals, and pretty much anywhere else polka is still played and enjoyed in the Badger State.
Once Van Ells applies voiceovers and graphics to accompany the live performance footage, Polka! Polka! Polka! is ready to hit airwaves. Currently, the show airs in the Milwaukee area on CW18 from 9-10 p.m. on Saturdays. On Sundays, Green Bay-adjacent viewers get to watch it on CW14 from 11 a.m. to noon. Admittedly, we can’t count ourselves as longtime viewers, but when an email tip about the show’s existence from a reader named Andy hit our inbox last spring, we started recording episodes and tuning in from time to time.
With Polish Fest (and, likely, a Polka! Polka! Polka! filming session) set to take place at Henry Maier Festival Park this weekend, we decided to watch the latest episode of this polka-packed public access show and share our thoughts.
Following the intro song and visuals, Van Ells—via voiceover—welcomes viewers to the June 7, 2025-aired episode before introducing that week’s shooting location and band. This time around, Eddie Larsen Orchestra out of De Pere, Wisconsin was doing its thing at Memories Ballroom, a hall outside of Port Washington. The self-described “Slovenian-style” polka project kicked its set off with “An Old Style Waltz” and “The Sweet Memories Waltz” and got much of the luncheon crowd on its feet to sway to the altogether pleasing sounds from a bygone era.
Just as Larsen and co. were finding their groove after two songs, the first of five ad breaks came. Since Polka! Polka! Polka! is technically considered a Paid Commercial, Van Ells is quite cleverly able to include ads from sponsors in her episodes, which help finance the show’s production. Many of them are recurring spots, both within the same episode and across other episodes. We’ve seen Feil’s Supper Club promoted on previous installments, and we’d see this ad (complete with Van Ells’ voice talking about the Randolph, Wisconsin restaurant’s 15-foot soup and salad bar and “the best website [she’s] ever been to”) three times total before the hour-long episode was through.
Most of the sponsors last Saturday were in the realm of bars, supper clubs, and the like. However, there were also ads for a Green Bay-based nutrition store, a wellness center that also offered a limo service, two different florists (one of which had their banner posted behind the stage during the performance), a hotel, a general tourism ad for the city of Port Washington, and a one-off ad for an Elvis impersonator’s upcoming concert at a sports bar in Kewaunee.
Each one included ad copy and personal anecdotes (“People tell me it’s even better than I say it is. Well, then I guess I’m not doing my job very well!) read in Van Ells’ upbeat and endearing northern Wisconsin accent.
Between ad breaks, Eddie Larsen Orchestra kept the fun going by playing so-called “Latin Songs” (“Spanish Eyes” and “Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White”), as well as classics like “Old Oklahoma Waltz,” a medley of Vienna Waltzes, “Cab Driver,” and “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”…which brought back memories of a certain parody song we heard on infomercials as a kid.
The hall’s dance floor remained full of dancers for the duration of the set. Even those who didn’t dance seemed to enjoy the show, including this guy who was vibing between bites of his burger.
By the time one member of the polka combo lugged his tuba onto the dance floor to play the only song they didn’t identify, this Port Washington-area audience was putty in the orchestra’s hands. “The Vagabond Waltz”—dedicated to a woman named Kitty—ended the set in grand fashion. Following a tasteful fade out, the closing credits preceded an episode-ending message from Van Ells played asking viewers for support (via sponsorship or donations) to help keep her show going.
THAT ‘POLKA! POLKA! POLKA!’ SHOW ON CW18: Instead of writing our own (favorable) review of this distinctly Wisconsin public access show, we think the aforementioned reader Andy’s emailed thoughts sum the show up pretty well, so we’ll leave it to him:
“If I’m home on Saturday nights, I’ll try to catch it. Pretty awesomely low-budget and charming. Just an hour of people dancing to polka bands here in Wisconsin. In between songs, there are hyper-local, up-north commercials narrated by the host, a woman whose name I didn’t catch, who has a very up-north Wisconsin accent. The whole thing has a very charming Wisconsin culture vibe. I’d like to know more about this show and its host, and I feel like more people should know about it too. It’s the best.”
Check out this 2014 episode (one of the few installments we can find online) and if you like what you see, tune into your Milwaukee or Green Bay CW affiliate to make Polka! Polka! Polka! part of your weekend viewing ritual.