Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 4.8

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 4.8
Channel Four
14 March 1992
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

This episode almost overcomes Chip smirking and Archie being Archie (unfunny, homophobic, etc.).  It's good to see the teamwork between Greg and Ryan, including on a flawless Alphabet (no letter skipped and not too much forced, other than "Xactly no.")  And Chip's reggae tribute to a woman in the audience, Yvette the receptionist, is one of the better things he's done.  Note that Greg picks George Bush (Sr.) as World's Worst person to be a parent, while Chip picks Clive.  And it is Greg who names Ryan's clown character in Helping Hands "Bobo," suggesting that either this is a standard character for Ryan and/or Greg watched Ryan's Who's the Boss? cameo a year ago.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.14

Sorry, Ryan, escape is not that easy.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.14
Channel Four
19 April 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
C-

An unworkable line-up, with a more racist and homophobic than ever Archie Hahn, and a looking out of place John Sessions.  I almost went with a D+, but one, the audience is not too obnoxious this time, and Mike has moments when he almost saves it, like his reaction to John breaking a scythe in Props, and his Audition for The Greasy, Dead Godfather Society.  This is the last we'll see of John on this programme, but he'd redeem himself six years later as the narrator of a Tom Jones adaptation.  And Archie would be back one more time, the following year.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.9

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.9
Channel Four
12 January 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
C

I can't think of any reason to recommend this episode to anyone except the completist, unless you want to hear Jonathan complain about being upstaged by John, when that should come as little surprise on their second episode together.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.2

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.2
Channel Four
17 November 1989
Improv Game Show
DVD
C

I would've gone with a C+, since I like Josie's reggae Song Styles about an ironing board, as well as the Party Quirks, where Tony offers Archie a Twiglet, apparently having decided to borrow Paul Merton's running joke.  But the "crapped on by a helicopter" Sound Effects is really gross and unfunny, possibly the worst ever of that game.  (If there are worse, I've blanked them out.)  Some mild Tony/Josie flirting in FATS.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 1 Compilation 1

Clive

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 1 Compilation 1
Channel 4
2 December 1988
Improv Game Show
DVD
B-

Despite Clive joking in an episode this season that this programme aired live, in fact a lot of material was shot each week, and then edited down to the episodes we see.  The compilations of each series allow us to view some of the leftover material, which understandably was dropped in a few cases, and in others offers little gems.  The material on this first of two compilations of the first series has selections from 1.1., 1.5, 1.10, and understandably quite a bit from 1.9.  Some of the memorable moments here:

• Tony hosting Party Quirks for the first time, with Mike as a Kissogram (this would have an unexpected pay-off two or three years later);
• Clive rambling on about putting audience members into envelopes, as Tony indulges him;
• Josie reacting to one of Tony's celebrity insults (Anne Diamond) with "Oh, that's cruel!;
• Josie flirting with Paul in FATS, culminating in him inviting her to the back of his Volkswagon;
• John and Archie in their FATS respectively kicking (or at least miming kicking) Archie in the crotch, and saying the word "clitoris";
• Stephen and Josie flirting in their Film Dub, although they turn the male-female couple into students at a boys' school; 
• and Paul responding to the suggestion "It's only cotton wool," with "But I like it.  That's a Rolling Stones song, isn't it?"

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 1.2

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 1.2
Channel 4
30 September 1988
Improv Game Show
DVD
C-

Not particularly funny, with racial and ethnic stereotypes, and (mostly on the part of Bremner) references to British celebrities who are not funny merely being name-checked*, the only thing to recommend this episode to anyone but the completist is John's Griff Rhys Jones impression, and that's more fun to see when you get Griff's onscreen reaction in a later episode.  Note that Richard Vranch appears briefly onscreen and is in the credits, but he doesn't perform in the episode as aired, so I won't be tagging him.  Also, Jimmy did Dylan Thomas for Authors on the radio programme and made the same "die the bread" joke there.


*Tony Slattery would find a way to make such jokes accessible even to an American who had never and in many cases still hasn't heard of these people.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 1.1

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 1.1
Channel 4
Improv Game Show
23 September 1988
DVD
C+

It sort of starts here.  That is, WLIIA was a successful radio programme earlier in '88 (I have an officially released in the UK cassette that contains two episodes), and then it moved to television, with host Clive Anderson and regular panelist John Sessions intact.  (Other regular Stephen Fry would make occasional appearances on the telly version.)  The Pilot was filmed before this episode (which I used to number as 2), but didn't air till later, with a special introduction by Clive.  I first encountered WLIIA on Oregon Public Broadcasting in 1990 and thought it was a typically short-run British programme.  The then-husband and I taped five episodes.  And then in 1992 we rediscovered the show on Comedy Central, both the older and brand-new episodes.

And that's enough background for the moment.  Other than historical interest, the main two reasons to watch this episode are because Josie seems utterly charmed and amused by her fellow Comedy Store Player Paul, and because Paul hosts Party Quirks.  He "teases us all," as Clive puts it, by playing with the conventions of the game (already!) and taking his sweet time to guess about his guests.  He also references Twiglets for the first of what will be many times.  As for John and Archie, the former also has his best moment at the Party, playing a Theatre Director, while the latter "wins" the episode, the first of many unjust wins by various contestants, although this is by no means Hahn's worst episode.

Note that Clive mispronounces musician Vranch's last name as "Vrance."  Paul O'Dell directs, as he would for the rest of the 1988 series.

Three's Company: The Babysitters

Three's Company: The Babysitters
ABC
January 17, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B

This is an NRW adaptation of a MAtH episode I don't currently have, where it's a Robin & Chrissy plot.  There are some differences, including much more sexual tension between the British babysitters, but it's overall the same plot.  Janet has a date and can't babysit for her friends the Randalls.  (Jerry Randall is played by Archie Hahn, who was on The Bob Newhart Show a couple times and who would go on to Whose Line Is It Anyway?)  She pressures Chrissy and Jack into covering for her.  This is the episode where Mrs. Roper innocently says the word "nipple."

Sheila Rogers, Punkin's mother, had appeared on That Girl and What's Happening!!, but she's more memorable for her four later appearances on 3'sC, as a nurse at Terry's hospital.

The Bob Newhart Show: Bum Voyage

The Bob Newhart Show: Bum Voyage
CBS
March 3, 1973
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Bob's group continues to solidify, with Mrs. Bakerman, Mr. Carlin, Mr. Gianelli, Mr. Peterson, and Michelle (yes, she's referred to by her first name rather than her last, unlike the others) all in one episode and interacting with each other.  Unfortunately, the writing (by Austin and Irma Kalish) for them and the main five is not quite at the level it could be.  And it seems a bit odd to have Bob and Emily going away for a two-month long trip in the penultimate episode of the season.  Maybe they didn't have the budget to show them in Europe (or Mexico awhile back), but it's off balance to have so much energy put into them leaving, with none of the trip or even its return.

This time Archie Hahn plays the German-accented Steward.

The Bob Newhart Show: I Want to Be Alone

The Bob Newhart Show: I Want to Be Alone
CBS
December 2, 1972
Sitcom
DVD
B

Jerry Mayer's second BNS script further solidifies the characterization, particularly that of Emily and Howard.  Daily's delivery on "God, I hope that's Bob!" is just right, and you can see how proud Emily is of herself for not only hosting but speaking up at a teachers' meeting.  Mayer can even be credited with initiating the running joke that Mr. Carlin wears a toupee.  Newhart gets some good scenes, on his own and with others, but that's less surprising.

Patricia Smith makes her last appearance as Margaret, claiming to have only two kids.  (Maybe she doesn't count the baby as a kid who knows about the facts of life.)  Helen Page Camp, who was Myrna Hoover on the Pilot, is Mrs. Prince here.  Nora Marlowe has her first of three BNS roles, as Mrs. Brandell.  Bernie Kopell makes his only appearance on the show, as swinging bachelor Dr. Arnold.  Thirty-one-year-old Archie Hahn makes his screen debut, as the Bellman.