Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.23

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.23
ABC
February 10, 2000
Improv Game Show
VHS
B-

Drew calls Africa a country rather than a continent and it turns into a splendid running joke as the contestants razz him in almost every following game.  (Nonetheless, it looks like African Chant would be a game used three times more.)

And thus ends 2000, and the Bill Clinton era, in my television collection.  (Note that it's also sort of the 100th time I've reviewed WLIIA, in the sense that I reviewed the Paul Merton biography that featured a clip from his first episode.)

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.19

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.19
ABC
January 13, 2000
Improv Game Show
VHS
B-

Kicking off Y2K in my TV collection, this is pretty funny, especially Questionable Impressions, where Wayne's Jar Jar renders Greg's Yoda speechless.  (You get to see Ryan as Katharine Hepburn, too.)  Ryan and Colin are also amusing trying to be Scottish in Whose Line.  Note that the hat in Scenes from a Hat is an Uncle Sam hat, like back in the New York episodes of '91 and '92.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.17

Duet, one of the better games.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.17
ABC
December 16, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
C

Too many "The points don't matter" lines, too much cross-promotion of The Drew Carey Show, and too many jokes about prison rape.  And so end the 1990s in my television collection.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.13

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.13
ABC
November 18, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Josie makes her second of two appearances on the American version of the television show that she helped launch eleven years before and ends up getting censored for something about "dead cats" (edited out) and "eating pussy" (definitely edited out).  She does a nice job dueting with Wayne, although it's not as magical as some of her duets with Mike McShane.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.4

Linda and Laura

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 2.4
ABC
October 7, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

This episode has a lot of three-person games, including Three-Headed Broadway Star (omitting Greg), but my favorite is the four-person Let's Make a Date, where the three potential dates for Wayne fit a little too well, as casting and as a team: Wayne must choose between Bachelor #1, Greg as an Exorcist; Bachelor #2, Colin as a Rabid Canadian Hockey Player; and Bachelor #3, Ryan as a Strip Club Bouncer (which I believe he was in real life when he was about twenty).  Drew's tendency to elaborate on the already annoying "The points don't matter" with "...just like..." is already going here in the second season of what I was calling by then Drew's Line.  And guitarist Linda Taylor joins keyboardist Laura Hall for the music, including funk and other styles for Wayne in Greatest Hits.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 1.14

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 1.14
ABC
February 3, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Ian Gomez joins the regulars for, among other things, Weird Newscasters, where he plays Ricky Ricardo.  The highlight of the episode is probably Brad doing the B-52s.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: US Episode 1.12

Poor Brad!

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: US Episode 1.12
ABC
January 20, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
B-

This episode, thanks especially to Wayne Brady, is actually pretty good.  The energy level and creativity are higher than they'd been on the British version in the post-Paul-Merton mid '90s.  And I was pleasantly surprised that Drew didn't get on my nerves.  Yet.  Also, it was cool to see Brad again.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 1.11

Different episode

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 1.11
ABC
January 13, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Greg plays President Clinton in Let's Make a Date, and Wayne later is Tina Turner in Greatest Hits.  This episode is one where I notice Greg and Wayne interacting more, as if the constant pairing of Ryan & Colin has made them into the "other guys" (along with Brad) and they've bonded over that.  Plus they tend to sit next to each other.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 1.10

Scene to Rap

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: U.S. Episode 1.10
ABC
January 6, 1999
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

So Whose Line moved to America while the British version was wrapping up.  It got a new host, Drew Carey, and new musician, Laura Hall.  I missed Clive and Richard V. but I was glad to see some familiar faces and to get new episodes.  Of those faces, Denny Siegel isn't bad, but it's Wayne Brady (who'd started a few months before on the British version) who most shines here, with his musical and other talents.  Ryan and Colin were already fixtures on the British version by then of course.  The best game here is probably Questions Only.

The Drew Carey Show: Drew and the Conspiracy

Mimi and her unique fashion sense

The Drew Carey Show: Drew and the Conspiracy
ABC
September 23, 1998
Sitcom
VHS
C+

So I liked the supporting cast on DCS (not just Ryan) but not Carey himself.  This was the premiere for Season Four but was probably taped as a rerun, since it aired right before Whose Line Is It Anyway?  (More on that in awhile.)  This episode has Drew the victim of a nine-year conspiracy of revenge by fellow employees.  Meanwhile, Lewis sells Mimi mood makeup and she has a one-night stand with a man who turns out to be married.

Series regulars:

• Diedrich Bader as Oswald Lee Harvey
• Drew Carey as Drew Carey (except not Drew Carey the celebrity but a Drew Carey works in a department store)
• Craig Ferguson as Carey's boss Nigel Wick
• Kathy Kinney as Mimi Bobeck
• Krista Miller as Kate O'Brien
• Ryan Stiles as Lewis Kiniski

Maintenance Guy Jim O'Heir was Kelsy on Ellen the season before, while Kevin McDonald, who's Heller here, was Chuck at the radio station on Ellen that season.  The writer(s) and director aren't mentioned at IMDB so I'm omitting them, but they didn't ring a bell when I saw them onscreen.

Ellen: Secrets & Ellen

Ellen: Secrets & Ellen
ABC
February 26, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Seventy-seven-year-old veteran actress Eileen Heckart plays Ellen's eightysomething Grammy, whom the family lies to because she's so judgmental.  Meanwhile, Spence has an injury in Las Vegas, while dressed as a Roman soldier, so he wanders the casino deluded, bumping into stand-up comics who had contemporary ABC sitcoms and appear as those characters here (Drew Carey as Drew Carey, Brett Butler as Grace Kelly).  Wayne Newton is a Doctor here, about six years after he was himself on a Roseanne Vegas episode.  I did like a little of the family background, like about Lois's sister Ferne (Spence's mom), but this episode, written by someone who didn't work on any of my other shows, is mostly filler.