Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.16

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.16
Channel Four
3 May 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
B-

This line-up of the two British women and the two men from the Bay Area works well, and there's a relaxed, friendly, somewhat flirty air that makes even their weaker games, like March, nice to watch.  There are more examples of Greg/Sandi than Greg/Josie, including Sandi as Dr. Ruth Westheimer helping Greg with his "tennis grip" in the American Musical, and him chatting her up in Alphabet, as well as interactions between games.  But watch Tag for Greg's reaction to Josie's hand near his crotch: "This is the best blind date I've ever been on!"  There's also some Greg/Mike, especially in FATS.  And Mike and Josie of course play an engaged couple in the Musical, which is the best overall game anyway, including Greg's salute to Minnesota that refers to "The Prince Memorial Run-Off," long before that Artist died.  We even get a bit of Josie/Sandi, when Josie strokes Sandi's hair after the Musical.

Not counting the compilation, this would be the last WLIIA Toksvig episode to air, and it's not at all a bad one for Sandi to go out on.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.13

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.13
Channel Four
12 April 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
C-

One of the dullest episodes ever, redeemed somewhat by some Mike/Sandi.  Not only does he say he only has time for "a kiss, a cuddle, and a dance" at the Party Quirks she hosts, but their FATS has some innuendo, with her saying in Sci-Fi that she has power in her fingertips he would be pleased to know about, causing him to reply, "All hail the Queen of the Labia Minors" [sic].  Not only that, but when they switch to Horror, she says it's two days before her period and then confesses to him (but audibly to us), "I can't believe I said that."  Also, she looks at him adoringly during Gospel.  I'm glad they have one more episode together, and in a much more interesting line-up.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 3 London Compilation

"Take it away, Clive."

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 3 London Compilation
Channel Four
15 March 1991
Improv Game Show
DVD
B-

After a slow start, with too much from the Colin episode (including Mike accidentally elbowing poor Sandi in the crotch during Tag), this Best Of picks up.  In fact, the best game from that Colin episode appears here and is also Mike's best solo Song Styles: a folk song about a banana.  He performs another sweet, funny duet with Josie, about a stapler.

The "things that didn't go all right on the night" sequence has some classic moments, including Sandi and Paul teaming up against Clive, who deserves it for that episode alone.  We see Sandi trying to coax Josie through Alphabet but they only get three letters in, on two tries.  And most memorably, Mike tells Tony, "And I haven't stopped kissing men on the lips!" and proves it!

Best of all is the American Musical, with Josie as Greg's girlfriend Sally, who gets pregnant and mugged, in that order.  Not only does it have Tony Slattery of all people explaining the facts of life to innocent-playing Greg, but Jim delivers bad news in the worst way possible.  Listen for Greg's name-slip and recovery.  It's almost a post-ship game for him and Josie, although their relationship is far from over in terms of WLIIA.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.8

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.8
Channel Four
8 March 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
B-

This episode is fueled by the chemistry among the four contestants and Clive, including not only some Mike/Sandi and Tony/Sandi but Tony imitating Clive for World's Worst.  I'd like to give the episode a B, but it's always bothered me that the Musical Film Review ends up being about rape, by bad guys and good guys.  (Not that it's graphic, but it is unsettling.)  Other than that, it's fun to see the interactions, like the Americans doing an American sitcom, Restoration Comedy, and "French" in FATS.

Re the M/S and T/S ships, they are quite the contrast.  Mike and Sandi do Props together and he "declares his love for her," and that's after this little exchange about the Prop, a giant banana
CLIVE: Sandi, this is yours.
SANDI: No, I think you'll find that's Mike's.
CLIVE: Well, I'm sure he'll share it with you.

Tony and Sandi are shipwrecked together in FATS and it soon becomes a discussion of orgasms, and how he's not satisfying her.  And then even with the Alphabet, which is about a chat-up for goodness sake, they flirt with and insult each other, sometimes in the very same sentence.  And he does "Queer I am" for Q.

Greg wins the episode and does a fine Woody Allen impression, calling Sandi anti-Semitic.  Greg/Sandi still really isn't a thing, but wait for their American episode.  And, no, the guys aren't flirting with each other much this episode.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.6

Everyone responds to Sandi's call & response in
Gospel, even the minister in the studio audience

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.6
Channel Four
22 February 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

In a rare (unique?) episode with three female contestants, the third is one-timer Denalda Williams, a sweet-voiced Canadian.  There's definitely a different feel to the episode, with the three women touching each other during and in between games, as well as leaning over in their chairs to chat.  There is also some Mike/Sandi of course, with them embracing before their FATS about their daughter's wedding day.  And again, yes, the best moments are on the compilation, including why Sandi's line about the Queen's Regiment amuses everyone in her Alphabet with Josie.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.5

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.5
Channel Four
15 February 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
C-

Colin Mochrie's debut is inauspicious, but then Mike, Sandi, and Tony aren't exactly at the top of their game either.  The episode is mildly gross and unfunny.  I guess there's some shippiness but nothing too remarkable, other than Mike/Tony in Musical Producers.  Again, the best game will be on, uh huh, the compilation.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.3

Poor Paul, a March!  Sandi empathizes again.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 3.3
Channel Four
1 February 1991
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

There are no real stand-outs here-- again, some of the best material will be on the compilation-- but there are a couple things I want to note.  One is that Mike/Sandi keeps sailing, especially in FATS, where they hold hands during the audience suggestions and then have the situation of being two strangers with adjoining hotel rooms, and it becomes about his large penis.  The other is that Sandi gets naughty with both Jim and Paul during Helping Hands, although I wouldn't necessarily ship her with either.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 2 Compilation 2

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 2 Compilation 2
Channel Four
16 March 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
C+

This is the weaker part, epitomized by the weaker American Musical from #2.1.  (Greg steals it twice.)  The main shipping note is that Sandi & Mike got an alternate FATS on #2.11 and she ends up "enveloping him in her bumpers," which they both enjoy.  Mike & Josie do a sweet, apparently first, duet, on #2.4.  And Mike cracks Paul up in Props, although less than on the Christmas episode.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? in its second series ranges from C- to B-, with the exception of that wonderful Christmas episode (B+).  This again comes out to being on the C+/B- border as with Series One.  The show can be wonderful sometimes but it remains uneven, often in one episode.  When it came back ten months later, it would start out very well and then go into another slump, although I'll mention here that the air-date order on IMDB does not at all resemble the order my VHS copies aired on Comedy Central.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 2 Compilation 1

"I like fishing for that trout...."

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 2 Compilation 1
Channel Four
9 March 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
B-

Like I said, #2.15 is featured prominently, with Clive joining in on a Rap, and the panelists playing That'll Be Charlie Now and Musical Producers.  We can see Paul and Tony teasing Josie by using Mike, and some other complex interaction that is not shippy per se but is not non-shippy.  Josie & Mike do a sweet duet ("still about a lemon-squeezer"), and Ryan & Sandi are given a FATS situation that emphasizes their height difference: meeting on a blind date.  (And it's fair to say that, unlike Sandi & Mike, this was not a successful blind date, as they're never again on the same episode.)  I don't have room to tag Archie and Jonathan P., but they're in an alternate Party Quirks for #2.9.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.14

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.14
Channel Four
23 February 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
C

Sigh, this episode.  OK, so Tony/Sandi is a wondrous thing.  Look at that still!  He's playing a fanzine interviewer and she's Snow White and he is uber-naughty and she's playing it sweet, but she is totally his match, and there's loads of chemistry, no matter what their orientations, and did I mention that they're having a secret affair in this Party Quirks, which she's so good at she guesses the guests even when Host Tony can't?

But the episode kicks off with Authors, where he's extremely disgusting as the Marquis de Sade (actually worse than you might expect), and the other two players on this episode are friggin' Ron West and Rory McGrath, who are seldom if ever funny, I mean Ron has a line where he's a vicar and he says something about the eulogy "being doned today," and I can't believe how painful some of this episode is.  But the Sandi/Tony is a wondrous thing.  This episode, sigh.  It would be C- but I'll give a C because it ends with Sandi reading the credits as Mae West and because this is the episode where giggly!Tony begins to be a factor, although he's trying to be serious even in that still, although you know he's inwardly gleeful because Sandi helps him set up the "7-Up" joke.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.12

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.12
Channel Four
9 February 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
B-

Chris Langham* in his one WLIIA appearance works well with the comparative veterans, even John, both of them repeatedly going past the buzzer in FATS.  The episode is notable for a lot of Mike/Sandi, especially in their FATS, where a boss falls in love with his secretary.  There's also some John/Sandi, in Props and Party Quirks, with John as Society Wit.  (And, yes, I know they're both gay.)  There aren't really any stand-out games here, it's just generally entertaining.


*He would be found guilty in 2007 of downloading footage of child abuse, which he claimed was a way he was working through issues about his own abuse as a child.  Understandably, this was the end of his career as a performer, and to some degree, yes, it does overshadow this episode, particularly the couple jokes about, well, pedophilia.  As with Woody Allen's movies, I try to separate the creators from the creative work, but that's never 100% possible.  I do want to address it here and say that, whatever crimes he committed, he is entertaining in this episode.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.11

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.11
Channel Four
26 January 1990
Improv Game Show
DVD
B-

One-timer Arthur Smith does two historic things here: he picks Clive for World's Worst, and instead of feigning modesty like most contestants over a win, he's triumphant.  The main reason to watch this episode though is for the top-notch Musical Producers, with Sandi and Arthur as the Producers, and Josie and Mike as the various characters (some of them inanimate) in Bricks!  I also have a soft spot for Props, with Sandi the only one taking Mike's outrageousness in stride (Clive is thoroughly embarrassed again), and Josie looking offended when the audience groans at her "pieces of eight" pun.  There's Mike/Sandi and Mike/Josie, and a bit of Sandi/Josie at the end of Party Quirks.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.7

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.7
Channel Four
29 December 1989
Improv Game Show
DVD
B+

The ex and I never counted this as part of the Second Season Slump, but then we figured it was shot after the rest of Series Two, especially since Mike is already rocking a beard.  Whatever the shooting order (and there are internal clues in Authors suggesting that 2.6 was made before 2.5), this shows the contestants at a time when they were both fresh and settling in.  Not every joke here lands, and even smooth-talking Greg stumbles in Authors, but who cares?  Whether it's the "night after the night after the night after Boxing Day" spirit or what, this is a wonderful present any time of the year.

It may seem odd that John Sessions is absent, but he was always less of a team player and you definitely need people who bring out the best in each other when you've got "a monster six-person edition."  Sandi's inclusion is equally odd, since she'd only done as many episodes as Ryan (one and he was about to return), but on the other hand she was in the Comedy Store Players with Paul and Josie.  The shipper in me did and does go mad watching this episode, because you can pretty much ship Josie with anyone here.  (Check out her reaction to Sandi's final turn in Props.)  Paul/Josie is particularly obvious, especially with her comforting him after his "tantrum."*  Sandi/Tony and to a lesser degree Sandi/Mike are visible here, as is, unusually, Sandi/Paul.  (Sandi/Greg would mostly wait for their American episode with Mike and Josie, although she does say in Party Quirks that she'd like to keep him around just for fun.)   As for the guys, the two American buddies again explore "the love that dare not squeak its name," Mike gets Paul literally rolling on the floor with laughter, and Mike spanks Tony at the end of Props.

But mostly, it's just overall camaraderie and good-fellowship, so some of the time I'm watching the contestants in the background, like Paul, Sandi, and Tony's reaction to Josie & Mike's (apparently first) duet, or Tony's delight and Paul's dirty laugh over Mike's "Eric the Enema Elf."  Or check out the triumph that they all feel when "Paul Merton, Man o' Rhythm" successfully raps.  Or Paul and Sandi teasing Tony together, calling him "a sleazy bastard who can sing and dance."  No wonder it's a six-way tie and a credits-singing by all.

Chemistry aside, and Clive and Richard have to be included in that, the games are strong and funny.  I mean, the weakest is Mike's jazz Song Styles (as usual he goes on too long), and even that would've brightened up the previous episode.  I also got a bonus laugh this viewing, when Mike as Santa shot at his "worst enemy, Donald Trump."  If not my favorite episode, certainly in the Top Three.


*I'd learn years later that Paul was feeling very stressed out around this time, so perhaps his intention of "sodding off and going home" is not entirely a joke.  This may also explain why he laughs and smiles a lot more than usual, as if swinging into a manic phase.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.5

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 2.5
Channel Four
15 December 1989
Improv Game Show
DVD
C+

This episode perks up the Second Season Slump by introducing two contestants we'd see much more of: very, very tall Ryan Stiles and not so very, very tall Sandi Toksvig.  Their height difference of roughly a foot and a half is played with, although since this is their only episode together, it would be more of a factor with Mike, who's of course also very, very fat.  There's a bit of Tony/Sandi, and yes, I say that with full awareness (now, not at the time) that she's a lesbian, since that is definitely not how she'll come across on the programme.  (Which is why Mike/Sandi would be very much a thing, size differences aside.)  Re the still above, John does not re-enter Tag after being tapped out, but his Pretentious Student Poet Quirk is one of his best.  And Sandi, to Clive's confusion and annoyance, shows what a subtle guesser she is as hostess.  It's odd to see Ryan not only in a mullet but at a loss in Props, later one of his best games.  But it is still early days, even in the second series.