Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.4

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.4
Channel Four
18 August 1995
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Ah, so I do have Caroline's Whose Line debut after all.  The best thing here is probably Helping Hands, where Richard seems unsure whether he's going to provide piano accompaniment to Ryan-Colin's lounge singer act, although it's also fun to see the Press Conference where Tony's head has been attached to a dog.

Room 101: Tony Slattery

Room 101: Tony Slattery
Channel Four
8 August 1994
Talk Show
DVD
B

Host Nick Hancock has celebrities bring in a list of pet peeves that might be banished to the title location (a 1984 reference).  Tony fails to get his bad '80s soap Gems in there but does manage Snoopy and a couple other peeves.  This episode is laugh out loud funny, but I of course didn't get every reference, so B is as high as I can go.  Contains an adorable photo of "mean, moody, and magnificent" Tony at 16.  (Note, I would've reviewed this sooner but I was thinking all my Room 101 episodes were from the later Paul Merton era.  Obviously it would've been interesting to see Paul and Tony reunite but it was not to be.)

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: 1995 Compilation

Caroline Quentin and Paul Merton

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: 1995 Compilation
Channel Four
26 December 1995*
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Like the rest of the episodes this year, this one stays at that not-bad level, with probably Questions Only the top game.  But with Northover as director and the cast definitely settled in, there just aren't any real highs or lows anymore.  By this point, I certainly wasn't eagerly awaiting new episodes, and my ex-husband stopped taping them, or much else, for me soon after this. The programme would go on, into the present, but in various forms.  I'd catch up with it again later in the decade, when it had changed continents and hosts, so the story doesn't quite end here, although it does for most of the contestants.  (I'm omitting Caroline from the overcrowded tags.)

*This is the date on Wikipedia, where it's the second of two compilations for the seventh series.  IMDB has them as airing in the first half of October, but I don't know that it matters all that much.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.6

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.6
Channel Four
1 September 1995
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

The undoubted highlight here is the Party Quirks, where Colin is all Seven Dwarves and Ryan is Animals Crossing a Road; even though I'm not big on physical humor, I could see why Mike (In Love with Cameras) keeps cracking up, and of course Tony is baffled most of the time.  Runner-up is Bar Scene, especially Tony referencing Mrs. Slocum's love for her "pussy" on Are You Being Served?

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.5

Charlie's Angels

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.5
Channel Four
25 August 1995
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Unless it turns up on an unexpected tape, it looks like I'm missing Episode 7.4.  Other than the Clive & Greg teasing, my favorite part here is the premiere of Let's Make a Date, a variation on Party Quirks.  It's not hilarious and, as Clive notes, Greg fails to guess everyone (or to actually pick a bachelor), but it's interesting to see how it plays out.  Note that Richard Vranch appears at the end but the Comedy Central version my ex taped doesn't actually include any musical games.  Unless I've counted wrong, this is my 100th show from Channel Four.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.3 [fragment]

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.3 [fragment]
Channel Four
11 August 1995
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Yes, this line-up again, but it's not bad.  My favorite game is Press Conference, which is similar to Party Quirks, except Tony has to guess why he's holding a presser, in this case because he's the First Man to Make Love in Outer Space.  (I'm not sure what I'm missing of the Comedy Central edit beyond the opening credits and introductions.)

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.2

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 7.2
Channel Four
4 August 1995
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Other than the Clive & Greg bickering of course, my favorite thing here is probably Greg & Mike's sci-fi/horror Scene to Music.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series Six Compilation

Working out the balance

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series Six Compilation
Channel Four
2 September 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C

I feel like none of the games in this really get going, like Remote Control, where Josie's Coronation Street isn't bad but of course keeps getting interrupted.  (And poor Mike gets only one turn to do The Muppet Show.)  According to IMDB and Wikipedia, there was a Part Two for the Compilation, which aired either on 9 September or the following January.  In any case, I don't appear to own it, although of course it might pop up later as I continue through my videotapes.  This is as good a place as any to say that Series Six of WLIIA is a bit of a let-down, if not a shark-jump.  It ranges from C to B-, averaging out to a C+ like Series Five, but a low C+.  I do have at least some of Series Seven on tape, and I think it was again more of the same, but with new additions like Caroline Quentin.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.9

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.9

Channel Four

26 August 1994

Improv Game Show

VHS
B-

Well, this caught me by surprise.  It's the third rendition of this line-up (after two last year) but it feels fresher than either of its predecessors, or indeed much of Series Six.  I laughed out loud a few times, and not just at the interactions with Clive.  With Greg in Fixed Expressions instead of Steve Frost (no offense to him), the dynamic is just much better, and this is true of other games.  Even Sound Effects and Hoedown aren't bad, especially the latter, which is about sex, and goes from Greg teasing Tony's slutty image to Tony confirming the image by wanting to sit on Barbara Bush!  Also, Greg seems quite amused by Tony in World's Worst, where Tony even embarrasses himself, twice.  Old Job New Job is probably the best game with Ryan and Colin, as Colin and Greg are the bereaved and Ryan is the used car salesman turned mortician.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.8

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.8
Channel Four
19 August 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

There's no real stand-out game in this episode, but there is a lot of Tony and Greg teasing Clive, usually after he starts it.  And Tony & Greg tease the viewers by acting if they're going to kiss.  Chip is just as smirky as he was two years earlier.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.7

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.7
Channel Four
12 August 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Yeah, Bremner is back, after six years, and his impressions still don't impress me, although it's nice to see Tony react to Rory imitating him in Party Quirks.  Mostly of course I watch this for the interaction among Tony, Josie, and Mike, teasing and playing and flirting.  The highlight is of course Helping Hands, where Josie bites Tony's finger and he retaliates, by fondling her breast!  Mike's reaction is priceless.  And note that Tony references Nixon's death and tells Clive it'll still be topical when this airs.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.6

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.6
Channel Four
5 August 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C

I watched this episode this morning and have already forgotten most of it.  I guess Moving People was the best game, although that's as much to the credit of the audience members as to Ryan and Colin.  The episode isn't bad but not particularly distinguishable.  I can only assume that the producers felt that this half-British/half-Canadian line-up was the best representative of Series Six.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.5

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.5
Channel Four
29 July 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
B-

This is sort of a C+ and a half.  That is, it's mostly a C+, except for the last two games and the credit-reading, but compared to its peers, it's the best episode of the series so far and needs to be rewarded for that.  Frost is OK, but this episode is mostly about watching Tony, Josie, and Ryan interact, whether in the Bartender, where Ryan and Josie turn Ryan's love for his teddy bear really dirty, and Josie and Tony himself make fun of Tony's names, real and imaginary; and Party Quirks, where Josie is a penis, Ryan is a baby learning to walk, and Tony is utterly baffled and amused.  The third-best game is Helping Hands, with Josie and Ryan as two women in the ladies' room and Tony providing the hands for Josie, not for the last time.  Josie regrettably makes a Bobbitt joke, but it's Ryan's reactions to things like Josie pretending to mistake a tampon for a cigarette that make the game work.  And the credits are Ryan and Josie as a couple arguing over his little black book.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.4

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.4
Channel Four
22 July 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

Not everything works here, but I like the line-up and the Bartender is great, from Ryan and Tony's problems (his wardrobe and being in love with an inflatable pig) to the reactions of the contestants and Clive.  Also, notice how the suggestion of "Richard Nixon back from the dead" (Nixon died the previous April) is incorporated by Greg into Superheroes, after he and Clive clash over two other suggestions.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.3

Tony tries in Party Quirks.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.3
Channel Four
15 July 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C

I might've gone with a C+, but I'm already tired of this line-up, and the Vasectomy Hoedown and Ryan & Colin's funhouse mirrors credit-reading sealed the C.  And if they're already repeating themselves in Song Title ("Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" "Oklahoma"), then it's a sign that either the games and/or the contestants need to be varied more.  The highlight is of course Tony, after Clive tells him how terrible his Party Quirks hosting was, saying a [bleeped out by Comedy Central] F-word.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.1

Trying hard, but without much of a result

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 6.1
Channel Four
1 July 1994
Improv Game Show
VHS
C

A new series and new credits, now red & white, very simple cartoon figures.  Some of the games are new, too, but the line-up is stale (and would be repeated twice more that year), as are some of the jokes, like in the Nativity Play in FATS.

The Full Wax: Episode 2.2

The Full Wax: Episode 2.2
BBC
19 March 1992
Talk Show
VHS
C+

Confusingly, this has the same Tony sequences as we saw previously, except the longer one is heavily edited down, and the other guest stars are completely different, like James Belushi instead of Teri Garr.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 5 Compilation

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 5 Compilation
Channel Four
30 April 1993
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

My favorite games here are Tony & Mike's Alphabet and Ryan & Josie's Film Dubbing, but there are some other nice moments.  Pity they couldn't find a scene from Paul Merton.

Over half of Series Five of Whose Line Is It Anyway? gets a C+, and the C and B-s don't have much effect on the average.  The show is still watchable and there aren't some of the painful lows of even '92, but there aren't really any amazing highs.  I don't know if this is due to the new director, or if the show was just on an even keel.  I recall Series Six as more of the same, but we'll see....