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.