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Jun 25
Special thanks to Steve M. for passing this one along:
The L.A. Times has a great story on the situation with THE DREW CAREY SHOW and ABC. In a nutshell: ABC signed a two year agreement with the series before last season, after which they tanked the show by moving its time slot. Then, they cancelled the show at the end of the season. Still, there’s another year left on the contract for a whopping 26 episodes.
So, the cast and crew go back into the studios later this summer to begin filming 26 episodes, for which ABC is paying nearly $80 million. ABC doesn’t know what they’re going to do with the episodes. Drew doesn’t care; he’s getting paid. He has total creative freedom at this point. And the show will live on forever in syndication.
We know several ABC shows will bomb in the fall. Maybe they’ll use it as a mid-season replacement.
It’s still the funniest, most clever, and most inventive sit-com in recent memory. I’ll be there when it returns to finish off the current season, starting tonight with episode #200.
And good for Drew Carey. Maybe Comedy Central will pick up WHOSE LINE next and they can keep making new episodes. Did you see the new episode last Friday with special guest star Richards Simmons? Funniest thing I’ve seen so far this summer.
Jun 25, 2003 @ 17:08:02
The “funniest, most clever, and most inventive sit-com in recent memory?” Even if we accept the thesis that a sitcom has to be “innovative” to be any good (which would keep the very excellent, but very traditional, Friends and Raymond out of the running, I guess), Scrubs would seem to fit your criteria SO much better.
Hey, to each his own I guess. ;)
Jun 25, 2003 @ 23:01:32
“Inventive,” not necessarily innovative. But I can’t think of any other shows to redo their opening credit sequence for every episode, or do live improv as part of the show. How many others did musical numbers? April Fools gag episodes?
I love SCRUBS and think it’s the second-best sit-com on television right now after DREW CAREY. But most of it is an amalgamation of techniques in use elsewhere (from SIMPSONS to DOOGIE HOWSER). Still, it’s an excellent show.
-Augie
Jun 26, 2003 @ 10:38:48
I guess I just find the inventive aspects of the show not all that good – the April Fool’s gag got stale after just a year, and the credits are such an inconsequential part of the show as to not matter at all to me. Life with Bonnie uses real improv to a much better degree than Drew has, as did the mid-90’s Randy Quaid sitcom whose name escapes me at the moment – it had Jonathan Winters, which pretty much guarantees great improv. ;) And The Simpsons, Ally McBeal and Scrubs have all used musical numbers much more organically and creatively than those few dance numbers on Drew. To me it was always a show without any real dramatic or emotional component, which, of course can be fine for a sitcom, but it was never funny enough for a show built solely around laughs like, say, Family Guy.
Jun 26, 2003 @ 13:05:00
The Randy Quaid/Jonathan Winters show was called Davis Rules, which was a great show for one season. Then it jumped networks (ABC to CBS, I think), and Bonnie Hunt and Vonni (not yet Giovanni) Ribisi were added to the cast. Stupid network tinkering.
Jun 26, 2003 @ 14:03:58
I remember it very vaguely, but DO remember that it was pretty good – especially Winters and Quaid. Thanks for the update.
Nov 28, 2003 @ 16:07:10
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Trying to find Drew Carey show in a boxed set….Anyone have any ideas as to where to findit?….
Nov 29, 2003 @ 11:27:02
There’s no Region 1 release of the series on DVD yet, and none announced for the future just yet, either. I don’t know for certain about other regions, but I can’t remember ever hearing about a Region 2 release anywhere, either.
Sorry,
-Augie