The Drew Carey Show
is an American
sitcom (set in Cleveland, Ohio
) that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004 and was known for its
"everyman" characters and themes.
The show revolved around comedian
Drew
Carey, an office worker who has had a long-life working
experience, and the highs and the lows of both his romances and his
relationships to long-time friends, Lewis, Oswald and Kate.
The show was created by
Drew Carey, who
had both stand-up comedy and writing experience, and
Bruce Helford, who was once a writer for
Roseanne. It was the
first television show to have an episode simulcast on the
Internet.
Cast and characters
Drew Carey (
Drew Carey) - Drew Carey is the main protagonist
of the series. He is a perpetual "nice guy." For most of the
series, he works in the human resources department of
Winfred-Lauder, a
multinational department store chain. He's portrayed as a
lovable loser, though he's the most successful of his group of
friends. Drew is the founder and co-owner of
Buzz Beer, a special coffee-containing brew. He
has a long-standing feud with Mimi Bobeck; his pranks have included
destroying her clothes, shredding her vacation requests, and
masquerading as
Antonio Banderas to
taunt her. In the last seasons of the show, the real Drew Carey was
earning $600,000 to $750,000 per episode.
Mimi Bobeck (
Kathy
Kinney) - Mimi Bobeck is Mr. Bell's (and then later, Mr.
Wick's) assistant /
secretary and the main
antagonist of the series. She is an overweight woman, who wears a
lot of
make-up, yet has a very high but
unstable self-esteem. (As an
in-joke, Mimi's
mother was played by
Tammy Faye
Bakker.) Mimi is Drew's arch-nemesis; she vowed to make Drew's
life a living hell after Drew denied her a job based on her makeup.
Mimi's
pranks have included gluing Drew's hand to a pornographic magazine,
covering Drew's desk with garbage, and eventually sending Drew to
China
while he is unconscious. She is also known
for calling him "Pig" and "Doughboy." Mimi's past has a lot of
connections to the world of music; she often talks about being a
roadie for
Foghat and
was married to
Eddie Money for two weeks
after appearing at his first concert. Additionally, she admits to
sleeping with both
Joe Walsh and
Peter Frampton. Frampton still carries a
torch for Mimi; he has a
tattoo of her
likeness on his chest. Later on, Mimi becomes more of a friend to
Drew (they agree to put their feud on hold while Mimi dates/marries
Steve) and a good, if unconventional, mother to Gus.
Early in the series,
it was revealed that Mimi was of Polish
ancestry,
and inherited the title of Duchess of
Kraków
after her
aunt died. However, the episode with this content received a
great deal of complaint from the Polish community, and all mention
of Mimi's heritage has been removed from the show (with alternative
footage placed over these bits in
syndication). In 2009, Mimi
resurfaced as a guest model on Drew's game show
The Price is Right
during the show's April Fool's episode.
Lewis Kiniski (
Ryan
Stiles) - Forms a double-act with Oswald. Lewis, who is tall,
lanky, and red-headed, is in his forties and can be counted on to
nonchalantly say bizarre and offensive things. Ryan Stiles once
described Lewis as "Not even a character at first, just a creep
really." He possesses an
IQ of 162, but works as
a
janitor for a company called DrugCo. Due
to accidentally releasing a strain of bacteria into the population,
he was busted down to janitor from a position that required him to
wear a lab coat. It's uncertain if he was a scientist or lab
assistant, though it's possible he was joking. At one point, he
posed as Drew to take his physical exam for him, unexpectedly
taking a psychiatric exam as well. He tried to give answers which
he thought suited Drew's life and situation, and the results showed
him to be mentally unstable and possibly criminally insane. He
mentioned in one episode he was adopted.
Oswald Lee Harvey (
Diedrich Bader) - Lewis's slightly shorter,
dark-haired friend is the dumb one of the double-act, which tends
to be his most distinguishing characteristic. Lewis described him
once as a "man-child stuck in a sort of prolonged adolescence." At
one point Oswald trained to be a
nurse, but he
proved unsuitable.
Oswald was a deejay at the beginning of the
first season but later on became a delivery driver for Global
Parcel (a fictional package-delivery service whose uniforms are modeled after those of UPS
). His name is a play on
Lee Harvey Oswald. In the episode
Bus-ted, it is revealed that Oswald joined the group of
friends to replace Adam, a childhood friend who fell through the
ice on a lake.
Kate O'Brien (
Christa
Miller) - Friends with Drew, Lewis, and Oswald since they were
kids. Kate is a bit of a tomboy and a hothead. She and Oswald
almost got married at one point, but she called it off just after
Oswald threw her a surprise wedding (essentially leaving Oswald at
the altar). Kate later found out about Drew's long-standing crush
on her at their high school reunion, and she realized that she had
feelings for him too. They dated for a season (even becoming
engaged) but broke up when they disagreed about having kids. Drew
and Kate were married for a short time in a later season, although
this was illegal, as Drew had just become married to his old
girlfriend, Nicki. Eventually, Drew's sham was discovered and Kate
felt betrayed. Drew eventually regained Kate's trust and they
became friends again.
Kate left at the beginning of the eighth
season, marrying a Naval aviator and moving from Cleveland to
Guam
.
Nigel Algernon Wick (
Craig Ferguson) - Drew's boss after the first
season, replacing Mr. Bell (
Kevin
Pollak). English, crude, boisterous and offensive, he was also
a
cocaine addict before he was forced to go
into rehab. For some time, he and Drew were in a
same-sex marriage (technically a civil
union) in order for Mr. Wick to get his
Green Card and Drew to
get his job back. When he first appeared on stage in guest episodes
in the last two seasons he was greeted with thunderous applause.
Wick always had unusual methods of firing employees (and nearly
always fired someone named Johnson). He is almost always referred
to as "Mr. Wick," and his first name is rarely used. In the show's
first
April Fools episode, Mr. Wick was
shot in the crotch with a
crossbow and had
to have one of his
testicles removed (a
gag that was referred to for the rest of the series). Wick also
lost a
toe and a
nipple in
a
fox hunt that went terribly wrong. Craig
Ferguson initially auditioned at Warner Brothers for a role as a
Hispanic photographer on
Suddenly Susan, and after he failed his
audition, the casting director referred him to
The Drew Carey
Show which was auditioning across the studio.
Steve Carey (
John
Carroll Lynch) - Drew's cross-dressing brother. He came to
Cleveland and got a job in the cosmetics department at
Winfred-Lauder. He fell in love with Mimi and after one season of
dating they married in a ceremony in Drew's backyard, with Drew
officiating along with an online minister from an Internet website.
In later seasons the concept of Steve being a cross-dresser is
abandoned entirely with little explanation (though it is hinted
that he gave it up to make Mimi happy). He left, along with Kate
and Wick, early in the eighth season.
Kellie Newmark (
Cynthia
Watros) - Drew's childhood friend. She has had a crush on Drew
since high school but never told him. She was married but her
husband cheated on her with her sister. Her mother is an alcoholic
and leaves her father, eventually hooking up with Lewis. After Kate
leaves, Drew realizes that he loves Kellie. Drew is afraid to tell
Kellie because it may ruin their friendship like it did with Kate.
After Lily leaves Drew, they confess their feelings for each other.
When Kellie comes out while Drew is talking to his dad and asks
Drew what they are going to do about their feelings for each other,
Drew's dad falls off the roof and dies. Eventually during the
beginning stage of their relationship Kellie finds out she is
pregnant with Drew Jr. but won't marry Drew because she doesn't
think he is ready for marriage. During the finale she decides Drew
is ready. But her water breaks and she and Drew get married right
when the baby is born.
Drew's marriages
Much of the show's humor revolved around Drew's single life (in
real life, Drew was engaged for the first time in 2007, shortly
after
becoming a game
show host). However, Drew was married a number of times during
the show's run. His spouses during the series were:
- Diane (Nicole Sullivan) - A cocktail waitress Drew met on a business
trip to Las
Vegas
. She tricked Drew into marrying her because
she believed having a husband would give her an edge in winning
custody of her children. Drew agreed
to help her with the social workers, and they divorced a week later.
- Mr. Wick - Drew's boss for the majority of the
series, desperately wanted a spouse when his visa expired and he was threatened with
deportation. He bribed Drew with a
promotion and several benefits to get Drew to marry him in Vermont
(technically, this is considered a civil
union and not a wedding and US Immigration law does not
recognize either civil unions or same-sex marriages performed in
any jurisdiction). They stayed married for just over a year
to throw off any suspicion from the INS. Drew kicked Mr.
Wick out of his house once Wick became too "clingy" with Drew's
friends and life.
- Nicki Fifer (Kate Walsh) - A real estate agent whom
Drew dated and became engaged to; she dumped him after gaining a
large amount of weight while they were dating (and, in her own
words, "couldn't be with a man who loved to eat"). She lost the
weight, got married and came back to Drew after her divorce (when
Drew had just left a mental
institution). Drew asked her to marry him on an impulse, and
she agreed. Unfortunately, Drew also got married to Kate soon after
(thus becoming a bigamist) and she left
him. Nicki returned later, having regained all her previous weight,
and attempted to kill Drew because she blamed him for all the
recent problems in her life. Drew let Nicki stay at his house until
she could get back on her feet, after which she was never seen or
heard from again.
- Kate - The love of Drew's life and his best
friend since childhood, Drew and Kate first broke off their
engagement after a disagreement about having kids. After Drew's
stint in the mental hospital, Kate realized that she still loved
Drew and asked him to marry her. Drew agreed (despite having
recently married Nicki and still being married to Mr. Wick) and
kept both his marriages a secret for a time. Both wives discovered
the situation, and Kate, furious, dumped Drew and told the
newspapers about the situation; Drew became known as "The Impotent Bisexual Bigamist."
- Lily (Tammy
Lauren) - A Southern belle who
met Drew after Oswald and Lewis started a campaign to find him a
wife. Drew brought Lily to Cleveland and attempted to establish a
relationship with her, but found it difficult to deal with Lily's
night terrors. Drew ended up proposing
to Lily on three different occasions: once in his house, another in
a movie theater, and finally, back at his home again. After Drew
tore up all of his pre-determined wedding plan receipts, Lily
agreed to marry him. Lily left Drew after the wedding, driving off
without him after giving Drew his ring back. At the reception, Drew
and Kellie expressed their hidden love for each other and began
their relationship, which would also lead to Drew's final
marriage.
- Kellie Newmark - Drew's childhood friend who
was introduced in the eighth season. Drew went to a strip club and
discovered that Kellie was working as a stripper to support herself
after her divorce from her husband. Drew takes her into his house
and their friendship blossoms. They were both reluctant to confess
their feelings for another, but they became a couple after Drew
& Lily's wedding. Kellie soon becomes pregnant, but refuses to
marry Drew for another eight months. On their wedding day and the
series finale, Kellie gave birth to Drew Jr.
Other characters
Larry Almada (
Ian Gomez)
- bad co-worker. One of Drew's co-workers, Larry is a bumbling and
somewhat unprofessional employee who is often willing to resort to
less than savory methods to gain the upper hand. During a
competition to determine the new employee representative on the
Winfred-Lauder board of directors, he managed to obtain the
position by having sex with Mrs. Lauder, a practice that he repeats
several times after being dumped by his wife. He loses his job on
the board shortly after receiving the promotion, but continues his
secret relationship with Mrs. Lauder. He also ends up in jail for
selling drugs, but is released and continues his job at the
department store. After leaving Winfred-Lauder, he set up a
reasonably successful dating service which later expanded into a
television chat show.
Gerald Hawthorne Bell (
Kevin Pollak) - Drew's boss for the show's
first season. Mr. Bell only appeared in person for his last
appearance. He gets caught having relations with a woman in his
office and he and Mrs. Lauder have to talk it out, but when he
appears, he is wearing a Santa costume. We only heard his voice on
Drew's speakerphone, despite the fact that Drew had his desk very
close to Mr. Bell's office. Little was known about him, but he did
not come across as a nice person. He seemed sexist and
self-centered and had an office romance with a staff member (unlike
Drew's romance with Lisa, Bell was only after the sex). In the last
episode of the first season, Mr. Bell finally appeared on camera as
he was seen leaving his office after getting fired from the
store.
Fran Lauder (
Nan Martin)
- Mrs. Lauder is one of the executives'
"cougar" and partial
namesake of the Winfred-Lauder corporation who
originally inherited the store from her dead husband. She is the
CEO of the company that owns the department store, and retains her
position even after the corporation is brought out by a larger
company located in Amsterdam. As the head of the store, she thinks
very little of Drew, and openly expresses surprise at the assertion
that he still has dreams of becoming more successful, although on
occasion she doesn't hesitate to refer to Drew as a good employee.
Mrs. Lauder occasionally gives him minor promotions throughout the
series, but his personality clashes with her ruthless and
businesslike nature. She is last seen accompanying Mimi and Steve
on their honeymoon, but is removed from power shortly after when a
member of the board improvises a speech slurring every major
ethinic group. The insulted employees begin to riot, gaining the
attention of the bosses in Amsterdam, who fire and replace her
along with the entire board of directors except for Mr. Wick.
Robert Soulard (
Mark
Curry) - One of Drew's bosses at Winfred-Lauder, Mr. Soulard
was appointed by the Dutch as Mrs. Lauder's replacement after the
latter was fired along with the original board of directors.
Slightly more open-minded than his predecessor, Mr. Soulard agrees
to listen to the employees after he is made the new boss, and
quickly appoints Drew to be the new Store Manager when Mr. Wick's
incompetence gets him sent to Toledo for retraining.
Beulah Carey (
Marion
Ross) - Drew's and Steve's mother married to George Carey
(
Stanley Anderson).
King Augustus Antonio Carey - Gus is Steve and
Mimi's son as well as Drew's
nephew, who
saved Mimi from being fired by Drew in the episode "Drew Pops
Something On Kate". Just as Drew is about to fire Mimi, he kicks
while in the womb for the first time, causing him to feel
compassion for Mimi and preventing him from firing her. Gus was
born while Drew was in a
coma, and his spirit
(voiced by
Jon Polito) met Drew up in
Heaven before being born. After hearing Drew
make jokes about how horrible Mimi was, Gus was afraid to be born.
Drew convinced him that Mimi would be a good mother by going back
down to Earth and spending time in the baby's body. Drew told this
story to the others after coming out of his coma, but nobody
believed him. Gus was an infant for most of his time on the show,
but received
an age
boost (putting him somewhere between 5 and 6 years old) for the
final season. He burns down his house, initially thought to be with
a wood-burning kit that Drew gives him as a gift. Since Mimi and
Gus had nowhere to live, Drew offers his home to them, and they
stay there almost until the end of the show. It was later
discovered that Gus was a pyromaniac and intentionally started a
fire in the house.
Lisa Robbins (
Katy
Selverstone) - Drew's girlfriend from season one, she is
prevented from dating him as the rules at Winfred-Lauder do not
allow management to participate in romantic relationships with
their employees. Although this initially forces them to hide their
relationship in public, they eventually find a way to overcome this
obstacle. She vies for a job as the head of the personal shopper
department to become a member of the store's management, prompting
a competition with fellow applicants Kate and Mimi. Lisa begins
dating Drew after she gets the job, but after a failed attempt to
live together they agree to break up. She leaves her dog, Speedy,
behind to stay with him and departs for good after her marriage in
the second season.
Lord Mercer (
Jim
Piddock) - A extremely wealthy Englishman, who bought
Winfred-Lauder and became the new owner after the Dutch divested
themselves of the company/store(s). He also brings back Mr. Wick,
saying only Englishmen know how to run a business.
Christine Watson (
Wanda
Sykes) - Hired to replace Nigel Wick as manager, falls in love
with Drew.
Jay Clemens (
Robert
Torti) - Kate's boyfriend from season one.
Evan (
Kyle Howard) -
Co-owner of Never Ending Store with his brother, Scott (of the two
bosses, he is regarded as the 'nice' one). He is a Zen-seeking
Buddhist who promotes peace and support, although he himself has a
life coach, sees a family therapist with his brother, and takes
anti-anxiety pills. He has a tenuous relationship with Scott
because they spend so much time together.
Scott (
Jonathan
Mangum) - Co-owner of Never Ending Store with his brother,
Evan. He is more business-minded than Evan, and can get very
irritated by Evan's peace-seeking way of life. He teaches computer
classes during the summer.
Mrs. Wick (
Richard
Chamberlain) - Nigel Wick's "Mum" Maggie.
Guest Stars
- Penn & Teller as Genn
and Feller in "Drew Meets Lawyers" (Season 1, Episode 6) and
"See Drew Run" (Season 2, Episode 17)
- David Cross as Earl in
"Drew and the Unstable Element" (Season 1, Episode 13) and "Two
Drews and the Queen of Poland Walk Into a Bar" (Season 2, Episode
20).
- Nikki Cox as Drew's cousin Kirsten,
who briefly dates Mr. Wick in "Drew's Cousin."
- Tim Allen as Himself in "The Front"
(Season 1, Episode 17)
- Norm McDonald as Simon
Tate in "The Bully You Know" (Season 2, Episode 4)
- Joey Ramone, Dave Mustaine, Slash, Lisa Loeb,
Dusty Hill, Johnny
Lang, Rick Nielsen, Michael Stanley, Matthew Sweet and Roy
Clark as themselves in "In Ramada da Vida" (Season 4, Episode
2)
- Triple H as Wrestler Sponsor for
Buzz Beer
- Henry Rollins as E-Bay Ass
Kicking Guy and Amy Farrington
as Bonnie in "Hickory Dickory... Double Date" (Season 8,
Episode 5)
- Gregory Jbara as Ron in
"Drew and the Conspiracy" (Season 4, Episode 1) and "Golden Boy"
(Season 4, Episode 3).
- Charles Nelson Reilly as
Mr. Hathaway, Lewis's boss, in "The Salon" (Season 3) and
"DrugCo" (Season 4)
- Joe Walsh, in numerous episodes, as
Ed.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic as himself in
"Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (Season 4)
- Rush Limbaugh as himself in "The
Salon" (Season 3)
- French Stewart as Buddy
in "Drew's Best Friend" (Season 9, Episode 10)
- Colin Mochrie as Eugene
in "She's Gotta Have It", "Drew Live", and "Drew Live II"
- The Reverend Horton
Heat as The Underprivileged in "That Thing You Don't"
(Season 3, Episode 10)
- Susan Saint James (Christa
Miller's real life aunt) as Kate's mother in "Drew and Kate and
Kate's mother".
- Carol Channing and Donald Trump as themselves in "New York and
Queens".
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Sioux in
"Playing a Unified Field".
- Steve Buscemi as Mimi's lawyer in
"Mr. Louder's Birthday Party".
- Adrienne Barbeau as Oswalds
mother. (6 episodes)
- Daffy Duck as himself (Applies at
Drew's work place for a job in scene before opening title) in "My
Best Friend's Wedding".
- Julia Duffy as Lindsey Mercer, Lord
Mercer's ex-wife who takes control of Winfred-Lauder as a part of
the divorce agreement, but sells it back to Lord Mercer after W-L
begins to go down. (April 10, 2002 - Season 7, Episode 23: "Rich
Woman, Poor Man")
Eras
The Drew Carey Show ran for nine years. Like many shows
with long runs, the shows run can be broken down into several
"eras."
"Moon Over Parma"/Chemistry Titles Era (1995–1996)
The first season of
The Drew Carey Show was significantly
different from the rest of the series. Drew and Mimi worked at
Winfred-Lauder under Mr. Bell, who existed only as a voice on
Drew's speakerphone. Mr. Bell was never seen until the last episode
of the season after he was fired by the new owners. Other
characters that appeared exclusively in this era were Drew's
hillbilly neighbor, Jules, and his family. Drew's first girlfriend,
Lisa, was introduced in this season, and she remained with the cast
until the early episodes of the second season.
Nine of the episode titles were related to chemistry in some way
with names such as "
The Joining of
Two Unlike Elements Is a Mixture" and "
Isomers Have Distinct
Characteristics". No explanation for this was ever given, and
the tradition was abandoned by the end of the season. After episode
19, "
Atomic Cat Fight", the
remainder were given names relevant to their story line (such as,
"
Drew and Mrs. Lauder").
Episode 10's title, "
Science Names
Suck", pokes fun at the scientific type names.
Season One also had a three episode arc involving a seemingly
innocuous
comic strip Drew displayed in
his
cubicle which led to a hostile workplace
lawsuit.
Buzz Beer, beer that had caffeine and tasted like coffee, was
invented by the main characters in the last episode of the first
season. The concept stayed with the series until the very
end.
The first season's opening credits consisted of a caricature of
Carey—consisting of his face (complete with glasses) and a yellow
tie—singing the
Robert McGuire-penned
"Moon Over Parma."
The song—actually sung by Carey—was trimmed
for the opening sequence, and the reference to Eastlake
in the line "Guide her to Eastlake underneath your
silvery light" was changed to a reference to
Cleveland.
Wick Era (1996–2002)
The second season was notably different from the first. The opening
theme used in season one, "Moon Over Parma," was replaced by
"
Five O'Clock World" by
The Vogues for episodes 10-22 and 24. The theme
song for episode 8 was "What is Hip" by
Tower of Power; other episodes contained
"Moon Over Parma." The opening sequence was initially shown in full
as the
cold open of the second-season
opener, "We'll Remember Always, Evaluation Day," which used "Moon
Over Parma" as the main theme. These themes were then replaced in
season three by "
Cleveland Rocks", a
cover by
The
Presidents of the United States of America of an
Ian Hunter song although the theme did
not make its first appearance until episode 3 of that season (the
original was later used in a bloopers-filled episode).
Season two also introduced the concept of the music video-like
opening as the cast danced and sang around the various sets of the
show. In the second episode of the second season Nigel Wick was
introduced to replace Mr. Bell.
Lisa and Drew moved in together early in the second season, but it
didn't work out. However, this allowed the introduction of Speedy,
Drew's dog, whose presence remained until the end of the series.
Steve, Drew's cross-dressing brother, was introduced during this
period. He eventually fell in love with Mimi and they had one
child, Gus.
Drew was promoted several times, taking away Wick's job. However,
Wick always managed to return and take Drew's job back from him. At
the end of this era, Wick and Drew were co-managers of the
Winfred-Lauder department store.
Drew was also fired once, but got his job
back by "marrying" Wick in Vermont
, allowing
him to get his green card. This
was also the era in which series regular Kate and Drew got
romantically involved. They were on the verge of getting married,
but they called it off when they realized they didn't feel the same
about the prospect of children.
In the episode when Drew lost his job, he remarked: "How am I gonna
get my job back? I'm sick and tired of watching game shows. Someone
come on down and kill me!" This was a reference to
The Price is Right,
which is well-known for the catchphrase spoken by all of its
announcers. In the wake of
Bob Barker's
retirement, Carey was named the show's new host in
2007.
The season four premiere featured an appearance from
Daffy Duck, a character created by the animation
division of the show's main production company,
Warner Bros., in 1937. At the time, ABC was
also airing a number of
post-1948
Looney Tunes cartoons on Saturday morning.
This era of the show was also known for its special events
episodes. Virtually every season had two such episodes: "What's
Wrong With This Episode?" and "Drew Live". The first contained a
large number of deliberate mistakes; the person who could catch
them all and mail in the correct answers would win a prize. The
second was a live show that was performed three times
(Eastern/Central, Mountain, and Pacific Time zones), heavily
featuring cast members from
Whose Line is it Anyway?.
These episodes had very loose plots, interrupted at regular
intervals by
improvisational
games.
Brad Sherwood,
Wayne Brady,
Greg
Proops,
Chip Esten,
Kathy Greenwood,
Jeff
Davis, and
Laura Hall all joined for
several games including Irish Drinking Song, Quick Change, a
variation on Props, and some new games.
There was also the season 5 finale "A Very Special Drew", in which
the cast indulged in intentionally manipulative and syrupy
melodrama in a facetious attempt to get an Emmy nomination. This
episode also breaks the
fourth wall when
Craig Ferguson touts the Emmy prospects of Nigel Wick, leading
Kathy Kinney to snap "You'll never get an Emmy. Your character is
too cartoonish." When the Emmy quest fails, Drew borrows about $50
from his friends, takes some money from his own wallet for a total
of $80, and heads out to buy some Golden Globe awards.
By far the most extreme was the
Drew Carey's Back-to-School
Rock 'n' Roll Comedy Hour which was shown a few weeks
before the first episode of the 2001 season. The show was a series
of sketches which was far closer in content and tone to
Saturday Night Live or
MADtv than
The Drew Carey
Show.
This tradition of bizarrely themed episodes was parodied by Carey's
friend
"Weird Al" Yankovic in his song
"Couch Potato" (itself a parody of
Eminem's
"
Lose Yourself"), which referred to "a
special all-
Pig Latin episode of Drew
Carey".
Neverending Store Era (2002–2004)
In the fall of 2002 the show returned. The concept of
Winfred-Lauder and the characters' jobs there was abandoned
completely. Show openings alternated with a total of nine different
re-recordings of the previous theme songs, accompanied by remixes
of the credits and logo; however, the opening was still a montage
of various moments from past seasons of the show. The new concept
involves Drew getting a job at the company that rented the building
occupied by Winfred-Lauder, an
Internet
start-up department store called "Neverending Store," a possible
pun on the novel
Neverending
Story. Mimi gets a job as well, and Mr. Wick gets the only
job he's qualified for;
janitor. However,
Wick stopped appearing altogether after a few episodes; it has been
said that Craig Ferguson—who portrayed Wick—was away filming a
movie at the time, so this would be the reason for Wick's
disappearance. Steve was also phased out in the same way. The most
notable change, however, was when Kate O'Brien, played by
Christa Miller, one of the show's main cast,
left to have a recurring guest-star role on her husband
Bill Lawrence's show
Scrubs. She was quickly replaced
with Kellie, an old high school friend of Drew's who had been
working as a
stripper.
Drew's bosses were a set of twenty-something Internet geeks. The
combination of high intelligence, low social skills, and
hacker naïveté created a very different sort of
humor for the show. However, they weren't the main focus. Like in
the first season, Drew's life outside the office took center stage
once again. The show began featuring cameos from reality-TV
participants in the final two seasons, such as former
Road Rules star Timmy Beggy,
The Real World alumna Cara Khan, and
The Amazing Race winner
Reichen Leikmeuhl.
Tony the Bus Driver (
Bill Cobbs) became a
main fixture, appearing in virtually every episode of the last two
seasons. He typically played a role similar to a smart-alecky
bartender that Drew could tell his problems to. (One of the first
lines he uttered in the series: "There's only one reason a man
doesn't want to go home at the end of the day: ugly
children.")
In the eighth season Drew decided that he would get married a year
from the date he set; a day which would coincide with the last
episode of the season. Drew made the deadline by marrying Lily, but
he would realize in the process that he was in love with Kellie.
The eighth season was put in a dead timeslot on Monday nights,
frequently clashing with
Monday
Night Football. It was pulled mid-season and the remaining
episodes were shown during the summer 2003. ABC was forced to
finance a ninth season, even though they had effectively canceled
the show. The ninth season did not show during the fall 2003, but
ended up getting shown in the summer 2004, with some of the
episodes out of order.
The last season's tone changed radically from the previous seasons.
The directors started experimenting with one-camera set-ups,
showing that the sets were completely built, there actually were
four walls in most rooms, and the rooms were actually linked
together. The writers were equally brazen, as they had Gus burn
down Mimi's house, forcing her to move in with Drew after Steve
left her. Drew and Mimi's mutual hatred of each other finally
vanished and they became friends.
The season ended with Drew getting Wick's help to open up a
department store, using the vacated building that Neverending Store
left behind. However, Drew is quickly kicked out of his job as
store manager by Wick, who has been given his job by the project's
sole investor: his father-in-law. Mimi is also relieved of her
vice-presidency and made Mr. Wick's assistant, Drew becomes the
assistant director of personnel. Drew goes and sits at his desk,
the surroundings are now the same as the Winfield-Lauder set that
hadn't been seen for two years, and
Barry
Manilow's "
Looks Like We Made
It" starts up.
The actual final episode follows as Drew and Kellie's first child
is born, scant moments after the two are married. The final scene
is Drew playing
pool in his backyard in
the rain; the same scene that ended the first episode. He looks up
at the camera and thanks the audience, saying it has been fun.
The
series ends with a montage of the actors on Hollywood
Boulevard
with fans at Drew's "star" and the cast at a
bowling alley and, finally, at a party on the set of the Warsaw set
to "You Can Still Rock in America".
Although a movie with the working title,
Drew Carey the Movie:
Everyone Gets a Cleveland Steamer, started filming in February
2005, production was halted when creative differences emerged
between Carey and director
Michael
Bay.
Buzz Beer
In addition to his job Drew, along with Oswald, Kate, and Lewis,
had a small beer business that sprung from Drew's hobby as an
amateur brewer. The beer they created was named by Oswald, called
Buzz Beer, a concoction of beer and coffee that became extremely
popular throughout the area. The beer was brewed and packaged out
of Drew's garage.
Drew's boss Mr. Soulard tried to buy Buzz Beer from the circle of
friends but Drew eventually reneged on the sale after realizing
that he was hurting Kate, Oswald, and Lewis with his actions. He
ended up buying the beer back for much more than he was paid for
it.
Show background
Based on the real-life experiences of Carey's life, the show
debuted on the
ABC
network on September 13, 1995, and was highly-rated for five years
before sliding in popularity. Because the network had few hits on
the schedule in 2001, it renewed the show for two additional
seasons. However, the show further sank in ratings the following
season, not unlike many other live sitcoms. Even its series
finale's ratings were lower than otherwise would have been
expected. The final two episodes aired on September 8, 2004. The
show was produced by Mohawk Productions in association with
Warner Bros. Television.
Ratings
The show finished its first season (
1995–
1996) barely in the Top 50,
placing 48th in the
Nielsen
ratings, with an average rating of 10.1. The second season did
considerably better, making it into the Top 20 finishing the
1996–
1997 season 18th in
the Nielsen ratings with an average rating of 11.5. Viewership
increased 13.9% from season one.
The show finished its third season at a higher place in the
ratings, placing 16th with an average rating of 11.1 during the
1997–
1998 season; however,
the ratings share was a drop of 3.5% from the second season.
During season four (
1998–
1999), the series finished the season in the Nielsen
ratings higher in the Top 20 making it to 14th place but with an
average rating of 9.9, a decrease of 10.8% from the third
season.
The show finished the
1999–
2000 season 24th in the Nielsen ratings, the first time
since season one that the show was not in the Top 20, with an
average rating of 9.5, a decrease of 4% from the fourth season.
This was a much smaller drop than many series suffered (given the
erosion of network audiences). This was also a smaller drop than it
suffered the season before. The shows
2000–
2001 season finished 41st with
an average rating of 8.23, a decrease of 13.4 percent from the
fifth season.
ABC signed a new contract to keep the show on through a ninth
season, even though the show had yet to enter its seventh season at
that time. The
2001–
2002
season saw one of the show's biggest drop in ratings, finishing
57th with an average rating of 5.9, a significant drop of 28.3%
from the sixth season. The show finished the
2002–
2003 season 119th with an
average rating of 3.29, a drop of 44.23 percent from the seventh
season. This caused ABC to put the series on hiatus, airing the
rest of the season in the summer of 2003. Unable to get out of
their contract, ABC was forced to allow the show to film a ninth
season, paying three million dollars per episode. Not doing well
enough to make a slot in the fall, the ninth season was aired
during the summer of
2004.
Season |
Years |
Rank |
Rating |
Season 1 |
1995-1996 |
#48 |
10.1 |
Season 2 |
1996-1997 |
#18 |
11.5 |
Season 3 |
1997-1998 |
#16 |
11.1 |
Season 4 |
1998-1999 |
#14 |
9.9 |
Season 5 |
1999-2000 |
#24 |
9.5 |
Season 6 |
2000-2001 |
#41 |
8.2 |
Season 7 |
2001-2002 |
#57 |
5.9 |
Season 8 |
2002-2003 |
#119 |
3.3 |
Season 9 |
2004 (summer only) |
n/a |
n/a |
Syndication
During the mid-90's,
The Drew Carey Show was seen on
TBS &
NBC.
ION Television aired reruns of the
show from 2007-2009, premiering on New Year's Eve 2007, with the
station promoting it as "The Drew Year." The
CW Television Network also aired
episodes between 2008-2009.
The Drew Carey Show is not currently being syndicated on
any cable channel in the United States.
DVD Releases
On April 24, 2007,
Warner Home
Video released the complete first season of
The Drew Carey
Show on DVD in Region 1. It is unknown if the remaining eight
seasons will be released at some point.
The first season was released in Australia (Region 4) on September
10, 2008. Small distribution company
Madman Entertainment, usually known for
releasing anime and manga, has picked up the rights to the
series.
DVD Name |
Ep# |
Region 1 |
Region 4 |
Special Features |
The Complete First Season |
22 |
April 24, 2007 |
September 10, 2008 |
- 1-900-MIMI (a phone sex spoof featuring Mimi)
- Life Inside a Cubicle Featurette
|
Special Releases
On February 28, 2006, a six-episode release of the sitcom was
released on
DVD entitled "The Drew Carey Show:
TV Favorites". Initially, the DVD was exclusively sold at
Best Buy, but later sold at other national
retailers as well. The DVD features the episodes
Pilot,
Playing the Unified Field,
We'll Remember
Always, Evaluation Day,
Drew Blows His Promotion,
My Best Friend's Wedding, and
DrugCo. However,
this DVD has since gone out of print.
See also
References
External links