Re-Watchable Shows: "Whose Line is it Anyway (US)"

I thought maybe from time to time I would do a segment on here about TV shows that I think are good for many viewings. There are plenty of television programs out there that rock with a one time viewing but aren't something I could ever honestly sit through again. Whether it be a heavy handed drama or a sketch comedy show, there are still plenty of shows out there that I could just watch time and time again. These will be more informative rather than overall reviews of the shows. I think today I will start with "Whose Line is it Anyway" the US Version.

I never really watched the original version of the show, which was from Britain and ran here in the states on Comedy Central. It ran from 1988 to 1998. So of course the states wanted to steal the show and our version ran from 1998 to 2006. It was hosted by Drew Carrey, who at the time also had his sitcom running on ABC, "The Drew Carrey Show". There were numerous jokes throughout the running of Whose Line where the cast made fun of Drew and his "multiple" shows and his "millions of dollars". The rest of the cast included Ryan Stiles and Colin Mocherie (fan favorites who appeared on every episode) and Wayne Brady (who was in nearly every episode). It also featured "guest stars" or "recurring" stars such as Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten, Kathy Greenwood, Denny Siegel, and Jeff Davis. It also featured special guest improvers: Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin and Steven Colbert.



What "Whose Line" was an improv show where four "contestants" would play games where the information for the skits were supplied by the audience. It's "the show where everything is made up and the points don't matter!". Drew Carrey was the host and he would set up the scenario itself but the audience would give a word to fill in the subject of the skit or would supply what kind of character each person would play. Each skit would be roughly 3 or 4 minutes long and they would do about 6 skits an episode on average. Popular games on the show were:
Scenes from a Hat (my personal favorite game)
Let's Make a Date (A guessing game)
Greatest Hits (singing game)
Hollywood Director
Questions ( or Questionable Impressions)
Song Titles (similiar to Questions)
Two Line Vocabulary (another favorite of mine)
Props
Newsflash (Green Screen game)
Party Quirks (a fan favorite)
Weird Newscasters
Superheros
Film, Theater and TV Style (Another favorite of mine)



Oh and there was also Hoedown! Which NONE of the contestants liked doing, especially Ryan Stiles. Drew would always announce the game sarcastically "Everyone's FAVORITE game, HOEDOWN!". It was a game where each cast member had to sing a mini song that rhymed in the end and the subject was given to them by the audience. So it's hard game for them to make up on the spot. A lot of the times, given Ryan's disgust towards the game, his rhyme would usually end with something funny or awful about Drew Carrey.

There were a lot more. Whose Line was one of the funniest shows on TV before ABC gave up on it way to early (they do that often with their shows). This is a show that could have gone on for years and years and years. Because it was a show that could stand the test of time...so to speak. What I mean is that the show would take a lot from current events. So it's not like the skits and the jokes could really ever become redundant and grow tiresome. There would always be new things to feed off of. Possibilities could be endless and would still give careers to these awesome and hilarious group of guys (and gals).

Whose Line is one of the few shows that really truly made me crack up and cry from laughter. This band of improv guys were absolutely hysterical. No question, Ryan and Colin were brilliant together and were easily the funniest people on the show. The two of them also appeared in several episodes in the British version of the show and became fan favorites, everyone loved them. Colin was my personal favorite. He was just so damn weird...but lovable. Poor guy always got made fun of for being bald.

There were some classic moments on the show, like for instance the guest appearance from Richard Simmons. Ryan and Colin had to play a game called Living Scenery where Wayne and Simmons had to be the props in the scene. It was so damn funny, because Simmons had to be Colin's jet ski at one point...and well, you just had to see it to believe it. There was also another classic moment on Whose Line where Ryan was playing party quirks and had to play an actress who's head kept getting stuck to things. And in a great moment he accidentally slams his head into the neon light on Drew's desk. Smashing the glass...everyone was cracking up but the game went on. Or how about the time where Wayne accidentally lifted an audience members dress up and showed everyone her underwear.  David Hasselhoff appeared a few times, and he was as crazy as usual.

The show was being aired in syndication on ABC Family for several years, just replaying the seasons over and over again. However, they just recently stopped airing them a few months back which kind of made me sad. They don't have this show on the Netflix Instant Queue...which they freaking should! They don't even have full seasons on DVD. They only have a few DVD's out there in volumes where each volume has 10 episodes. I believe there are only 3 of these volumes though. Each one contains 20 minutes of bloopers though, which is awesome because their gag reels are hilarious!

Last year they attempted a revival of sorts. The cast came back together to do Drew Carrey's Improv-A-Ganza. It was a show done live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and they happened to film it for all our viewing pleasures. It aired on GSN (The Game Show Network) for roughly 40 episodes. So they broke up their 90 minute live shows into 18 minute segments. It was a funny show, but not quite as good as Whose Line. It was missing something that I can't quite put my finger on. The show was cancelled after one season. Airing it on GSN was probably not the best idea if they wanted ratings. One really funny game they had on there that Whose Line never had was mouse traps. Two of the improvers were blindfolded and had to do a skit barefoot over a sea of armed mousetraps. It was so good.

So I'm sure many of you already knew about Whose Line is it Anyway, but I still wanted to write about it because it's a personal favorite of mine and I love it! I think I've seen every episode about 4 times each and I could probably watch them all 20 more times. It's a show with an infinite amount of re-watchability. I miss it....