Drew is an assistant director of personnel in a Cleveland department store and he has been stuck there for ten years. Other than fighting with co-worker Mimi, his hobbies include drinking ...
See full summary »
Lewis wants to bring a date to the wedding of a former girlfriend who told him he would always be alone. The gang tries to help him but each fail. His mom arrives and reveals he has a 162 IQ but ...
After a car accident, Drew is in a coma. His family and friends try to bring him back from the coma while Drew is in Purgatory with beautiful women where he wants to remain.
Milan, the manager of Winfred-Lauder, sets up Drew with her mom (played by Julia Duffy from "Newhart"). Although she is wealthy, she is attracted to the normality of Drew's life but has a difficult ...
Hot-tempered journalist Maya Gallo got herself fired from yet another job when she made an anchorwoman cry on the air with some gag copy on the teleprompter. Unable to find a job anywhere ... See full summary »
Stars:
Laura San Giacomo,
Enrico Colantoni,
George Segal
Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York City, and his team of half-wits must constantly save the Mayor from embarrassment and the media. Mike is later succeeded by Charlie Crawford.
Stars:
Michael J. Fox,
Charlie Sheen,
Heather Locklear
Hayden Fox is the head coach of a university football team, and eats, sleeps and lives football. His partner, however, does not share his passion for the sport, which frequently causes ... See full summary »
Stars:
Craig T. Nelson,
Jerry Van Dyke,
Bill Fagerbakke
Brothers Brian and Joe Hackett attempt to run an airline on the New England island of Nantucket while surrounded by their various wacky friends and employees.
The workplace sitcom "NewsRadio" explores the office politics and interpersonal relationships among the staff of WNYX NewsRadio, New York's #2 news radio station. Beleaguered news director ... See full summary »
Dr. John Becker goes through his daily routine of being a doctor, stopping at his favorite diner, and other various situations, all the while hating life and everything around him.
A free spirited yoga instructor finds true love in a conservative lawyer and they got married on the first date. Though they are polar opposites; her need of stability is fulfilled with him, his need of optimism is fulfilled with her.
The regulars of the Boston bar Cheers share their experiences and lives with each other while drinking or working at the bar where everybody knows your name.
Stars:
Ted Danson,
Rhea Perlman,
John Ratzenberger
Improvisational comedy competition show in which four members of the regular cast as comedians and often with guest appearances with other comedians and celebrities and members of the audience perform various comic games and sketches.
Drew is an assistant director of personnel in a Cleveland department store and he has been stuck there for ten years. Other than fighting with co-worker Mimi, his hobbies include drinking beer and not being able to get dates. To make a few extra bucks he has a micro-brewery going in his garage with his buddies.Written by
Steve Richer <sricher@sympatico.ca>
In the view from the Winfred-Louder office, the building on the far right is Chicago's Brewster Building, which was the setting for Child's Play (1988). See more »
Quotes
[Mimi fires Drew]
Mimi Bobeck:
Security! Operation Luau! Come and get the PIG! This is not a drill!
See more »
Crazy Credits
In the eighth season the theme song was performed with a different musical style before each episode. See more »
Alternate Versions
The episode "Two Drews and the Queen of Poland Walk Into a Bar" was deemed offensive to Polish people due to its storyline where Mimi prepares to meet the king of Poland. The syndicated version of this episode cuts Mimi's storyline entirely and reuses an intro from an older episode to fit the time missing. See more »
Network: ABC; Genre: Sitcom; Average Content Rating: TV-14 (language and strong scatological humor); Classification: Contemporary (Star Range: 1 - 4);
Season Reviewed: Seasons 6 - 9
To keep myself from stretching back into the halls of TV history I've roped off the turn of the century/millennium as a benchmark forward to look at a particular show's season. In the 9 years that 'The Drew Carey Show' was on the air it went through 3 big phases. The first was of a standard comedian-vehicle sitcom originating back in the days when every 2-bit comedian was getting their own self titled sitcom (signified by the 'Moon over Parma' intro). However, Drew Carey was better than the rest. The 2nd phase was the show hitting its prime- in that, its longest phase, it was a free-for-all comedy barn-burner. Like a little weekly Farrelly brother movie, 'Drew Carey' was crude, bawdy humor at its finest.
The show had the guts to center around a group of characters that where, without question, losers and made no attempt to glamorize them in the usual sitcom way. Drew was the ultimate, put-upon everyman and this show epitomized the workaday world of office life better than any other on TV. The cast was exceptional - with breakout performances from Ryan Styles and Diedrich Bader, who make their Louis and Oswald the classic drunken, aimless stooges. The writing was sharp, bawdy, crude and was often bust-a-gut hysterically so. Stick with the '5 o'clock World' or original 'Cleveland Rocks' intro that accompanies these seasons and you'll see a show that was heading for 'classic' status.
However, as we pick up with season 6 and forward the show is in its 3rd phase - a flaming, chaotic tailspin that strips away everything that made it great and innovative in the first place and ultimately sending it sinking into the abyss with barely a whisper. How did this happen? I can say the turning point where I lost interest came when Drew's transvestite brother Steve married and brought into the family Drew's long-time rival Mimi. But that was nothing compared to all the insane turns the show would take for the next 3 years. Drew nearly dies and sits in a coma for several episodes? Drew accidentally gets married to two women? To his long time loves and his boss Mr. Wick (a terrific Craig Ferguson by the way) no less? Drew looses his job at Winford Lauder and gets one at an internet company. The show was always absurd, but it used to have a solid foundation that it honored.
Worst of all Drew ditches his old persona - growing his hair out, losing weight and tossing his trademark glasses. In it's final years the show doesn't seem tired as much as it does a complete about-face, doubling-back to undo everything that it has set up and spitting in the face of the fans. It's unclear if Carey is mellowing with age, trying to conform more with the acceptance of the Hollywood establishment or has simply become arrogant. Arrogant in dragging this show out past it's prime and into territory it should know would disenfranchise it's audience. And arrogant into thinking that he can sing and is a great comic improve and so revamping special shows of nothing but musical numbers and live improve. What was once the voice of the working stiffs is now just a mouthpiece to nourish Drew's ego with a talented cast going to waste in the process. What was once the anti-sitcom has now taken turns fitting of an NBC tent-post series.
It's a sad state of affairs. The only one quick enough to jump from this sinking ship was Christa Miller. Caught in the thankless role of the straight-women in the locker room atmosphere of the show, she left for NBCs 'Scrubs' leaving 'Titus' alumni Cynthia Watros to fill the void. Anybody that thought the richly developed and sophisticated 'Titus' was just a standard dumb sitcom should have a look at the talented Watros now going to waste in this plane crash.
Jerry Seinfeld taught us all that the sign of a great comedian was one who knows when it is time to pull out and leave the audience wanting more. Drew should have been taking notes.
*
Series: * * ½ / 4
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Network: ABC; Genre: Sitcom; Average Content Rating: TV-14 (language and strong scatological humor); Classification: Contemporary (Star Range: 1 - 4);
Season Reviewed: Seasons 6 - 9
To keep myself from stretching back into the halls of TV history I've roped off the turn of the century/millennium as a benchmark forward to look at a particular show's season. In the 9 years that 'The Drew Carey Show' was on the air it went through 3 big phases. The first was of a standard comedian-vehicle sitcom originating back in the days when every 2-bit comedian was getting their own self titled sitcom (signified by the 'Moon over Parma' intro). However, Drew Carey was better than the rest. The 2nd phase was the show hitting its prime- in that, its longest phase, it was a free-for-all comedy barn-burner. Like a little weekly Farrelly brother movie, 'Drew Carey' was crude, bawdy humor at its finest.
The show had the guts to center around a group of characters that where, without question, losers and made no attempt to glamorize them in the usual sitcom way. Drew was the ultimate, put-upon everyman and this show epitomized the workaday world of office life better than any other on TV. The cast was exceptional - with breakout performances from Ryan Styles and Diedrich Bader, who make their Louis and Oswald the classic drunken, aimless stooges. The writing was sharp, bawdy, crude and was often bust-a-gut hysterically so. Stick with the '5 o'clock World' or original 'Cleveland Rocks' intro that accompanies these seasons and you'll see a show that was heading for 'classic' status.
However, as we pick up with season 6 and forward the show is in its 3rd phase - a flaming, chaotic tailspin that strips away everything that made it great and innovative in the first place and ultimately sending it sinking into the abyss with barely a whisper. How did this happen? I can say the turning point where I lost interest came when Drew's transvestite brother Steve married and brought into the family Drew's long-time rival Mimi. But that was nothing compared to all the insane turns the show would take for the next 3 years. Drew nearly dies and sits in a coma for several episodes? Drew accidentally gets married to two women? To his long time loves and his boss Mr. Wick (a terrific Craig Ferguson by the way) no less? Drew looses his job at Winford Lauder and gets one at an internet company. The show was always absurd, but it used to have a solid foundation that it honored.
Worst of all Drew ditches his old persona - growing his hair out, losing weight and tossing his trademark glasses. In it's final years the show doesn't seem tired as much as it does a complete about-face, doubling-back to undo everything that it has set up and spitting in the face of the fans. It's unclear if Carey is mellowing with age, trying to conform more with the acceptance of the Hollywood establishment or has simply become arrogant. Arrogant in dragging this show out past it's prime and into territory it should know would disenfranchise it's audience. And arrogant into thinking that he can sing and is a great comic improve and so revamping special shows of nothing but musical numbers and live improve. What was once the voice of the working stiffs is now just a mouthpiece to nourish Drew's ego with a talented cast going to waste in the process. What was once the anti-sitcom has now taken turns fitting of an NBC tent-post series.
It's a sad state of affairs. The only one quick enough to jump from this sinking ship was Christa Miller. Caught in the thankless role of the straight-women in the locker room atmosphere of the show, she left for NBCs 'Scrubs' leaving 'Titus' alumni Cynthia Watros to fill the void. Anybody that thought the richly developed and sophisticated 'Titus' was just a standard dumb sitcom should have a look at the talented Watros now going to waste in this plane crash.
Jerry Seinfeld taught us all that the sign of a great comedian was one who knows when it is time to pull out and leave the audience wanting more. Drew should have been taking notes.
*
Series: * * ½ / 4