The Drew Carey Show
- The motto of Buzz Beer is "Stay up and get drunk all over again!".
- Drew once jokingly noted that the original motto was going to be "This doesn't suck."
- The mission statement that the initial four members decided on was 4 Friends, 4 Ever, 4 Beer.
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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 four 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. The two companies would go on to co-produce other shows such as The Norm Show and The Oblongs.
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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 show's 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.
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DVD Releases
Season Releases
| DVD Name | Release Date | Ep# | Special Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season | April 24, 2007 | 22 | 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.
No word yet on any other DVD releases for the show.
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Trivia
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- The bar that Drew and his friends would always go to in the show was called "The Warsaw Tavern." The inspiration for "The Warsaw Tavern" is called "Murphy's Law" and is located on Memphis Ave. in the Old Brooklyn part of Cleveland, Ohio. This was one of Drew's favorite bars he would frequent in real life. The actual exterior structure of Murphy's Law is used on the TV show, although the interior is entirely different. Murphy's Law has autographed pictures of most of the cast members on the walls.
- In Carey's bestselling book, Dirty Jokes and Beer, he revealed a list of subject matter that the censors objected to, such as mild language, sexual innuendo, and one episode that made light of a character's mental instability. Carey also mentions that in one second season episode, he was forced to wear puffy pants because when he sits with tight pants, ABC thought he had an erection, a situation later parodied on the show.
- John Carroll Lynch, who plays Drew's older brother, Steve, is actually five years younger than Drew Carey. The character of Kellie, who went to high school with Carey, was played by Cynthia Watros, who is ten years younger than him.
- The season 5 episode "Drew Goes to the Browns Game", which coincided with the team returning to the NFL that season, showed the team playing the Minnesota Vikings in their "first game back" when Drew ran onto the field. In reality, the team played their archrivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in their first game back, losing 43-0. Carey had been one of the most vocal Browns fans when the original team moved to Baltimore during the show's first season. Carey even did the coin toss for the game, which was nationally televised on ABC's sister network ESPN.
- In the last seasons of the show, Drew Carey was earning $600,000 to $750,000 per episode..[1]
- The producers experimented with different filming techniques the last season. For a few episodes, instead of using the traditional four camera format in front of a live audience, a single camera technique using a "fourth wall" was employed. The experiment was short-lived after the cast, crew, and producers felt the energy was better in front of the large studio audience.
- When "Weird Al" Yankovic appeared on the show, he had recently undergone Lasik surgery and had shaved, so he no longer had his trademark glasses and mustache. The producers felt that the audience would not recognize him and get the "You didn't say you played the accordion..." joke, so they outfitted him with fake glasses and mustache.
- The episode, "My Best Friend's Wedding" had an opening scene that combined live-action with animation where Daffy Duck asks Drew for a job at Winfred-Louder. Gerry Cohen directed the live-action portion of that sequence and Jeff Siergey directed the animation.
- 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.[2]
- The Drew Carey Show was the first television show to have an episode simulcast on the Internet.[3]
- Marion Ross made occasional guest appearances as Drew's mother. Her Happy Days co-star Tom Bosley and Tammy Faye Bakker appeared in one episode as Mimi's parents, and she herself was called "Mrs. Cunningham" in an April Fools episode as an intentional goof, referring to Ross' role on Happy Days. 70's sexpot Adrienne Barbeau appeared a few times as Oswald's mother. Lost in Space star, June Lockhart appeared twice as Lewis' mother. Christa Miller's real life aunt Susan Saint James once appeared as Kate's mother. Shirley Jones of The Partridge Family played a senior citizen who Drew dated for 3 episodes.
- Ryan Stiles also joined Drew Carey as a regular on the US version of the improvisation show Whose Line is it Anyway?, which was hosted by Carey.
- Joe Walsh made occasional guest appearances as both himself and as a band member.
- Drew was the only character to appear in every episode of the series.
- Whose Line is it Anyway? was an improvisational show that Carey hosted. Three episodes, entitled "Drew Live", "Drew Live II" and "Drew Live III" had many of the stars of the show on there such as Wayne Brady, Laura Hall, Brad Sherwood, and Greg Proops. Chip Esten and Kathy Greenwood were in Drew Live II, while Jeff B. Davis joined Esten & Proops in "Drew Live III" as the "Stall For Time Players". Ryan Stiles who played Lewis was also on the show. Colin Mochrie was also on the show, had appeared in an episode earlier as Eugene Anderson.
- In one episode with sci-fi props there is a model of a spacecraft from the miniseries V can be seen on a kitchen table.
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See also
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References
- ^ Bauder, David (May 3, 2004). 'Drew Carey Show' bowing out quietly. Retrieved on 2006-05-11.
- ^ Miami Herald. Talk about an unlikely path to stardom. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
- ^ The Capital Times. Sonic Foundry's finest hour. Retrieved on March 1, 2007.
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External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: - Official website
- The Drew Carey Show at the Internet Movie Database
- The Drew Carey Show themes
- Season 1 DVD information
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