Deep Streams: 'The Drew Carey Show'

If you are under the age of 30, you might best know comedian Drew Carey as the host of the CBS daytime game show The Price Is Right and for his long-running stint on The CW improv series Whose Line Is It Anyway? But he was also the star of the late 1990s sitcom The Drew Carey Show, which ran for nine seasons on ABC from 1995 through 2004.

Like a lot of comedians in the 1980s and 1990s, Carey did the traditional career path from club to The Tonight Show to television. His first major sitcom role was as part of the ensemble in the 1994 CBS sitcom The Good Life, one of that network's two efforts to turn comedian John Camponera into a comedy star. The series was canceled after one season, but Carey had often stolen the show and that reputation helped give him the opportunity to put together his own project with writer/producer Bruce Helford, The Drew Carey Show.

Like many of the 1990s comedian-driven comedies, the show was built around aspects of his personal life and stand-up act: growing up in Cleveland as an everyman who didn't quite fit it but who also loved his city and his friends. Carey explained in interviews that the show was his vision of what his life would have been if he hadn't become a comedian.

The ensemble included his friend (later on-off girlfriend) Kate (Christa Miller), his simple-minded buddy Oswald (Diedrich Bader) and the book smart but unambitious Lewis (Ryan Stiles). Carey played the hapless HR person at the large company Winfred-Louder.

When the show premiered in 1995, it wasn't a huge hit. It ended at #48 for the season, but it was receiving some buzz and the network opted to bring it back with some tweaks to the show. Drew's unseen-until-the-final-episode boss Mr. Bell (played by comedian Kevin Pollack) was fired and some of the characters from season one (like Drew's first girlfriend Lisa and his hillbilly neighbor Jules) were quickly written out early in season two. 

The show also leaned more into the battling relationship between Drew and his office foil Mimi (Kathy Kenney), who had originally been hired for a small role in the pilot, but whom producers began featuring regularly in season one. Craig Ferguson was also brought in as Drew's new boss Mr. Wick.

The changes seemed to work, because the show catapulted into the Top 20 for the next three years before finishing season five in the #23 spot. Part of the success was due to the fact that at the time ABC was a comedy powerhouse and The Drew Carey Show was part of a two-hour block that included Grace Under Fire, Coach & Ellen.

But the series also thrived because it was wildly inventive. There were musical episodes, live episodes featuring a lot of improvisation from the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the addition of Drew's cross-dressing brother Steve and an episode entitled "What's Wrong With This Episode?," in which the audience was invited to watch the episode, catch the continuity problems and enter to win prizes.

By the end of season seven, ratings had declined from an average season rating of 16.7 in season three to a series low 9.1. Winfred-Louder shut down at the end of the season and there was a great deal of speculation the show would be canceled.

But ABC's schedule was struggling at that point and the network agreed to order two seasons of the show from producer Warner Brothers, which turned out to be a mistake. Season eight was all over the map creatively. Kate' character was married off never to return, Mr. Mick disappeared a few episodes in until late in the season when it was revealed he had become a weatherman. The show also introduced Kellie, an old high school friend of Drew's who had been working as a stripper. 

But for all the creative issues, it didn't help the show ended up being moved to Monday nights, where it was frequently preempted by Monday Night Football. The remainder of the season aired over the following summer and season nine aired during the summer of 2004.

Speaking of season nine, it's also worth noting that season resembles the final season of Fox's 'Til Death, which famously turned incredibly weird and often unsettling. The show often shifted to a single-camera approach, complete with a lot of closeups and sets that were built to audiences could see the entire room. And the plots were increasingly insane, even for this show. 

Still, the first 5-6 seasons of The Drew Carey Show are wonderful and until now it has not been available for streaming, apparently because of the musical rights. Although reruns have aired over the years on a number of networks and digital networks, most recently Laff and Antenna.

But now the entire nine season run of The Drew Carey Show is available for streaming on the free ad-supported service Plex and from what I can tell, the original music remains intact from the original run - although I haven't checked every episode. The three original theme songs remain, as well as the music in various musical episodes, including a memorable dance-off that includes the songs "Time Warp" and "Shake Your Groove Thing."

<Update: classic TV expert Zach Wilson let me know that apparently four episodes of the series run aren't available - the first three from season three and a season four musical clip show.>

It's great to see the show available for streaming and while the comedy might sometimes be a bit on the edge, it's also good-natured and incredibly entertaining.