Whose Line Is It Anyway? (British TV series)

*Whose Line Is It Anyway?*
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Created by	Dan Patterson; Mark Leveson
Starring	Clive Anderson; Drew Carey; See Participants
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	Radio: 6 ; United Kingdom TV: 136 ; United States TV: 215
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC Radio 4 ; Channel 4 ; ABC ; ABC Family
Release	Radio: 1988 ; United Kingdom: September 23, 1988 –; July 2, 1998 ; United States: August 5, 1998 — November 10, 2006

Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line? or WLIIA?) is a short-form improvisational comedy show. Originally a British radio programme, it later moved to television as a series made for Britain's Channel 4 before being remade for American television.

The show consists of a panel of four performers and comedians who create characters, scenes and songs on the spot, in the style of short-form improvisation games. Topics for the games are based on either audience suggestions or predetermined prompts from the host. Both the British and the American shows takes the form of a fake game show, in which the host arbitrarily assigns points and randomly chooses a winner at the end of each episode.

History

Whose Line Is It Anyway? was created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson in 1988 as a radio show on BBC Radio 4. This early incarnation of the show is notable as being the origin of the show's tradition of having the performers read the credits in a humorous or amusing style; as it was a radio show, it was necessary for somebody to read the credits, and it was decided that it might as well be done as part of the programme proper, rather than being done by a traditional BBC Radio announcer.

Later, the show moved to television Channel 4, with little change in format. Both the British radio programme and the British television series were hosted by Clive Anderson during their runs. One of the early North American broadcasters of the British series was the Canadian youth channel YTV (although many episodes were edited for adult language and content).

The British television programme lasted for a total of 10 series, with 137 episodes in all.

Early episodes of the British television series were primarily shot within the UK. However, as a number of the participants were non-Brits, it became increasingly common for the series to be taped in the United States. American-shot episodes in the British series were very similar to the UK-shot shows in terms of presentation and personnel.

The show was brought to the attention of American comedian Drew Carey, who worked with regular Whose Line? performer Ryan Stiles, a co-star on The Drew Carey Show. Carey convinced ABC to air test episodes in the United States. The show turned into an inexpensive hit and ABC kept Carey on as the host. The show ran on ABC for six seasons, benefiting from the low expectations of its Thursday night time slot, as ABC was not expected to mount a serious threat to what was then NBC's longtime Thursday dominance in the Nielsen ratings. While the network would regularly premiere two new episodes in one night, there were several occurrences in which some episodes were skipped or postponed until a later date because of the airing of other new shows or specials.^{[citation needed]} The show can now be viewed on ABC Family from 12am ET to 1am ET on weekdays unless a movie or other special skips over its timeslot. The US version of the show is currently being shown in the UK on Five US.

The American version was almost identical to the British series, though there was less rotation of games and performers (Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie, frequent performers on the British show, were featured in every American episode, and Wayne Brady also became a regular toward the beginning of the second American season). The sketches on the American version also tended to be longer and more drawn out than those in the British version. There was also more involvement of the host in the activities, and occasional celebrity guest appearances. While the points were arbitrarily doled out very deliberately by Anderson on the British series with the pretext that the points mattered, Carey took this to a different level on the American version by explicitly stating at the beginning and excessively throughout the episodes that the points didn't matter and would usually be correspondingly apathetic about assigning them during the show. In addition, the British version was more about improvisational theatre, which meant it would occasionally have games that were designed to show off its contestants' acting range rather than getting laughs. The British version also seemed to take more risks, airing games in which performers spectacularly failed.^{[citation needed]}

The last season of the British version in 1998, with Clive Anderson still hosting, was taped in the same Hollywood studio as the American version. This season was first broadcast only in the U.S. on the Comedy Central cable channel. Re-runs of the entire British TV series had been running on Comedy Central since the early-1990s, though some episodes were edited to remove games, rearrange games in a show, or remove potentially offensive content. Reruns of the British series moved to BBC America in April 2006; however, the network has not shown any episodes taped prior to 1994. This, combined with double-runs (two episodes aired back-to-back on a single night), results in many episodes re-airing less than a month after they were last shown.

The American version was cancelled by ABC in 2003 because of low ratings; the network aired the remaining un-aired episodes in 2004. In that same year, the ABC Family cable network, which had been airing reruns of the show since 2002, began showing brand-new episodes. New episodes appeared into 2005. ABC Family also played episodes cobbled together from unused footage of older tapings from 2005 to 2006.

The show also provided the inspiration for the short-lived Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, which premiered in 2004 on the WB.

As of October 2, 2007, Whose Line original timeslot of 10 & 10:30PM/ET on ABC Family has been changed to 12:00AM & 12:30AM/ET. In January 2007 UK Channel Five US started broadcasting the US version Whose Line?, whilst on October 15th 2007 Freeview Channel Dave started airing the UK Version of Whose Line?.

Participants

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From left: Stephen Frost, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles and Tony Slattery on the U.K. version.

The original BBC Radio 4 broadcasts consisted of host Clive Anderson along with two regular contestants, Stephen Fry, John Sessions and two guests. Clive Anderson stayed on as the host when the show moved to television and though John Sessions resumed his role as a regular in the first series, the rotation of guests gradually became more varied. In addition to John Sessions and Stephen Fry, regular comedians from the British version included a variety of British, American and Canadian comedians, notably Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Eddie Izzard, Caroline Quentin, Tony Slattery, Ryan Stiles, Sandi Toksvig, Colin Mochrie, Mike McShane, Chip Esten, Stephen Frost, and Greg Proops. John Sessions was ever-present in the early days of the British television version (and contractually shared top billing with host Clive Anderson), with Stiles becoming a staple in later episodes. Many of the performers, including Merton, Lawrence and Toksvig, were regulars with The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at London's Comedy Store. The theme song for the British television incarnation of the show was composed by Philip Pope.

The American incarnation of the show included Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles and Wayne Brady as regulars, with one other performer. Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Jeff Davis, Chip Esten, Denny Siegel, Karen Maruyama, Kathy Greenwood and several others took turns as the other performer. Celebrities, including Robin Williams, Kathy Griffin and Whoopi Goldberg sometimes took the fourth spot. In addition, seven years before creating The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert took the fourth spot at a taping in the first season. Other celebrities made guest appearances for individual games, such as David Hasselhoff, Catherine O'Hara, Florence Henderson, Hugh Hefner, Jerry Springer, Joanie "Chyna" Laurer and Richard Simmons. (Simmons' 'Living Scenery' sketch from Season 4 Episode 17, where he and Wayne Brady were poseable props, is probably one of the most infamous 'Whose Line' sketches, and is the most viewed clip of the show on YouTube.) In one episode, comic legend Sid Caesar made an appearance and the applause and standing ovation for Caesar was so long that much of it had to be cut from the broadcast.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the show, the studio brought out a birthday cake for Caesar. Mochrie, Proops, Stiles, Esten, Brady and Sherwood all appeared multiple times on the British show. Aside from them, Josie Lawrence also appeared twice on the American version.

Many of the sketches include music and there have been a number of musicians during the run of the show. On the original BBC Radio series, the music was provided by Colin Sell, but when the show migrated to Channel 4, Richard Vranch (also of The Comedy Store Players) assumed the job of musician. Vranch did not move with the show to the U.S. In fact, during the final series of the British show, musician Laura Hall made her first appearance. She continued as musician in the first season of the U.S. show on her own, but in the second season and onward, other musicians were added to "jazz up" that part of the show. Frequently joining Laura Hall was multi-talented musician Linda Taylor and other musicians were occasionally added, such as Cece Worral-Rubin, Anne King, Candy Girard and Anna Wanselius. Popular sketches like "Greatest Hits", "Hoedown", "Irish Drinking Song", "Show-Stopping Number" and "Song Styles" relied heavily on music.

Atmosphere

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Drew Carey opening an episode of the US edition of Whose Line?

Though Whose Line? has all the trappings of a game show, it lacks the true competition and the stakes of a normal game show. The host's duties are similar to those of a host on a normal game show. It is his job to award the meaningless points and to arbitrarily choose the winner.

Each episode begins with the host welcoming the audience to the show and introducing the performers. The host then introduces the first game (for more on the games, see below). After completion of a game, the host assigns points to the performers as he sees fit, then introduces the next game. At the end of the show, the host arbitrarily chooses a winner or winners. In the UK version, the winner(s) would read the credits in a style of the host's choosing. In the US version, the winner(s) would either play a game with the host or sit in the host's chair leaving the others to play a game with the host. Except for the first season, the credits were then read randomly by one or more performers once again in a style of the host's choosing. (Often, Carey would have one or more performer recreate a style from earlier in the show.)

The show was taped in front of a live audience, usually in two 45-minute segments with a 15-minute break in-between. The actual episodes aired were cut down to approximately 25 minutes. A single taping of the show would include several versions of the same games (for example, an audience member might see three or four 'hoedowns' instead of just one at the end, as shown on TV). The producers could then harvest several episodes' worth of material from a single taping.

During Drew Carey's run as host, the distribution of points during the show became much more arbitrary, with Carey openly stating at the outset that Whose Line? was a show where 'Everything's made up and the points don't matter', after which he would inevitably draw a comparison between the purpose of the points and something he considered equally useless, such as 'the microphone at a Britney Spears concert' or 'cheating at Solitaire'.

Games

The number and type of games played vary from episode to episode. The wide-variety of games alone helps to ensure that no two episodes are the same; however, some games have become more common over time, possibly because of their popularity: "Helping Hands", "Hoedown", "Song Styles", "Party Quirks", "Let's Make a Date", "Greatest Hits", "Weird Newscasters", "Scenes from a Hat" and "Props".

File:WhoseLine03.png

Kathy Greenwood and Ryan Stiles act out a scene while Colin Mochrie provides the Helping Hands.

Several games take the style of "traditional" scenes, but have a twist to make the game less-predictable. One of these games is Helping Hands. In this game, two performers act out a scene provided by the host; however, one of the performers cannot use their own hands, so a third performer stands behind the "handless" performer to provide their own hands. In later episodes, this game usually involved food (such as "making an ice cream sundae") so that the "hands" performer could force the "body" performer to eat nasty concoctions against his will (one particularly memorable scene involved Colin forcing Ryan to eat dirt out of a potted plant, as well as another scene where Colin forced Ryan to drink vegetable oil straight from the bottle). Ryan would usually spit it back out during the game or after the game ended. Another "traditional scene with a twist" game is Whose Line, in which two performers (most often Ryan and Colin) would improvise a scene in a normal way, but were required to occasionally read an audience-written line from a piece of paper they had never before seen. These lines were usually surreal non-sequiturs and/or thick with sexual innuendo, twisting the scene in a completely different direction, such as, "Shut up and touch the monkey!"

There are also many games that require the performers to use their musical talents. The game Hoedown calls for each contestant to perform one of four stanzas of a song in the style of a hoedown. The subject of the hoedown is usually provided from an audience suggestion. Colin, who has limited singing ability, at least once threw a comic heart attack, and thus avoided having to sing. In the British version, he commonly, but not always, faints to avoid singing, and he once simply mouthed words for the entire stanza, ending by saying "my battery pack" (a recurring joke in the episode). While they have usually been good sports about performing in it, the contestants tend to subtly express their active disdain for the game by interjecting insults pointed at Clive Anderson, Drew Carey (in the American version), or the hoedown itself while singing their parts. Another musical game is called Greatest Hits, a game in which the host asks the audience for something (usually a profession) and the participants do an infomercial advertising the latest compilation album with made up songs which are sometimes based off of real songs. The infomercial hosts are usually Ryan and Colin, and the singer is Wayne, although Chip Esten, Jeff Davis and Brad Sherwood will also sing, with music by Laura Hall, Linda Taylor, and occasionally another musician. Another musical game is called Song Styles; in this game, a performer sings a song about an item or audience member in a style provided by the host. This style is either given as a genre, or as a particular musical artist. Wayne Brady, Brad Sherwood, Jeff Davis, Chip Esten, Mike McShane, and Josie Lawrence are the most notable and most common performers of this game because of their vocal talents.

There are also some guessing games in which one performer must determine the identity of the other performers or of themselves. One of the mainstays of the UK version was Party Quirks. In this game, three of the performers are provided with envelopes, inside which are character traits or quirks; each performer acts as a guest of a party, and must adopt the trait given to them. The fourth performer acts as the party's host and must identify the quirks. If their quirk is correctly guessed, the performer will leave the party. On occasion, the party host would be stumped, and Clive would end the game if it went on too long. A famous example of this was when Ryan Stiles, whose quirk was "Carol Channing whose head keep sticking to things," hit his head on the desk in the American version- shattering the red neon light fixture. The 'host', Kathy Greenwood, was unable to guess Ryan's persona and Drew Carey declared "close enough."

A similar concept was behind the game Let's Make a Date, a parody of dating game shows, in which the fourth performer must guess the other performers' "quirks" based on their responses to his or her dating-related questions (allowed two per performer).

Other game styles include rapid-fire games, which called for the competitors to provide quick scenes that are only one or two lines long. In Scenes from a Hat, the host will pull suggestions for scenes out of a hat. (These suggestions are written out beforehand by audience members.) In response to each suggestion, the performers will improvise a one or two-line scene. Props is another game in which contestants are put into teams of two, given a random prop. Switching turns by the sound of the buzzer, they must think of different scenes in reference to their respective prop. Another game is Questions Only, in which two performers start a scene, and must continue the scene by only asking questions. When one doesn't ask a question, or takes too long to think of a question, they would be buzzed out and replaced by another performer, who would often continue the scene by taking it on a complete different direction. This game also has other versions as well with certain instances of the performers having to imitate different people or to wear different hats while asking the questions.

Localization differences

An opening sequence used by the British version of *Whose Line?*, from 1994 to 1997

One major difference between the United States and the British versions is the opening sequence. The U.S. version never had a traditional opening sequence, whereas the British version had a complete opening sequence which varied slightly over time. In the first season, the title sequence showed clips from the actual show. From the second season, it later changed to show silhouetted actors performing scenes, which was a lot more lively and exciting. The final opening sequence which was introduced in the last couple of seasons showed the scenes being acted out by animated figures made of lines, in a manner reminiscent of the Italian series La Linea; these figures were superimposed above Los Angeles' famous Hollywood Sign in the last season.

Another difference comes in the amount of participation of both the host and the audience in the two versions. On the UK version of the show, Anderson rarely interacted with the performers during the actual games; in the US version of the show, Drew Carey is much more active. The performers interact with Carey during certain games, more so than in the British version. Several games in the US version also involved more audience participation, such as "Scene with an Audience Member", "Dubbing", a variation on "Sound Effects" in which two audience members supply the sounds instead of a performer, and "Song Styles" and "Three Headed Broadway Star", which often (but not always) featured a song sung to an audience member.

The ending of the show with the winner also varies. In the British version, the winner(s) read the credits in a style of the host's choosing. In the American version, random performers read the credits, while the winner either plays a game with the host or sits at the host's desk while the others play the game.

Running gags

Running gags appeared frequently over the series' run. Usually, the gags involved the participants and the host making fun of one another and themselves. Some running gags were confined to a single episode, in which notable jokes, comments, or mistakes from the performers and/or host are recalled in later games (such as one American show when Drew made a complaint about how cold it was in the studio). There are also several running gags that span the show's entire television run.

Running gags in the British version of the show include jokes directed at the host, Clive Anderson, and particularly addressed his short neck or baldness. There was often joking between the American performers and Clive in relation to the different idioms between British and American English (e.g. "elevator" vs. "lift"). Greg Proops was often the instigator of these jokes. Clive would typically retaliate, or initiate an attack on Greg, by issuing an insult that referenced his American nationality. Ryan continued the "insulting the host" tradition on the American version, with Drew Carey being the target by way of fat jokes or by other means, especially during the Hoedown segments, which most of the contestants loathed. Only once did the "insult the host" issue in the U.S. version ever involve the UK host, Clive Anderson. In one sequence of Greatest Hits, Drew referred to Wayne as Brad; Ryan responded by calling Drew "Clive".

The American version of Whose Line? carried over many running gags from the British version, but also created many of its own, such as frequently placing Colin in the position of portraying a woman in sketches, mostly in the game "Whose Line," where he plays the comic foil of the game opposite Ryan, or assigning Ryan with the role of Carol Channing in a particular situation. With a less-varied list of performers and games, a higher level of familiarity developed between the performers. This higher level of familiarity led to more running gags directed at the performers themselves. These jokes include frequent references to individual appearances, including Colin's baldness, Canadian heritage, and vibrant shirts; Ryan's height, large nose, ties and flamboyant 1950s style shoes; Wayne being African-American; and Drew's girth, acquisition of two shows (the other being the Drew Carey Show), large paycheck despite having little or nothing to do with the show and his starring role in the telefilm Geppetto. A running gag in Party Quirks, Weird Newscasters, and Let's Make A Date sketches had the show's writers often giving Ryan Stiles incredibly bizarre or seemingly impossible quirks to act out, in usually vain attempts to stump him. As such, Ryan and Drew would often burst out laughing whenever Ryan read his card. A running gag with Colin Mochrie is that during games such as "Song Titles" or "Questionable Impressions" he will play Humphrey Bogart or a ridiculous character that often makes the rest of the cast dissolve into laughter. In "Song Titles", he was known for saying short, loud, yet clever titles. In addition, in the twilight of the series, Drew Carey and the regulars on Whose Line made frequent sarcastic remarks toward the hugely popular sitcom Friends, joking about how it was stealing away viewers from Whose Line, and "fellow" ABC game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, trying to one-up Regis Philbin and their prizes, once by giving out two billion points ("Feel the heat, Regis!") and even a game where they act out different alternate versions of the "Millionaire Show". Other gags involving Ryan Stiles has him using the song name, I am the Walrus in the 'Song Titles' round; as well as in the 'Props' round, whenever he uses a prop that resembles a big nose, he would impersonate Jimmy Durante. A short running gag is from the game "Super Heroes" when Colin Mochrie was the starter. When they were making suggestions some guy in the audience suggested Colin being Captain Hair. Thus creating a little nickname for Colin mentioned in other episodes.

DVD release

DVDs have been release for both the UK version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and the American version.

UK "Whose Line" DVDs

The first release of the UK series, featuring the first two seasons, was released in America on March 27, 2007. Also, British episodes were released on VHS (in the UK only) in the mid-1990s. Additionally, a play-at-home book was printed in 1989, related to the British series.

The first four UK series are also available to rent from Channel 4's on demand service.

The first and second British seasons are due to be released in a DVD boxset in the UK (Region 2) on November 19, 2007.

American "Whose Line" DVDs

The first DVD of the U.S. version of Whose Line? was released on September 26, 2006. It is the first volume of the first season, and two versions have been released. One is censored, and the other is uncensored. Both releases include the first 10 episodes of the first season, with the episodes being the same on either version.^[1] The extras, however, on the uncensored version holds material more suitable for mature viewers. The first seven episodes have had their original theme music (including all credits and ad bumpers) replaced with the version used on the rest of the episodes, presumably to save money on music clearances, despite the fact that the theme is the same piece of music (written by the same person), just a different orchestration/arrangement. The correct music is still played when these episodes appear in reruns on ABC Family.`

Warner Bros. has released Season 1, Volume 2 on October 9, 2007, but only in an "uncensored" version. ^[2]

Other versions

De Lama's: In the Netherlands, a show based on Whose Line Is It Anyway? is called De Lama's. Besides a number of games from Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the show uses a lot of new games. The show has already won several prizes and is one of the most watched shows on Dutch television.
Lo Kar Lo Baat: In India, a television program based on Whose Line Is It Anyway? was called Lo Kar Lo Baat. Most of the games were taken from the original.
Onvoorziene omstandigheden: In Belgium, a similar program was made under the name Onvoorziene omstandigheden (Unforeseen Circumstances), presented by Mark Uytterhoeven on één.
Frei Schnauze: In Germany, this version of the UK original entertains its audience with many similar games. The show started as a half-an-hour program and expanded to one hour in 2006. The host of Frei Schnauze is the German comedian Dirk Bach. Another improv show is Schillerstraße, featuring many well-known German comedians, but it uses a sitcom format.
Hatten Rundt: In Denmark, this show featured a setup very similar to that of Whose Line?. However, the Danish show had much more emphasis on acting and much less on wild comedy.
Shel Mi Hashura Hazot: (Translation: "Whose line is it") This is the Israeli version of the show.
Wild n Out: Hosted on MTV by Nick Cannon, this is a hip hop version of the show with guest stars (among them Wayne Brady from Whose Line is it Anyway?) and hip hop performances. It is also derived from ComedySportz.
Whose Pie is it Anyway?: An unofficial Australian version of the program was created by comedy troupe The T Team that was very short-lived. This was a spoof of the British and US versions of the program.
Aninda Goruntu Show: In Turkey, The Turkish version is called "Aninda Goruntu Show", which means "Immediate Vision Show". Although there are some differences in the format of the "Aninda Goruntu Show", it is still very close to the original "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?".
Tsotskhali Show: (Translation: "Live Show") In Georgia, this show is a copy of the original with minor changes.
Pagauk kampą: (Translation: "Catch The Corner" or "Get It Quick") In Lithuania. Quite a successful Lithuanian copy of "WLiiA" with similar rules and games.
Kamikaze: This is the french-Canadian version of the WLiiA program, which aired in Québec, Canada on the Radio-Canada network in the early 2000s. The show didn't gain much popularity due to its lack of advertising. The only airings of the show were un-announced and used as a replacement after the sitcom Catherine went on hiatus during the Holidays. The show was almost identical to the US version, using the same set and playing similar games such as Old jobs.
L'audition: Another french-Canadian version, entitled L'audition ("The audition"), aired in 2006 on TQS in Québec. The concept of the show was based on the WLiiA game Hollywood Director where the host played the director. Every week, three guests from the Québec pop-culture were invited to improvise various scenes and games such as a fake cooking show or a modified version of Scenes from a Hat. The major cause of the show's failure was the random selection of guests which most of the time, were popular singers or actors instead of comedians. Also, the show aired four new episodes a week (featuring the same guests) which lead to little editing thus leaving lots of unsuccessful skits. Despite the last popular airings featuring three Quebecois comedians, TQS decided to cancel the show due to three months of poor ratings.

References

External links

[1] ttp://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=5965

[2] ttp://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7562

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