Whose Line is it Anyway? (shortened to Whose Line? or WLIIA) is a short-form improvisational comedy television show created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, and hosted by Clive Anderson. Beginning as a BBCradio programme, it was successfully adapted for television after its acquisition by Channel 4, and aired ten series from 23 September 1988 to 4 February 1999.
Dan Patterson is a British television producer and writer, responsible for the production of both the British and American incarnations of the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the British satirical panel show Mock the Week with writing partner Mark Leveson. He has also written for episodes of both shows.
Clive Stuart Anderson is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts during his 15-year legal career, before starring in Whose Line Is It Anyway? on BBC Radio 4, then later Channel 4. He has also hosted a number of radio programmes, and made guest appearances on Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week and QI.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States, stretching some 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, with 70% of citizens residing within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.
Stephen John Fry is an English comedian, actor and writer. He and Hugh Laurie are the comic double act Fry and Laurie, who starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster.
Paul James Martin, known professionally as Paul Merton, is an English writer, actor, comedian, radio and television presenter.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building, But the network's second corporate headquarters and News headquarters remains in New York City, New York at their broadcast center on 77 West 66th Street in Lincoln Square in Upper West Side Manhattan.
The CW Television Network is an American English-language free-to-air television network that is operated by The CW Network, LLC, a limited liability joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network (UPN); and AT&T, whose WarnerMedia subsidiary is the parent company of Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB. The network's name is an abbreviation derived from the first letters of the names of its two parent corporations.
History
A frame from one of the opening sequences for Whose Line?, used from 1994 to 1998
In 1988, Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson came up with the concept for the show, revolving around games focused on creating improvisational comedy, using a group of performers. As part of their concept, Patterson and Leveson devised the show's title as a comedic riposte to a radio programme that had recently moved to television at the time, What's My Line, merged with the title of a 1972 teleplay (and eventual theatrical play) Whose Life Is It Anyway?. After pitching it to the BBC, the show was given the green light to run as a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 - this early incarnation ran for six episodes, with Clive Anderson as host, and both John Sessions and Stephen Fry as the programme's regulars.[5] During its run, the show's creators decided to adopt the approach used by an earlier BBC radio show, I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again - rather than having the show's credit read out by a traditional BBC Radio announcer, the performers in each episode were tasked with doing this themselves, but in an amusing, comedic style.
BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. On 21 January 2019 Williams announced she was quitting the role. There are no details of when or who will be her replacement.
John Gibb Marshall, better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a British actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as a panellist on QI, and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.
Following the end of the radio series, Patterson and Leveson began discussions with the BBC on creating a televised adaption of their concept. However, the broadcaster was hesitant on making the move and delayed making a decision until after further debate on the matter, leading to Channel 4, who eagerly liked the idea, making an offer during this time that the pair accepted.[6] Believing the adaptation of the radio show would become a hit, the first series of Whose Line was arranged to feature a total of thirteen episodes, which is uncommon in the UK as most TV series in their first year often begin with just six episodes. The move to television came with an immediate problem - although the adaptation was aimed at maintaining the same regular cast as the radio show alongside a rotation of guest performers, Fry had begun to dislike performing improvisational comedy and opted to pull out of the show before filming began, leaving Sessions, convinced by him, to remain as a regular performer for the first series.[6]
Channel 4 is a British public-service free-to-air television network that began transmission on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital terrestrial broadcasting on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide TV channel for the first time.
After the first series, Channel 4 faced criticism from Session's involvement in the show, leading to him being slowly phased out during the second series by the show's producers, in favour of new talent such as Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, and Tony Slattery, and less use of fixed regulars on the show. Whose Line became a success by this point, effectively helping with the careers of its regular performers, including Merton, Slattery, and was boosted by the introduction of Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Greg Proops, reaching its peak by the end of the sixth series.[6] Despite its success, the show faced criticism from both fans and critics over the production of inferior episodes - unlike the majority of episodes filmed in London, the latter halves of the third and fourth series respectively were filmed in New York, while the tenth series was filmed entirely at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and failed to turn up new talent from new American performers introduced during these episodes, with the exception of Mochrie.[6] Viewing figures eventually declined, in part due to the firing of Slattery from the programme because of off-stage problems, but mainly due to the decision to focus mostly on the use of American performers, and phasing out the use of British performers; in particular, both Stiles and Mochrie appearing as fixed regulars by the eighth series, led to the subsequent lack of new talent being featured in episodes.
Josie Lawrence is an English comedian and actress best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as Manda Best in EastEnders. Lawrence currently plays Barbara, a synthetic marriage counsellor in the Channel 4 TV series Humans.
Tony Declan James Slattery is an English actor and comedian. He has appeared on British television regularly since the mid-1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? His serious and comedic film work has included roles in The Crying Game, Peter's Friends, and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
Ryan Lee Stiles is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer whose work is often associated with improvisational comedy. He is best known for his work on the American and British versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and the role of Lewis Kiniski on The Drew Carey Show. He also played Herb Melnick on the CBS comedy Two and a Half Men and was a performer on the show Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza.
By the end of the tenth series, having run for 136 episodes between 1988 to 1999,[7] Channel 4 decided to axe the programme following the eventual slump in the show's viewing figures.[6] Reruns of Whose Line continued following its cancellation, though with episodes edited and reformatted as a result. The format itself was later picked up by ABC, after Stiles introduced Whose Line to Drew Carey, who subsequently pitched an American version of the same name to the TV network with great success.
On 6 March 2011, over twelve years after the series finale, a special edition of the show was recorded for "24 Hour Panel People", a marathon of UK panel shows, in aid of Comic Relief. The recording was broadcast live on the Comic Relief website at about 9:30am, while the edited compilation shows for the event were shown between 13–17 March on BBC Three. Alongside Anderson hosting the show, the format was adjusted to feature five performers, and featured performances by Humphrey Ker, Josie Lawrence, Neil Mullarkey, Tony Slattery and David Walliams.[8]
In 2017, a stage-version of the show appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with some members of the original cast.[9] The initial shows were a sell-out and extra dates and shows were put on. Sell-out runs followed at the London Palladium and The Royal Albert Hall.[10][11][12] In April 2019, it was announced that the stage-version of the show would be returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with Tony Slattery returning as one of the original cast members.[13]
Format
Each typical television episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? featured four performers (with an exception of six in a 1989 Christmas special) who sit in a line of chairs at the back of the stage. The host sat at a desk facing the large performance area in front of the performers. The host introduced each performer with a joke or pun, usually all related on a common theme or topic.
The show is made up of games that are scored by the host, who declared arbitrary point values after the game, often citing a humorous reason for his decision. The points are purely decorative, served no practical purpose, and were often awarded to audience members or other arbitrary third persons. The style of the games are varied (see Games, below). Some feature all four performers, while others feature fewer. The performers who are not involved in a game remain in their seats at the back of the stage. Humorous banter between the host and the performers between games is also sometimes featured.
At the conclusion of each episode, a winner or several winners are chosen arbitrarily by the host. The "prize" for winning the show is to read the credits in a certain style, chosen by the host, as they scrolled.
Episodes were culled down from longer recording sessions with the best game performances chosen to compile into one or more episodes. Each series includes one or two compilation shows of unaired games from different taping sessions in that series.
Games
The number and type of games played vary from episode to episode, and whilst some games such as "Questions Only" and "Hoedown" became more common over time, others such as "Authors" and "Remote Control" faded from use. New games were created throughout the show's run. Some games, such as "Tag," are based on traditional improv games, while others are uniquely created for the series. Most games consist of a single long skit performed by the chosen performers, but some, such as "World's Worst" and "Scenes from a Hat," are played as a rapid-fire series of short skits.
While all games are designed to test the performer's improvisational skill, some also test other skills, such as singing or doing impressions. Whose Line? features a number of musical games, which feature one or more of the show's resident musicians playing live backing music. Occasionally, pre-recorded music is also used. While they were good sports about it, many of the performers despised the musical games. In one episode, Stephen Fry is asked to perform a rap, and starts to do so halfheartedly, but gives up after a few words, and Ryan Stiles would frequently inject insults into the Hoedown whenever he is forced to sing it, usually pointed at the host or the Hoedown itself. Colin Mochrie would generally speak his lines instead of singing them for musical games.
Some games require suggestions or topics. Depending on the game, these may be solicited directly from the studio audience during the taping, or written down by the audience and/or production staff in advance and then randomly drawn for the performers' use. The host uses a buzzer to signal the end of a game, or of individual sections in the rapid-fire games.
The original BBC Radio 4 broadcasts consists of host Clive Anderson along with two guests and the two regular contestants, Stephen Fry and John Sessions. Clive Anderson stayed on as host when the show moved to television, with John Sessions resuming his role as the only regular in the first series. He subsequently became a rotating regular in the second and third series. However he appears only twice in the third series, these being his final appearances. Stephen Fry appears only occasionally on the television series.
Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie first appear in the second and third series respectively; they each gradually increase the frequency of their appearances to the point that both appear in every episode from the eighth series on. Stiles is the most prolific performer on the show, having appeared in 76 of the series' 136 episodes (including compilations). Wayne Brady, who became a regular on the US version, appears in the final UK series for five episodes, including compilations.
On the original BBC Radio series, the music was provided by Colin Sell, but when the show migrated to television, Richard Vranch (also of The Comedy Store Players) became the resident musician until the last series of the British show, playing electric guitar and piano and other instruments. For the tenth series in Hollywood, Laura Hall took over, playing mainly keyboards, and went on to be the in-house musician for the American series.
DVD release
The first release of the U.K. show, featuring the first two series, was released on DVD in America on 27 March 2007 by A&E Home Entertainment, and in the UK on 25 January 2008 by Channel 4. The U.K. edition is edited to remove references to the ad breaks. 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.
Almost all of the UK versions (135 of 136 episodes) of Whose Line Is It Anyway? are available for free to those living in the UK on All 4.[14]
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