Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes shortened to Whose Line? or WLIIA) is an American improvisational comedy television series, and is an adaptation of the British series of the same name. It originally aired on ABC and ABC Family from August 5, 1998 to December 15, 2007, hosted by Drew Carey. A revival of the show, hosted by Aisha Tyler, began airing on The CW on July 16, 2013.
Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie have been permanent performers on the show since the first season, while Wayne Brady, after several appearances in the first season, has also been a permanent performer since season 2 (with the brief exception of season 8 where he appeared in 17 of the 21 episodes). The fourth seat is occupied by a guest panelist.[1]
In May 2024, the show was renewed for a twenty-first season which premiered on September 6, 2024.[2]
Format
The show consists of a panel of four performers 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, who would set up a game and situation that the performers would improvise.[3] The original host Drew Carey awarded arbitrary point values after each game, often citing a humorous reason for his decision. The points were purely decorative and served no practical purpose. He would reiterate this at the beginning of, and multiple times throughout, each episode by describing Whose Line as "the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter". The style of the games were varied (see Games, below). Some featured all four performers, while others featured fewer. Between games, the performers sat in four chairs facing the audience. The performers who were not involved in a game remained in their seats. Additionally, the show was marked by humorous banter among the performers and host.
At the conclusion of each episode, a winner or several winners were chosen arbitrarily by Carey. The "prize" was either to play a game with the host, or to sit out while the other performers did so. After this game during the first season of the series, credits simply rolled under the show's theme. In the second season, the reading of the credits was performed by one or more cast members in a comedic fashion, based on a theme announced by Carey that often derived from a successful joke earlier in the show.
The show's "short-form" approach to improv received criticism from some improv actors.[who?] Performer Colin Mochrie has stated the show was never intended to be the "be-all and end-all" of improv, but that it was meant to introduce improv to the masses.[4]
Performers/players
Colin Mochrie, who joined the American version after originally appearing on the British version
Whose Line Is It Anyway? features four performers. Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie, both of whom had been major performers on the original British show, have been permanent performers on the American series since its inception. Due to illness, Stiles missed two episodes of season 10 and one episode of season 19, meaning Mochrie is the only person to appear in every episode of the American show. Wayne Brady, who had first appeared in the last season of the British show, appeared in several episodes of the first American season before joining Stiles and Mochrie as a permanent performer in every episode from season 2 onwards (a brief exception being season 8, where he appeared in 17 of the 21 episodes). During his tenure as host, Drew Carey also took part, though only in one game, after one of the performers was declared the "winner" and allowed to take his place at his desk in the studio; current host Aisha Tyler does not take part in games, but occasionally joins in for quick scenes on different games (mostly Scenes from a Hat).
Improvisational musician Laura Hall, who replaced Richard Vranch as the in-house musician for the final British season, joined the original American format for its entire run and performed piano and keyboards in games featuring improvisational singing by the cast members. Hall, originally from Chicago, gained valuable experience for Whose Line? by performing as a pianist for various theater and improvisational companies including The Second City and the Improv Institute. From the second season onward, other musicians joined Hall – Linda Taylor made frequent appearances playing guitar and occasionally keyboards, while Cece Worrall-Rubin, Anne King, Candy Girard, and Anna Wanselius appeared alongside Hall (and sometimes also Taylor) on occasion.
Games
The number and type of games played varied from episode to episode, yet while some games became more common over time, others faded from use. Some games are based on traditional improv games, with a considerable number brought over from the British original, including Scenes from a Hat, Greatest Hits, Props, Hoedown, Helping Hands, Questions Only, and Party Quirks. Others were new and uniquely created for both the American original format, and the revived show, with several only being played once or twice, due either to the games not having been well received by audiences, or to Stiles' reluctance to perform certain rounds. There are eight games that have been performed at least once in every season; these are Scenes from a Hat, Greatest Hits, Props, Let's Make a Date, Weird Newscasters, Duet, Helping Hands, and Questions Only.
All games are designed to test the performers' improvisational comedy skills, with some games requiring the host to ask the studio audience for suggestions for specific topics or situations, while at other times these suggestions were written by the production staff, or submitted by the audience in advance, and chosen from among these. In addition, the host would control a buzzer that would signify the end of most games, or the end of individual sections of rapid-fire games such as "Scenes from a Hat".
In addition to being tested on their comedy skills in improv games, the performers are also tested on other skills, such as singing, dancing, or impressions, as Whose Line features a number of musical games, with one or more of the show's resident musicians playing live backing music for them, except on a few occasions when pre-recorded music was also used. Although they had no bad feelings about these sort of games, many of the performers disliked them.[8] While Wayne Brady turned out to be well suited to them, having Chip Esten, Jeff Davis, Brad Sherwood and Gary Anthony Williams making frequent appearances as his duet partner, Stiles frequently expressed open disdain towards the "Hoedown" game, which became a bit of a running gag, while Mochrie, who cannot sing, mainly preferred to deliver his lines in a spoken word fashion, much like in the British original.
History
The title card of seasons 1–8 of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? was created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson in 1988 as a radio show on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom. This early incarnation of the show is notable as being the origin of its tradition of having the performers read the credits in an 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 program, rather than being done by a traditional BBC Radio announcer. This approach to reading credits was pioneered by the earlier BBC radio show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again. Indeed, the title of the show itself is a comedic riposte to another radio show, What's My Line, merged with the title of Whose Life Is It Anyway?, a 1970s play and teleplay.
The radio series lasted for six episodes, after which Channel 4 developed the franchise for television. The British television version lasted for a total of 10 seasons, with 136 episodes, all of which were hosted by Clive Anderson. Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie, who would later star in the American version, made their first appearances on the show in seasons 2 (1989) and 3 (1991) respectively. They remained regular cast members for the rest of the show's history, with Stiles becoming a permanent performer in every episode from season 7 (1995) onwards, as did Mochrie from season 8 (1996) onwards. Other regular performers on the American version who first appeared on the British original were Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Brad Sherwood, and Wayne Brady. Like Stiles, Proops first appeared in season 2, while Esten and Sherwood first appeared in season 4 (1992). Brady made his first appearance in the British show's tenth and final season (1998).
The format of the American version was very similar to the British program. A major difference was Carey's use of the game-show facade. While Anderson's point-scoring had always been arbitrary as a joke, he still presented the points as though they had real weight towards the final outcome of the episode. Carey meanwhile explicitly stated at the start of each episode that "the points don't matter," and sometimes emphasized this throughout the episodes. Another difference, during Carey's tenure as host, was in the show's ending. On the UK version, the "prize" for winning was to read out the closing credits. On the US show, the winner would take over as host while Carey took part in the last game of the episode, with the performer(s) who read out the closing credits being arbitrary. Later, when Aisha Tyler took over as host, the show reverted back to the original UK ending. The difference in standards in the UK compared to U.S. prime time meant stricter censoring of both language and content on the U.S. series.
Production of the American version was canceled by ABC in 2003 because of low ratings, with already-produced episodes airing first-run into 2004. The ABC Family cable channel, which had been airing repeats of the show since 2002, also showed "new" episodes from January 2005 to December 2007, formed from previously filmed but unaired performances.[9]
Hiatus
Following the cancellation, Drew Carey went on to create the short-lived Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, which premiered in 2004 on The WB. The series was very similar to Whose Line?, and featured many of the same cast. The major gimmick on that series was that the acting was done in front of a green screen, and animators later added cartoon imagery to the scenes.
Carey and several cast members also started touring North America with a live-action show called (Drew Carey's) Improv All-Stars. The show was a live stage show similar to Whose Line?, and featuring many of the same games, though also with some new ones. The live shows started in 2003, and since 2006, are only seen on occasion, mostly due to Carey's current television obligations.[10] Colin Mochrie, Brad Sherwood and Drew Carey performed at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal as "Improv All-Stars" in 2003 and 2004. Since 2005, Mochrie and Sherwood have toured semi-regularly as An Evening With Colin and Brad.[11]
Carey, Stiles, Brady, and Esten were all later employed by American television network CBS; Carey succeeded Bob Barker as the host of the long-running game show The Price Is Right (after a short stint as host of another game show, Power of 10). In addition, Sherwood and Davis served as guest announcers for the 2010–11 season of The Price Is Right, after the departure of Rich Fields, who was eventually replaced by George Gray. Stiles appeared as a supporting character on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. Esten had a recurring role on The New Adventures of Old Christine and made a guest appearance in NCIS: Los Angeles, before moving to star in the ABC drama Nashville.
Brady had a summer variety show on ABC in 2001, The Wayne Brady Show and then hosted a daytime talk show of the same name for two seasons, starting in September 2002. He also hosted Don't Forget the Lyrics! on Fox. In 2007, he made a guest appearance in one episode of 30 Rock, and has made several appearances on How I Met Your Mother as Barney Stinson's brother. He also had a couple of guest appearances on Chappelle's Show. Since October 5, 2009, Brady has been the host of CBS' revival of the classic game show Let's Make a Deal. Featuring Jonathan Mangum as announcer and co-host, this new iteration utilized some classic elements of improv from Whose Line, most notably Brady's singing and comedic abilities, occasionally breaking out into spontaneous musical improv in front of or involving contestants, and not being a stipulated aspect of the particular game to be played. As of 2009, every main Whose Line participant has hosted at least one game show except Ryan Stiles.
On November 18, 2010, Variety announced that Drew Carey would host a primetime improv show on GSN.[13] The series, entitled Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, debuted on April 11, 2011, and featured most of the Whose Line regular cast before ending in June 2011; Rich Fields was the announcer for the series. It lasted one season.
On July 10, 2012, ABC premiered a new improv comedy series featuring several of the Whose Line alumni called Trust Us with Your Life. The players included Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, Greg Proops, Jonathan Mangum, and Nicole Parker.[14] On July 30, however, after only six episodes had aired, ABC pulled the remaining episodes after its host Fred Willard was arrested on a lewd-conduct charge at the Tiki Theater, an adult movie theater in Hollywood, California.[15]
In February 2013, Ryan Stiles revealed in an interview that he would be returning to Los Angeles in April for a new season of Whose Line, hosted by Aisha Tyler and featuring the original cast of the U.S. version.[16] The revival was later officially announced on March 1, 2013.[17]
CW revival
Whose Line Is It Anyway? returned to television in 2013, this time on The CW, with Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and Wayne Brady all returning, with Aisha Tyler taking the role of the host. Brady, who became host of a revival of Let's Make a Deal in 2009, began to concurrently star in Let's Make a Deal and Whose Line Is It Anyway? when the 2013 revival began. Brady continues to star in both shows as of 2024.[18] In addition to the traditional rotating fourth improv player (often drawn from same pool of regulars that appeared on the original show), a new feature was that of a "special guest". This fifth player would not necessarily have an improv background, but would still participate in some of the improv games.
The initial 2013 summer run was made up of twelve half-hour episodes with the three veteran players joined by a featured player, along with a different special guest for each episode who would play in some of the games.[19][20]
On July 29, 2013, The CW announced that it had renewed the show for a 24-episode season, airing Fridays at 8 ET/PT starting March 21, 2014,[21][22] due to solid ratings. Illness prevented Stiles from appearing in two season 10 episodes, the first episodes of Whose Line not to include Stiles since the seventh episode of the British show's sixth season back in 1994. Frequent guest Greg Proops filled in for Stiles on these occasions.
On July 18, 2014, The CW announced the renewal of the show for a 24-episode eleventh season, which premiered on April 17, 2015.[23]
On November 4, 2022, regular performer Mochrie had announced that the show would film its "final" season in January 2023.[24][25] After the CW stated that this was inaccurate as no decision had been made yet, Mochrie clarified his comments in a February 2023 interview, saying that the cast never received fair compensation nor were paid residuals. He also said how producers and cast members referred to it as their last season, and that if the show continues afterwards, it "probably won't be with this cast". Mochrie also voiced displeasure regarding the show's minimal publicizing, saying that they did most of the publicizing on their own social media.[26][27] In June 2023, The CW's Head of Unscripted Programming, Heather Olander, stated that she did not know what the future of the series beyond that was and that they had discussed with the cast about whether they wanted to continue with the show.[28]
Subsequently, a new season was announced on May 16, 2024.[29]
Performers
Several of the performers, including the three regulars Brady, Mochrie, and Stiles, had previously appeared in the original British run of Whose Line; other performers who had made appearances in the British version are Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten, Karen Maruyama, Patrick Bristow and Josie Lawrence, as well as musician Laura Hall. Mochrie and Stiles have been permanent players since the American show began, while Brady became a permanent player from season 2 to 7, and from season 9 onwards, appearing as a recurring performer in seasons 1 and 8. Mochrie is the only performer to have appeared in every episode of the American series of Whose Line?, with Stiles having missed two recordings due to illness. Greg Proops is the most prolific recurring performer, having appeared in 83 episodes.
The show also included occasional guest fourth chairs during the first 8 seasons, each appearing in only one or two episodes, such as Stephen Colbert, Drew Carey Show performer Kathy Kinney, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. After the 2013 revival on the CW, celebrity guests appeared far more frequently, although only generally as an alternative to audience members in games such as Helping Hands or Living Scenery; such special guest stars have included Verne Troyer, Penn & Teller, Bill Nye and Alfonso Ribeiro. Occasionally more musically inclined guests, like Christopher Jackson, and David Hasselhoff, also partook in singing games.
The original host of the American show was Drew Carey, who appeared in every episode of seasons 1 through 8. Carey notably took more of an active role in the show than his predecessor Clive Anderson, as following the announcement of the "winner" of each show, Carey would perform a game with the other performers. After the CW revival in 2013, Aisha Tyler took over as host, as Carey was the host of The Price Is Right, which ran at the same time as Whose Line; Carey is mentioned numerous times by Tyler and the other performers. Unlike Carey, Tyler does not perform full games with the other performers; nonetheless, she does occasionally interject in quick fire games such as Scenes from a Hat with her own suggestions or to help another performer with their scene. Tyler has also surpassed Carey in tenure, although Carey hosted more episodes of the show.
Improvisational musician Laura Hall, who appeared in the final season of the British original, joined the original American format for its entire run, and performed piano, keyboards and other instruments in games featuring improvisational singing by the cast members, such as Hoedown, Greatest Hits and Songstyles.
The American version of Whose Line? has been broadcast in the UK, originally on Channel 4. Challenge was the first non-terrestrial channel to broadcast the show for a brief period in 2005. From 2007 to 2012, 5USA aired the show. Since February 2021, Dave has also broadcast the show. It is also available on its on-demand service UKTV Play starting from season eleven onwards, marketed as series three of the revival.[32] Several series of the show are also available on Amazon Prime Video.[33][34]
In Canada, the show also ran on the CTV network from 1998 to 2003, and then on The Comedy Network from 2003 onwards.
The show's original run in Australia was on the Nine Network in an early morning time slot; One repeated the program from 2011. It also airs on The Comedy Channel. ABC has also aired the CW revival of the show on ABC Comedy.
Home media
The first DVD of the American version of Whose Line?, Season 1 Volume 1, was released on September 26, 2006. It comes in "censored" or "uncensored" versions. Both releases include the first ten episodes of the first season, with the episodes being the same on either version.[35] The first seven episodes have had their original theme music (including all credits and ad bumpers) replaced with the version used for the rest of the episodes. Warner Home Video released Season 1 Volume 2 on October 9, 2007, but only in an "uncensored" version.[36]
Warner Home Video released a two-disc Best of Whose Line Is It Anyway? DVD with ten episodes on June 9, 2009. Featured in this release were celebrity guest episodes including appearances by David Hasselhoff, Florence Henderson, Jerry Springer, Richard Simmons and bodybuilder Jayne Trcka, along with the hour-long "Best of Whose Line" compilation episode aired at the beginning of season three.[37]
Of the 219 episodes from the original eight seasons, 186 of them are available to stream on Max.[38]
↑ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (9ed.). New York: Ballantine. p.1517. ISBN978-1419835599.
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