Drew Carey Show: Complete First Season [DVD] [1998] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

What's WRONG with you people! Don't you reconize a funny, smart, brilliant, over-the-top hilarous TV show when you see one?! I can't believe people praise "Seinfeld" for being inventive and revolutionary when this show kicks it's A*S!

Jerry Seinfeld is about as funny as a bag of toenail clippings! The Drew Carey Show blows Seinfeld out of the water, and then some! Everyone on this show is hilarous, and it's not a comedy all of the time. Sometimes there's drama when Drew has just been dumped by a women, or when he loses his job, or any of the miscellanious things life throws at us. Here's info about the show and the characters you're going to love and relate to:

Drew Allison Carey (Drew Carey) - The protagonist. Forty-something assistant director of personnel at a department store in Cleveland. He's very much the lovable loser, though it should be noted that he's the most successful of his group of friends. Original founder and owner of Buzz Beer (a special brew the gang makes containing coffee and beer. The brewery is in Drew's garage). A perpetual "nice guy." Has a long-standing feud with Mimi Bobeck, aspects of which include: Destroying Mimi's clothes, shredding her vacation requests and masquerading as Antonio Banderas to taunt her.

Lewis Kiniski (Ryan Stiles) - Forms a double-act with Oswald. Lewis is the tall, lanky, blond, insane one. Lewis can be counted on to nonchalantly say bizarre and offensive things. He possesses an IQ of 180. He's a janitor in his forties that works for a company called DrugCo. He notes in one episode that due to accidentally releasing a virus into the population he was busted down to janitor from a position that required he wear a labcoat. It's uncertain if he was a scientist or lab assistant, though it's possible he was joking. At one point he posed as Drew to take his physical for him, and inadvertently ended up taking a psychiatric exam as well. The results showed him to mentally unstable, possibly criminally insane.

Oswald Lee Harvey (Diedrich Bader) - Lewis's slightly shorter, dark-haired friend, is the dumb one of the double-act. That tends to be his only distinguishing characteristic. Lewis described him once as a "man-child stuck in a state of prolonged adolescence." At one point he was training to be a nurse, but he proved unsuitable. Oswald was a deejay in the first season, but later he became a delivery driver for Global Parcel (a UPS ripoff made for the show).

Kate O'Brien (Christa Miller) - Friends with Drew, Lewis and Oswald since they were kids. Kate's main characteristic is that she's a bit of a tramp, and a hothead. She and Oswald almost got married at one point, but she called it off just after Oswald threw her a surprise wedding (essentially leaving Oswald at the altar). Kate found out about Drew's long-standing crush on her at their high school reunion, and realized that she had feelings for him too. They dated for a season (even becoming engaged), but broke up when they disagreed about having kids. Drew and Kate were married for a short time in a later season, although this was illegal, as Drew had just become married to his old girlfriend Nicki. Eventually, Drew's sham was discovered and Kate felt incredibly betrayed. It took Drew a long time, but he eventually regained Kate's trust and they went back to being friends. Kate left at the begining of the eighth season, marrying a Marine and moving out of Cleveland.

Nigel Wick (Craig Ferguson) - Drew's boss after the first season, replacing the never-seen Mr. Bell. Crude, boisterous and offensive. He was also a cocaine addict before he was forced to go into rehab. Wick dominated every scene he was in and was the focal point of the show for a while. For some time, he and Drew were in a homosexual marriage (technically a civil union) in order for Mr. Wick to get his Green Card and Drew to get his job back. When he first appeared on stage in guest episodes in the last two seasons he was greeted with thunderous applause. Wick always had unusual methods of firing employees (and always fired someone named Johnson.)

Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney) - Mr. Bell's, later Mr. Wick's, assistant. She is an overweight woman who wears a lot of make-up. However she has very high self-esteem and is Drew's arch-nemesis. Mimi vowed to make Drew's life a living hell after Drew denied her a job based on her makeup. Mimi's pranks included gluing Drew's hand to a porno magazine, covering Drew's desk with garbage and eventually sending Drew to China. Her character can be seen as an attack on societal norms of beauty, much as the main character of Rosalie Goes Shopping is. Later on she becomes more of a friend to Drew (they agree to put their feud on hold while Mimi dates/marries Steve) and a good, if unconventional, mother to Gus.

Steve Carey (John Carrol Lynch) - Drew's crossdressing brother. He came to Cleveland and got a job in the cosmetics department in the same store Drew works at. He falls in love with Mimi and they eventually get married. In later seasons the concept of Steve being a crossdresser is abandoned entirely with little explanation (though it is hinted that he gave it up to make Mimi happy). He leaves, along with Kate and Wick, during the early seventh season.

Kellie Newmark (Cynthia Watros) - An old friend of Drew's from high-school. She was a housewife who was left by her husband. When Drew met up with her again she was working as a stripper. She took Kate's place on the show, but the character was much different. Kellie was probably the only genuinely nice person on the show, and was horrified at many of the goings-on that our characters had come to take for granted. She was also the only liberal character on the show, the others either being libertarian (as is Drew Carey), South Park Republican, or completely oblivious to the world of politics.

The Drew Carey Show ran for nine years. Like many shows with long runs, the show's run can be broken down into several generally-agreed upon "eras".

"Moon Over Parma"/Chemistry Titles Era (1995-1996)

The first season of The Drew Carey Show was significantly different from the rest of the series. Drew and Mimi worked under a Mr. Bell, who existed only as a voice on Drew's speakerphone. Other characters who appeared exclusively in this era were Drew's hillbilly neighbor Jules and his family. Drew's first girlfriend Lisa was introduced in this season, though she stayed with the cast for the early episodes of the next season. Many of the episode titles were related to chemistry in some way. No explanation for this was ever given, and the tradition was abandoned at the end of the season. Buzz Beer, beer that had caffeine and tasted like coffee, was invented by the main characters in the last episode of the first season. The concept stayed with the series until the very end.

Wick Era (1996-2002)

The second season was notably different from the first. The opening theme "Moon Over Parma" was replaced by "Five O'Clock World" by The Vogues, which itself was later replaced with "Cleveland Rocks" by The Presidents of the United States of America. This also introduced the concept of the music video-like opening as the cast danced and sang around the various sets of the show. In the first episode Mr. Bell was fired, in the second episode he was replaced by Nigel Wick. Nigel Wick was one of the show's most outrageous characters. Like Lewis he had a tendency to slip truly bizarre or patently offensive things into casual conversation. Nigel Wick, however, was nowhere near as staid as Lewis. Nigel Wick was probably the first British character to appear on an American sitcom who wasn't an upper-class, refined stiff. That is, he was crude, boisterous and offensive.

Lisa and Drew moved in together early in the second season, but it didn't work out. But this allowed the introduction of Speedy, Drew's dog who stayed throughout the end of the series. Steve, Drew's cross-dressing brother, was introduced during this period. He quickly fell in love with Mimi and they had a child, Gus.

Drew was promoted several times, taking away Wick's job. However Wick always managed to return and take Drew's job back from him. At the end of this era Wick and Drew were co-managers of the Winfred Louder department store. Drew was also fired once, but got his job back by "marrying" Wick in Vermont, allowing him to get his green card. This was also the era in which series regular Kate and Drew got romantically involved. They were on the verge of getting married, but they called it off when they realized they didn't feel the same about the prospect of children.

This era of the show is generally considered to be the show's best era, and the most recognizable. This era of the show was also known for its special events episodes. Virtually every season had two such episodes: "What's Wrong With This Episode?" and "Drew Live". The first contained a large number of mistakes, the person who could compile the largest list and phone them in would win a prize. The second was a live show that was recorded four-times over for each time zone, heavily featuring cast members from "Whose Line is it Anyway?" because of their improvisational skill. There was also the season 5 finale "A Very Special Drew" in which the cast indulged in manipulative and syrupy melodrama in an attempt to get an Emmy nomination.

By far the most extreme was the Drew Carey's Back-to-School Rock 'n' Roll Comedy Hour which was shown a few weeks before the first episode of the 2001 season. The show was a series of sketches which was far closer in content and tone to Saturday Night Live or MADtv than The Drew Carey Show.

Neverending Store Era (2002-2004)

In the fall of 2002 the show returned, but it had become obvious to the producers that the formula was wearing thin. The concept of Winfred Louder and the characters' jobs there was abandoned completely. Show openings alternated with remixes of the previous theme songs, credits, and logo, however the opening was still a montage of various moments from past seasons of the show. The new concept involves Drew getting a job at the company that rented the building occupied by Winfred Louder, an internet start-up department store called "Neverending Store". Mimi gets a job as well, and Mr. Wick gets the only job he's qualified for -- janitor. However, Wick stopped appearing all together after a few episodes; Steve was also phased out in the same way. The most notable change, however, was when Kate O'Brien, one of the show's main cast, left. She was quickly replaced with Kellie, an old high school friend of Drew's who had been working as a stripper.

Drew's bosses were a set of twenty-something internet geeks. The combination of high intelligence, low social skills, and hacker naivete created a very different sort of humor for the show. However they weren't the main focus. Like in the first season, Drew's life outside the office took center-stage once again.

Tony The Bus-Driver became a main fixture, appearing in virtually every episode of the last two seasons. He typically played a role similar to a smart-alecky bartender that Drew could tell his problems to. (One of the first lines he uttered in the series: "There's only one reason a man doesn't want to go home at the end of the day: ugly children.")

In the eighth season Drew decided that he would get married a year from the date he set; a day which would coincide with the last episode of the season. Drew wouldn't make the deadline, but he would realize in the process that he was in love with Kellie. The eighth season was put in a dead timeslot on Monday nights. It was yanked mid-season and the remaining episodes were shown during the summer. In what was almost assuredly a unique event, ABC was forced to finance a ninth season, even though they had effectively canceled the show. The ninth season did not show during the fall of 2003, but ended up getting shown in the summer of 2004.

Drew's last season felt very different from the rest of the show. ABC left the cast and crew alone as they made the season, since it seemed they never intended to show it. The directors started experimenting with one-camera set-ups, showing that the sets were completely built, there actually were fourth walls in most rooms, and the rooms were actually linked together. The writers were equally brazen, as they had Gus burn down Mimi's house, forcing her to move in with Drew. Drew and Mimi's mutual hatred of each other finally vanished and they became true friends.

The season ended with Drew getting Wick's help to open up a department store, using the vacated building that Neverending Store left behind. However, Drew is quickly kicked out of his job as store manager by Wick, who has been given his job by the project's sole investor: his father-in-law. Mimi is also relieved of her vice-presidency and made Mr. Wick's assistant, Drew becomes the assistant director of personnel. Drew goes and sits at his desk, the surroundings are now the same as the Winfred Louder set that hadn't been seen for two years, and Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It" starts up.

The actual final episode follows as Drew and Kellie's first child is born, scant moments after the two are married. The final scene is Drew playing pool on his backyard pool table in the rain; the same scene that ended the first episode. He looks up at the camera and thanks the audience, saying it has been fun. The series ends with a montage set to "You Can Still Rock in America".

Thank You for your time, cheers!

Last Monday, September 15, 2008, The Home Theater Forum had Warner Brothers home video (T.V. and Animation Divisions only) on their chat line. Questions about a release for the 2nd season of Drew Carey Show were asked and Warner Brothers flatly said "no plans". I think this is a disgrace!!! Drew Carey is one of the best Comedy shows of the 90's!! We need to write to Warner Brothers and bombard them with emails and letters to get this show on DVD!!! Fans of the series Knots Landing did just that, and now Knots Landing (according to last mondays chat) Warner Brothers is giving that show another chance on DVD! We need to do the same for this show if you want more seasons of this show released on DVD!!! GET YOUR VOICES HEARD!!! The good news is Warner Brothers is planning to release another DVD set of Drew's other show: Whose Line Is It Anyway? Season 2. Personally, I would prefer The 2nd season of THE DREW CAREY SHOW......but at least Drew's other show is getting recognized!!!

Envisioned by star Drew Carey as what his life would be like if he had never become a standup comic, "The Drew Carey Show" casts Carey as a beleaguered assistant personnel director of Winfred-Louder, a Cleveland department store. "I [would have] wanted to have some crummy, white-collar-type job where I COULD be in charge, but I'm not," Carey said.

Although unfulfilled professionally, Drew is sustained by his longstanding friendship with pals Oswald (Diedrich Bader), Lewis (Ryan Stiles), and Kate (Christa Miller). While the four pals all find humor in being losers - a fact typically pointed out by Drew's cosmetics-challenged co-worker/arch enemy Mimi (Kathy Kinney) - only Drew cares about getting ahead on the job, but his prospects are few and fleeting.

Like the rest of us, according to producer Bruce Helford, Drew's trying to juggle a life and a career and get through the day with a bit of dignity left. He takes his lumps, then goes home and feels better by hanging out with his pals at the Warsaw tavern. For me and my friends, it's the local IHOP. Initially branded as yet another one of the many Friends clone shows to appear during its freshman season (1995-1996), The Drew Carey Show immediately stood out from the pack with its unique brand of humor, going on to become one of ABC's longer-running hit comedies (9 seasons). It's good to see the show finally packaged in a season set DVD release. Hopefully, the first of many to come.

The Drew Carey Show - The Complete First Season is a 4-disc (489 min.) set featuring all 22 episodes in Full Frame (1.33:1) video, plus the following Special Features: "1-900-MIMI" and "Life Inside a Cubicle" featurette.

Episodes include:
1. "Pilot"
Between best friend Kate and hostile Mimi (who threatens to go to his boss), pressure to fill a cosmetics-counter job has Drew a shade irascible.

2. "Miss Right"
Drew finally finds "Miss Right" (Katy Selverstone), only to discover she's also just right for the window-dresser job he's trying to fill.

3. "The Joining of Two Unlike Elements Is a Mixture"
Drew vows to throw Kate a surprise shotgun wedding after she laments that one of the few states she never entered was that of holy matrimony.

4. "Nature Abhors a Vacuum"
When Drew fires his boss's inamorata, Mr. Bell (voice of Kevin Pollak) forces him to employ all his resources to find him a new girlfriend. Unfortunately Kate is the only other woman who rings Bell's chimes.

5. "No Two Things in Nature Are Exactly Alike"
Drew's painted into a corner when a female co-worker misconstrues an off-color cartoon he distributed at work and files a lawsuit against him.

6. "Drew Meets Lawyers"
With the company attorneys (Penn & Teller) pushing him to settle, and legal aid finding he makes $2000 too much for eligibility, the only other lawyer Drew can afford is Kate's obnoxious ex-boyfriend.

7. "Drew in Court"
After weeks of facing sexual-harassment charges brought against him by a co-worker, Drew gets his day in court--acting as his own counsel.

8. "Lewis' Sister"
Lewis's newly divorced sister takes an immediate interest in Drew when he takes her on a date - much to Lewis' (and Drew's) chagrin.

9. "Drew and Mrs. Louder"
Drew's "shortcut up the corporate ladder" new position as the store owner's personal assistant soon turns compromising.

10. "Science Names Suck"
Kate feels she's being elbowed out of the group when Drew and the guys welcome back to town an old high school friend.

11. "The Electron Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree"
Drew's not too wild about joining his visiting dad's lodge, the Wildebeests, especially after learning that most of the members are bigots.

12. "Isomers Have Distinct Characteristics"
Drew is forced to hire scabs when store employees--including Kate--go on strike during the holiday shopping rush.

13. "Drew and the Unstable Element"
Drew is threatened by a mentally unstable man (David Cross) who he foolishly hired, then fired for refusing to see the company psychiatrist.

14. "Drew and Mr. Bell's Nephew"
Drew accepts a promotion in exchange for showing Mr. Bell's spoiled-brat nephew Blaine (Michael Landes) the ropes at work - but soon winds up trying to give the upstart enough rope to hang himself.

15. "There Is No Scientific Name For a Show About God"
A life-altering experience reawakens Drew's teenage aspirations to become a minister.

16. "Drew's New Assistant"
The Good: Drew's dream of getting a personal assistant comes true. The Bad: Mimi is it. The Ugly: Drew fears that Mimi wants to assist him on another level.

17. "The Front"
After the store bans interoffice dating, Drew asks Kate's boyfriend Jay to be a beard for his romance with Lisa by acting like her man in public.

18. "Playing the Unified Field"
After Lisa rejects him and starts dating other people, Drew decides to ask out his party-animal hairdresser (Jamie Lee Curtis).

19. "Atomic Cat Fight"
Drew must decide whether girlfriend Lisa, best friend Kate or worst friend Mimi will head the store's new personal-services department.

20. "Drew and Kate and Kate's Mom"
Drew tries to straighten out family ties between Kate and her judgmental mother (Susan Saint James), and winds up being mom's pick for Kate's ideal mate.

21. "Drew Gets Motivated"
Encouraged by a motivational speaker, Drew's one great idea elevates him to head of promotions, which requires him to come up with more ideas every week or he'll be fired.

22. "Buzz Beer"
When Drew learns there's a good chance he could get canned from the store in two weeks, he decides to start his own beermaking business.

Highly Recommended!