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Description: Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1998-2006) is based on the British show of the same name, which aired from 1988 to 1998. It features some of the nation's finest improvisational comedians, including Florida's Wayne Brady, Canada's Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles and Drew Carey from The Drew Carey Show. Each week, the preceding four and a rotating group of actors and actresses spontaneously played games with outrageous scenes, weird quirks, or (sometimes off-) key songsShow History: The show was brought to ABC as a summer series following The Drew Carey Show, and was a modest success, both in new viewers, existing ABC viewers, and Whosers, fans of the British version of the show which aired on the British Channel 4 and, for a time in America, on Comedy Central. The show came back in midseason 1998-99, then was given an hour time slot on Thursday nights for the 1999-2000 season. In this timeslot, while never becoming a resounding success, it did about as well as could be expected against NBC's Must-See TV lineup. Its highest ratings were in November 2000, in "Show No. 313," which featured Oscar winner Robin Williams.In 2002, the show's ratings began to slip drastically (in large part to facing both Survivor and Friends on Thursday nights). In September of 2002, the show was moved to Monday nights along with The Drew Carey Show, then to Fridays, then off the air, then back on Fridays during the summer of 2003, before being left for dead after that summer. With no word as to what the fate of the show was, fans were left in the dark until summer 2004, when ABC fulfilled its contract with the show by burning off several remaining episodes as part of a sixth "season."That's was not the end of the "Whose Line" franchise (because no one can kill it). After ABC saw how well the repeats were performing on ABC Family, they asked the producers to cut new "episodes" out of unused footage from the tapings. These will be aired on ABC Family as part of the show's seventh "season."All spellings of audience members' names are taken from the show's closed captioning, provided by the National Captioning Center in season 1, and Vitac for two and beyond.Broadcast History ABC August 1998-March 1999 -- Wednesday 9:30 Summer 1999 -- Thursday 8:00 September 1999-September 2000 -- Thursday 8:00 (new) and 8:30 (rerun) September 2000-May 2002 -- Thursday 8:00 (rerun) and 8:30 (new) April 2001-May 2001 -- Friday 8:00 and 8:30 October 2001-December 2001 -- Wednesday 9:30 (Too Hot) June 2002-August 2002-- Friday 9:00 and 9:30 (reruns) September 2002-November 2002 -- Monday 8:30 November 2002-December 2002 -- Friday 9:30 December 2002-January 2003 -- Friday 9:00 March 2003-April 2003 -- Thursday 8:00 and 8:30 June 2003-September 2003 -- Friday 9:00 and 9:30 June 2004-July 2004 -- Thursday 8:00 and 8:30 July 2004-September 2004 -- Saturday 10:00 and 10:30 ABC Family January 2002-present -- Monday through Thursday, occasionally Friday, usually 10:00 and 10:30 (Repeats) January 2005-present -- Monday through Friday, 10:00 (new episodes from unseen footage)Warning: Though most quotes are presented in their censored forms, some areas may contain the uncensored versions of censored lines of the show, and other language not censored on ABC or ABC Family could be deemed objectionable to some viewers of this guide. Surfer discretion is advised.

Overview

Production Company:
  • Hat Trick Productions
  • Warner Bros. Television
  • Riverside Productions
Initial Release Date: Aug 5, 1998
Number of seasons: 8 Seasons
Rating: TV-PG
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