“Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza” the Perfect Successor to “Whose Line is it Anyway?”
In just two weeks, on April 11th, GSN will debut their new improv comedy show Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza, weeknights at 8:00PM ET. They are billing it as essentially the next phase of the popular two-decade-long-running improvisational comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway?. Expectations of Improv-A-Ganza are high after hearing who is involved and what the show is. The good news is that, after seeing one of the first episodes, the show is a welcome edition into the improv comedy world and the perfect successor to Whose Line.
The easiest way to describe Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza is a hostless Whose Line is it Anyway. Drew Carey opens the show and is billed as the star, but different comedians open different acts. Arguably the three most popular cast members and the three most brilliant improv comedians on the planet; Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Greg Proops; introduce the other segments. Others will introduce later. Each game takes up an entire act.
Brad Sherwood, Wayne Brady, and Jonathan Mangum sing on Improv-A-Ganza. Courtesy GSN
If you’ve seen Whose Line, then you have an idea of what games will be played. The only new game in the episode I saw was Freeze Tag, but it’s up there with the better games played and makes me wonder why they never tried it on the ABC version. One of the games played was the Whose Line classic Moving People, where audience members have to move the two improv performers (in this case Ryan Stiles and Jonathan Mangum). You will want to watch for this. Colin Mochrie accidentally picks an incredibly intoxicated lady from the audience and it ranks up there with some of the all time classic Whose Line games. I’ve watched it repeatedly and I still laugh hysterically each time.
I know we are a game show news site, but I make no bones about my love for comedy. Comedy is what drives me. Whose Line is it Anyway is, without a doubt, my favorite television show ever. It drove me into improv comedy and influenced me immensely in my professional life. Ever since Game Show Network became GSN I said that GSN should try picking up a show like this. They play games during it. If you’re going to stretch the genre, you may as well go all out. They picked up the best version they could if they couldn’t do the original, and it works perfectly. Is it a game show in the strictest sense? No. Do I particularly care? No. Because it is the most entertaining, funny, and enjoyable show the network has put on the air in some time. Whose Line fans will instantly feel at home and fall in love with it. Comedy fans, in general, will enjoy it.
The tricky part comes if GSN’s core audience will accept it. I hope they do because it is, admittedly, a big gamble for the network. They don’t take risque comedy that well as is evident by the very funny panel game show Late Night Liars. But this isn’t as bizarre. This is something people have seen before and have accepted. And I hope they accept it because it’s the best thing they’ve done for a while. Do yourself a favor and check out Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza, debuting April 11th at 8:00PM ET on GSN.
They’ve actually played freeze tag before on the Uk version and on Drew Carey’s green screen, and we used to play it in my theatre arts class in high school when we were doing improv so I agree I don’t know why they never tried it on whose line. actually I found a clip on youtube for anyone who’s not famillar with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn75UznhPIU&feature=related
and as long as the show is decent enough, I think core fans will accept it, because I’ve seen people debate for years whether or not whose line should be considered a game show or not and I think enough fans consider it a game show.
Yeah, like I’ve said in the past, “been there, done that, bought the t-shirt”, no need to tune into the same people doing the same things we’ve seen them do before.
exactly, Wayne. IMO WLIIA’s problem was they pretty much had the same lineup every week. In Britian you can get away with it, but her in The Colonies Carey would have a plethora of choices, no?
Well worth a watch, I’m sure, but I bet it can’t top Green Screen. That show had all the improv Whose Line offered, with the additional fun the green screen added. If Improv-A-Ganza doesn’t have a similar gimmick, how can it hope to live up to its predecessor (not Whose Line)?
I know I’m probably going to get flamed for this, but I never was a big fan of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” I watched it once in a blue moon and it was alright, but not one of my favorite shows. I’ll check out Improv-A-Ganza to see what all this hubbub is all about, but my expectations are mediocre.
It’s important to note, however, that GSN has dumped a load of money into promoting this show and hiring Drew Carey to host it. The only reason I can think of is that they’ve done research and found out that the number of viewers watching this show will be similar or higher than the number of viewers watching Baggage. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for them to do all of this promotion in advance of a 30-minute series premiere.
In my opinion, it’s a double-edged sword. If the viewer numbers for Improv-A-Ganza are high, it may encourage GSN to show more non-game-show programming in the future, which would be a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT to people like myself. Then again, if the viewer numbers are low, then GSN may think that comedy will never work on their network, hence they won’t hire comedians like Bob Saget to host 1 VS 100, or any other game show GSN creates, for that matter.
Carrie Ann Inaba is hosting 1 vs. 100, not Saget.
You do realize that Bob Saget used to host it, right?
“I bet it can’t top Green Screen. That show had all the improv Whose Line offered, with the additional fun the green screen added. If Improv-A-Ganza doesn’t have a similar gimmick, how can it hope to live up to its predecessor (not Whose Line)?”
Actually, I think you are in the minority in regards to your opinion of GREEN SCREEN. It did not do well in the ratings and other long-time WHOSE LINE fans, like myself, didn’t like the show.
My biggest problem with it, I think, is that the animation was too distracting from the performers themselves and it filled in “too many blanks” left open by the improvisers. I think all their outlandish ideas were perhaps best left to the imagination than actually animated.
It was GREEN SCREEN that didn’t live up to its predecessor, not IMPROV-A-GANZA. I’m sure it’ll be great!
I admit, though, I am a bit disappointed to see Wayne Brady in one of the photos above. I really hope they don’t use him much. He was overused (IMO) on WHOSE LINE and probably because of his singing talent, that show had way too much emphasis on singing and tended to under-utilise other talents like Greg Proops.
Andy, I think you vastly underestimate the reach Green Screen had. Being that it aired on the WB network initially, a lot of people had no idea it existed. Take Alex Davis’ comments from the article for example: he never once mentions Green Screen, and refers to Freeze Tag as a “new game” despite the fact that, as Marc Power correctly pointed out, it was played on Green Screen.
I’m sure some improv purists didn’t like it, as you mention, but there are far more prominent factors and reasons for its failure. Improv-a-Ganza will have more notoriety in the long run, because it’s on a better network and is getting far more promotion, but none of that makes one show better than the other. You and your hardcore Whose Line-loving friends may not have liked Green Screen, but everyone I know who’s seen both agrees that Green Screen was an evolution of the format that offered everything Whose Line had and more. Except for Wayne Brady. To the best of my recollection, he was never present for a Green Screen taping.
GSN is a better network than the WB? In what universe?
More homes reached—WB gets the point.
More viewers per week–WB gets the point.
The WB brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek, Grounded for Life and Charmed.
GSN brought us Think Like a Cat…WB gets the point.
OK, that last comparison was a little rough, but GSN hasn’t ever–EVER, made the slightest dent in pop culture, even when it was Game Show Network.
Wayne won’t be used too much. He dropped by for a couple appearances but he is not a part of the “permanent” cast.
I won’t be near a television with access to GSN, so I am disappointed that I can’t see the show until sometime later (unless someone puts it online). I am looking forward to seeing it. It sounds great.
Wayne wasn’t initially announced with the other cast and I was saddened by that. I’m glad to see he drops by for an appearance (unless they added him and I missed it). I enjoyed Wayne’s singing and the lyrics he made up. Was he overused? Maybe a little but, he was funny. Not my favorite of WLIIA but still very good.
I thought Match Game already proved to GSN that comedy is a slight success. So this show should do good. I am afraid of what success would do to any chance of more classics diversity, but I’ll still support it.
I agree with each one of you guys in a few different ways. I’ve personally never head of green screen, but I watched the video of them playing “freeze tag” and I thought it was really very funny. I think that this show could either be a huge success or flop for GSN. The problem presented with it is that many WLIIA fans are expecting so much out of it, including myself. I’ve been watching Whose Line since I was around 10 and I absolutely love it. It’s arguably my favorite show of all time.
I do agree though that Wayne was overused during some parts of it, and that they had WAY to many singing games. However, I do hope that he shows up as a guest quite a bit on this show, just not singing every single time. His comedy is very funny and he was a great addition to Whose Line. I just hope that they don’t stray too far from what Whose Line was, but from the clips I’ve seen and reviews I’ve read, it sounds like it will be as good or even better (did I really just say that?). It seems that it will be much more free and that the’ll give them more sexual humor freedom than ABC did, especially considering ABC is a family network. Now we just need to collect a solid fan base and hope for the best! Everybody tune in! I want this show to last as long as it can
I watched the premiere last night and I loved it. I watched Whose Line when it was on, and I still watch the reruns now, and it was so exciting to find out that they were coming out with a show just like it, with a lot of the same cast. I hope a lot of the past Whose Line fans will find the GSN channel and watch it, I think it’ll help with the network’s ratings. I know I never bothered to watch GSN before I found out that this show would be on. The only disappointing thing is that not everyone can get the GSN channel, a friend of mine was really excited to watch it last night, but they found out that they can’t access the channel :(