Whose Line

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a Anglo-Saxon television program of theatrical Improvisation.

The principle of the emission is the following: four professional actors must create characters, scenes, songs, according to suggestions of the public or according to an idea conceived by the host of the emission, the whole while respecting a style court of theatrical Improvisation finally taking the form of a series of comic plays and humorous exercises of style. The emission take finally the form of a show of emission of play, with the wire of which the host assigns points with the players in a purely arbitrary way, and in the final analysis chooses one gaining randomly.

Diffused at the origin in the form of series radiophonic on BBC Radio operator (1988-1998), the concept was quickly adapted on the English TV screens (Chanel 4) and American (ABC). After various repurchases of rights, the emission is diffused more only on ABC Family since 2005.

History

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a radio program created in 1988 on Radio operator BBC 4 by daN Patterson and Mark Leveson . The original form of the emission is notable with the direction where one of the principal contributions of the actors was lira the thanks and other publicities in a style humorous and comic, which was in rupture with the sober reading of the official indicator board of the BBC as it was habit to do it.

Later, the emission was adapted in televisual form on Chanel 4 with a minor change of format. The radio operator program as well as the televisual series were both accommodated by Clive Anderson. One of the very first TV-diffusers on the continent of North America was the Canadian television channel for child YTV, in spite of an adult categorization of the emission due to its explicit contents.

The first episodes were turned to the the United Kingdom. However, since a certain number of participants was not English, it became increasingly natural to turn the series on the ground of the the United States, which changed only very little the format of the emission.

Was the emission made available of the American actor Drew Carey which worked then with the actor Ryan Stiles already regular of Whose Line? , and Co-organizer of the series Drew Carey Show. Drew Carey persuaded ABC to turn of the pilot episodes for the United States. That proved to be a success with lower costs, which made it possible Drew Carey to remain the principal host and to produce other emissions. The series continued during six seasons, benefitting from weak waitings of TV rating which weighed on its time slot of the night of Thursday, because ABC had not considered that the emission can be a serious competitor with the domination of the programming the NBC.

The American version was practically identical to the english language version, in spite of a rotation of the plays and actors less various. One notes also more implication in the activities of the host, as well as occasional appearances invited celebrities. While the points were arbitrarily distributed by Anderson in the Britannique series with the conviction that the points would count , Carey differently interpreted it in the American version while affirming clearly as of the beginning and excessively throughout the episodes which the points would not count and would be distributed during the emission in a proportionally not involved way . Another difference is that the British version was initially and over all the Théâtre of improvisation, which means that it included the plays occasionally that in order to rather propose the variety of the play of actor of the participants than to make laugh the public. The British version took also much more risks during the recording of the plays, during which the actors failed in spectacular ways.

However, the American version occasionally presented plays which did not rest on the capacities of improvisation of the actors, but who had for only objective to be amusing. There was during the launching period of the American emission, of the debates in connection with the quality of this new emission compared with its British version. Finally, they are the fans and the public who sliced the debate since they adopted the new format quickly, allowing even the American version to build his own heart of fans.

The last season of the British series in 1998, with Cleaves always main Anderson emission, was recorded in the same studio with Hollywood as the American version. It was initially diffused in the United States via the cabled chain Comedy Central. The entirety of the seasons of the British emission already had been completely repeated on this chain since the beginning of the years 1990, in spite of some modifications of contents such as the suppression of certain plays or réagencement of their kind of passage. The repeat broadcasts as of April 2006 were 2006 proposed on BBC America , but at an intensive pace of 2 episodes per night, while having put side the episodes former to the year 1994, which involved some doubled blooms of repeat broadcasts discussed enough with very short intervals of almost a month.

The American version of ABC was cancelled in 2003 due to weak TV rating, and finished officially the diffusions in 2004. But during this year, ABC Family, which repeated episodes since 2002, launched on its side a springtide of emission due to its popularity. ABC Family repeated also old recordings of 2005 with 2006 qu ' it had hitherto not regarded as having a sufficient quality.

The emission gave to Drew Carey a certain inspiration which gave birth to an alternative from its emission called the Drew Carey' S Green Screen Show , diffused since 2004 on Warner Brothers Network.

Participants

The emission of origin on Radio operator BBC 4 was made up of the master of ceremony Clive Anderson, its two compatriots Stephen Fry and John Sessions, and of two other guests. Clive Anderson remained the host of ceremony during the migration of the show on Chanel 4, and the rotation of the guests was done more varied. Regular actors took certainly part in it resulting from the radio operator British, but also a variety of actors of origins English, American or Canadian. In particular Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Tony Slattery, Ryan Stiles, Sandi Toksvig, Hake Mochrie, Mike McShane, Brad Sherwood, Stephen Frost, Jim Sweeney, Rory Bremner, and Greg Proops. Stiles quickly became one of the pillars of the emission. Many actors such as Merton, Lawrence, and Toksvig, belonged to the troop of theatrical Improvisation entitled " The Comedy Players" Blind; based in the London Comedy Blind.

The musical topic for the television program was composed by Philip Pope.

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