Whose Line Is It Anyway? is an improvised and largely unscripted comedy game show. It was originally a British radio programme, but moved to British and then American television.

Format

The show consists of a panel of four improvisational performers and comedians. They make up characters, scenes, and songs on the spot, sometimes based on audience suggestions or with pre-written prompts from the host. The show is formatted roughly as a mock competition, with the host arbitrarily assigning points and choosing a "winner" at the end of each episode who would (in the British version) undertake a improvisational act based on the closing credits. In a typical taping, each 'game' is played between one and three times, always with different prompts and suggestions. Then the show is edited and only those scenes deemed the best are actually broadcast.

In 2004, a similar show with almost the same cast premiered on The WB, called Drew Carey's Green Screen.

Participants

The show was created by Dan Patterson, and in its original form on BBC Radio 4, Clive Anderson presented the show, with two regulars, Stephen Fry and John Sessions, and two guests. It was later moved to the television station Channel 4, with little change in format except for a more varied guest rotation. Regular comedians from the British version included, as well as the former regulars, a variety of British, American, and Canadian comedians, notably Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Tony Slattery, Ryan Stiles, Sandi Toksvig, Colin Mochrie, Mike McShane, and Greg Proops. Sessions was ever-present in the early days of the British television version, with Stiles becoming a staple in later episodes and having some influence on the creation and success of the American incarnation. Many of the performers, including Merton, Lawrence and Toksvig were regulars with the Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at the London Comedy Store. The theme tune for the British television incarnation of the show was composed by Philip Pope.

The reruns of the UK TV series were aired for many years on the US Comedy Central TV channel, and were brought to the attention of American comedian Drew Carey (who had a working relationship with regular Whose Line performer Stiles who co-starred in The Drew Carey Show when not appearing on the British show). Carey convinced ABC to air test episodes in the United States. The show was an inexpensive hit, and ABC kept Carey on as the host of a successful American version which ran for several years. The American version was almost identical to the UK series, though with a less diverse rotation of games and performers, more involvement of the host (Carey) in the activities, and occasional celebrity guest appearances. The American incarnation of the show included Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles as regulars, with Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Brad Sherwood, Denny Siegel, Jeff Davis, and Kathy Greenwood taking turns as the fourth performer. Mochrie, Proops, Stiles, Esten, and Sherwood all appeared multiple times on the British show. For a time, the British version of the series (with Clive Anderson still hosting) was taped in the same Hollywood studio as the American version, though this version was rarely shown on US TV (a few episodes were shown on ABC, however). After a couple of years of simultaneous productions, the British version of the series was retired. The American version continues in reruns on the ABC Family cable channel.

Many of the sketches include music, and there have been a number of musicians during the run of the show. On the original BBC Radio series, the music was provided by Colin Sell, but when the show migrated to Channel 4 Richard Vranch took over the job. Richard Vranch did not move with the show to the US, in fact during the final series of the UK show which was filmed in America, musician Laura Hall made her first appearance on the show. She continued as musician in the first season of the US show on her own, but in the second season onwards other musicians were added to attempt to "jazz up" that section of the show. Joining Laura Hall often was multi-talented musician Linda Taylor, and on occasion other musicians were added such as Cece Worral-Rubin , Anne King, & Candy Girard. The sketches "Greatest Hits", "Hoedown", and "Song Styles" are amongst the most popular, and rely heavily on music. The musicians have a task as challenging as the actors. In the games "Greatest Hits" and "Song Styles", for instance, they must come up with different song styles on the spot, and they must also work with the other musicians and the actors to make the scene work.

Common sketches

Possible sketches include:

• 90-second Alphabet: Three participants must enact a scene in which each sentence must begin with the letter following the first letter of the last sentence. The performers start with a letter chosen by the audience (oftentimes it is a less common letter like Q) and must go through the entire alphabet in 90 seconds. Hilarity generally ensues when they get to X.
• African Chant: Wayne, backed up by the other three performers, must perform an African Chant with an audience member.
• Animals: Two to four participants must enact a soap opera-ish scene, but they are all animals.
• Authors: All four performers tell parts of the same story, but each contestant uses the style of their favorite author.
• Dubbing: Colin and Ryan act out a scene with an audience member, whose voice is provided by Wayne or Brad. Sometimes a special celebrity guest is used instead of an audience member.
• Film Dub: Performers must watch a clip from a movie or television show which has been muted and make up the dialogue as they go along.
• Film, T.V., & Theatre Styles: Two participants must act out a given scene, but the scene occasionally stops and a film or theatre style is given, and the participants must continue in that style.
• Film Noir: Two participants must enact a scene in film noir, ie. they must break the fourth wall, approach the camera, and tell everyone what's going on.
• Foreign Film Dub: 2 performers must act out a scene in a foreign languange chosen by the audience while the other two performers must translate. (Due to the fact that the performers usually do not know the language chosen, it is usually just gibberish)
• Greatest Hits: Colin and Ryan must sell a compilation album, and Wayne (and sometimes the guest performer) must sing songs from the album when prompted.
• Hats: Two pairs of two participants receive a box of random headgear and must use them to come up with examples of "the world's worst dating service videos."
• Helping Hands: Two participants must enact a scene in which one cannot use his hands; a third participant must provide the hands.
• Hoedown: The four participants must individually sing a hoedown about a given subject.
• Hollywood Director: Three participants improvise a scene provided by the host. Colin interrupts periodically to provide often ridiculous directions to the others, such as, "Do it like a 1950's musical."
• If You Know What I Mean: Colin, Ryan, and Brad improvise a scene in which they make up as many ambiguous euphemisms as they can.
• Impossible Mission or Improbable Mission: Two participants are super-secret agents a la Mission: Impossible. A third is the voice on the tape, who gives them their assignment: a mundane task (e.g. Get dressed or mow the lawn). Greg Proops is known for taking these boring tasks and making them exciting; he turned "Doing the laundry" into "Cleaning the visiting emir of Brufunkistan's burnoose without his knowledge."
• Infomercial: Colin and Ryan must create an infomercial for some type of self-help product using only items given to them in a box.
• Irish Drinking Song: The four participants must sing an Irish drinking song one line at a time about a given subject. (Colin usually has the last line in this game, and has a penchant for coming up with something so outrageously hilarious that the other three crack up and can hardly finish the song.)
• Let's Make a Date: One performer is the host of a dating-type show. The other three are bachelors who have quirky personalities. The host tries to guess what they are at the end.
• Living Scenery: Two performers improvise a scene provided by the host. The other two performers stand in for props during the scene.
• Moving People: Colin and Ryan improvise a scene, but cannot move on their own. Instead, two audience members move them into different positions as they act out the scene.
• News Flash: Colin (or Greg, on the U.K. series) stands in front of a green screen as a field reporter. Random footage is shown to the audience, the news anchors, and the viewers at home. The two studio reporters (Ryan and the guest performer) give Colin clues to the footage. (Ryan and Drew have also played the field reporter in a few episodes of the U.S. version.)
• Party Quirks: Three participants are given a random quirk, and the fourth is a party host, who must identify the others' quirks.
• Props: Two pair of two participants must come up with quick scenes that involve a random prop.
• Questions Only: The game will start with 2 participants. They must only speak in the form of a question in a given subject. Failure to do talk in a form of a question will result in being buzz out and the next participant coming in. A variant is "Questionable Impressions," where, in addition to the above rules, the performers must impersonate a historical, fictional, or pop culture figure of their choice.
• Quick Change: Two or three performers improvise a scene provided by the host. Another performer stands to the side and says "Change" at various times during the scene. Whenever he says "change", the performer who had the last line must change that line to something else.
• Scenes From a Hat: The four players improvise one-liners with random scenes that Drew reads from a hat (ex. "Rejected state songs" and "What Drew Carey is thinking right now"). The suggested scenes are provided by members of the audience.
• Scene to Rap: All four participants must enact a scene, but can only speak as a rap.
• Show Stopping Number: Ryan and Colin enact a scene, joined later by Wayne. At random times Drew uses a buzzer, and the last contestant to speak before the buzzer must sing a show-stopping tune based on the line they just said.
• Song Styles: Wayne sings a song in a style provided by the host about an audience member or about a subject provided by the audience. In a similar game, "Duet," Wayne will be joined by a guest performer.
• Song Titles: The game will start with 2 participants. They can only speak using song titles. Failure to do so will result in being buzzed out and the next participant coming in.
• Sound Effects: There are two variants to this game. In one, Colin improvises a scene provided by the host, reacting to sound cues provided by Ryan. In the other, Colin and Ryan improvise a scene with sound effects provided by two audience members.
• Superheroes: One participant is a silly superhero determined by the audience, and is confronted with a bizarre world crisis. The other participants enter one at a time, and they each identify the next entrant. Superheroes from this game included Disco Kid, Captain Dog-in-Heat, Yodeling Pogo-Stick Man, and Captain Hair.
• Stand, Sit, Bend: Three participants must enact a scene, but one must be standing, one must be sitting, and one must be bent over. Whenever one participant changes positions, the others have to accommodate. A variant is "Stand, Sit, Lie," where a participant must be lying down.
• Three-Headed Broadway Star: Three players must make up a Broadway hit song one word at a time.
• Two Line Vocabulary: Three participants enact the scene. One (typically Colin) can say anything they like, but the others (usually Ryan and the guest performer) are allowed to say only two specific lines, and nothing else.
• What Are You Trying to Say?: Two performers act out a given scenario, each taking offense at the other's statements whenever possible.
• Whose Line: Ryan and Colin do a scene and must include two random lines that were given to them. The lines are provided by audience members.
• Weird Newscasters: Colin, Brad, or Greg (usually Greg) is the head anchor of a news show, with the guest performer as his co-host, Wayne as the sports anchor, and Ryan as the weather anchor. Drew gives the performers (except the head anchor) a quirky personality.
• World's Worst: The participants come to "the World's Worst Step" and must step forward when they have an example of the world's worst (fill in the blank) (e.g. "the world's worst roommate").

At the end of the programme, usually a single participant is selected to read the credits in a given style. In the American version, this was not done; instead, the "winner" of the episode sat at the host's podium while Drew Carey performed an improv sketch with the rest of the cast.

External links

• Official website of US version (http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/whoseline/index.jsp)
• Dean's Whose Line is it Anyway Website (http://www.idiotsite.com/deansguideindex.htm) - Detailed season guide for both the UK and US incarnation, as well as very detailed statistics.
• Mark's Guide to Whose Line is it Anyway? (http://whoseline.net/)
• UK Gameshows Page: Whose Line Is It Anyway? (http://www.ukgameshows.com/index.php/Whose_Line_is_it_Anyway%3F)
• radiohaha (http://www.angelfire.com/pq/radiohaha/WHOSELIN.html)
• epguides.com's radio guide (http://epguides.com/WhoseLineisItAnyway_UK/radio.shtml), UK guide (http://epguides.com/WhoseLineIsItAnyway_UK/) and US guide (http://epguides.com/WhoseLineIsItAnyway_US/)