Series Description

The Whose Line is it Anyway? TV show is a 30 minute improvisational sketch comedy game series on ABC and ABC Family from 1998-2007 and then revived with a new host(ess) in 2013 on the CW. The host takes ideas from members of the audience and then the comedian contestants must act out that scenario without any time to prepare. It's improv at its best!

Whose Line is it Anyway? Cast

Drew Carey .... Host (Seasons 1-8)
Aisha Tyler .... Host (Seasons 9-)
Colin Mochrie
Ryan Stiles
Wayne Brady
Charles Esten
Laura Hall

Whose Line is it Anyway? Trivia

This series is a spin off of a British series with the same title. That British version was also a spin off of a BBC radio show.

Sid Caesar could easily be considered to be the "Father of sketch comedy". He performed sketches using accents, body language and facial contortions on his TV series "Your Show of Shows" back in the early 1950s. Mel Brooks once called him "The King of Improv" too. Anyway, when Sid appeared on episode #503 of Whose Line is It Anyway titled, "Salute to American Television", the audience cheered so long that they had to cut much of it out or there wouldn't have been time for much show!

Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie were also regulars on the British version. They were joined there by Wayne Brady when that version moved from London to Hollywood in its final season.

Drew Carey got his job as host after Clive Anderson who hosted the British version turned it down. Anderson didn't want to move from London to Los Angeles or even travel back and forth. He did have to move though eventually when his show moved to Hollywood.

An audience favorite is the "How-Down" where the contestants have to sing a song according to a subject from the audience. The contestants however don't love that segment so much, to say the least. Drew Carey often sarcastically referred to it as, "Our favorite game in the whole wide world". Ryan Stiles hates it so much that his lyrics typically either insulted Carey, the very idea of doing the Hoe-Down or both!