1 9 9 5 – 2 0 0 4 (USA)
233 x 30 minute episodes
Drew is an Assistant Director of Personnel (eventually Personnel Director) at Winfred-Louder – a Cleveland department store – where he has been stuck for ten years. His boss, Mr Wick (Craig Ferguson), is English and acquired his job without a green card. In order to secure one, he and Drew agreed to a same-sex marriage.
Other than fighting with co-worker Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney) – an outrageous, brash, clownish woman with too much makeup and a nasty attitude and mouth – Drew’s hobbies include drinking beer (often at the Warsaw Tavern where they invented a beer-coffee mix called ‘Buzz Beer’) and not being able to get dates.
To make a few extra bucks he has a micro-brewery going in the garage at his home (at 720 Sedgewick Road) with his buddies, Oswald (Diedrich Bader), a package deliverer and would-be disc jockey; Lewis (Ryan Stiles), a janitor at the somewhat questionable Drugco Pharmaceutical Company; and Kate (Christa Miller), a tomboy looking for love in all the wrong places.
Carey’s rise to fame and fortune was nothing short of meteoric. In the seven years from his debut on Star Search in 1988, he went from being an obscure stand-up comedian to being a support player on such shows as Ellen, Coach and The Good Life, to his own TV series.
Several Drew Carey Show episodes featured elaborately staged musical comedy fantasy numbers, including a parody of the hit film The Full Monty (1997).
Drew’s worst nightmare eventually became a reality when his cross-dressing prison guard brother Steve (John Carroll Lynch) married his arch-nemesis, Mimi.
Drew himself was married a few times: first to Diana Pulaski (Nicole Sullivan), who he met on a business trip to Las Vegas (they divorced a week later); then Nicki Fifer (Kate Walsh), a real estate agent (she divorced Drew when she discovered he and Mr Wick were married); and then Lily (Tammy Lauren), a southern girl who suffered from night terrors (she deserted Drew on their wedding day).
He eventually married Kellie Newmark (Cynthia Watros) – a former high school friend of Drew’s who became a bartender at the Warsaw Tavern in 2002 – on the day their son was born.
Drew Allison Carey
Drew Carey
Mimi Bobeck
Kathy Kinney
Oswald Lee Harvey
Diedrich Bader
Lewis Kiniski
Ryan Stiles
Kate O’Brien
Christa Miller
Mr (Nigel) Wick
Craig Ferguson
Mr Bell (voice)
Kevin Pollak
Kellie Newmark
Cynthia Watros
Kim
Adrienne Barbeau
Beulah Carey
Marion Ross
Steve Carey
John Carroll Lynch
Gus Carey
Matthew Josten
