The Drew Carey Show

The first season's opening credits consisted of a caricature of Carey—consisting of his face and a yellow tie—singing the Robert McGuire-penned "Moon Over Parma". The song was trimmed for the opening sequence, and the reference to Eastlake in the line "Guide her to Eastlake underneath your silvery light" was changed to a reference to Cleveland to stay in theme with the show.

In the first season, Drew and Mimi worked under Mr. Bell, who existed only as a voice on Drew's speakerphone, excluding the season finale (his final episode, played by Kevin Pollak) wherein he is fired by Winfred-Louder's new owners. Other characters that appeared exclusively in this period were Drew's hillbilly neighbor Jules and his family. Drew's first girlfriend Lisa was introduced in this season, as was Jay, Kate's love interest who used to attend the same high school as Drew and his friends. Both characters lasted until Season 2, where they were quickly written out of the show in the early episodes.

Nine of the episode titles were related to chemistry in some way, with names such as "The Joining of Two Unlike Elements Is a Mixture" and "Isomers Have Distinct Characteristics". However, this theme was abandoned by the end of the season.

"Moon Over Parma" was phased out during the second season by "Five O'Clock World" sung by The Vogues. This season introduced openings that paid homage to music videos which included the cast dancing and singing around the various sets of the show.

In the fourth season, the opening theme was changed to "Cleveland Rocks", a cover of an Ian Hunter song performed by The Presidents of the United States of America. The video consisted of shots of Cleveland ending with their ballpark. This change lasted until the second "wave" of the show ended, with the finale of Season 7.

The man who took over Mr. Bell's job after his firing was Nigel Wick, who served as a foil for both Drew and Mimi in the workplace. During this period, Drew and Mr. Wick also periodically took the top management job away from each other. This would usually result in Drew ending up back at his old job as Assistant Director of Personnel and Mr. Wick would miraculously retain his job as manager. By the end of Season 7, they were both Co-Managers before Winfred-Louder was closed down (albeit after undergoing drastic changes to stay in business).

Kate and Oswald became closer and eventually became romantically involved and almost married during the third season, but Kate stood Oswald up at the altar. Kate and Drew also became romantically involved and were on the verge of getting married, but they called it off when they realized they did not feel the same about the prospect of children. Drew's cross-dressing brother Steve was introduced during this period. He eventually fell in love with Mimi and they had a child together, Gus (whose name was decided by means of a contest).

Drew also got married a number of times during this portion of the show. His first marriage was to Diane, a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas. This was only temporary however, as she needed Drew to retain custody of her children. His second marriage was to Mr. Wick, who forced Drew to marry him in a sham same-sex civil union in Vermont (the only place it was legal at the time) in hopes that the marriage would placate the Immigration and Naturalization Service. At the beginning of Season 7, Drew married both Nikki and Kate (the former had been a recurring character for some time since Season 3, and suffered from weight problems). They found out about this and all three of these marriages ended in divorce, and Drew became known as the "Impotent Bisexual Bigamist". Nikki eventually returned, and the actress, Kate Walsh, donned a fat suit again and moved in with Drew.

During this period the show also had frequent "event" episodes. Recurring themes were "What's Wrong With This Episode?", in which the show contained numerous deliberate continuity errors and other mistakes and invited viewers at home to find the most errors and win a prize, and live episodes, with loose plots and improvised scenes featuring cast members from Carey's improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Brad Sherwood, Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Kathy Greenwood, Jeff Davis, Laura Hall, and Linda Taylor) contributed to these episodes, with Brad Sherwood hosting.

Beginning in season 8, the show rotated through 9 different opening sequences, each of which contained a new version of one of the show's three theme songs. Each theme ("Moon Over Parma", "Five O'Clock World" and "Cleveland Rocks") was seen in three different segments, in new, wildly different arrangements. The show eventually went back to having just five main characters, akin to the first season, as Kate, Mr. Wick, and Steve were eventually written out of the show. Kate's character was married off, Mr. Wick disappeared after three appearances until the Season 8 finale, wherein it is revealed he became a weatherman (although he continued to appear in the opening credits, unlike Kate, who was eliminated completely, and never mentioned again.) Steve left at the beginning of the ninth season to "find himself".

With Winfred-Louder closed, the location became the office of online retailer Neverending Store. Drew, Mimi, and Mr. Wick were hired as employees of the new company. Mimi was hired first in a similar role to her old job, and Drew was eventually hired as "Internal Expediting Analyst", and a recurring gag began wherein Drew had no clue as to what his job entailed. Before being written out, Mr. Wick was at first a janitor, and another recurring joke came in the form of Mr. Wick attempting to climb the ladder back to being the boss. Before being written out, he went from janitor to the carrier of the dessert trolley.

Kate left after the first two episodes of season 8, the same two episodes that introduced Kellie, an old high school friend of Drew's who had been working as a stripper. She eventually became a waitress at The Warsaw Tavern, Drew's girlfriend, and the carrier of his child. The plot of the final episode was Drew and Kellie attempting to get married before their child is born. Mr. Wick also returned and stayed on for the series finale.

The show began featuring cameos from reality-TV participants in the final two seasons, such as former Road Rules star Timmy Beggy, The Real World alumna Cara Khan, and The Amazing Race winner Reichen Lehmkuhl. Tony the Bus Driver (Bill Cobbs) became a regular, serving as smart-alecky "bartender" type to whom Drew could tell his problems. The eighth season was put in a timeslot that frequently clashed with Monday Night Football. It was pulled mid-season and the remaining episodes were shown during the summer of 2003. The ninth season did not air until the summer of 2004, with most of the episodes out of order.

The last season's tone changed radically from the previous seasons. The directors began experimenting with one-camera set-ups, showing the sets completely built, with four walls in most rooms, and with rooms actually linked together. The writers also began experimenting, including story lines in which Gus burns down Mimi's house, forcing her to move in with Drew after Steve leaves her.

On March 24, 2009, Kathy Kinney appeared in character as Mimi at the beginning of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Kinney appeared twice on The Price Is Right as Mimi Bobeck on April Fools' Day. Drew Carey has been the host of the show since 2007.[4] Carey would later revive the "What's Wrong with This Episode?" format for later April Fool's Day episodes of The Price Is Right.

At the end of the final episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on December 19, 2014, Ferguson woke up, revealing that the entire show was a dream of Mr. Wick's.[5] Drew Carey reprised his role (the two were in bed together, as in the final episode of Newhart) and was surprised that, in Wick's dream, he had somehow lost weight and become a game show host.[5]

Carey, Kinney, and Ryan Stiles all guest starred in the episode "Bigger Kids, Bigger Problems" (2019) of the ABC sitcom American Housewife, which stars Diedrich Bader.[6]

1. ^ Christa Miller was only credited as Starring for the first 2 episodes of Season 8.
2. ^ Craig Ferguson was credited as starring in all episodes of Season 8, but only appeared in 4 episodes.

• Beulah Carey (Marion Ross) – Drew's mother
• George Carey (Stanley Anderson) – Drew's father
• Kim Harvey (Adrienne Barbeau) – Oswald's mother
• Mother Bobeck (Tammy Faye Bakker) – Mimi's mother
• Gigi Bobeck (Lynn Wanlass) – Mimi's sister
• King Augustus Antonio Carey (Dakota and Ryan Williams) – Drew's nephew, Steve and Mimi's son
• Misty Kiniski (June Lockhart) – Lewis's mother

• Nikki Cox as Drew's cousin Kirsten Carey, who briefly dates Mr. Wick in "Drew's Cousin"
• Shirley Jones as Drew's lady friend Celia (Season 4, 3 Episodes)
• Caroline Rhea as Drew's date, Bonnie, (Season 2, 2 Episodes)
• Pauley Perrette as Drew's girlfriend, Darcy (Season 4, 4 Episodes)
• Dan Castellaneta as Sal, the King of Poland in "Two Drews and the Queen of Poland Walk into A Bar" (all of his scenes were cut from reruns after complaints from the Polish community)
• Hal Linden as Mr. Van Zandt in the episode "Brotherhood of Man" (Season 5)
• Mark Curry as Robert Soulard
• John Ratzenberger as himself in Drew Live III
• Eddie Money as himself, the former husband of Mimi Bobeck
• Penn & Teller as Fenn and Geller in "Drew Meets Lawyers" (Season 1, Episode 6) and "See Drew Run" (Season 2, Episode 17)
• David Cross as Earl in "Drew and the Unstable Element" (Season 1, Episode 13) and "Two Drews & the Queen of Poland Walk into a Bar" (Season 2, Episode 20)
• Tim Allen as himself in "The Front" (Season 1, Episode 17)
• Norm Macdonald as Simon Tate in "The Bully You Know" (Season 2, Episode 4)
• Henry Rollins as E-Bay Ass Kicking Guy and Amy Farrington as Bonnie in "Hickory Dickory... Double Date" (Season 8, Episode 5)
• Richard Chamberlain as Mr. Wick's mother, Maggie in "Curse of the Mummy" (Season 7, Episode 14) and "Look Mom, One Hand!" (Season 7, Episode 25)
• Gregory Jbara as Ron in "Drew and the Conspiracy" (Season 4, Episode 1) and "Golden Boy" (Season 4, Episode 3)
• Charles Nelson Reilly as Mr. Hathaway, Lewis's boss, in "The Salon" (Season 3) and "DrugCo" (Season 4)
• Joe Walsh as Ed, a guitarist (in several episodes)
• French Stewart as Buddy in "Drew's Best Friend" (Season 9, Episode 10)
• Colin Mochrie as Eugene in "She's Gotta Have It", "Drew Live", and "Drew Live II"
• Brad Sherwood as himself/host of "Drew Live" and "Drew Live II"
• Wayne Brady as himself in "Drew Live" and "Drew Live II"
• Greg Proops, Chip Esten and Kathy Greenwood as themselves in "Drew Live II"
• Chris Palmer, head coach for the Cleveland Browns
• Susan Saint James (Christa Miller's real life aunt) as Kate's mother in "Drew and Kate and Kate's mother"
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Sioux in "Playing a Unified Field"
• Steve Buscemi as Mimi's lawyer in "Mr. Louder's Birthday Party"
• Micky Dolenz as Mr. Metcalf in "Drew and the King" (Season 7, Episode 13)
• Tom Poston as Oswald's father (Season 6, Episode 13)
• Beata Pozniak as Raisa in "What Women Don't Want"
• Julia Duffy as Lindsey Mercer, Lord Mercer's ex-wife who temporarily takes control of Winfred-Louder in "Rich Woman, Poor Man" (Season 7, Episode 23)
• Nicholas Turturro as the New York detective in "New York and Queens" (Season 2, Episode 24)
• Mike McShane as Ray in "Drew's Inheritance" (Season 6, Episode 3)
• Phyllis Diller as Mimi's grandmother (Season 7, Episode 25)
• Megyn Price as Waitress at Warsaw Tavern in "Drew and Mr. Bell's Nephew" (Season 1, Episode 14) and "Miss Right" (Season 1, Episode 2)
• Dave Winfield as himself in "Science Names Suck" (Season 1, Episode 10)
• Jenny McCarthy as various roles in "Drew Carey's Back-to-School Rock 'n' Roll Comedy Hour" (Season 7, Episodes 1 and 2) and as a Police officer Drew dates in "A Shot In The Dark" (Season 7, Episode 17)
• Amanda Bynes as various roles in "Drew Carey's Back-to-School Rock 'n' Roll Comedy Hour" (Season 7, Episodes 1 and 2)
• Tim Conway as a senior-home resident who temporarily costs Drew his job (Season 3, Episode 11)
• Brent Hinkley as Frederick (Season 3, Episode 24)

• Little Richard as himself in "Drewstock" (season 2, Episode 14)
• Donald Trump and Carol Channing as themselves in "New York and Queens" (Season 2, Episode 24)
• Rush Limbaugh as himself in "The Salon" (Season 3)
• Dionne Warwick as herself, shopping at Winfred-Louder (Season 3, Episode 9)
• The Reverend Horton Heat as The Underprivileged in "That Thing You Don't" (Season 3, Episode 10)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic as himself in "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (Season 4)
• Joe Alaskey as Daffy Duck (Applies at Drew's work place for a job in scene before opening title) in "My Best Friend's Wedding"
• Paul "Triple H" Levesque as The Disciplinarian, Pro Wrestler Sponsor for Buzz Beer
• Slash, Rick Nielsen, Dusty Hill, Matthew Sweet, Joey Ramone, Lisa Loeb, Dave Mustaine, Roy Clark, Jonny Lang, and Michael Stanley as themselves and Joe Walsh as Ed in "In Ramada Da Vida" (Season 4, Episode 2)
• Ben Stein as St. Peter
• The James Gang as themselves at the end of Season 4, Episode 4
• Debbie Lee Carrington as Mini Mimi in Season 5, Episode 1
• The Go-Go's as themselves in "The Pregnancy Scare" (season 6, episode 6)
• Lemmy Kilmister and his band Motörhead as themselves in "Drew Gets Out of the Nut House" in Season 7, playing a loud song with altered lyrics from Mimi to apologize for putting Drew in a mental institution
• Kristen Wiig as a realtor in Season 9

The episode "Drew Gets Married" is part of a crossover with Grace Under Fire, Coach and Ellen set in Las Vegas. It features Brett Butler as Grace Kelly, Jerry Van Dyke as Luther Van Damme, Joely Fisher as Paige Clark and Jeremy Piven as Spence Kovak.