Product Description

Drew Carey the character is a lot like you and me: a smarter-than-he-looks average guy with an underwhelming job, some unfulfilled dreams and the support of great friends. And it just so happens that he's played by the very funny Drew Carey, who's also the co-creator and occasional writer of The Drew Carey Show. This complete Season One DVD Set reminds us why we laughed along with Drew for nine smash-hit seasons. We meet Drew and his buddies Oswald, Lewis and Kate. Drew meets Mimi, the cosmetics-challenged co-worker from hell. And everybody meets jobs instead of careers, lumpy bods instead of supermodel sleek and Cleveland instead of Manhattan. It's like real life. Just a whole lot funnier.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9016 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2007-04-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 489 minutes

Amazon.com
After the release of a six-episode Television Favorites sampler, The Drew Carey Show has earned a well-deserved promotion, DVD-wise, with this complete first-season set. Few television workplace comedies so keenly or hilariously captured the mind-numbing drudgery and soul-crushing despair of cubicle culture as The Drew Carey Show, a kindred spirit to the "Dilbert" comic strip. The pilot episode introduces the bespectacled, buzz-coiffed Everyman, a "go-getter" in his seventh year as the assistant director of personnel in a Cleveland department store, a position, he notes, "of indirect respect and oblique power." The giddy delights of The Drew Carey Show are many, from the smile-inducing theme song, "Moon Over Parma" ("We're going bowlin' / So don't lose her in Solin") to one of TV's most likeable ensembles: Ryan Stiles as goofy Lewis (or, as Jason Alexander joked on Comedy Central's Drew Carey roast, "Kramer-lite"), Diedrich Bader as Oswald (less of a doofus here than in later seasons), Christa Miller as tomboyish Kate, Drew's lifelong platonic friend and unrequited crush, Kathy Kinney as Mimi, Drew's office nemesis, who is Bluto to his Popeye. The appealing Katy Selverstone is also featured as Lisa, with whom Drew has a secret inter-office romance that will last but this one season.

After the enormously telegenic Friends cast, Drew and company are "a cold little splash of reality," portraying relatable, regular people. In this first season, the series is still finding its feet (enjoy them while you can: Drew's hillbilly neighbors, and the voice of Kevin Pollack as Drew's abusive boss, Mr. Bell). But by season's end, as guest star Jamie Lee Curtis (as Drew's hard-partying barber) polkas with Mimi in the hilarious episode "Playing the Unified Field," the series has established its spontaneous, off-center niche. While there are no episode commentaries, this set puts in some valuable overtime with "Life Inside a Cubicle," a retrospective in which cast and series creators reflect on the series' rocky beginnings. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Drew Carey - The First Season: Moon Over Parma!
Envisioned by star Drew Carey as what his life would be like if he had never become a standup comic, "The Drew Carey Show" casts Carey as a beleaguered assistant personnel director of Winfred-Louder, a Cleveland department store. "I [would have] wanted to have some crummy, white-collar-type job where I COULD be in charge, but I'm not," Carey said.

Although unfulfilled professionally, Drew is sustained by his longstanding friendships with pals Oswald (Diedrich Bader), Lewis (Ryan Stiles), and Kate (Christa Miller). While the four pals all find humor in being losers - a fact typically pointed out by Drew's cosmetics-challenged co-worker/arch enemy Mimi (Kathy Kinney) - only Drew cares about getting ahead on the job, but his prospects are few and fleeting.

Like the rest of us, according to producer Bruce Helford, Drew's trying to juggle a life and career and get through the day with a bit of dignity left. He takes his lumps, then goes home and feels better by hanging out with his pals at the Warsaw tavern. For me and my friends, it's the local IHOP. Initially branded as yet another one of the many Friends clone shows to appear during its freshman season (1995-1996), The Drew Carey Show immediately stood out from the pack with its unique brand of humor, going on to become one of ABC's longer-running hit comedies (9 seasons). It's good to see the show finally packaged in a season set DVD release. Hopefully, the first of many to come.

The Drew Carey Show - The Complete First Season is a 4-disc (489 min.) set featuring all 22 episodes in Full Frame (1.33:1) video, plus the following Special Features: "1-900-MIMI" and "Life Inside a Cubicle" featurette.

Episodes include:
1. "Pilot"
Between best friend Kate and hostile Mimi (who threatens to go to his boss), pressure to fill a cosmetics-counter job has Drew a shade irascible.

2. "Miss Right"
Drew finally finds "Miss Right" (Katy Selverstone), only discover she's also just right for the window-dresser job he's trying to fill.

3. "The Joining of Two Unlike Elements Is a Mixture"
Drew vows to throw Kate a surprise shotgun wedding after she laments that one of the few states she never entered was that of holy matrimony.

4. "Nature Abhors a Vacuum"
When Drew fires his boss's inamorata, Mr. Bell (voice of Kevin Pollak) forces him to employ all his resources to find him a new girlfriend. Unfortunately Kate is the only other woman who rings Bell's chimes.

5. "No Two Things in Nature Are Exactly Alike"
Drew's painted into a corner when a female co-worker misconstrues an off-color cartoon he distributed at work and files a lawsuit against him.

6. "Drew Meets Lawyers"
With the company attorneys (Penn & Teller) pushing him to settle, and legal aid finding he makes $2000 too much for eligibility, the only other lawyer Drew can afford is Kate's obnoxious ex-boyfriend.

7. "Drew in Court"
After weeks of facing sexual-harassment charges brought against him by a co-worker, Drew gets his day in court--acting as his own counsel.

8. "Lewis' Sister"
Lewis's newly divorced sister takes an immediate interest in Drew when he takes her on a date - much to Lewis's (and Drew's) chagrin.

9. "Drew and Mrs. Louder"
Drew's "shortcut up the corporate ladder" new position as the store owner's personal assistant soon turns compromising.

10. "Science Names Suck"
Kate feels she's being elbowed out of the group when Drew and the guys welcome back to town an old high-school friend.

11. "The Electron Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree"
Drew's not too wild about joining his visiting dad's lodge, the Wildebeests, especially after learning that most of the members are bigots.

12. "Isomers Have Distinct Characteristics"
Drew is forced to hire scabs when store employees--including Kate--go on strike during the holiday shopping rush.

13. "Drew and the Unstable Element"
Drew is threatened by a mentally unstable man (David Cross) who he foolishly hired, then fired for refusing to see the company psychiatrist.

14. "Drew and Mr. Bell's Nephew"
Drew accepts a promotion in exchange for showing Mr. Bell's spoiled-brat nephew Blaine (Michael Landes) the ropes at work - but soon winds up trying to give the upstart enough rope to hang himself.

15. "There Is No Scientific Name For a Show About God"
A life-altering experience reawakens Drew's teenage aspirations to become a minister.

16. "Drew's New Assistant"
The Good: Drew's dream of getting a personal assistant comes true. The Bad: Mimi is it. The Ugly: Drew fears that Mimi wants to assist him on another level.

17. "The Front"
After the store bans interoffice dating, Drew asks Kate's boyfriend Jay to be a beard for his romance with Lisa by acting like her man in public.

18. "Playing the Unified Field"
After Lisa rejects him and starts dating other people, Drew decides to ask out his party-animal hairdresser (Jamie Lee Curtis).

19. "Atomic Cat Fight"
Drew must decide whether girlfriend Lisa, best friend Kate or worst friend Mimi will head the store's new personal-services department.

20. "Drew and Kate and Kate's Mom"
Drew tries to straighten out family ties between Kate and her judgmental mother (Susan Saint James), and winds up being mom's pick for Kate's ideal mate.

21. "Drew Gets Motivated"
Encouraged by a motivational speaker, Drew's one great idea elevates him to head of promotions, which requires him to come up with more ideas every week or he'll be fired.

22. "Buzz Beer"
When Drew learns there's a good chance he could get canned from the store in two weeks, he decides to start his own beermaking business.

Highly Recommended!

PLEASE READ BELOW FOR FANS OF THE SHOW - YOUR VOICES NEED TO BE HEARD!!!
Last Monday, September 15, 2008, The Home Theater Forum had Warner Brothers home video (T.V. and Animation Divisions only) on their chat line. Questions about a release for the 2nd season of Drew Carey Show were asked and Warner Brothers flatly said "no plans". I think this is a disgrace!!! Drew Carey is one of the best Comedy shows of the 90's!! We need to write to Warner Brothers and bombard them with emails and letters to get this show on DVD!!! Fans of the series Knots Landing did just that, and now Knots Landing (according to last mondays chat) Warner Brothers is giving that show another chance on DVD! We need to do the same for this show if you want more seasons of this show released on DVD!!! GET YOUR VOICES HEARD!!! The good news is Warner Brothers is planning to release another DVD set of Drew's other show: Whose Line Is It Anyway? Season 2. Personally, I would prefer The 2nd season of THE DREW CAREY SHOW......but at least Drew's other show is getting recognized!!!

Cleveland Rocks
Drew Carey is NO Seinfeld-THANK GOD!

The Carey first season is upon us. It is worth the wait. Carey and his crew are everyday joes. Carey plays a guy name Drew Carey who works in a store and has daily problems with Mimi, thew co-worker from hell

Is it funny? YES--and when are the powers that me releasing season two when the show started to kick into high gear

CLEVELAND ROCKS!

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD