The Drew Carey Show: Season 02 (1996)

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Season Two of The Drew Carey Show finds most of the Season One regulars still in place, with one significant addition: Craig Ferguson as the unspeakable, diabolically impulsive Nigel Wick, Drew's new boss at Cleveland's Winfred-Louder department store. Also introduced this season is the series' propensity for elaborate musical production numbers, the first of which, "Five O'Clock World", will be used ever after as the show's opening-credits theme song. Carried over from Season One is the ongoing war between Winfred-Louder assistant personal director Drew Carey (playing "himself") and his sworn enemy, secretary Mimi Bombeck (Kathy Kinney), as well as Drew's efforts to make a go of his "Buzz Beer" microbrewery in partnership with lifelong pals Oswald (Diedrich Bader) and Lewis (Ryan Stiles). Also, Drew continues looking for love in all the wrong places, ignoring his childhood chum Kate (Christa Miller) who is similarly occupied with outside romances. Among the women loved and lost by our hero this season are fellow store employee Lisa (Katey Silverstone), who moves in with Drew and just as quickly moves out; Bonnie (Caroline Rhea), a pretty zoning inspector who happens to already be married; and, most disastrously, Las Vegas waitress Diane (Nicole Sullivan), who becomes the first of five soulmates to become Mrs. Drew Carey in the course of the series' nine seasons! Incidentally, Diane appears in a "Viva Las Vegas Night" episode which crosses over into several other popular ABC sitcoms of the era, casually eroding the series' already tenuous grasp on reality. Further carrying The Drew Carey Show into the realm of fantasy is the unforgettable "backyard bash" episode, featuring musical performances by Little Richard and Joe Walsh and cameo appearances by Dick Clark, Flip Wilson, former NFL great Bernie Kosar and Cleveland's mayor Michael R. White. Other luminaries making guest stopovers in Season Two include Marion Ross, making her first appearance as Drew's mom Beulah; ex-evangelist Tammy Faye Messner, as Mimi's equally cosmetically-challenged mother Tammy; Nicholas Turturro, seen in his familiar NYPD Blue guise as Detective Martinez; and, as themselves, Donald Trump, Carol Channing. . .and "H.R. Pufnstuf"!!! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi