The Drew Carey Show: Season 07 (2001)

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The cast and crew of The Drew Carey Show entered its seventh season with more security and hubris than ever before. Thanks to the series' past excellent ratings performance, the producers and ABC had entered into an agreement whereby the show was "locked" into the network's schedule until the fall of 2004, with a lofty $3,000,000 budget alotted to each episode. Understandably emboldened by this, Drew Carey opens Season Seven with a radical departure from the show's usual format: "Drew's Back-to-School Rock 'n' Roll Comedy Hour", a special filled to overflowing with quickie comedy sketches and rockin' and rollin' musical numbers, featuring guest appearances by the likes of Jenny McCarthy, SHeDAISY, Smash Mouth, Uncle Cracker, Sugar Ray and Peter Frampton. The rest of the series was relatively conventional (at least by Drew Carey Show standards), with the episode "Married to a Mob" making a major technicological breakthrough as the series' first installment filmed in HDTV. Major developments this season include Drew's "graduation" from a mental institute, whereupon he ends up a reluctant bigamist--not only simultaneously wed to both Kate (Christa Miller) and Nicki (Kate Walsh), but also still legally committed to a "gay" union with his boss Mr. Wick (Craig Ferguson), who in the previous season needed to get married in a hurry lest he be deported to England. Extricating himself from this marital melange by the skin of his teeth, Drew launches a new romance with sharp-tongued efficiency expert Christine Watson (Wanda Sykes). Elsewhere, Drew's brother Steve (John Carroll Lynch) and his worst enemy Mimi (Kathy Kinney), now husband and wife, hunker down to the responsibilities of parenting their baby son Gus; Drew's pals Lewis (Ryan Stiles) and Oswald (Diedrich Bader) blithely ignore all manner of municipal ordinances by building their "dream" house in the middle of a city park; and Mr. Wick goes into alcholic rehab, leaving the Winfred-Louder store in the less-than-capable hands of 19-year-old Milan Mercer (Jessica Cauffiel), the irresponsible daughter of new store owner Lord Mercer (Jim Piddock). Though there is no "What's Wrong With This Episode?" this season, viewers are treated to the wildest "Drew Live" episode thus far, with Drew caught in the middle of sinister scheme concocted by John Ratzenberger and Blue Man Group to take over The Drew Carey Show by force! No less breathtaking is the episode "Curse of the Mummy", with Richard Chamberlain showing up in drag as Mr. Wick's mother--a role he'd repeat in a special "Mother's Day" episode wherein the cast's various mommies and grandmommies are portrayed by such TV icons as Marion Ross, Adrienne Barbeau, June Lockhart and Phyllis Diller. Other Season Eight guest stars include baseball greats Bobby Bonds and Jay Johnstone, and longtime TV favorites Henry Winkler, Adam West and Max Gail--the latter two cast as gay lovers! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi