The Drew Carey Show: Season 09 (2004)

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The ninth and final season of The Drew Carey Show was what is known in show business as a "burnoff". Though contractually committed to keep the series on the air until the Summer of 2004 and to approve a budget of $3 million per episode, ABC was unable to justify these conditions as the series' ratings continued to fall. Thus, Season Nine began not in the fall of 2003 as was customary, but instead snuck onto the scene on June 2, 2004, traditionally one of the lowest-rated playdates. The season's 28 episodes were subsequently seen on a two-per-week basis for the next fourteen weeks, until ABC was finally allowed to pull the plug on September 9. As a result, while the final season lost money for the network, it lost far less than would have happened had ABC scuttled the season entirely or left the remaining episodes on the shelf. (Don't you just love "inside baseball" talk like this?) The season was supposed to have begun just after the breakup of the extremely brief marriage between Drew Carey (playing himself) and his Southern-fried bride Lily, an emotional setback compounded by the death of Drew's dad George (Stanley Anderson) in a freak accident, and further exacerbated by George's disastrous military-style funeral. However, ABC chose to run the season's episodes out of sequence, confusing one and all. Even so, viewers quickly glommed to the fact that a romance had developed between Drew and his lifelong friend Kellie (Cynthia Watros), who subsequenlty announces her pregnancy, leading to the anticpated story complications and the introduction of Kellie's obnoxious parents Don (Michael Gross) and Annette (Susan Sullivan). At the same time, Drew has become surrogate father to his nephew Gus (who has miraculously reached the age of five after only three years, and is now played by Matthew Josten), thanks to the fact that Drew's brother Steve has deserted his wife Mimi (Kathy Kinney) and skeedaddled to Sri Lanka. Though Steve would make an unexpected reappearance in the form of onetime series regular John Carroll Lynch, Mimi would ultimately find lasting happiness from a wholly unanticipated source! The series ends as "NeverendingStore", the dot.com where Drew works, goes bankrupt, whereupon Drew attempts to revive his former place of employment, Winfred-Louder, with himself in charge. To this end, Drew seeks the help of his ex-boss Mr. Wick (welcome back, Craig Ferguson), now fabulously wealthy thanks to his marriage to the daughter of a Christian-broadcasting mogul. Though these plans typically go nowhere, there's a happy ending of sorts as Drew and Kellie prepare to get married--as quickly as possible, inasmuch as Kellie has already gone into labor! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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