In the 4th season of The Drew Carey Show there was a number of notable stories. Drew restores his old band and starts doing a permanent gig in a hotel, during which time he dyes his hair blond, and has a groupy-girlfriend named Darcy, who was not aware of his day job. Soon enough Drew decided to quit the band and focus on the career; Darcy ran away as soon as she found out. Later on he went to night school, where he met an older woman named Celia; they dated and even moved in together, but it didn’t work out because she reminded him of his mother way too much. Then the senior officers of Winford-Lauder decided to expand and buy out Drew’s neighbourhood, but promised him things they weren’t able to go through, and so Drew hit the bricks and refused to move out, and soon the investors pulled the plug on the project; as a consequence, they rented out some of the houses to the store employees, including Larry and Wick. Drew met a girl named Tracy, and so did Oswald and Lewis – all three of them dated her for a while, before going to open competition, which Lewis won. Even before Tracy Sharon the handywoman re-appeared in Drew’s life, but was dating somebody else; then she broke up with that man, and used Drew as a rebound, which soon developed into full-fledged relationship. Kate quit her job at the store and for the better part of the season was on her own, giving massages and whatnot; later she dated The Disciplinarian, a wrestler who promoted Buzz Beer, which led to a spike in the demand for the beer; later still she became Mrs. Lauder’s personal assistant, and grew to hate her job so much she quit it at the first opportunity. Oswald went into product testing and installed breast implants; he wanted to use the money earned to help out his mother, but she didn’t need it, and so he paid out his debts to friends, which they used to buy Drew a new car. Lewis got promoted at his job. Mimi and Steve fell in love with each other and started dating. Wick was caught using drugs and went into a rehab. Also in the season: Drew uncovered a conspiracy against him; got himself a home PC; tries cyber dating (on-line dating) and happens to do it with Mimi; crashes Nicky’s wedding and dances a kozatskiy dance; gets sent to China by Mimi as a prank; organizes a pajama party with models, but they didn’t show up; gives Speedy up for operation on his eyes; fires Steve; discovers an affair in his family; goes on a retail convention in Chicago; starts a con game with Mimi (bowling); and helps Oswald’s mother to open up a salon. Oswald becomes an angel of death; Kate gets hired to house sit with children, and gets a taste of real family. In the season’s finale the Dutch masters of Winford-Lauder decided to blow the building up and build a parking lot in its place, but Drew told it to everybody, and that plan failed. The season also contains a special episode with dancing flashbacks, and another ‘what’s wrong’ thing.
This is a pretty good season – I think, the 3rd one was slightly better, but only a little bit. This is an important season, too, for here starts a storyline that seems to be consistent till the end of the show – I’m talking, of course, about Mimi and Steve.
The development of the season is more or less logical and consistent, both internally and with the earlier stories. The Buzz Beer thing is slowly fading away – it was used in just one episode. Drew’s relationships were quite diverse, and rather interesting. The return of Sharon seems to me like a good thing. The overall quality of the narrative and of the humor are approximately at the level of season 3.
I didn’t like the flashback dancing episode – I generally dislike dancing in this show – but the fact that it was all concentrated in just one piece makes it easier. The episode with the errors seems just as silly as the first of its kind; I hope they will abandon this practice after this.
All in all, the show now definitely seems worthwhile – it’s funny enough, and steady in its quality and style; and the writers proved they could find interesting stories to tell
Year: 1998-1999
Created by: Drew Carey and Bruce Helford
Directed by: Gerry Cohen, Sam Simon, Steve Zuckerman, Tommy Thompson, Brian K. Roberts
Written by: Jennifer Crittenden, Bob Underwood, Clay Graham, Bruce Rasmussen, Richard Day, Mike Larsen, Dan O’Keefe, Joey Gutierrez and Diane Burroughs, Terry Mulroy, Katherine Green, Christy Snell, Jody Paul, Robert Borden, Apryl Huntzinger, Maria Espada, Brian Scully
Performed by: Drew Carey, Diedrich Bader, Kathy Kinney, Ryan Stiles, Christa Miller, Craig Ferguson, John Carroll Lynch, Ian Gomez, Jane Morris, Nan Martin, Kelly Perine, Kate Walsh, Jenica Bergere, Tim O’Rourke, Marion Ross, Stanley Anderson, Adrienne Barbeau, Shirley Jones, Pauley Perrette, Hal Linden, Gregory Jbara, Charles Nelson Reilly, Joe Walsh, Colin Mochrie, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Triple H, Slash, Rick Nielsen, Dusty Hill, Matthew Sweet, Joey Ramone, Lisa Loeb, Dave Mustaine, Roy Clark, Johnny Lang, Michael Stanley, The James Gang
Time: 9h16m (a. 27 episodes)
Entertaining quality: 5- out of 5
Art quality: 4+ out of 5
Links: (wiki)
®shoomow, 2018
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