Talk:Whose Line Is It Anyway?

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I'm quite new to wikipedia (sorry for not writing in a correct manner) but I have a suggestion : we should write a list of all participants by appearing order (it should be cleaner). For both versions (us&brit). Thank you... --Anaudin 13:14, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

So, is Whose Line going to continue to run in America, or will it be cancelled as soon as ABC have got the most out of every previous taping session? The text is unclear. Is this because nobody knows?

Dave -Have found out when it was cancelled and inserted text to that effect. Dave.

Please sign your discussions with four tildes (~~~~), thanks. --Kylemcinnes 20:43, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

The show was originally produced in England for Channel Four, but it caught the attention of comedian Drew Carey, who convinced ABC to air test episodes in the United States. The show was a hit, and ABC willingly kept Carey on as the show's host.

Is this one single show that moved from England to America, or is there both a British show and an American show based upon it? The text implies the former. --Brion 12
03 Aug 23, 2002 (PDT)
IT was a series in the UK that was then shown on US' Comedy Central network, and re-done for U.S. T.V. I've clarified that point in the text. -EB-

Why was this change made? [1] The previous version and the new one are in opposition. Which is correct? Are the segments retapped or not? --mav

Moved from the article, posted by 64.156.134.122: (I've been to tapings, 2 1/2 hours of unrehearsed sketch, no repeats!)
--Nate

I am not sure if this matches with your experience, but in the current productions some games are repeated with different suggestions, but nothing is "retaped" to improve the quality. I have have tried to make this clear in the current article. Some of these re-played games have even been aired on special episodes when they create a good comic sequence. BarkingDoc
I was under the impression that multiple games are played at each taping, and the best are chosen to air -- I didn't think they redid the same games and chose the best, though I don't really know. Tokerboy

We need to include the names on the games on the show and how to play them.

In reference to the HTML comment about NBC or ABC, it's certainly ABC that airs the show. Andre 20:32, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Ah, thanks; the two articles I merged into this one disagreed on this point.
James F. (talk) 00:55, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)


Contents

[edit] Game Descriptions

I'm noticing that the game descriptions are starting to get longer and longer ... incorporating more and more descriptions of particular instances of the games from various episodes. Is this appropriate? It seems to be getting less encyclopedia-like and more fan-webpage-like. (But I'm new around here ...) Jim Huggins 03:10, 16 Mar 2005 (UTC)

After thinking about it for awhile ... I think I'm going to try and prune down the descriptions. Descriptions of personal favorite games certainly violates NPOV, and in the spirit of Be bold, I'm going to try it and see what happens ... Jim Huggins 15:26, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Prune away! with my blessing. Some of this is really over the top "X is usually hilarious in this game..." and that sort of crap need to go. A sentence should do for just about any one game. -R. fiend 22:19, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
Well, I did my pruning way back in March, and the informality has really crept back in. I'm not sure what can save this article ... Jim Huggins 22:02, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
It appears to me that most of the informalities have occured in the Atmosphere section of the article. I think we should trim up once again and if the contributions from non-registered individuals contributes to the problem then we get that section or the entire article locked to registered users only. I think it might be best to eliminate the section all together and maybe put in a Trivia section, which seems to be the norm amongst most shows. In any event, I do not think we should give up on it. - Thebdj 17:08, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I don't know who wrote this article, but it does not onc emention the fact that this show is based on theartesports, I think that should certainly at least be in the opening paragraph.

Why do they dress so FORMALLY? Wouldn't they be a lot more comfortable being so manic and active in comfortable casual clothing rather than slacks, collars, and ties? Hrmm..

The Atmosphere section has several examples of running themes in a single episode. Does anyone else think the size of this list makes it look a bit cruff-ish? I already cleaned up some of the perceived cruff from the game section. I wanted to find out what others though of the atmosphere section. I would not mind a few of the single episode running themes staying. I am just concerned leaving them all in opens the door for more and more. If anyone is really that interested in sharing information about individual episodes, we should do an episode only article, or a series of them, like other TV shows. (forgot my signature...oops) -Thebdj 03:14, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sketches

I was thinking about how to clean up the Whose Line article. We have the common sketches and there are some single play sketches that are not listed. I think what we should do is have a rough breakdown of the show listing the opening and how the US and UK versions are different. Explain that several games were played with a rough average given for both the US and UK version and end with an explanation of the endings for the US and UK. This would sort of be ane expansion of the format section and a lengthened explanation of the show. Now instead of the common sketches on this page we will do one of the following: 1) We would have all the skethches in a similar format on another article with a bit more explanation of the games and some differences, if any, between US and UK versions of the game or 2) a list page with separate articles for each game (see The Price is Right). I prefer the first if any. This should make the page a bit more concise and also allow us to expand on certain aspects of the show without clogging down this article. Any thoughts? -Thebdj 07:12, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Atmosphere

I am still for this section being cleaned up. We need to avoid this article from becoming too much like a fan site. I believe that running gags from the US and the UK will be okay if minimized. Clive being bald, Colin being bald, ribbing the host, Ryan's shoes, height or nose, etc. I believe single episode ones are a bit less useful. At this point we cross into a fan site realm and people can gather this sort of information either from linked sites or by watching the show. Unlike my idea for games, I am basically going to hold this stand and if no one can provide me a good reason not to start hacking apart the atmosphere section, I will begin to trim it down and edit it to bring it more in-line with an encyclopedia entry. -Thebdj 07:17, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree the single episode list should be trimmed down a lot or removed altogether. It doesn't really add anything to the article. That list could go on endlessly, especially if people just continue adding their "favorite moments." Wavy G 04:15, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Peer Review and changes

Based on the peer review I have separated out the games and re-layed out the article a bit. Please do not revert back to the old page and let us work from here. The removal was necessary to return the article to some normalcy. I have ideas for the new page of games and they can be seen at that article. -Thebdj 03:41, 26 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Bad Choice

Pretty crappy idea to shorten the article. Encyclopedia or not, people come here to be informed and as a Whose Line is it Anyway fan I've got to say the page of a few weeks ago with more information was a lot more practical and useful. Nebuchanezzar 09:31, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

The idea is to be encyclopedic. All the information still exists in some way, even if it is spread out a bit (there is actually more information now). This is not a fan site. And it is important to remember this. If you want a place with way more information then a normal person can use then follow the external links to the whose line wiki or to Mark's Guide. I intend on there being an article for almost every game at some point which should include even more information on the differeneces between US and UK games. I am sorry you do not like the idea, but the consensus from the Peer review only made more people think that shortening the article was a good idea. There was TOO much information for the casual person seeking information, and if they are truly interested they can continue to read more on the separate pages or follow external links. I have posted here several time about possible changes and no one ever replied to them. If people do not add input, then stuff like this does happen on wikipedia. -Thebdj 15:41, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
Once again, encyclopedia or not, the former article was a great piece of information to a fan. Seeing as it's the casual fans of the show who'll be looking up these sorts of articles, it's in their interest which you should be operating. Nebuchanezzar 12:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
And as I have said and the peer review proved, the current article is most appropriate. I do not believe that casual fans will make wikipedia their first stop. I think the idea, as with a real encyclopedia, is to give people the basic information on the show in a concise and NPOV manner. All the material you claim was "better" has been moved to other pages wiki-linked to the main article. It is not that hard to find. The article was loaded with cruft and constantly being editted with new material from the most recent airings on ABC Family with some joke someone thought was funny. Sorry if you do not like the new format... -Thebdj 06:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Punctuation and format confusing in summary box

In the summary box, under the headings "Original run" and "No. of episodes", the formatting and punctuation marks are confusing.

Specifically:

  1. The "Original run" section makes it appear that everything was Radio. ["TV:" is not used here.]
  2. The "No. of episodes" makes it look like there were 6 in the UK, 136 in the USA and "210" is just a leftover from some unknown country.

Unfortunately, I don't know for sure what is correct here. Otherwise, I might have taken a shot at changing it myself.

[edit] This show

From the description it sounds just like I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Is it?

I've never seen that show, but from wikipedia's description, it sounds mildly similar (helped by the fact that many performers have been on both shows). I think Whose Line (except for very early on) is more tongue-in-cheek about it being a competitive game show. The games in that show seem to be more like 'games' than most of the games in WLIIA, whereas there are games like Props or Questions only that are similar to those I read in this other show, but there are also games like Film and Theatre Styles or superheroes which aren't really competitive games - just way in which to get the cast to act/improvise. There is no "winner" condition for those games, they are just improvising scenes. There are a number of apparent similariries though TheHYPO 23:45, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Just thought I'd mention that I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a radio show.

[edit] Controversy

It might be interesting to note times when Whose Line strayed into controversy. The only time I can recall a network censor actively moving to end a skit was the "Cosby and Hitler" sketch, which, once aborted, was raised as a running gag time and again throughout that episode. This might be worth mentioning if only because it is not often that we get to see a network censor at work. -- Freemount, 17 October 2006

The Hitler sketch is the only example I can think of where the interruption was shown on the air, but the outtakes section of the DVD contains several other examples. (The aborted Hitler sequence may have been kept because Drew made several references to it that otherwise wouldn't have made sense.) Strephon 21:42, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
A lot of things on the show are arranged due to stuff like this. Showing the censor rejecting Hitler was necessary because Drew and the others refered to it in at least three separate games. I recall a time when "Irish Drinking Song" was played at the beginning of the second act, which was very unusual. The reason, however, was because of Colin's infamous line "blood in my stool", which was repeatly refered to in other games that taping. So perhaps what should be said is that the contestants can make it hard for the editors to put together a 30-second episode.

[edit] Origin

As the opening paragraph states It was originally a British radio program, but later moved to television, first as a series made for Britain's Channel 4, and subsequently as another version made for American television., it is hard for me to see how the American version can be considered so different? The show undeniably originated in Britain, and, without it, there would be no American version, surely? DavyJonesLocker 01:54, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you're asking. The show was made for British TV. Then that series was ended, and a completely new series, with a new host, and new episodes was made for ABC. Nothing in that sentence says that the American version was substantively different from the British version. Simply that there was another version. TheHYPO 19:08, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, I should've been clearer. I removed the USA from Country of Origin field in the infobox as, like you've said above, the show originated in Britain, but it was replaced by a user (who hasn't posted here) a couple of times. I'm still of the opinion that something can't possibly have 2 origins, hence the singular of the field name. DavyJonesLocker 16:49, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Strong Oppose My reasons are know. I think there is enough to warrant leaving both. The shows may be fairly similar, but in the end, is it any different than any other US show based on a UK show? -Thebdj 20:06, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Let me add, this page was perfectly fine with no real opposition to this until now. So what has changed? -Thebdj 20:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
That's irrelevant and this is ridiculous. You say your reasons are known, but you haven't stated them. You've also just said yourself, a US show based on a UK show, dictionary definition: something from which anything arises or is derived, source, the first stage of existence. All of which means the US should not be there, please do not put it back. DavyJonesLocker 22:15, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
And we have had this talk in our user talk pages. Now, if there has been no support here either way, so until otherwise do not remove the tag again. If you really want this resolved put in an RFC, but do not revert this again. -Thebdj 02:52, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

It purely depends on what 'origin' means. I can see both being there, because the two versions of the show are taped and broadcast in two countrys, therefore the two series originate from different locations. But as for where the pure origin of the show is, it's Britain. But "Survivor" was orignally based on a European series, wasn't it? and big brother? I'd still say that the US series of those are of "US" origin. I think having both countries has fair rationale... TheHYPO 04:50, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm a bit fed up with this now, as it never should have become a problem in the first place. With respect, those examples you use don't work; WP has articles for both (and maybe more) versions and so each one has a different origin. The facts are that the show was created in Britain, the British show went to America, origin is singular etc. etc. etc. everything I've said before. A five character edit should not have created so much unnecessary controversy, and I for one, am thoroughly bored. DavyJonesLocker 02:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
If the box is going to have 'origin channel' which noone disputes that some are originally BBC and some originally ABC... then I don't see why there's an argument that there is no US origin AND UK origin for the series. As I said. What is the origin of Spider-man? "That he was bit by a spider" or "Marvel Comics"? It depends what origin means. Feel free to check the TV box and see what the peolpe in charge of that think - I don't care that much. But it completely depends on what origin means. country where the show is produced, or country where the idea was first concieved. To me, there is no clear answer, and no big deal either way. TheHYPO 20:17, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't see the issue here. The show started out in the UK. Therefore, it's orgin is the UK. Mshake3 03:26, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Improvised?

Is it genuinely improvised? Some of the songs seem too polished to have been made up on the spot.--Darrelljon 18:26, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

The only things that aren't improvised (by the performers... Not including the quirks/LMAD ones) are the song styles for Greatest Hits. ZFGokuSSJ1 23:01, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

  • There are retakes I'm sure, and the musicians are given time to prepare the song. Besides, it's not like the musicians are the contestants. Mshake3 17:27, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
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