Production
Conception and writing
"It's a weird feeling, doing a television pilot. Especially if you're the star and co-creator like I was. It's like it's all on your head if it fails. I felt like if it failed, Bruce Helford (who I wrote it with) would get another writing job with no problem, but what would happen to me?"[1]
—Carey on his fears that the pilot would not sell.
Drew Carey and Bruce Helford co-created The Drew Carey Show.[2] Having worked together twice before on The Good Life and Someone Like Me, Carey joined up with Helford and told him he wanted to develop his own show.[3] They each came up with various ideas and created The Drew Carey Show.[3] Carey later told a group of television critics at the network launch that the series was originally going to be called The Drew F...ing Carey Show, saying "We were going to call it The Drew F. Carey Show and see if anybody at home could figure it out!"[4]
The show revolved around the life Carey would have lived if he had not become a stand-up comedian. Carey told Helford that he thought he would have been employed in a mid-level management job, which was a relatable job for most Americans at the time.[5] Carey wanted a show that was about regular people.[5] He also wanted to set the show in Cleveland as it was his hometown and it was not getting a lot of attention.[5] Carey and Helford drove to the city together in January 1995 to do some research.[2] They toured the local bars to try to get the right look for the show's bar the Warsaw Tavern. Carey and Helford also heard the song "Moon Over Parma" in one of the bars and it was used during the title sequence.[6]
Carey and Helford co-wrote the pilot episode together.[2] Helford had expected The Drew Carey Show to air at 8:30pm. When ABC placed the show in the 7:30 pm slot, Helford agreed to soften the language in the pilot.[7] An executive from Standards and Practices had asked for nine words deemed offensive to be removed from the script, as well as a mention of Jack Daniel's and a line that implied one of the characters was going to buy and use drugs.[8]
Casting
Carey plays a fictionalized version of himself. Drew is an assistant director of personnel at the Winfred-Lauder department store.[9] Carey explained "I wanted a white-collar job with no authority and a bad boss. Someone to do all the work and get no credit. He could've worked in a bank, in insurance."[9] Carey said it was "a no-brainer" on settling on the character, saying "It's just me."[9] While Christa Miller was trying out for the role of Drew's close friend Kate O'Brien, ABC thought she might be too inexperienced for the role and they asked to see her appearance in the Seinfeld episode "The Doodle". The episode had yet to be aired and Miller had to beg the show's co-creator Larry David for a rough cut to show to ABC.[5] Miller went on to secure the role of Kate and Helford considered her to be the only person right for the role.[5]
Ryan Stiles won the role of "hapless janitor" Lewis Kiniski.[10] Despite being well known for his role on the British improve show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Stiles still had to go through the audition process along with everybody else.[11] He said, "I don't even think Drew was really even aware of Whose Line at that time because it hadn't been on the air (in the U.S.) that many years. I think it was only on Comedy Central at that time."[11] Stiles admitted that he liked to have fun with his character and not psychoanalyze him.[12] Following his appearance in The Beverly Hillbillies, Diedrich Bader realised he needed a regular income and decided to return to television.[13] He tested out for The Drew Carey Show, but did not initially want to be cast in it. He told Kevin Smith that he wanted to drive up his price for the pilot of Partners.[13] Bader lost out on the role of Bob to Jon Cryer and then learned The Drew Carey Show wanted to hire him to play Oswald Lee Harvey.[13]
The role of Mimi Bobeck went to Kathy Kinney. The actress was originally intended to be a one-episode guest star, but became a series regular when Helford noticed during editing of the pilot that the funniest scenes were those featuring Mimi.[14] Kinney was hired for a further seven episodes, but eventually appeared in every episode.[14] Robin Rauzi, writing for The Sun-Herald, branded Mimi "a moving visual assault with a personality to match" because of her painted-on eyebrows, bright eyeshadow and gaudy clothes.[14] After relocating from Chicago, Ian Gomez spent a year auditioning for various shows, before being cast in the recurring role of Larry Almada in 1995.[15] Other actors who appear in the pilot are Alaina Reed Hall, David St. James, Lauren Katz, Vic Helford and Natasha Silver.[16]
Filming
The pilot was shot in April 1995 and directed by Michael Lessac.[16][17] Although set in Cleveland, the show was actually filmed at the Warner Bros. Television studios in Burbank, California.[17][18] Helford had noticed that the cast did not look at each other while saying their lines and he tried to encourage them to look at one another, so they would laugh.[5] Helford told Lessac to bring the cast in on a weekend, where there was no pressure, so they could "goof around" and relax.[5] Drew's job required him to work from a cubicle and Helford stated that no one had really done a show dealing with that situation, as producers and networks felt it was too confined.[5] Helford disagreed and had a set where an accessible cubicle was the centerpiece designed and built.[5] The Memphis Plaza Lounge in Old Brooklyn was the inspiration for the show's bar The Warsaw Tavern.[19] The owner of the Lounge refused to sell the naming rights to Warner Bros, but he did agree that they could film the front of the building.[19] The crew shot the building in 1995 and temporarily replaced The Memphis Plaza Lounge sign with their own Warsaw Tavern one. The sign was hung in the front window for two years before Warner Bros. took it down.[19]
