You’re not in a coma like Drew Carey! Yes, it really has been that long. The Drew Carey Show is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Carey hopes the references hold up, especially for new fans, but those hoping for a return of Cleveland’s hit show should know that Carey and the show’s co-creator, Bruce Helford, are open to bringing it back. Carey is just not on board with the Browns' stadium move, though. As both the lakefront stadium and The Drew Carey Show are beloved by Clevelanders.
With the upcoming anniversary, Clevelanders can, for the first time ever, watch all nine seasons of The Drew Carey Show: The Complete Series on DVD or purchase it digitally on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and more.
Those looking to relive their favorite moments or show their kids their favorite scene can look at episodes and clips on the official YouTube channel for The Drew Carey Show. That means you can watch Mimi mess with Drew again, like when she put the drawers in his desk upside down.
Cleveland Magazine caught up with Carey and Helford about what the show and Cleveland mean to them.
Cleveland Magazine: The series' 30th anniversary is coming up. What does it mean to both of you that, after so long, the show is still very beloved by fans?
Drew Carey: Got to say, it's good to be remembered and it's good to be remembered fondly for good work that you did, and when you're doing it, you don't have as much appreciation. I turned 67 on Friday, and at this stage, having done so much on TV. To look back at this first big thing I did and people still remembering it and remembering it with love and telling me how funny it was and was their favorite show, all that stuff, it gives me a lot of pride and personal satisfaction that the feeling is unimaginable. I think you really have to be older and looking back to appreciate it as much as I'm appreciating it. It's like money in the bank that's still there. Like, oh yeah, I did this thing. I really did something special in my life that I can look back on and be proud of. It gives that's a great perspective being this age, and after I'll be starting my 19th season of The Price is Right this fall, and to look back on all that and all the things I did, I'm like, wow, this is where it all started. It's amazing.
Bruce Helford: And also, we were lucky. A lot of shows, they're great shows, but they don't have a lot of fun on the set, or people didn't get along, whatever. We had 10 years of joy. It was so much fun to do. You can see it when you watch the show that everybody's having a great time. And the nice thing about this being released now because we haven't been on streaming because it took years to figure out all the music rights and all those things, held it up. We've got the audience who originally saw it, who will love seeing it again. We've got the generation of kids like my daughter's age, early thirties, who saw the syndicated version, which was on in heavy rotation after the show went off the air, and they grew up on it, and they're going to love seeing it. And then a whole new generation who's never even seen it because it hasn't been on streaming, and so it wasn't available. So getting this thing finally out there is really just a great feeling. The show is going to give, I keep saying this, I'll say it again. There is no sitcom, no comedy show. You're going to watch years of on DVD, where you will say, wow, more than you will The Drew Carey Show. Everything we did was wow. Everything was craziness. Things that no one else was doing. Funny as can be. It's really great to have it back out there again for people to appreciate.
CM: What do you hope that the new generation gets to experience from watching the show?
DC: Hope the references hold up.
BH: Well, it literally is a history of the pop culture from 1996 to the end of the 10 years. I think for me, I don't think there's been a lot of sitcoms that are just as much fun. All the family can watch. It challenges you enough where you don't feel like you, you're watching something is dumbed down for people. It's really fun. I think if it encourages people who have creative abilities, it encourages them to try everything and try anything and not to stick to the regular format because we went out, we broke the fourth wall, we broke, we went into other dimensions. Drew was in a coma for a bunch of episodes.
DC: The coma episode. We did a whole episode trying to win an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Oh, that was hilarious. And all we did was make fun of the Emmys and the Golden Globes. I think we even did a side to the camera when I was in a coma, like tearful, like, oh, I'm going to die this big overacting and chewing the scenery.
BH: We did hyper-dramatic versions of everything. Drew said, What you called to deliver a baby, whatever it was, everything that was hyper dramatic about all the TV show cliches that they used to win Emmys. And we did all of them in one episode. They're just saying, we're trying to win the Emmy. It was very funny.
DC: I remember me and all the writers, we were all pretty jaded about the Emmys and the Golden Globes, so we just let out everything we didn't like.
CM: Bruce, you worked on the reboot of Roseanne, which turned into The Conners. Have you two thought what it would be like to bring The Drew Carey Show back, and how would it look, or what you would do differently?
BH: All we can say is that everything is possible. I'd certainly be down for it.
DC: I would, too.
CM: Recently, HBO Max based their new hit show, The Pitt, in Pittsburgh. NBC is planning The Office spinoff to be based in Toledo. Do you think Cleveland deserves another show based on it?
DC: Cleveland always deserves a show. Always deserves a show. Yeah. Every show should be so Cleveland. I don't know why not. Obviously, if I was coming up with shows, I would set no show in Chicago, New York or L.A. I just wouldn't do it. It's so trite to me now. Yeah, do Detroit, I mean, do Cleveland, do Detroit, do Toledo. Even Nashville's too big because of the music industry. There was that show in Nashville about the music industry, do Memphis, why not do Memphis instead of Nashville? Why not? Why not do Austin instead of Dallas?
BH: We were very careful to keep all the references and be sure whenever we talked about it, restaurant or whatever, it was always someplace really in Cleveland and all that. Drew's love of the city and I became a lover of the city, really, really was all part of what we did. I mean, Cleveland Rocks and everything else was always aimed at promoting a city that usually got a pretty bad rap and didn't deserve it. So it was our pleasure to do that. I stayed at a hotel there, and the do not disturb sign said Cleveland Rocks on it. And I thought, yeah, we had an effect.
CM: Drew, you are a very big Cleveland sports fan and even a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders. Do you have an opinion on the Browns stadium debate? Should it say downtown or move to Brook Park?
DC: Yeah, I don't like it. They should stay. I want the Browns to play in Cleveland, where they're playing now at the stadium that the fans put up city bonds to help pay for. That's what I want. And I think it's horrible to ever move it away from the place it is now. It's just the worst thing, and I hope he's only using it as leverage to get money. That's what I mean. I don't read about the Browns anymore, honestly. I'm so bummed out about 'em.
But yeah, I think it's kind of a slap in the face and an insult to take a team since the 50s that has been playing Downtown on the lake in some form or another, and all of a sudden move it because like money and for no other reason. The thing about it, I know this from being in an ownership group, one of the things that bonds people to a sports team is history and tradition. That's a huge part of it. And when you start messing with that, you're going to lose your whole fan base. It's going to hurt the team, it's going to hurt the idea of the team and it's not going to go over. Everybody's going to see if they make this move, that you're just in it for the money. You don't give a fuck about the fans or what they think and yeah, it's really starting to show.
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