In the last seasons of the UK version, there was a definite move to appease American audiences with American performers. (At the time it was airing on some US and even a few Canadian stations.) Also, if I recall correctly, there was supposedly some sort of conflict between McShane and the producers, though I've…

I want Dead Bodies back, but apparently it's hard on Ryan's back, even if Colin always had to do the hard work.

There are lots of reasons: less variety among the panelists; the mandatory celebrity participants; just general age; and, I think, most importantly, largely playing the same games over and over again, with an increasing departure from verbal games to musical and ham-it-up games. The current WLIIA's consistently best…

Clive's role was to be the disciplinarian figure to crack the whip and keep things short and tight; also, more importantly, to push back against the improvisers when necessary. I miss the days when you'd have Anderson going at it with Greg Proops or Tony Slattery or Paul Merton.

Clive Anderson or Steve Frost?

I'd love to see a QI episode (or more?) with Whose Line vets. Many have been on already (Proops, Lawrence, Anderson, etc.), but not McShane, Slattery, Mochrie, Merton and so forth. Merton's unlikely, but I can definitely see Mochrie or McShane doing it and having a ball with it.

I don't quite know why I'd hesitate to call WILTY improv, or maybe just cuz some brain-bloop doesn't immediately make me think of it that way, even if it is about 90% improv. But David Mitchell and Lee Mack are fantastic. Definitely a bit of catching-lightning-in-a-bottle there.

Though Fry hated doing it, unfortunately; he said several times that he was extremely uncomfortable with the format, which is why in the TV versions he only appeared in three non-compilation episodes, two in the first season and one about ten years later. I agree, he was excellent on the show, and I even used to use…

"What's a burnoos?"
"It looks like… a burnoos!"

Actually, the wolf just escaped from the cast of The Grey and has since been wandering the northern reaches of the world, even transporting through a magical time portal, until volia, here she is. This wolf is basically the volpine version of Nemo, or maybe Dory.

As a Canadian, I didn't want to gloat. ;-)

It seemed eternal then even to those who weren't kids anymore.

He was also part of a great tag-team with Ian Hislop on that sunuvabitch Piers Morgan.

They can likely continue. They did through Humph's passing, they're working through Graeme Garden's absences, and they've got a good stable of younger ones very much loved by ISIHAC audiences to jump into the fray, especially, lately, John Finnemore, Susan Calman and that vocalist-par-excellence Jeremy Hardy.

Mock the Week is pretty much just political Whose Line (and produced by Dan Patterson, too). ISIHAC is closest, but it was always mostly scripted (but was, and remains, wonderful nonetheless). They're, I think, the most successful. Agree? I remember watching that Hugh Dennis one from a few years ago, Fast and Loose…

Go back to the British episodes…

Wayne's cheat code is run into the audience at every opportunity. ;-)

Other Colin Special Moves:
— the ability to make Ryan Stiles crack completely with just a facial twitch
— the ability to continue past whatever he says at the end of Irish Drinking Song
— the ability to physically manipulate women in a scene and still seem like an utter gentleman

Uh, f*ck no: Whose Line did not start on ABC, not by any stretch of the imagination. It started on radio in 1988 with Clive Anderson, John Sessions and Stephen Fry as the regulars. Then it went to Channel 4 in the UK with Clive hosting where most of the show's truly great episodes were done with the likes of…

I was. Oh, f*ck, it seemed endless….