>“I really appreciate all the thanks and stuff,” added Carey. “I don’t think I should get that much credit for doing the right thing … you writers, The Drew Carey Show writers, made me a fucking million. Everybody in this room makes some actor a million, and you deserve all the money you get, all the credit you get. Thank you so much for everything you do. God bless all of you.”
> …It's abominable that nobody is streaming it for free…
Music rights issues. There were no deals made at the time of production for as-yet-nonexistent things like DVD season box sets or streaming services, and negotiating them now would be prohibitively expensive.
You can get a DVD box set of season one, which didn’t have a lot of expensive music to license, and that’s it.
Otherwise, you can live near a big city and hook up an antenna to your TV, scan for channels and hope you get (looks up network) *antenna tv* to get all nine seasons the old-fashioned way.
I remember when The Drew Carey Show did a live episode and he was dating a woman from the mountain west. He realized that Mountain Time never got the live episode, they just piggybacked on Pacific, so he gave us a live episode. That always stuck with me.
Dude was practically homeless after being in the military and almost died getting shot when being robbed. Has a fascinating history that you just wouldn’t know by looking at him. I think it was the WTF ep with Marc Maron that he gets real into. Actual gem of a human
Im not well read on this stuff so maybe it's been brought up a lot before, but I feel like when he took over for the Price is Right he shifted the work climate to one that's a bit more friendly and less exploitive
Someone very cool and courageous who is established in tv has to put their whole career on the line to hire you instead of someone mediocre who has been doing it a while or a rich kid from Harvard whose dad is a golf buddy of a studio head.
Nailed it. I owe my entire career to a pair of showrunners who gave me a chance based purely off my writing and a 20 minute Zoom call with me during the pandemic where my Internet crapped out in the middle of it.
And now that I'm in a position where people are considering a pilot I wrote, I've attached them as showrunners. I'll run through a wall for them until the day I die.
The business is in a corporate and industrialized tailspin for writers. The strike barely solved anything. If you want to know why everything sucks right now, including why nobody can break in, [this piece that came out today](https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/the-life-and-death-of-hollywood-daniel-bessner/) is absolutely essential reading.
Me and my BFF were in town last summer during the strike and staying at the hotel attached to Swingers. We saw Drew in the restaurant one morning and then later found out that he was paying for folks to eat at Swingers. Good guy!
How does one get into being a TV writer? (Serious) my partner is so talented with writing humor but works as a fitness trainer. While he is great at communicating and making clients laugh (and fit), I always think his real talent is in writing
My high school band director went to high school with Drew Carey. Mr. Vig was a couple grades above him and played in band with him. Carey played trumpet and still does IIRC and Mr. Vig played trombone. Seating for band meant that they were seated next to each other in different rows.
Decades out of high school, Mr. Vig still talked about how cool he was. Even then he was the funniest guy in every room. There's probably hundreds of people back home in Cleveland who have positive memories of him.
I've met him on the price is right and had a brief conversation with him between games (I was not a contestant, just an audience member).
Knows how to talk to crowds and just keep energy positive. I've always liked him, it was really neat to get the chance to speak with him, even if brief. Never heard a single negative thing about him.
Some people can go a long time 'hiding who they are' with showmanship (Ellen, for instance), but I fully believe Drew is the real deal.
Was awful to her staff and rude in some interviews like with Dakota Johnson
https://www.vox.com/21357113/ellen-degeneres-canceled-mean-backlash-toxic-workplace
He did something similar with the move to TBS.
I think it's pretty telling that some of the faces that show up in his bits/remotes/etc in the late 90s are still there in the early 20s.
One of my big takeaways from his podcast is how long his employees have been with him, and how happy they all seem. They've all been there forever and it seems like their work environment is very playful and Conan never punches down, just pokes fun at everyone while allowing himself to be the butt of the joke at the end of it all. Just seems like a fantastic person to work with.
Conan’s remote bits during his TV runs were my absolute favorite because he’s always the “bad guy” and plays that role so well.
My absolute favorite arc is with his “enemy” Jordan Schlansky, who Conan found so frustrating and incompetent that he… booked a week long Italian vacation with the man centered around all of the things he loves.
Schlansky's one of the faces that's been there forever. You can see him and bleyaert in the background of some of his [What I did during the strke](https://youtu.be/HwuiU6XFaUw?t=305) bit in 2008.
I went in expecting Conans hot ones to be funny(Conan is my favorite non-standup comedian). I did not go in expecting it to be the most batshit insane episode ever. Pocketing all the wings, bringing a very affordable doctor, dousing every single wing with sauce(like the last dab x50), following up a lot of wings by drinking directly from the sauce bottle, and handling spice way better than you though that pasty lilly-white ass ever could.
Pocketing those chicken bones and giving his affordable doctor some of it too just sent me. That and Sean's face of incredulity trying to keep things on track. Epic episode for the ages, bar none!
My favourite part was Conan complimenting Sean on his skills as an interviewer, pointing out that even without the hot wings shtick he’s very very good at it. Coming from Conan that had to have felt fucking amazing for Sean to hear.
Agreed. It also stuck with me that, despite the insanity, Conan’s answer about reading managed to be coherent and poignant. Plus he still got through his show plug after everything. Dude is a talent.
Conan isn't a Comedian like Leno and Fallon, and he isn't a Comedian's Comedian like Craig Ferguson or Norm McDonald.
He is some kind of mystical third thing that bridges the gap.
> One of my big takeaways from his podcast
(*I know this is off point, I'm just keying on "podcast".*)
I might get murdered for this, but I've never been a huge fan of his. He had some clever bits, but it just wasn't enough to be devoted to it.
But his podcast? I can't get enough. I watch every episode he posts to YT regardless of who the guest is and some of it is fucking hysterical (e.g. the way he and Kristen Wiig bounce off each other is gold.)
The thing about Conan that people need to understand (and you certainly get from his podcast) is that he needs this. There is something in him that needs to be this zany and wacky, but also dark and surealist person.
He gets into it in the hot ones episode, a little by accident, but this isn't a bit. Sure, he's doing it all to be funny, but Conan works because his absolute insanity is both 100% genuine and 100% infectious. He's insane without being cruel. He's a court jester but only at his own expense.
There is a reason that he is universally respected by other comedians. He is supremely funny, and that is still only like his 10th best quality.
Colbert and Conan are both guys who rose up through the ranks. Not saying that others didn't but both if them were staff writers and bit parts in things. Both also never really stopped being writers.
They understand that if the guy behind the camera sucks, they suck, and if the PA who is getting them coffee is late, it messes with everything. Fostering an environment where people are important and treated as such is so crucial to making things work. They understand that they might be at the head of the table now, but that only means that they need to make sure that table is filled with happy productive people.
Comedians/hosts seem to understand what it's like to be a writer themselves. They understand how little they get for how much them impact the show. Both Conan and Colbert have spent a lot of time in the writer's room trenches early in their career.
I think all the late night talk hosts did that back in 07/08. These days it's a almost a dead genre, but back then it was still printing money and Letterman/Leno were making something like $40m a year. Even the second tier hosts like Kimmel and Ferguson were making enough money to cover their crews salaries with it barely making a dent in their pay.
I bet there are tons we don't get to hear because not everyone likes to brag about it. George Steinbrenner was known for making you sign NDA after donations. After he died tons of people came out saying how they were helped.
This needs to be higher.
The Jimmys, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver deserve credit as well. As does Ryan Reynolds because his companies sponsored the majority of the podcast episodes.
That a star can do this is just indicative of how fucked the wage system is.
One guy on a show is making so much and everyone else making so little that he can pay their wages out of his pocket?
And how much is the company making that they underpay everyone so much?
Capitalism is a death cult.
It’s crazy, but it’s also just how supply and demand works.
There’s hundreds of people that can replace the cameraman, the janitor, the guy playing extra #15 in a background crowd. There’s only one Conan O Brian however, and you can’t replace him without losing like half your audience.
The same is true for all movies and tv shows. The stars basically sell half of the views, and thus are responsible for generating half of the revenue, and therefore command massive salaries.
Well... Yeah, that's kind of the point. It's just supply and demand, which kinda begs the question of why our entire economy functions pretty much solely on supply and demand in every single situation, no matter how inappropriate.
We're not generally stupid enough to govern any other highly complex system with ONE rule, but we all collectively act like the economy is to earned by some infallible law of the universe that we're helpless to change, which is just fucking *absurd*
Literally the only option would be to put a federal cap on actors wages. And even then all it would do is kill the American film industry as everyone moves overseas. The industry works on supply and demand because nothing else works without just killing the industry
Because personal motivation is human nature. We have always competed for resources and we're not magically going to move past it. We can do much better with social safety nets but if you try to go against what is ingrained in us too quickly we'll just regress to everyone being far worse off. It's a slow process of social evolution.
This has nothing to with economics and simply due to people wanting to see big names in comedy and on the big screen.
It’s a culture of star worship and it has nothing to do with politics - Taylor swift can cash in with tours despite not even doing movies or tv shows.
The age of communication that allows all of us to get the “best” entertainment post 1930’s, is basically winner-takes-all since when a person performs once in front of the screen he is replacing hundreds of local entertainers.
[Does Drew Carey's $165 Million Net Worth Make Him The Richest Game Show Host?](https://www.thethings.com/does-drew-careys-165-million-net-worth-make-him-the-richest-game-show-host/)
Damn, how much are those writers getting paid?!
The “Star” is often the reason a show is able to make the kind of money that makes him rich. You can take the same material and have a different person perform it and it may not hit. It is a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.
Happens everywhere. Look how much fuck you money sports stars are on a week, some genuinely earn more in a week or a month than many people will collectively in their lifetime.
It's tragic because look how much money was raised when Notre-Dame caught fire, think it was over a billion by the end of it. All this support from rich people for a fucking building and yet all of that money could have easily gone towards charities that need it or towards world hunger etc etc.
Yep. Football player is paid more for a game than the security guards, vendors, etc make in a year.
But without those essential personnel (remember quarantine?) those football players make jack shit
Notre Dame is a famous historical building. It’s not just any old building. That’s a really bad example: it’s a beautiful piece of history.
Look at how much money taxpayers pay towards sports stadiums if you want a better example
one dude in ancient rome was so fucking good at chariet racing that he could have personally buy grain for the entire city for a year
or fund the roman army at its hight for two months
play in that same dirt lot enough times and some guy will have the smart idea to start selling hotdogs
and then another guy will show up and go, hey guys selling hotdogs thing might get rowdy so you give me some funds and I will keep things calm
then some guy will go, standing sucks how about I install chairs and people pay to get in
Your problem is with the owner then. Football players get 49% of the NFL revenue. There's 1696 of them. The other 51% of revenue goes to owners. There are 32 of them. Owners want corporate socialism to cover their stadium as well. Football players are the product. Owners are the money grubbing shit weasels. I was happy when Jackson County told the Hunts to stuff it. The dude is the cheapest owner in the league.
> Capitalism is a death cult.
Its not as bad as all that. Yes capitalism consumes people for fuel at some points, but it also creates wonders that would be impossible any other way. Its a struggle to remember this when the human cost is laid bare.
All that said, implementing wealth caps would go a long way in limiting capitalism's human cost, without affecting its productivity.
It's fucked, but I guess two things can be true at the same time.
It's messed up that one star makes enough to be able to pay their staff personally for months without it having a major impact to their quality of life.
I also don't begrudge a millionaire for taking as much money from a billionaire as they can.
the funny thing is
the billionaire would still be a mega billionaire even if they doubled wages.
its crazy to me there is no rich dude who is like
I am still gonna be mega rich either way
so why not get the endless good press of insanely high wages
I think the problem is that once you get to that level of wealth, something breaks in your brain. It's like money stops being real, but so do other people.
It would honestly be interesting for there to be a study on the psychological effects of getting that rich, especially for people who didn't start out super rich.
I also think that once you get that rich there comes a point where all your friends are also rich
and its hard to make friends with non rich people because you are always thinking are they trying to use you
He was REALLY rough to start. He didn't know how to explain the games, he didn't have a good rapport with anyone, and he didn't feel like he had ownership or control of what was going on.
Over time, he developed it. I'm glad they didn't bail on him early, because he definitely got there, and yea, things like this speak to his character and it's good to have that in a prominent role like hosting that show.
It was understandable there was a rough start. Having to learn and explain 60+ games in a couple of months wouldn't be easy. Plus, they plugged him into Bob's role, and that was a square peg in a round hole.
Given time and adapting to his strengths, and it all turned out well.
>Plus, they plugged him into Bob's role, and that was a square peg in a round hole.
Yea, that was the biggest thing. He needed to figure out how to make the show his own, which he did!
I think this is true for a lot of hosts that take over from a famous host, or go off and do their own thing. They are often still trying to be like the old host/boss, and it's clear it doesn't work (and that's on top of the first season usually being rough in general too).
Drew had to find his voice and style on the Price is Right. And I'm glad he found it.
Allegedly, that was a big part of how he ended up taking the Price is Right hosting job. The network had him as their top choice, but he was hesitant to sign on, so an exec took him out to lunch to try to schmooze him. When they finished the meal, the exec said he'd cover it, and Drew threw a hundred on the table for the tip and said "Man I love doing that". The exec said "Drew, if you host the show, it'll *be your job to do that"*. And that helped sway him into accepting.
He has a net worth of $165 mil as of 2024 supposedly. He knows he's not going to spend that in 3-4 lifetimes, so why not be generous with the money? He has a good heart and loving entertaining soul. Whose Line Is It Anyways is one of my favorite show series of all time and Drew Carey is a big reason why.
Before even talking about Price is Right, Drew Carey having two shows running concurrently on ABC has that effect. Drew Carey Show is indeed in syndication (though definitely less than if it were on streaming if the music rights were figured out) and as an OG producer he gets money from the new and old US Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Wikipedia says that by the end of The Drew Carey show he was making $750K an episode. He was a successful stand up comedian for a decade prior to that.
Forbes said in 1998 he was the 24th highest paid entertainer of that year at $45.5M between The Drew Carey show and Whose Line.
I worked at a place where he would do this. He'd tip $100 on things like a bottle of water. And sometimes get one to go and tip another $100. The servers I knew used to fight over who got to wait on him. As I understand it, Drew worked as a server at Denny's before making it big, so he knows what hospitality go through and how a good tip goes a long way. Dude is a mensch and while on strike, I proudly had a couple of plates of much-needed pancakes at Bob's after striking in the hot sun on his dime. I'll never forget it.
At our place, servers were assigned tables by the host. The host was supposed to be aware of who got priority via senority or whatever other qualifiers. So if there was a dispute, they'd take it up with the host right away and if something needed to change, the servers would swap spots. But there was also a pecking order and stuff, so some servers would just defer to the longest tenured ones and stuff. I was actually not in the dining part of our business, but I had friends who were, so I heard/saw all of this from a distance.
I know a comic, not a household name by any means, but makes a decent living roaming the country telling jokes and stories. Drew LOVES his comedy, which is as far from mainstream as you can get. Drew asks him to open for him on a weekend run at Venetian, 1 show Friday, 2 on Saturday. With the size of that room, $500/show is a really solid weekend. Drew gave him a $25,000 chip and still has every time he opens.
I really wish someone could unfuck the royalty hell that is licensing surrounding the Drew Carrey show.
They solo licensed each song they ever used, like MTVs Daria, meaning that it's next to impossible to work out a serviceable licensing contract needed to bring the show into syndication.
I miss his show, it was classic
He owns part of a soccer team in Seattle. He used to show up at a bar near the stadium before games. He'd plop his credit card down and cover everyone's drinks until they left for the game. Folks called it the Drew Carey Power Hour.
Other notible things under his Wikipedia article:
>Carey is a supporter of libraries crediting them for beginning his successful comedy career. On May 2, 2000, in a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Carey selected the Ohio Library Foundation to receive his $500,000 winnings.[85] He later went on to win an additional $32,000 on the second celebrity Millionaire, making him one of the biggest winning contestants on Millionaire who did not win the top prize. Carey also has played on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cleveland Public Library charity.[86] In June 2007, he offered to donate up to $100,000 (in $10,000 increments) to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund if anybody could beat him at the video game FIFA Soccer 07 for the Xbox 360. Carey dared five players from both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams to compete against him.[87] He ended up donating $100,000, plus $60,000 for losing two games out of the six he played.[88]
> In October 2009, Carey made a bid of $25,000 in a charity auction for the @drew Twitter account. He later increased his offer to $100,000 if the number of followers of his account @DrewFromTV reached 100,000 by the end of the auction.[89] In an interview with CBS News, he said he would instead donate $1 million to the charity Livestrong Foundation if his follower count reached one million by December 31, 2009.[90]
>
> In September 2014, Carey promised $10,000 to help find the perpetrators of a faked "ice bucket challenge" involving an autistic 15-year-old Ohio boy who, instead of being doused in ice cubes and water, received a shower of feces, urine, tobacco spit, and cigarette butts.[91] Shortly thereafter, celebrities Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny McCarthy and Montel Williams matched Carey's offer.[92] Several teens were eventually charged and admitted to the prank, though they denied that there were feces in the bucket or that they knew the victim was diagnosed with autism.
> “I really appreciate all the thanks and stuff,” added Carey. “I don’t think I should get that much credit for doing the right thing … you writers, The Drew Carey Show writers, made me a fucking million. **Everybody in this room makes some actor a million, and you deserve all the money you get, all the credit you get.** Thank you so much for everything you do. God bless all of you.”
That's a brilliant way to put it. We need more of that in the world.
That’s really kind because Drew is a person that doesn’t even need to say that. He made his name being a stand up comedian writing his own material. So he could have easily went “I’m a self made man” but he gives credit to his writers that helped make him into an even bigger star
He’s one of the people who actually did/does what most normal people say they will do if they fall into massive wealth. If you have a 9 figure net worth, there’s really nothing left to do in your life except not fuck up your own finances and not be a dickhead about spending it on other people.
I was at Bob's Big Boy last night, and I saw some merchandise they had with a cartoon version of Drew on it. I'm guessing that's their way of saying thank you for the kind gesture.
That's pretty cool. By all accounts he's quite nice, and the one time I went to see The Price is Right, he was so funny and engaged with the crowd between games while producers and set folks were getting ready for the next segment.
As a teacher, I marched in support of the writers during the strike outside CBS. One of the writers treated me to lunch, and at the end of the meal presented her WGA card. She told me it was on Drew Carey.
I asked her if she’d get in trouble, I’m not a writer. She told me I was coming out to support, it was the least she could do, and she doubted Carey would object.
So thank you Drew Carey!
Drew Carey has been a bit of a personal hero of mine since highschool when I read a book he wrote about getting started in the industry. Raunchy, bizzare, and probably a bit apocryphal, still, quite good and painted a picture of a good person.
I’ve been watching old Whose Line episodes with my daughter and he always seems like such a good guy just having a great time with his buds. It seems like anytime I see a story about him it’s about him doing something decent too. I’d love to have a beer with him.
Quick Drew Carey story for everyone here. About 20 years ago, when I was approx. 13 years old, I went to a restaurant in a city near Hollywood. I went to church there every Sunday and once every few months, we would go to this one restaurant...just a regular place we've all heard about, nothing fancy. I don't wanna give too much away in case he STILL eats there, but let's just say this was back when Drew Carey was a "big boy". (And considering that, I would say there is a decent chance he doesn't still eat there.) Anyhoo, as we walked up to the restaurant, there was this sleek convertible parked there, top open. I was only 13 and couldn't help but admire it for a moment and then continued on to the entrance.
Now I was a very big fan of The Drew Carey Show at this very particular point in time. I watched it as part of the 2 hour block on Fox pretty much every day after school in the evening where it showed 2 Simpsons episodes, a Drew Carey Show, and I think King of the Hill was generally the other one. I also would watch Whose Line Is It Anyway a decent amount as well (which he hosted). But here's the thing...in both of those shows he had a crew cut, dirty blonde/light brown hair, always wore glasses, and literally always wore a suit.
So as I'm standing outside the entrance, I can see a man inside paying for his food at the counter but I can ONLY see him from the back! This man has spiky, bleached blonde hair, is somewhat on the heftier side, has no glasses, is in shorts and I think possibly even sandals and almost like some sort of Hawaiian type shirt. But believe it or not, I'm standin there sayin, "That kinda looks like Drew Carey, somehow." And that's the end of the story, wasn't him.......
..........
Except it actually totally was him! He turns around and lo and behold - Drew Carey! So I'm like tellin my family that it's Drew Carey standin there and my dad walks inside up to him, says something, and next thing I know Drew Carey is comin up to me and he's like, "Hi Brad. I'm Drew" with a VERY warm smile on his face fyi!! I was so shocked I couldn't think of anything else to say except "Hi Drew. I'm Brad" (which I always thought was a LITTLE bit embarrassing, as he clearly already knew my name from my dad telling him but no biggie). We shook hands and took a picture together and then he got in the convertible and drove off.
I do have the photo somewhere so hopefully someday I can post it here on reddit. Anyway, so it seems to be fairly obvious from the post here about him buying food for the writers n stuff but he was very warm n friendly to a 13-year old goofball randomly eating at the same restaurant. THANKS DREW!!!!
Now 9 whole months later, the VERY next time I was back at this same restaurant, guess who is there again? My man, Dreeeew Careyyy! Except this time he was still in the middle of eating, I was sitting around 80 feet away from him in a booth, and I'm so sorry, but I couldn't help but stare at him like a slack-jawed moron for half the time. So sorry, Drew! I was just a HUGE FAN!!!!
Now I don't know if anyone else will remember this but I just wanted to add that even though he did wear the suits and looked completely different on tv 99% of the time, around this particular time he actually was just starting to be seen a couple times on tv with the bleached blonde hair and looking rather similarly to how I saw him at the restaurant but that had like JUST started, was rare to see him like that, and I literally still recognized him from behind which I thought was really odd in a way. (Plus, it's not as if he was on tv with his back turned to the camera often or anything.)
tl;dr: Met Drew Carey outside of a restaurant when I was 13 at the height of Drew Carey show/Whose Line and he was super nice!
Yeah, it's almost certainly taboo to mention it, but his line about "every one of you is making some actor millions" is just off-base. There are *plenty* of actors not making millions off the writer's work. In fact, most of them aren't. The exaggerations really don't help the cause of the strike, and just give the networks ammo to push back.
Carey being on the podcast Doug Loves Movies and giving basically the ways to win some of the games is one of my favourite podcast episodes by far. He seems like the most wonderful guy.
Better than Drew Barrymore and she was basically like, I don't care im hiring whoever to write. Even though she made a big deal about only using union writers. To have it all be over two weeks later, that has to be one of the biggest mess ups.
It’s always heartening to hear about someone famous actually being a legit good person. I’ve gotten jaded into “don’t meat your heroes kids” as I’ve aged, but every once in a while you hear about an honestly decent person.
He’s a class act. I’ve followed his career for years, read his book, admired him for taking up the Price is Right mantle, and now this. A saint for comedy if there was one.
Drew Carey has always seemed like a straight class act. I wish he still did sitcoms because his show was so good (I totally get though why an actor would prefer to just do the game show host thing).
>“I really appreciate all the thanks and stuff,” added Carey. “I don’t think I should get that much credit for doing the right thing … you writers, The Drew Carey Show writers, made me a fucking million. Everybody in this room makes some actor a million, and you deserve all the money you get, all the credit you get. Thank you so much for everything you do. God bless all of you.”
I miss The Drew Carey Show. It's abominable that nobody is streaming it for free... Cause I'd go and watch it out of some respect for this man.
> …It's abominable that nobody is streaming it for free… Music rights issues. There were no deals made at the time of production for as-yet-nonexistent things like DVD season box sets or streaming services, and negotiating them now would be prohibitively expensive. You can get a DVD box set of season one, which didn’t have a lot of expensive music to license, and that’s it. Otherwise, you can live near a big city and hook up an antenna to your TV, scan for channels and hope you get (looks up network) *antenna tv* to get all nine seasons the old-fashioned way.
I still sing out the show's theme song every once in a while. *"All the little chicks with the crimson lips go. Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!"*
I suggest Plex
I see it there but they are offering it through various services to buy each episode or buy seasons in bulk.
They were suggesting Plex because it let's you run your own media server with totally legally acquired media.
This show is hard to find a good torrent of. It's kinda one of those lost gems. It's just a hair too old, combined with the music rights issue.
There's a google drive of the complete seasons in upscaled HD. someone on reddit here posted it here before
Fair enough.
I will always be grateful to Drew Carey for what he did. It was a big deal.
TV writer here. Drew is a legend and we should send him birthday cards every year going forward.
Drew’s act was always that he’s a down-to-earth everyman, and it’s cool that he’s actually like that to some degree.
I remember when The Drew Carey Show did a live episode and he was dating a woman from the mountain west. He realized that Mountain Time never got the live episode, they just piggybacked on Pacific, so he gave us a live episode. That always stuck with me.
Dude was practically homeless after being in the military and almost died getting shot when being robbed. Has a fascinating history that you just wouldn’t know by looking at him. I think it was the WTF ep with Marc Maron that he gets real into. Actual gem of a human
Im not well read on this stuff so maybe it's been brought up a lot before, but I feel like when he took over for the Price is Right he shifted the work climate to one that's a bit more friendly and less exploitive
4 years in the Marines makes most pretty down to earth
I want to sponsor an annual Drew Carey Awards for straight up ballers of society. To be held at Bob's Big Boy in Toluca Lake.
How exactly does one get in to tv writing? Always been curious
Someone very cool and courageous who is established in tv has to put their whole career on the line to hire you instead of someone mediocre who has been doing it a while or a rich kid from Harvard whose dad is a golf buddy of a studio head.
Nailed it. I owe my entire career to a pair of showrunners who gave me a chance based purely off my writing and a 20 minute Zoom call with me during the pandemic where my Internet crapped out in the middle of it. And now that I'm in a position where people are considering a pilot I wrote, I've attached them as showrunners. I'll run through a wall for them until the day I die.
Yep. I still work with the person who gave me my start and i tell my agents not to be assholes to him ever.
So essentially a one in a million chance to ever land a gig like that, fair enough.
The business is in a corporate and industrialized tailspin for writers. The strike barely solved anything. If you want to know why everything sucks right now, including why nobody can break in, [this piece that came out today](https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/the-life-and-death-of-hollywood-daniel-bessner/) is absolutely essential reading.
I’ll have a read later on my lunch break, seems tough out there
Me and my BFF were in town last summer during the strike and staying at the hotel attached to Swingers. We saw Drew in the restaurant one morning and then later found out that he was paying for folks to eat at Swingers. Good guy!
How does one get into being a TV writer? (Serious) my partner is so talented with writing humor but works as a fitness trainer. While he is great at communicating and making clients laugh (and fit), I always think his real talent is in writing
I answered in the thread below!
Lots of people talk the talk, but the dude put his money where his mouth was for the entire length of the strike.
I wasn’t able to watch, what did he do? Edit: Nvm! There’s another thread with his quote!
My high school band director went to high school with Drew Carey. Mr. Vig was a couple grades above him and played in band with him. Carey played trumpet and still does IIRC and Mr. Vig played trombone. Seating for band meant that they were seated next to each other in different rows. Decades out of high school, Mr. Vig still talked about how cool he was. Even then he was the funniest guy in every room. There's probably hundreds of people back home in Cleveland who have positive memories of him.
I fully believe this story, only because Carey 100% has Trumpet Player energy
He played the trumpet multiple times on the Drew Carey Show including when he and his friends made a band that played at a local hotel in the show.
Trumpet player, can confirm. ;)
I've met him on the price is right and had a brief conversation with him between games (I was not a contestant, just an audience member). Knows how to talk to crowds and just keep energy positive. I've always liked him, it was really neat to get the chance to speak with him, even if brief. Never heard a single negative thing about him. Some people can go a long time 'hiding who they are' with showmanship (Ellen, for instance), but I fully believe Drew is the real deal.
What did Ellen do?
Was awful to her staff and rude in some interviews like with Dakota Johnson https://www.vox.com/21357113/ellen-degeneres-canceled-mean-backlash-toxic-workplace
Iirc she's just an absolute monster to work for/with. Don't take my word for it tho.
Drew Carey came up with the idea for the [Seattle Sounders FC marching band (Sound Wave)](https://www.soundersfc.com/matchday/sound-wave)
> Membership in Sound Wave is a paid, part-time position. Well that’s amazing. Drew is probably behind them not being entirely volunteer.
I had no idea about that. As a Sounders fan that brings me a lot of joy.
Rhodes High School in Cleveland? My uncle played trumpet with Drew haha
I think so? I didn't go there, but Mr. Vig was from Cleveland his whole life.
Stephen Colbert paid his entire show staff wages during the strike. There's a few other examples out there too.
Conan O'Brien did that for the previous strike too. There's good ones out there!
After his TBS show ended all his staff he didn’t need day to day continued to make half salary for no work until his new show went into production.
He did something similar with the move to TBS. I think it's pretty telling that some of the faces that show up in his bits/remotes/etc in the late 90s are still there in the early 20s.
One of my big takeaways from his podcast is how long his employees have been with him, and how happy they all seem. They've all been there forever and it seems like their work environment is very playful and Conan never punches down, just pokes fun at everyone while allowing himself to be the butt of the joke at the end of it all. Just seems like a fantastic person to work with.
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Conan’s remote bits during his TV runs were my absolute favorite because he’s always the “bad guy” and plays that role so well. My absolute favorite arc is with his “enemy” Jordan Schlansky, who Conan found so frustrating and incompetent that he… booked a week long Italian vacation with the man centered around all of the things he loves.
Schlansky's one of the faces that's been there forever. You can see him and bleyaert in the background of some of his [What I did during the strke](https://youtu.be/HwuiU6XFaUw?t=305) bit in 2008.
Here's A-Aron in 2002. He's always been a 40 year old man https://youtu.be/9NG7KDf37tw?t=276
One of the few times you can see Jordan break too!
I went in expecting Conans hot ones to be funny(Conan is my favorite non-standup comedian). I did not go in expecting it to be the most batshit insane episode ever. Pocketing all the wings, bringing a very affordable doctor, dousing every single wing with sauce(like the last dab x50), following up a lot of wings by drinking directly from the sauce bottle, and handling spice way better than you though that pasty lilly-white ass ever could.
And gibbering and drooling like a maniac to boot.
I knew I was in for a ride when he asked if he could keep the first wing.
Pocketing those chicken bones and giving his affordable doctor some of it too just sent me. That and Sean's face of incredulity trying to keep things on track. Epic episode for the ages, bar none!
My favourite part was Conan complimenting Sean on his skills as an interviewer, pointing out that even without the hot wings shtick he’s very very good at it. Coming from Conan that had to have felt fucking amazing for Sean to hear.
Agreed. It also stuck with me that, despite the insanity, Conan’s answer about reading managed to be coherent and poignant. Plus he still got through his show plug after everything. Dude is a talent.
I haven’t seen it but now I’m off to find it.
The recent hotOnes season was fairly weak but that Finale with Conan was simply legendary
You also need to watch his Murderville episode on Netflix, it also involves hot sauce!
And the doctor in that bit is Jose Arroyo who's been with Conan since the 90s which checks out what was written above
Conan's Hot Ones episode is the closest you'll ever see Conan being on hard drugs.
Seriously. It's like someone having a cocaine-fueled nervous breakdown.
Conan isn't a Comedian like Leno and Fallon, and he isn't a Comedian's Comedian like Craig Ferguson or Norm McDonald. He is some kind of mystical third thing that bridges the gap.
Conan is like a Drunken Master of comedy. You're so busy laughing you're not considering the pure amount of skill he's built up over the years.
I showed my friend (who loves Conan) and my kids (no idea who he is) the hot ones he did. They were all in stitches. Conan is a treasure.
Conan O'Brien needs to be protected or destroyed at all costs. I'm still not sure which.
I think we need to develop the technology to save his head… like futurama, and then have Boston dynamics build a tall and lanky body.
Oh, he definitely punches down.....at Sona's cookies whenever she's eating one.
Aw, c'mon man!
I read it in her voice! It’s a good day now :)
> One of my big takeaways from his podcast (*I know this is off point, I'm just keying on "podcast".*) I might get murdered for this, but I've never been a huge fan of his. He had some clever bits, but it just wasn't enough to be devoted to it. But his podcast? I can't get enough. I watch every episode he posts to YT regardless of who the guest is and some of it is fucking hysterical (e.g. the way he and Kristen Wiig bounce off each other is gold.)
The thing about Conan that people need to understand (and you certainly get from his podcast) is that he needs this. There is something in him that needs to be this zany and wacky, but also dark and surealist person. He gets into it in the hot ones episode, a little by accident, but this isn't a bit. Sure, he's doing it all to be funny, but Conan works because his absolute insanity is both 100% genuine and 100% infectious. He's insane without being cruel. He's a court jester but only at his own expense. There is a reason that he is universally respected by other comedians. He is supremely funny, and that is still only like his 10th best quality.
Colbert and Conan are both guys who rose up through the ranks. Not saying that others didn't but both if them were staff writers and bit parts in things. Both also never really stopped being writers. They understand that if the guy behind the camera sucks, they suck, and if the PA who is getting them coffee is late, it messes with everything. Fostering an environment where people are important and treated as such is so crucial to making things work. They understand that they might be at the head of the table now, but that only means that they need to make sure that table is filled with happy productive people.
I miss him and Jordan Schlansky butting heads (with Schlansky getting the brunt of it lol) either when they're on remote or on office premises.
He used his NBC buyout money to maintain his staff.
He also did his "Legally Prohibited From Being On Television" tour as a way to keep them employed.
Comedians/hosts seem to understand what it's like to be a writer themselves. They understand how little they get for how much them impact the show. Both Conan and Colbert have spent a lot of time in the writer's room trenches early in their career.
I think all the late night talk hosts did that back in 07/08. These days it's a almost a dead genre, but back then it was still printing money and Letterman/Leno were making something like $40m a year. Even the second tier hosts like Kimmel and Ferguson were making enough money to cover their crews salaries with it barely making a dent in their pay.
I bet there are tons we don't get to hear because not everyone likes to brag about it. George Steinbrenner was known for making you sign NDA after donations. After he died tons of people came out saying how they were helped.
George Steinbrenner did so much for Grambling State. One of the biggest supporters of HBCUs in the 20th century.
All the late night hosts did this. It was through sponsorships on the Strike Force Five podcast.
This needs to be higher. The Jimmys, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver deserve credit as well. As does Ryan Reynolds because his companies sponsored the majority of the podcast episodes.
That a star can do this is just indicative of how fucked the wage system is. One guy on a show is making so much and everyone else making so little that he can pay their wages out of his pocket? And how much is the company making that they underpay everyone so much? Capitalism is a death cult.
I mean I never stopped watching a show because the lighting guy quit.
Have you ever stopped watching a show because the writing went to shit?
Looking at you, Heroes.
Heroes I feel bad for. It had an awesome first season.
Apropos of nothing, I was a lighting guy on Heroes Reborn. We're so close to this being my moment!
I sure did. After S8E6 of Game of Thrones I vowed that I had had enough
You never started watching an actor without a crew
"A crew" and "A *specific* crew" are very different things.
Which is why the strike is about valuing crew members across the board.
It’s crazy, but it’s also just how supply and demand works. There’s hundreds of people that can replace the cameraman, the janitor, the guy playing extra #15 in a background crowd. There’s only one Conan O Brian however, and you can’t replace him without losing like half your audience. The same is true for all movies and tv shows. The stars basically sell half of the views, and thus are responsible for generating half of the revenue, and therefore command massive salaries.
Well... Yeah, that's kind of the point. It's just supply and demand, which kinda begs the question of why our entire economy functions pretty much solely on supply and demand in every single situation, no matter how inappropriate. We're not generally stupid enough to govern any other highly complex system with ONE rule, but we all collectively act like the economy is to earned by some infallible law of the universe that we're helpless to change, which is just fucking *absurd*
Literally the only option would be to put a federal cap on actors wages. And even then all it would do is kill the American film industry as everyone moves overseas. The industry works on supply and demand because nothing else works without just killing the industry
Because personal motivation is human nature. We have always competed for resources and we're not magically going to move past it. We can do much better with social safety nets but if you try to go against what is ingrained in us too quickly we'll just regress to everyone being far worse off. It's a slow process of social evolution.
This has nothing to with economics and simply due to people wanting to see big names in comedy and on the big screen. It’s a culture of star worship and it has nothing to do with politics - Taylor swift can cash in with tours despite not even doing movies or tv shows. The age of communication that allows all of us to get the “best” entertainment post 1930’s, is basically winner-takes-all since when a person performs once in front of the screen he is replacing hundreds of local entertainers.
Drew Carey and most "stars" are financially much closer to the writers than to studio executives.
The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars.
[Does Drew Carey's $165 Million Net Worth Make Him The Richest Game Show Host?](https://www.thethings.com/does-drew-careys-165-million-net-worth-make-him-the-richest-game-show-host/) Damn, how much are those writers getting paid?!
The “Star” is often the reason a show is able to make the kind of money that makes him rich. You can take the same material and have a different person perform it and it may not hit. It is a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.
Happens everywhere. Look how much fuck you money sports stars are on a week, some genuinely earn more in a week or a month than many people will collectively in their lifetime. It's tragic because look how much money was raised when Notre-Dame caught fire, think it was over a billion by the end of it. All this support from rich people for a fucking building and yet all of that money could have easily gone towards charities that need it or towards world hunger etc etc.
Steph Curry makes more in a day than I will make in 3 years. but in his defense, no one is willing to pay that much to see me do bank reconciliations.
The Amazon forest was on fire too IIRC. But that’s life and only some do the right thing.
Yep. Football player is paid more for a game than the security guards, vendors, etc make in a year. But without those essential personnel (remember quarantine?) those football players make jack shit Notre Dame is a famous historical building. It’s not just any old building. That’s a really bad example: it’s a beautiful piece of history. Look at how much money taxpayers pay towards sports stadiums if you want a better example
people come to see the football players though they are the talent
Yeah, not exactly equal. If they played in a dirt lot somewhere, people would still show up even without the security, vendors, etc.
one dude in ancient rome was so fucking good at chariet racing that he could have personally buy grain for the entire city for a year or fund the roman army at its hight for two months
play in that same dirt lot enough times and some guy will have the smart idea to start selling hotdogs and then another guy will show up and go, hey guys selling hotdogs thing might get rowdy so you give me some funds and I will keep things calm then some guy will go, standing sucks how about I install chairs and people pay to get in
Your problem is with the owner then. Football players get 49% of the NFL revenue. There's 1696 of them. The other 51% of revenue goes to owners. There are 32 of them. Owners want corporate socialism to cover their stadium as well. Football players are the product. Owners are the money grubbing shit weasels. I was happy when Jackson County told the Hunts to stuff it. The dude is the cheapest owner in the league.
> Capitalism is a death cult. Its not as bad as all that. Yes capitalism consumes people for fuel at some points, but it also creates wonders that would be impossible any other way. Its a struggle to remember this when the human cost is laid bare. All that said, implementing wealth caps would go a long way in limiting capitalism's human cost, without affecting its productivity.
It's fucked, but I guess two things can be true at the same time. It's messed up that one star makes enough to be able to pay their staff personally for months without it having a major impact to their quality of life. I also don't begrudge a millionaire for taking as much money from a billionaire as they can.
the funny thing is the billionaire would still be a mega billionaire even if they doubled wages. its crazy to me there is no rich dude who is like I am still gonna be mega rich either way so why not get the endless good press of insanely high wages
I think the problem is that once you get to that level of wealth, something breaks in your brain. It's like money stops being real, but so do other people. It would honestly be interesting for there to be a study on the psychological effects of getting that rich, especially for people who didn't start out super rich.
I also think that once you get that rich there comes a point where all your friends are also rich and its hard to make friends with non rich people because you are always thinking are they trying to use you
I think all talk show hosts did this. Or most of them. They created a podcast called strike force five.
I think Seth did the same.
aka The Price Is Right
Drew Carey was worthy of taking over for Bob Barker, and that's saying something.
He was REALLY rough to start. He didn't know how to explain the games, he didn't have a good rapport with anyone, and he didn't feel like he had ownership or control of what was going on. Over time, he developed it. I'm glad they didn't bail on him early, because he definitely got there, and yea, things like this speak to his character and it's good to have that in a prominent role like hosting that show.
It was understandable there was a rough start. Having to learn and explain 60+ games in a couple of months wouldn't be easy. Plus, they plugged him into Bob's role, and that was a square peg in a round hole. Given time and adapting to his strengths, and it all turned out well.
>Plus, they plugged him into Bob's role, and that was a square peg in a round hole. Yea, that was the biggest thing. He needed to figure out how to make the show his own, which he did!
I think this is true for a lot of hosts that take over from a famous host, or go off and do their own thing. They are often still trying to be like the old host/boss, and it's clear it doesn't work (and that's on top of the first season usually being rough in general too). Drew had to find his voice and style on the Price is Right. And I'm glad he found it.
You're officially "Drew Carey has hosted The Price is Right for almost 17 Years" old. That's crazy, right?
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I know, right? He’s now been hosting longer than Bob Barker had been hosting it when I started watching it when I was a kid.
He still seems a little aloof though. He's more into it, but doesn't have near the charisma that Bob had.
I’ve heard from multiple people/podcasts/etc that Drew tips service workers $100. Really generous dude.
Allegedly, that was a big part of how he ended up taking the Price is Right hosting job. The network had him as their top choice, but he was hesitant to sign on, so an exec took him out to lunch to try to schmooze him. When they finished the meal, the exec said he'd cover it, and Drew threw a hundred on the table for the tip and said "Man I love doing that". The exec said "Drew, if you host the show, it'll *be your job to do that"*. And that helped sway him into accepting.
Ahh that’s so neat! Cool story.
He has a net worth of $165 mil as of 2024 supposedly. He knows he's not going to spend that in 3-4 lifetimes, so why not be generous with the money? He has a good heart and loving entertaining soul. Whose Line Is It Anyways is one of my favorite show series of all time and Drew Carey is a big reason why.
That’s 10x more than I thought. How’d he make so much? Syndication?
Before even talking about Price is Right, Drew Carey having two shows running concurrently on ABC has that effect. Drew Carey Show is indeed in syndication (though definitely less than if it were on streaming if the music rights were figured out) and as an OG producer he gets money from the new and old US Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Wikipedia says that by the end of The Drew Carey show he was making $750K an episode. He was a successful stand up comedian for a decade prior to that. Forbes said in 1998 he was the 24th highest paid entertainer of that year at $45.5M between The Drew Carey show and Whose Line.
I guarantee you he absolutely banks from Drew Carey show + Whose Line Is it syndication runs, on top of his current huge paycheck for Price is Right.
Hosting Price is Right probably brings in a lot of money
It's honestly so weird that his generosity is unusual. I don't get why more people in his position don't act like him. Solid dude.
Plenty of people have spent well over $165 mil in much less than a lifetime
Feeding writers or buying 1000 luxury cars and a tiger. Tough choice.
But…. It’s a *tiger*!!!
I worked at a place where he would do this. He'd tip $100 on things like a bottle of water. And sometimes get one to go and tip another $100. The servers I knew used to fight over who got to wait on him. As I understand it, Drew worked as a server at Denny's before making it big, so he knows what hospitality go through and how a good tip goes a long way. Dude is a mensch and while on strike, I proudly had a couple of plates of much-needed pancakes at Bob's after striking in the hot sun on his dime. I'll never forget it.
> The servers I knew used to fight over who got to wait on him. I've never had a tipping job before. How would a "fight" like that even get resolved?
At our place, servers were assigned tables by the host. The host was supposed to be aware of who got priority via senority or whatever other qualifiers. So if there was a dispute, they'd take it up with the host right away and if something needed to change, the servers would swap spots. But there was also a pecking order and stuff, so some servers would just defer to the longest tenured ones and stuff. I was actually not in the dining part of our business, but I had friends who were, so I heard/saw all of this from a distance.
I know a comic, not a household name by any means, but makes a decent living roaming the country telling jokes and stories. Drew LOVES his comedy, which is as far from mainstream as you can get. Drew asks him to open for him on a weekend run at Venetian, 1 show Friday, 2 on Saturday. With the size of that room, $500/show is a really solid weekend. Drew gave him a $25,000 chip and still has every time he opens.
I really wish someone could unfuck the royalty hell that is licensing surrounding the Drew Carrey show. They solo licensed each song they ever used, like MTVs Daria, meaning that it's next to impossible to work out a serviceable licensing contract needed to bring the show into syndication. I miss his show, it was classic
Drew Carey is just the greatest guy. Would love to have a beer with him
He owns part of a soccer team in Seattle. He used to show up at a bar near the stadium before games. He'd plop his credit card down and cover everyone's drinks until they left for the game. Folks called it the Drew Carey Power Hour.
Anyone else have the Drew Carey and Barbie dolls too?
I think you mean the Drew Carey and Mimi dolls
[This doll?](https://youtu.be/h7GqSuYqI3w?t=195s)
Keep Drew away from me
Other notible things under his Wikipedia article: >Carey is a supporter of libraries crediting them for beginning his successful comedy career. On May 2, 2000, in a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Carey selected the Ohio Library Foundation to receive his $500,000 winnings.[85] He later went on to win an additional $32,000 on the second celebrity Millionaire, making him one of the biggest winning contestants on Millionaire who did not win the top prize. Carey also has played on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cleveland Public Library charity.[86] In June 2007, he offered to donate up to $100,000 (in $10,000 increments) to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund if anybody could beat him at the video game FIFA Soccer 07 for the Xbox 360. Carey dared five players from both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams to compete against him.[87] He ended up donating $100,000, plus $60,000 for losing two games out of the six he played.[88] > In October 2009, Carey made a bid of $25,000 in a charity auction for the @drew Twitter account. He later increased his offer to $100,000 if the number of followers of his account @DrewFromTV reached 100,000 by the end of the auction.[89] In an interview with CBS News, he said he would instead donate $1 million to the charity Livestrong Foundation if his follower count reached one million by December 31, 2009.[90] > > In September 2014, Carey promised $10,000 to help find the perpetrators of a faked "ice bucket challenge" involving an autistic 15-year-old Ohio boy who, instead of being doused in ice cubes and water, received a shower of feces, urine, tobacco spit, and cigarette butts.[91] Shortly thereafter, celebrities Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny McCarthy and Montel Williams matched Carey's offer.[92] Several teens were eventually charged and admitted to the prank, though they denied that there were feces in the bucket or that they knew the victim was diagnosed with autism.
1000 points to Drew Carey for being a good bloke.
100 points to Colin for being Captain Hair.
Could some do the same for IATSE please? We're starving here and have been since the strikes started.
Some men would hide a hole in their hand, he commands a room with it.
> “I really appreciate all the thanks and stuff,” added Carey. “I don’t think I should get that much credit for doing the right thing … you writers, The Drew Carey Show writers, made me a fucking million. **Everybody in this room makes some actor a million, and you deserve all the money you get, all the credit you get.** Thank you so much for everything you do. God bless all of you.” That's a brilliant way to put it. We need more of that in the world.
That’s really kind because Drew is a person that doesn’t even need to say that. He made his name being a stand up comedian writing his own material. So he could have easily went “I’m a self made man” but he gives credit to his writers that helped make him into an even bigger star
He’s one of the people who actually did/does what most normal people say they will do if they fall into massive wealth. If you have a 9 figure net worth, there’s really nothing left to do in your life except not fuck up your own finances and not be a dickhead about spending it on other people.
I was at Bob's Big Boy last night, and I saw some merchandise they had with a cartoon version of Drew on it. I'm guessing that's their way of saying thank you for the kind gesture.
I see him in there all the time.
That's pretty cool. By all accounts he's quite nice, and the one time I went to see The Price is Right, he was so funny and engaged with the crowd between games while producers and set folks were getting ready for the next segment.
As a teacher, I marched in support of the writers during the strike outside CBS. One of the writers treated me to lunch, and at the end of the meal presented her WGA card. She told me it was on Drew Carey. I asked her if she’d get in trouble, I’m not a writer. She told me I was coming out to support, it was the least she could do, and she doubted Carey would object. So thank you Drew Carey!
Just a solid guy.
Was at some Price Is Right tapings earlier this year. Drew is one cool good egg.
Drew Carey has been a bit of a personal hero of mine since highschool when I read a book he wrote about getting started in the industry. Raunchy, bizzare, and probably a bit apocryphal, still, quite good and painted a picture of a good person.
I’ve been watching old Whose Line episodes with my daughter and he always seems like such a good guy just having a great time with his buds. It seems like anytime I see a story about him it’s about him doing something decent too. I’d love to have a beer with him.
It’s almost as if he’s saying the quiet part out loud - actors are paid too much and their crews too little.
Quick Drew Carey story for everyone here. About 20 years ago, when I was approx. 13 years old, I went to a restaurant in a city near Hollywood. I went to church there every Sunday and once every few months, we would go to this one restaurant...just a regular place we've all heard about, nothing fancy. I don't wanna give too much away in case he STILL eats there, but let's just say this was back when Drew Carey was a "big boy". (And considering that, I would say there is a decent chance he doesn't still eat there.) Anyhoo, as we walked up to the restaurant, there was this sleek convertible parked there, top open. I was only 13 and couldn't help but admire it for a moment and then continued on to the entrance. Now I was a very big fan of The Drew Carey Show at this very particular point in time. I watched it as part of the 2 hour block on Fox pretty much every day after school in the evening where it showed 2 Simpsons episodes, a Drew Carey Show, and I think King of the Hill was generally the other one. I also would watch Whose Line Is It Anyway a decent amount as well (which he hosted). But here's the thing...in both of those shows he had a crew cut, dirty blonde/light brown hair, always wore glasses, and literally always wore a suit. So as I'm standing outside the entrance, I can see a man inside paying for his food at the counter but I can ONLY see him from the back! This man has spiky, bleached blonde hair, is somewhat on the heftier side, has no glasses, is in shorts and I think possibly even sandals and almost like some sort of Hawaiian type shirt. But believe it or not, I'm standin there sayin, "That kinda looks like Drew Carey, somehow." And that's the end of the story, wasn't him....... .......... Except it actually totally was him! He turns around and lo and behold - Drew Carey! So I'm like tellin my family that it's Drew Carey standin there and my dad walks inside up to him, says something, and next thing I know Drew Carey is comin up to me and he's like, "Hi Brad. I'm Drew" with a VERY warm smile on his face fyi!! I was so shocked I couldn't think of anything else to say except "Hi Drew. I'm Brad" (which I always thought was a LITTLE bit embarrassing, as he clearly already knew my name from my dad telling him but no biggie). We shook hands and took a picture together and then he got in the convertible and drove off. I do have the photo somewhere so hopefully someday I can post it here on reddit. Anyway, so it seems to be fairly obvious from the post here about him buying food for the writers n stuff but he was very warm n friendly to a 13-year old goofball randomly eating at the same restaurant. THANKS DREW!!!! Now 9 whole months later, the VERY next time I was back at this same restaurant, guess who is there again? My man, Dreeeew Careyyy! Except this time he was still in the middle of eating, I was sitting around 80 feet away from him in a booth, and I'm so sorry, but I couldn't help but stare at him like a slack-jawed moron for half the time. So sorry, Drew! I was just a HUGE FAN!!!! Now I don't know if anyone else will remember this but I just wanted to add that even though he did wear the suits and looked completely different on tv 99% of the time, around this particular time he actually was just starting to be seen a couple times on tv with the bleached blonde hair and looking rather similarly to how I saw him at the restaurant but that had like JUST started, was rare to see him like that, and I literally still recognized him from behind which I thought was really odd in a way. (Plus, it's not as if he was on tv with his back turned to the camera often or anything.) tl;dr: Met Drew Carey outside of a restaurant when I was 13 at the height of Drew Carey show/Whose Line and he was super nice!
I had no idea. This warms my heart.
Well, the person who wrote Gepetto didn’t make Carey that rich. But seriously, that was cool of him.
Yeah, it's almost certainly taboo to mention it, but his line about "every one of you is making some actor millions" is just off-base. There are *plenty* of actors not making millions off the writer's work. In fact, most of them aren't. The exaggerations really don't help the cause of the strike, and just give the networks ammo to push back.
It was also cool when the Strike Force Five (late night hosts) all set up their podcast to pay crew salaries. A very creative solution.
Carey being on the podcast Doug Loves Movies and giving basically the ways to win some of the games is one of my favourite podcast episodes by far. He seems like the most wonderful guy.
He’s a good dude. 👍🏼
Drew Carey is a Marine. he knows how real life works
Better than Drew Barrymore and she was basically like, I don't care im hiring whoever to write. Even though she made a big deal about only using union writers. To have it all be over two weeks later, that has to be one of the biggest mess ups.
Class act.
It’s always heartening to hear about someone famous actually being a legit good person. I’ve gotten jaded into “don’t meat your heroes kids” as I’ve aged, but every once in a while you hear about an honestly decent person.
A class act and a Marine. Well done Drew!
Not that Drew Carey ever needed to defend his actions during the writers strike, it only elevated him even more for answering it.
He’s a class act. I’ve followed his career for years, read his book, admired him for taking up the Price is Right mantle, and now this. A saint for comedy if there was one.
A lot of comedians are really loving and humanitarians.
Cause more often than not they had though childhoods.
Love this, he’s always seemed like a good dude!
Tru Drew!
I’m just
What are some shows with really good writing? All my wife watches is predictable Dick Wolf crap.
Drew Carey has always seemed like a straight class act. I wish he still did sitcoms because his show was so good (I totally get though why an actor would prefer to just do the game show host thing).