List Price: $29.95You Pay Only: $17.49 You Save: $12.46 (42%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
EAN: 0733961768145
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: A&E Home Video
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Number Of Items: 4
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Running Time: 762 minutes
Sales Rank: 10542
Studio: A&E Home Video
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Now on DVD by riotous demand, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?: THE COMPLETE SEASONS 1 & 2 features all 30 hilarious episodes from the show’s initial seasons. Host Clive Anderson directs the action--assigning points at random and enduring quips about his disappearing hairline--as players like Jonathon Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Steven Fry (Gosford Park) perform preposterous, slapstick antics in games of 'Authors' and 'Wrong Theme Tune.' Laugh out loud as Josie Lawrence samples her vast array of silly singing styles and Greg Proops entertains a bevy of bizarre guests in 'Party Quirks.'
Amazon.com:
Few things are more of-the-moment that improvisational comedy, yet the first two seasons of the original British Whose Line Is It Anyway? are startlingly fresh and funny, despite debuting in 1988. Hosted by blithe and zippy Clive Anderson, the format is the same as the American version: Four improvisers are put through a variety of games, ranging from one where each player tells part of a story in the style of a different writer, to one in which two teams have to find different ways to use a common object, to one in which players act out an ordinary situation as it would appear in different film genres or theatrical styles. Pretty much every episode features some moment so flabbergastingly precise and funny you'll have trouble believing it was made up on the spot. Regular Josie Lawrence tosses off uncanny versions of a Stephen Sondheim or an Edith Piaf song about telephones and garden hoses; John Sessions, who anchored the first season, does a spot-on impression of Humphrey Bogart; Archie Hahn creates sounds for Paul Merton's mime that are amazingly synchronized. The first season, before American guest improvisers Greg Proops and Ryan Stiles began to appear regularly, is particularly distinctive--not because Proops and Stiles are poor improvisers, but because the Brits just aim at more surprising targets. (Let's face it, the American version didn't feature many stories told in the style of Samuel Beckett or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, let alone in the style of poets like Coleridge and Philip Larkin.) These episodes are like potato chips; you'll just keep gobbling them down. Early guests include such unexpected pleasures as Stephen Fry (Wilde), Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), and Peter Cook (Bedazzled). --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Classic Improv ****1/2
If you've only seen and enjoyed the American version of this show hosted by Drew Carey, you're in for a treat. This is the original, which debuted on Britain's Channel Four in 1988 and ran for ten seasons, later becoming a staple here in the States on Comedy Central. It started off with an all-British cast and weekly regular John Sessions, as well as occasional guests you might recognize like Stephen Fry, Peter Cook and Jonathan Pryce. Soon regulars like Tony Slattery, Paul Merton, Sandy Toksvig, and the wonderful Josie Lawrence joined the cast, and occasionally a North American might be thrown into the mix - Mike McShane was probably the most frequently-appearing and funniest of the Americans in the first two seasons, but other future U.S.-version regulars like Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops appeared as well. The show started off rather dry and cerebral but often quite funny, and as some of the more animated cast members joined, it got more raucous and even a bit bawdy. U.S. viewers may miss some of the distinctly British references, but they'll recognize some of the "games" adopted for the U.S. version, like "Party Quirks", "Props", and "Song Stylings", the last of which really gave Lawrence and McShane a chance to shine. And though host Clive Anderson might seem like a "stiff" compared to Drew Carey, he has his own distinct brand of dry wit. This set is "uncensored" so it contains some lines and scenes that have never appeared on American TV. There aren't many "extras", but the interview with ... Read More
Rating:  - Can't Wait for the Rest of the Series!
Thank you so much to the powers that be for finally releasing my favorite TV show ever on DVD in the US. Ever since I purchased this set a month ago it has been playing pretty much non-stop in my apartment.
If all you've ever seen is the American version, you don't know what you're missing. Believe me when I say you don't have to be British to appreciate the British Whose Line series - I was born and bred in New York City (although admittedly I am an Anglophile, so I may be a bit biased in my opinion.)
Overall though, the British series of WLiiA was just *better* than the US version. It was quirkier, rowdier, more risque. The cast was well-rounded, not the same people every week like the American version. And the castmembers habitually picking on each other and on Clive (the host) is always the funniest part of the show.
Great chemistry between the contestants in this series - it's not just Ryan & Colin anymore! - I especially love the banter between Josie & Paul, Josie & Tony, Josie & anyone, really - the #1 thing wrong with the US version is that it doesn't have nearly enough Josie Lawrence in it!
I can see how the earlier seasons of this show might put off some American viewers - it's positively bursting with obscure British actors no one on this side of the pond has ever heard of, couple that with about a million references to short-lived British '80s TV shows and it could potentially be a recipe for disaster to any hardcore ... Read More
Rating: - Will The REAL "Whose Line" Please Stand Up!
The American version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" is fine, but it just doesn't compare with the original British version. I used to watch this show religiously on Comedy Central, and there were times when I'd laugh so hard I'd cry. That's how funny the British version of "Whose Line" can be when all four players are operating on the same comic wavelength, with the marvelous ringmaster Clive Anderson overlooking the proceedings. Sure, there are gags that misfire, but so what? That's the risk of improv comedy! I have the deepest respect & admiration for the regulars on the UK "Whose Line," such as John Sessions, Josie Lawrence, Tony Slattery, Paul Merton, Sandi Toksvig, and regular American performers like Michael McShane, Greg Proops, Archie Hahn, and Ryan Stiles (though he's Canadian), to name a few. There are other performers who appeared less often (or only once!), like Peter Cook, Jonathan Pryce, Griff Rhys-Jones, Arthur Smith & Jimmy Mulville, but they all still left their mark on this hilarious show, too. I don't know how they manage to come up with this stuff right on the spot, but it really is amazing to watch. For me, watching the British "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" is like spending time with very good, very funny & talented friends who just want to entertain you and who don't mind looking the fool if it makes you laugh. While there's no question that some episodes are funnier than others, the genuinely funny episodes are glorious comic gems that you can enjoy again and again. ... Read More
Rating:  - Whose Line Is It Anyway (British 1st season)
The performances in the first season and pilot were lame. I LOVE this series, and the subsequent seasons are fantastic. It just got off to a shaky start. It's a miracle the show lasted, as bad as the pilot was. When it's funny, though, it's hilarious!
Rating: - great! what about the other seasons?
I'd like to ask A&E Home Video to release the rest of the UK seasons! this DVD was great - we want the whole series please =)
thank you
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