Cleveland Rocks! Except, why did it take so long? More than 20 years after The Drew Carey Show went off the air, it has finally come to DVD. While it has gotten the disc treatment through the first season and compilations, this May marked the first time ever that The Drew Carey Show has ever received a Complete Series box set. But that might need an asterisk…
As you might have expected, the primary issue came down to music rights. And while a lot was cleared up in the process, it’s absolutely worth noting that this box set of The Drew Carey Show is not truly complete. As stated on the back of the box set, the following episodes are not included: season four’s “Drew’s Dance Party Special”, season seven’s “Drew Carey’s Back-to-School Rock ‘n’ Roll Comedy Hour (Parts 1 & 2)” and season eight’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”, all of which were music extravaganzas. Also stamped on the back is this disclaimer: “Musical compositions in certain episodes of this series have been replaced or altered from their original broadcast versions.”
Even still, this should be a solid enough get for fans of The Drew Carey Show, who have had to watch the show on Plex or through pirated versions elsewhere. For Carey himself, he’s also excited for the release, telling CBR, “I thought that this was never going to happen. I thought they don’t like the show enough, or they’re just done with it and onto the next. I was just like, ‘Oh well, it’s a period of my life and I did it.’ There are clips of it on YouTube. Friends would come over, and I’d show them a clip of a dance number on YouTube. I don’t like seeing myself on TV, but I’d show friends of mine, when they came over, the male strip scene. I’ve seen that, like, 20 times, because I’ve shown it to friends.”
The Drew Carey Show co-creator Bruce Helford also elaborated on some of the music issues the team has run into for all these years, saying, “The reason it took so long had nothing to do with them not loving the show, because they loved the show. The problem was that when Drew and I were doing it, we had carte blanche. We could do whatever we wanted. We were the #1 show on ABC. They had a special fund for us to do dance numbers or whatever. We had Joe Walsh and Little Richard do “Rocky Mountain Way” together. It was just fun! What happened was that we just went crazy with music rights, and it was financially impossible to do all this.”
Do you think picking up an incomplete version of a “Complete Series” release is worth it? Were you a fan of The Drew Carey Show?
