ABC (Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
We laughed hard at the Aug. 5 opener of this summer comedy series—almost as hard as host Drew Carey. But after viewing a couple more half-hours, we're a bit less enthused. Based on a long-running British show (seen on cable's Comedy Central from 1991 until early '98), "Whose Line is comedy pure and simple: Take a panel of crazy guys, give them the premise for a skit or guessing game, and let them ad-lib. Ryan Stiles (who plays Lewis on The Drew Carey Show) and Canadian actor Colin Mochrie are the key members of this team. Both are veterans of the British version, and both are amazingly energetic, focused and uninhibited. (One wild sketch in the premiere finds Mochrie tackling the role of an accident-prone circus performer, while Stiles plays a foal being born.) But Whose Line overworks a limited number of ideas (enough with those takeoffs on The Dating Game), and the quality slips when Carey joins in the improv fun at the end of each show. He's a winner at stand-up and sitcom, but lacks the quickness to excel at this sport.
Bottom Line: Wings it daringly, but doesn't always soar
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