History Trivia / WhoseLineIsItAnyway

* ''Hollywood Director'': Three performers act out a scene, while the other performer acts as a director to stop the scene periodically and make odd suggestions on how to improve the scene.([[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible "Do it like you're all ______!"]])

* MissingEpisode: The entire second half of the eighth season has never seen the light of day on American television. Also, there's ''still'' enough unaired footage and material left to make at least another half-season.

** Colin has also shown displeasure with Irish Drinking Songs, believing he is no good at musical games

** A less positive example: in the original UK version, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulC6Bq6S3ME there's an infamous Party Quirks]] where Tony Slattery looks completely dumbfounded by the whirlwind of quirks around him. Sadly, it's not because Mike and Ryan are being too obtuse: due to some serious mental struggles (such as undiagnosed bipolar disorder) compounded by a dependence on drugs and alcohol, Tony already wasn't at his best by this point, and was completely overstimulated during this game. Clive jokes afterward that they'll probably not have Tony on the show ever again, but in a cruel twist of fate, the producers would then fire Tony for real (Mike, loyal to Tony, would immediately leave the show himself out of protest).

** The Cosby/Hitler incident. When the sketch was prohibited right there on the stage (Hitler had to be changed to "insurance salesman"), the cast retaliated by bringing up Hitler as much as they could during the rest of the episode.

* ''Millionaire Show'': Only in the American version, the performers act out a parody of ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'', their characters holding to a theme. Unlike the real game show, however, there are only two lifelines and one of them is a helper in the audience (one of the performers) instead of polling the entire audience.

* ''Survival Show'': A US exclusive game. A parody of Series/{{Survivor}}, with one player taking the role of 'Jeff Probst' with the other three as 'survivors' in a randomly-chosen environment. The one playing had the scene of a post office, with Greg as the host.

** Both Mike [=McShane=] and Tony Slattery have said that they were both effectively kicked off the show, because creator Dan Patterson was trying very hard to sell the show to US producers, to the point that he was caving to almost every demand to "Americanize" it, and Mike and Tony didn't appeal to most American executives. (Executives also wanted Colin out, but Ryan went to bat for him.)

--->'''Clive:''' "It's topical ''now'', but it'll be great in six months' time when this goes out..."\\

* OldShame:
** Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie have said they don't watch their earliest appearances on the British edition because of how awkward and unfunny they were.
** Kathy Greenwood admitted she wasn't up to par in some of her appearances, revealing that she was a new mother and was thus exhausted during some of her tapings.

* TheCastShowoff: Wayne was given a showcase game to display his musical talents (usually "Song Styles" or "Greatest Hits") in [[OnceAnEpisode virtually every episode]] of the US version. (He also sang the theme song to another ABC series at the time, ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders''.) This practice is actually OlderThanTheyThink; Mike [=McShane=] got the same treatment during his run on the UK version (though his game was "Bartender"). Chip was also a regular in "Bartender" in the UK--it became "his" game when they moved to the US until they dropped it--but he usually sang along with Wayne as well, especially in "Greatest Hits".

** Similarly, whenever Drew warns the performers not to come near his desk (usually during "Weird Newscasters" or "Let's Make a Date"), it's near impossible to resist.

* ''Mixed Messages'': Introduced in the 5th revival season. This one's the love child of ''Two Line Vocabulary'' and ''Playbook[=/=]Every Other Line'', with three players acting out a scene while two of them get all their dialogue from the texts of two audience volunteers.

* ''Dating Profiles'': Introduced in the CW revival. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The performers act out bad online dating profiles.]] Similar to Hats...without the hats.

* ''Hats'': Split into teams of two, each team is given a box of hats to wear for gag scenes; this was almost always "the world's worst dating service video." Very often a HurricaneOfPuns.

* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/ColinMochrie revealed that the cast never made much money nor received residuals, but everyone stuck with the show for years out of friendship and their mutual love of improve comedy.

** In one segment of the first US season's GagReel, Colin faints in the middle of a Hoedown verse. Since Colin has never been seen fainting after the UK version ended, he was likely told to stop doing it.

* DuelingShows: The ABC version aired against ''Series/{{Friends}}'', which Drew Carey made frequent references to.

-->'''Paul Merton:''' "Hello, my name is John Sessions."

** After Creator/PhilLaMarr and Debra Wilson appeared in the last UK season, we've had more ''Series/MadTV'' alumnus like Nicole Parker on ''Series/TrustUsWithYourLife'', and now Keegan Michael Key on the 2013 revival.

* NamesTheSame: Wayne goes through a variant of this trope with special guest Florence Henderson, better known as Mrs. ''[[Series/TheBradyBunch Brady.]]''
** It's not till the third revival season when they finally have Wayne doing an impression of Music/LilWayne.
** Interestingly, Wayne scores the trifecta in the fourth revival season with special guest [[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir Alfonso Ribeiro]]. Did you know Wayne's middle name is Alphonso?

** Sometimes known by its original name ''Narrate'', as the music used was not originally very film-noirish, but [[UnfortunateImplications decidedly porn-groove-worthy for some reason.]]

** This one was Retooled from an emotion-centered one (much like ''Film, TV & Theater Styles'' below), except that there are only two items between the three players. [[UnfortunateImplications And a dangerous-looking item would be tagged with the emotion 'furious' for some reason.]]

* AdoredByTheNetwork: An unusual case. ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'''s ratings were never that good, and ABC would almost certainly have canceled it, but it had two things going for it: a ''ridiculously'' low production cost for even a single taping, which over about 6 hours could produce anywhere from 3-4 shows, and it was going up against ratings juggernaut ''Series/{{Friends}}'' - in a rare moment of insight, ABC executives realized that nothing they could put on in that timeslot would do any better, really, so they might as well put something cheap on. Also, being one of the most unique and different shows on at the time would bring in at least some viewers, as well as the "anything but ''Friends''" crowd.

* QuoteSource:
** SelfDeprecation

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In retrospect, it's pretty obvious what era the first U.S. version came from. Between the Monica Lewinsky jokes, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy Firestone tires controversy]], and ''Blair Witch'' and Jar Jar Binks references, it definitely has its dated jokes even though the show overall is still quite hilarious. The UK version has aged even worse, as they occasionally referenced Jimmy Savile, which is probably jarring to most British viewers today, and the few Americans who know who Savile is, and the serious scandal that came out regarding him.
** In the 2013 series, one of Ryan's jokes is about Mitt Romney saying he doesn't care about that 47%. Yep, you can tell it was taped very soon after the 2012 election.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Inevitable, due to the nature of the show. Many of the reactions from the performers are unexpected.

** After the playing of "Showstopping Number" set in a factory, Drew threw to commercial, but instead of fading to black like usual, the camera kept rolling while Drew laughed hard at the skit he just watched. This "bonus footage" goes on for a good fifteen seconds.