Line #55 Characters/TheDrewCareyShow


1	List of major, recurring and minor characters from ''Series/{{The Drew Carey Show}}''.
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4	[[foldercontrol]]
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6	[[folder: The Main Group]]
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8	!!'''Drew Allison Carey (Creator/DrewCarey)'''
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10	->''I always get screwed by the system. That's my place in the universe. I'm the system's bitch."
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12	The title character is the Assistant Director of Personnel at Winifred-Louder, a department store. Much like ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} (and just to hammer the point home, Drew is a ''Dilbert'' fan) he must constantly contend with nutty bosses, strange friends, and unsuccessful romances.
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15	* {{Acrofatic}}: especially apparent during the numerous dance numbers.
16	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Despite his general milquetoast demeanor, he displayed several moments of impressive courage throughout the series, the first being in season one when he stood up to Kate's domineering ex-boyfriend, Barry, and also when he beat up the stalker of his ex-girlfriend Wendy.
17	* BigEater: Uh-huh. You can count the episodes that don't mention his eating habits on one hand. It's mentioned that he orders so much pizza that he's gotten multiple delivery boys through college!
18	* TheChewToy: Where to begin? He's overworked and unappreciated at a dead end job. His parents openly prefer his brother to him. Two women he dated ended up getting married mere months after breaking up with him. [[spoiler:He's even resorted to marrying his boss, Mr. Wick, in order to get his job back in season six]]. [[spoiler: Kate, his best friend for DECADES, leaves Cleveland to marry another man a little over a year after her and Drew's marriage implodes at the start of season 7. Before her last appearance he outright tells Kate he stills loves her]].
19	* ChildhoodFriends: With Kate, Oswald and Lewis.
20	* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Drew Allison Carey.
21	* ExtremeDoormat: He has trouble standing up for himself. Even as an adult he still gets pushed around by his older brother and can only respond with a wimpy slap to Steve's bald head.
22	* FriendsRentControl: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Despite his white-collar job, he lives in a shoddy house with cheap furniture.
23	* HeroesLoveDogs: Very devoted to his dog, Speedy.
24	* NerdGlasses: A large part of his signature look.
25	* NiceGuy: Is a well-meaning worker and a very lovable and sweet guy. Sadly, this doesn't stop the universe from piling crap on him.
26	* SitcomArchNemesis: Mimi is this to him. She inexplicably took his comments during her job interview as sexist, and it spiraled from there when she got hired.
27	* UglyGuyHotWife: More average looking than ugly but many of the women Drew dated over the course of the series have been absolute knockouts, with several of them including Christa Miller, Kate Walsh, Jenny [=McCarthy=] and Cynthia Watros.
28	* TheUnfavourite: Not as extreme as some other sitcom examples but still noticeable in flashbacks. Drew's brother was the more outgoing, popular and athletic sibling when they were growing up. He remains this even after revealing himself as a crossdresser in the third season.
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30	!!'''Kate O'Brien ({{Creator/Christa Miller}})'''
31	Kate is Drew's best friend since age 7. [[spoiler:She starts dating Drew in Season 5.]]
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33	* ChildhoodFriends: With Drew, Lewis and Oswald.
34	* NotSoAboveItAll: [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes, depending on the writer]]. Kate was usually the OnlySaneMan of the group (even more so than Drew). But, there were a handful of episodes throughout the run where she could be as dim-witted or goofy as Lewis and Oswald.
35	* OldShame: She lost her virginity to Oswald, which is attributed to some fooling around that escalated. When Drew and Lewis learn of this years after the fact, Kate insists she was drinking that day and that she tried very hard to forget it ever happened (which Oswald, of course, [[ImStandingRightHere takes offense to]]).
36	* OneOfTheGuys: She's this to Drew, Oswald and Lewis.
37	* PutOnABus: Gets married at the start of Season 8, moves away, and is never heard from again.
38	* ReallyGetsAround: Her promiscuity is often played for laughs. This trait even earned her a nickname in high school, "Give It Away Kate".
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40	!!'''Lewis Kiniski (Creator/RyanStiles)'''
41	Lewis is one of Drew's friends. Your basic know-it-all and troublemaker, he's a janitor at a shady company called [=DrugCo=].
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43	* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: He's considerably smarter than Oswald, but he's also crazy, so his ideas aren't much better.
44	* ChildhoodFriends: With Drew, Kate and Oswald.
45	* CloudCuckooLander: He and Oswald both do weird stuff and are [[ManChild really immature]].
46	* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: [=DrugCo=] has insane experiments going on all the time. Cloning, giant insects, realistic holograms...Lewis is fairly blasé about it all and casually tells his friends about his job all the time.
47	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Oswald. They do ''everything'' together, and it often has little to do with the plot.
48	* InsufferableGenius: In one of the later seasons it's revealed by his mother he has an IQ high enough to join MENSA. Predictably, this inflates his ego to insane levels. He was also straight A student before he met Oswald.
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50	!!'''Oswald Harvey (Creator/DiedrichBader)'''
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52	* ChildhoodFriends: With Drew, Kate and Lewis.
53	* {{Flanderization}}: He starts out as the dimmest member of the group, but in a BookDumb sort of way. He gets progressively dumber as the seasons go by.
54	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Lewis. In a Season 3 episode his bride to be forced him to go to pre-marriage counseling when she realized he listened to Lewis more than her.
55	* ManChild: The most immature of the group by a fair margin.
56	* PunnyName: His name is clearly a play on Lee Harvey Oswald.
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58	!!'''Kellie Newmark (Creator/CynthiaWatros)'''
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60	* ContrastingReplacementCharacter: Kellie takes Kate's role as Drew's main female friend and eventual LoveInterest. However, she is much more sensitive and emotionally vulnerable than Kate. Also, while Kate was known to [[ReallyGetsAround play the field]] before finally settling down, Kellie already has a divorce under her belt and got married right out of high school, spending much of her adult life as a housewife.
61	* ProneToTears: Why Oswald and Lewis initially didn't care for her replacing Kate. Due to the problems in her life up to that point, Kellie couldn't take the usual insults. She gets better, though.
62	* WillTheyOrWontThey: Has this back-and-forth with Drew for much of Season 8. Gets thrown a sudden curve ball in Season 9 when their one-night stand leads to her being pregnant.
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64	!!'''Mimi Bobeck [[spoiler:Carey]] ({{Creator/Kathy Kinney}})'''
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66	* CrossoverCouple: A CrossoverPunchline reveals that, back in high school, she previously expressed interest in [[Series/TheNormShow Artie Henderson]]. No real relationship blossomed because Norm forgot to give Artie her message at the time.
67	* ExcessiveEvilEyeshadow: The unpleasant Mimi just loves her makeup. Drew calls her a [[MonsterClown clown]] every chance he gets.
68	* FriendToAllChildren: Mimi isn't ''good'' with kids (she's irresponsible), but she has a soft spot for them and they adore her wild antics.
69	* HappilyMarried: To Drew's older brother, Steve. [[spoiler:Until the middle of season 8]].
70	* HiddenDepths: Going by CrossoverPunchline, there was a time in school where she was more of a ShrinkingViolet that had no interest in make-up. Evidently, make-up helped her become more assertive.
71	* HypocriticalHumor: Constantly insults Drew's weight despite being much fatter than he is. For [[DoubleStandard some reason,]] Drew never responds in kind.
72	%%* JerkAss:
73	* SitcomArchNemesis: To Drew, though it tones down a bit in the last few seasons.
74	* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: In Season 9, Gus burns down her house, which forces them to move in with Drew. While Drew tolerates it for his nephew's sake, there are times he really wants to get Mimi out of his house.
75	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Of really, really [[ImpossiblyTackyClothes loud]], gimmicky outfits. Holiday episodes milk this for all it's worth.
76	[[/folder]]
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78	[[folder: Recurring Characters]]
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80	!!'''Steve Carey (Creator/JohnCarrollLynch)'''
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82	* TheBusCameBack: Season 9's "Love, Sri Lankan Style"
83	* OutOfFocus: Appears less often in Season 8.
84	* WholesomeCrossdresser: Revealed to be this in his debut episode. Drew, understandably, is not happy with it at first but ends up supporting his brother and fighting for him to keep his job at the Winfred Louder cosmetics counter.
85	[[/folder]]
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87	[[folder: Winfred Louder]]
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89	!!'''Nigel Algernon Wick (Creator/CraigFerguson)'''
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91	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: A big reason why Drew and Mimi's fighting and pranks never get them in trouble at work is because Wick finds it all rather hilarious. He's actually rather disappointed and disturbed by those rare occasions where they get along.
92	* BadBoss: What he was flanderized into. Besides becoming more cartoonish in general, he'd abuse and fire subordinates just for the hell of it and often didn't seem to have the slightest idea how to do his job.
93	* BritishStuffiness: He has an extremely over the top English accent and is a complete jackass.
94	* TheBusCameBack: Disappears early into Season 8, but he returns for the season finale for Drew's wedding. He reappears again in the last two episodes of Season 9, which means it doubles as BackForTheFinale.
95	* IAmVeryBritish: He has an absurdly posh British accent that the Scottish Craig Ferguson deliberately made as ridiculous as possible, claiming it as revenge for years of bad Scottish accents by English actors.
96	* LargeHam: Naturally given that he's played by Creator/CraigFerguson. Not a scene goes by where he isn't chewing the scenery.
97	* MamasBoy: And damn proud of it, too!
98	* MeanBoss: What he started out as. He was certainly competent and qualified, but he was also a scheming manipulator and openly callous to subordinates.
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100	!!'''Larry Almada ({{Creator/Ian Gomez}})'''
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102	* TheBusCameBack: Stops appearing after "Brotherhood of Man" due to Gomez being cast as a regular on ''Series/TheNormShow''. He returns in "Chemistry Schmemistry" when Drew bumps into him and learns he became a matchmaker.
103	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He starts out as an obnoxious, at times even criminal co-worker who helps Drew out now and then.
104	* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:With Fran Louder throughout seasons 3 and 4.]]
105	* PutOnABus: Disappeared by the start of season 5.
106	* TookALevelInKindness: When he returns in Season 8.
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108	!!'''Fran Louder ({{Creator/Nan Martin}})'''
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110	* BadBoss / MeanBoss: Arguably just as bad as Mr. Wick, if not worse. In one episode, she [[DisproportionateRetribution fires a waiter]] in her company restaurant [[FelonyMisdemeanor because there was a shrimp fork in the olive dish]].
111	* DirtyOldWoman
112	* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:With Larry throughout seasons 3 and 4.]]
113
114	!!'''Chuck (Creator/KellyPerine)'''
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116	* DeadpanSnarker: He has a rather dry sense of humor, especially when reacting to the antics of Drew or the other characters.
117	* OnlySaneMan: Of Drew's co-workers, he's the only one focused on his actual job.
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Context Characters / TheDrewCareyShow