Cast: Greg Proops, Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and Drew Carey

Change of Cast : Greg, Colin, and Ryan = prisoners breaking out of Alcatraz [styles = pro wrestlers, Baywatch lifeguards, catalogue models, weightless astronauts, New York cops and game show hosts]
Interesting game concept here. Sort of a blend of Film and Theater Styles and Three of a Kind. Everyone's the same character like in Three of a Kind but they shift among different characters like in Film and Theater Styles. Although I welcome any chance to see those three act together, I really don't think Change of Cast works as a game for the same reason I don't think Film and Theater Styles works with three players. In both games, the key to the game is the shifting characters and styles. In order to keep the game going, Drew has to regularly buzz in and change the style. With three players, there isn't very much time for each player to do anything in the new style. What tends to happen is a series of monologues for each player rather than a dialog between two players. Example: Drew will change styles; player one acts, player two acts, player three acts. And then because of the timing, Drew has to buzz in again before player one gets to act again in the same style. I'd rather see Film and Theater Styles with two players (any two players — not just Ryan and Colin) and Three of a Kind with Ryan, Colin, and Greg instead of Change of Cast.

Song Styles: Wayne sings to Mylie as Ray Charles
Nice Ray Charles impression, but not a memorable song. Loved Laura Hall's piano solo. She's very talented.

Props: Ryan and Colin; Greg and Wayne
Nothing really stood out in my mind. Question: How may funeral prop jokes has Ryan done? Although Jimmy the elf was a new one to me. I liked it better than his usual Madonna jokes.

Weird Newscasters: Greg = anchor; Colin (co-anchor) = voicing his inner thoughts; Wayne (sports) = being arrested; Ryan (weather) = a sumo wrestler
Colin was kinda quiet in this one. He didn't really go anywhere with his role. Wayne was pretty good, but it took a second watching for me to figure out that his hand motions were miming a video camera when talking with the cop. So I didn't enjoy the first viewing as much as the second one. Ryan was great though. Not so much in what he did, but in how he looked. How does a person instantly gain 200 pounds??? I swear I could have taken a grease pencil and drawn an outline around the fat Ryan body. He was that convincing.

Moving People: Colin and Ryan are surfers riding a monster wave and fighting over a girl
Have you ever just looked at the volunteers and thought "Disaster!". I immediately knew there would be trouble with those two. Colin's guy seemed to think that Colin was a wishbone. Ryan's woman didn't really know what to do. Ryan and Colin made the best of the situation, I thought, but it wasn't a highlight in the history of Moving People games. I did love Colin's ending joke about wanting to see if Ryan's nose was real, though.

Hoe-down: shoplifting; all four
For as good a singer as Wayne is, his hoe-downs don't tend to stand out to me. And this one was no exception. I didn't think there wasn't anything wrong with it. I just didn't think it was special. Greg's was a little funnier with a jab at Clinton at the end. It was nice to hear Greg sing again although I think the poor guy had a cold because he's sounded better. Ryan's song about a security guard was amusing. And since Ryan has made of habit of insulting Drew this season, I'll give him extra points for NOT insulting Drew this time. Since I saved Colin for last, I guess you can figure out that I liked his Hoe-down the best. I'm always amazed when comparing his Hoe-downs from Comedy Central and his on ABC (or the "new" Comedy Central episodes). Once he gave up trying to actually sing, he could concentrate on the words and became really funny. I thought shoplifting a revolver made of gelatin and being arrested for carrying a congealed weapon was hysterical.

90 Second Alphabet: Drew, Colin and Ryan have bet their money on a big race that's about to begin
Ok, I'll be nice and say...... um....... they've done better. I've noticed that Drew often gets confused around the letter U, V, and W. And this time, it was really bad. (To be fair, lots of WLiiA players have gotten confused in this game.) I did like the way they finished out the alphabet using the subject of not finishing the game on time, though. Drew: "Many times I've thought, just let the buzzer sound and end the game." That was nice. Two Questions: Why does Drew always pick the letter Q to start with??? And, did you notice they skipped the letter Y???

Credits: Greg and Ryan = film trailer voiceovers
Credits reading on the ABC version are usually not worth mentioning, but it was really nice to hear Ryan and Greg read the credits together again. They make a good credit reading pair.

Best Game:
This is a hard one. There was no game where everyone was equal good. (Or for that matter, no game where everyone was equally bad. Well. Okay. Maybe 90 Second Alphabet.) My choice seems to be between Weird Newscasters and the Hoe-down. I think I'll go with the hoe-down. Ryan's sumo wrestler was stronger than his hoe-down. But the difference between Greg and Colin's hoe-down and their Weird Newscasters is far more greater. So hoe-down, it is.

Overall comments:
A good smiler and chuckler of an episode with Colin's Hoe-down being a real laugh out louder and Ryan's sumo wrestler very good.

© LKK 09/04/00