Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show. All images courtesy of © International Mammoth Television Inc. and The WB Television Network.

Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show has been in the making for — hmm, doing the math in my head — three months or so. I have been invited to witness the backstage goings-on for the last couple of weeks, and the producers, directors and managers have generously welcomed me in my attempts to understand the show, and thereby to report its inner workings to you, dear reader.

This behind-the-scenes look into the production is not a diary of everyday events, so much as a series of articles glimpsing the process of creating the Green Screen Show. Acme Filmworks is the studio producing the live-action and animation, and The WB Television Network is the distributor of the show, premiering October 7.

With that as preface, allow me to briefly and properly set the stage. Following on the heels of the recently departed Whose Line Is It Anyway? — and successfully parrying the adage that time wounds all heels — Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show is more of the same, only better. I can say it honestly, because, in my unbiased estimation of unfolding cosmic history, most live-action entertainment is improved upon by animation. That is the premise of the show: improvisational comedy is taped in front of a live audience on a greenscreen set, and then, bippity boppity boo, the action is enhanced with animated environments and props.

Okay, it’s not quite that straightforward, but we will cover the details in subsequent articles. Still, the result is visually appealing, it ‘embiggens’ the comedy (I encourage everyone to make up words, as appropriate), and mimesis (which is not, strictly speaking, a made-up word, but means “the imitation or representation of things”) looks so much better through the imaginative lens of animation.

This is, in a nutshell, what makes the Green Screen Show so innovative and unique. The fact that there is now a venue on primetime television for a variety of animation styles and techniques, from directors from around the world, makes my heart flutter with giddy anticipation. The executives at The WB seem to agree. During a phone meeting earlier in the week, they effused to Acme, “You have done a great job. The show is incredible, it’s awesome. It’s fun to see different animation each time.”

Green Screen Show game with actors Drew Carey and Julie Larson; animation directed by Acme Filmworks’ Scott Ingalls.

Fun and Games
Of the 150 improvisational skits (or “games”) that were originally taped, there are 50 or so that are being edited and used for the first 12 episodes of the season. With about four games per episode, each averaging about five minutes, not including bumpers and transitions, we’re talking roughly four hours of animation that Acme Filmworks is producing. Given the looming airdate, the turnaround time on some of the games is as little as four weeks. Industry insiders have whispered that such a tight schedule is crazy, and that the studios involved deserve kudos if they can do it.

They are, of course, pulling it off. Already there are 40 directors (plus or minus) working on one or more of the games. A big consideration is timing. Though many animators are interested to participate, some just don’t have the time to work on the show. Even so, Chris Hinton (Montreal), Brown Bag Films (Ireland), Bill Plympton (New York), Bibo Films (France), Eric Goldberg (Los Angeles) and Oniria Productions (Luxembourg), among others, are managing to find the elbow room among their other commitments to pull together some funny, creative stuff.