WLHistory

From Wlwiki

"Whose Line is it Anyway?" is a product of the extremely successful Hat Trick Production company in the UK. It started as a BBC radio show in 1986, and then translated to Channel 4 television in 1988. In 1989 Hat Trick Productions received a BAFTA for its groundbreaking comedy improvisation show "Whose Line is it Anyway?". Whose Line remained on Channel 4 until 1998, when in its tenth season, it visited Hollywood to film the last shortened season for Channel 4. While there the show format was sold to ABC and became the first British series to be produced in the US by its parent UK production company. Fall season of 1998, Hat Trick turned its new ABC prime-time show into a hit. For four years Whose Line would have a permanent place in the ABC prime-time line up, only moving from it's regular Thursday 8PM in 2002 when ABC tried it on both Monday and Friday nights. This proved to be too much for the show. In the fall of 2003, "Whose Line is it Anyway?" was not on the prime-time schedule on any station for the first time in 13 years. The ABC Family Channel is showing "new" edits of old Whose Line tapings, with new games we've never seen. These are basically new episodes but just rehashed from previous years. Watch for them on Monday nights. A new episode at 9:00 p.m. EST and 10:00 p.m. EST. Whose Line can still be seen around the world on smaller market cable channels, such as Comedy Central, who shows the UK series shows occasionally, ABC Family Channel, who shows the ABC series nearly nightly, and a few other channels globally. All in all, "Whose Line is it Anyway?" is the first and only successful improvisational comedy show on television.