PASADENA, Calif. — Long-term deals may not always be such a great idea in network television.
You've got to wonder how they were feeling at ABC last season as they watched "The Drew Carey Show" sink in the ratings. Sink far enough so that it would seem at least a candidate for cancellation — except for the fact that the network is contractually obligated to carry the show (or at least pay for it) both this coming season and the season after that.
Which is why ABC execs are so anxious to see the show regain its lost luster and missing viewers.
"I think there are an enormous number of people who still think fondly of that show, who had a great time watching (it) for many years," said ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne, who added that the goal is to "revitalize it and bring people back to a show they loved."
For his part, Carey himself is completely on board as the show moves to Monday nights in the fall. (Except in the Mountain Time Zone, when it will be bounced off the regular schedule by "Monday Night Football" until January.)
"We are taking this move as a chance to change the show and reinvent it just a little bit,," Carey said.
Drew will be getting a new job — the department store where he's worked since the show began has been acquired by a "dot-com" company that's "like Wal-mart online and Amazon.com."
"He's not even going to know what he does. . . . He is going to be trying to find out what the (heck) he does in this company and what his job is exactly and just trying to skate by," Carey said. "He's only going to care about the paycheck this year and nothing more.
"When people watch the show they're going to see the workplace is different. And the only people that are coming back to work are me, Mimi (Kathy Kinney) and Wick (Craig Ferguson)."
Lewis (Ryan Stiles) and Oswald (Deidrich Bader) will also return — the one regular cast member who won't be back is Christa Miller. "After seven years, she's decided she's going to move," said executive producer Bruce Helford.
"She's great. Everybody loves her," Carey said. "She going to do other stuff. She's got a family and everything."
Miller will appear in the first two episodes of the new system, then her character will get married and move away. "We have a really good wedding scene planned," Carey said. "Because she's been the love of my life for so long, I'm going to give her away at the wedding."
"And a big part of the season is going to be about how that affects Drew," said executive producer Clay Graham.
They will be adding a new female character, although that role hasn't yet been cast. She is "somebody from Drew's past" — a woman he knew in high school and junior high who "used to have a crush" on Drew.
She will, however, be a love interest because the Drew character is going to circle a date on the calendar — the date of the eight-season finale — and set a goal to get married on that day.
But Carey said that the season will not end with a wedding. "We don't know what's going to happen at the end of the season," Helford added.
Also, look for an exit by Drew's old girlfriend/wife in the first couple of episodes as well.
Carey and the producers are promising less wackiness, fewer stunts and more of the characters. "We are all kind of stunted out, actually. So we're going to just try to do normal shows," Carey said. "It's not going to be warm and fuzzy, but a lot of times we took the heart out of the show altogether."
And Helford said the move to Mondays is "really a chance to reinvent the show a bit and invigorate the show."
"One of the things we talked about was in our desire to be innovative, in our desire to create and break boundaries; we feel we kind of lost the human element to this show — that the silliness overtook and really undermined the credibility ultimately of the characters and their relationships," Helford said. "And my belief and all of our beliefs is that 'The Drew Carey Show's' popularity was founded on the relatability of the show. And that's what we're going back to.
"There will be no silliness this season."
The goal being to bring back the people who used to watch the show.
"From the scripts we've done so far, we haven't really made any big changes," Graham said. "We're just sort of doing what we used to do."
"This really is a return to the earlier years and the earlier mentality," Helford said. "The show will be no less funny, I promise you. . . . It truly is going back to the roots of the show."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com