Carey Angered by ABC’s Response to a Plot Line

As if ABC wasn’t having enough trouble with its news division stars, Drew Carey is fuming over what he described as a threat by ABC censors to halt production of his self-titled comedy series this week due to objections regarding the manner in which an episode poked fun at heightened airport security.

The upcoming installment of “The Drew Carey Show” features the title character’s nitwit friends Lewis (played by Ryan Stiles) and Oswald (Diedrich Bader) getting jobs as airport security guards. ABC expressed concerns that at least one character working in security be presented as competent and, according to Carey, on Monday intimated that the entire script would be thrown out if the producers didn’t comply. “I’ve never had a threat like that from the network.... Everybody was kind of in shock,” said Carey, who is also a producer on the show, adding, “If you can’t satirize authority institutions, what’s the point?”

Producers of the program, which is produced by Warner Bros. Television, agreed to amend some of the humor and proceeded with preparation for the episode, which will be taped on Thursday for broadcast next month.

An ABC spokesman declined comment. A network source said that the network’s concern was that it would be irresponsible to depict all the airport security employees as incompetent.

ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co., which has a strong interest in the tourism industry, but Carey noted that dealings with ABC’s standards and practices department--the unit that oversees broadcast content--have been especially difficult throughout the current season, the show’s seventh year on the network. As for the humor potentially being irresponsible, Carey said, “I think we have a pretty good track record of not being serious on the show.”