Drew Carey fans, take note: It sounds as if Drew and Kate finally do the deed on tonight's episode, teasingly titled "Drew and Kate Boink."

   And not a moment too soon for Christa Miller, who plays Kate. The producers have been trying to hide her real-life pregnancy for several months now.

   Added bonus: Hot on the heels of Carey's musical debut in Geppetto, tonight's Drew Carey Show gets off to a rousing start with an all-new song and dance number.

   If you were casting a big-budget Hollywood kiddie musical, chances are Drew Carey wouldn't top your wish list of male leads.

   The once-raunchy standup comic and ex-Marine is already star of his own ABC sitcom. But a singing sensation he's not -- unless you count a role in Pirates of Penzance in the ninth grade in Cleveland, Ohio, and the occasional dance number on The Drew Carey Show.

   Still, Carey gamely took singing lessons to prepare for The Wonderful World of Disney musical Geppetto, on ABC Ch. 13/46 Sunday at 6 p.m., although he initially balked when Oscar-winning composer Stephen Schwartz (Pocahontas) tapped him to play the titular toymaker.

   "I said, 'I gotta tell you the truth, I don't think this is going to work out, I don't sing that well,' " Carey said at an ABC shindig in Pasadena this January.

   Undaunted, Schwartz invited Carey, 41, to a pitch session for the new take on the 19th-century story of Pinocchio, the puppet who longs to be a boy.

   "And it was just great. The music just blew me away and I thought, 'I'm doing this just because the music was so good,' and I could see it was going to be a high-quality project," Carey says.

   "One of the reasons that attracted me to it after I heard the music (was that) I said, 'Boy, nobody will ever expect me in a million years to do this.' "

   No kidding. And Carey, who revealed he has a nipple ring and a fondness for Las Vegas strippers in his 1997 book Dirty Jokes and Beer, isn't the only actor cast against type. Geppetto's wish to have a real son is granted by a saccharine-sweet Blue Fairy played by formerly caustic Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. And Brent Spiner -- Star Trek: The Next Generation's repressed cyborg Data -- performs a wickedly camp musical showstopper as the evil puppet-master Stromboli.

   "It's really hilarious and he does such a great job -- he's all by himself and it just blows me away. It's my favourite thing in the whole movie," Carey says.

   Hip-hop star Usher Raymond is another standout as Ringleader on Pleasure Island, a brats-only utopia where Pinocchio (Seth Adkins) lands after he runs away from home. And Carey's Whose Line Is It Anyway? improv co-star Wayne Brady has a small role as an inept magician.

   There are plenty of comic bits -- when Pinocchio says he slept like a log, Geppetto snaps, "You are a log" -- and the new papa gets the usual Disney tutorial on love and commitment after his wood-chip off the old block turns out to be a minor menace to society with no interest in the family toy-making business.

   Alas, despite coaching, Carey remains vocally challenged. And let's face it, Pinocchio isn't the only wooden actor here. But Carey, who trades in his G.I. haircut and horn-rims for a wig and wire-framed glasses, gives a heartfelt performance, nonetheless -- one that's bound to please the critics who count.

   "The grandkids'll like it. I think it'll be around for a long time. I'm really so proud that they asked me to do it, you know."

   LOS ANGELES -- Of all the stunts and tricks The Drew Carey Show has featured over the year, one stands out: Finally getting Drew (Carey) and Kate (Christa Miller) together.

   "They won't consummate the relationship until the end of the season, however. We just did an episode where I sprain my penis," Carey tells the Sun.

   "It's an episode where Kate and I are supposed to have sex, but they want us to wait until the end of the season, so we had to come up with a way to delay it."

   The show's annual April Fool's episode (which producer Bruce Helford, Carey says, wants to air on March 1) is yet to come, as is another musical number.

   Carey struts his stuff again later this year in the latest big-budget musical, Geppetto, starring Carey as the puppet maker.

   When you also consider Carey's Whose Line is it Anyway?, Carey and Regis Philbin must account for half of ABC's primetime schedule.

   "I know, it's weird. They never allow us to travel together," Carey says.

   "You don't want anything to happen to us."

   "The Drew Carey Show" will be around for at least two more years.

   The ABC network will keep Drew and his blue-collar friends on board through the 2001-02 season, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

   Bruce Helford, the creator-executive producer of the show, will also remain on board.

   Under the new contract, ABC will pay a whopping $2.5 million for each episode of "Drew Carey", though that also includes rerun rights.

   The fee is well below "ER's" $13 million an episode but close to the fee "Mad About You" demanded for its last season.

   This is the fifth season for "The Drew Carey Show" and the audience continues to grow. Carey's show is the highest-rated comedy series on ABC, pulling in 15.3 million viewers a week.

   The series slides in at No. 16 out of 133 primetime series this season.

   A few innovative stunts raised the show's profile this season. Last month the cast performed three live versions of the show for Eastern, Pacific and Central time zones. An internet version of the show last month also sent people to their computers in droves. The Drew Carey internet site received 1.9 million hits during the "DrewCam" episode in November.

-- JAM! TV

   Millions of Drew Carey fans tuned into both their TVs and computers on Wednesday night.

   The winloud.com website -- named after the fictitious company Carey works for on the show -- received 1.9 million hits during the Drewcam episode of "The Drew Carey Show", according to the Hollywood Reporter.

   Wednesday's show was the first time a successful sitcom has incorporated its website directly into the storyline of one of its episodes.

   The plot of the show revolved around a Webcam placed in Drew's home to promote Winfred-Louder (his employer) merchandise.

   People watching the show on TV and tuning into the website were able to watch Comical footage of what went on at Drew's house when no one was there.

   This wsn't the first time "The Drew Carey Show" went out on a limb. Last week, the show aired live, performing three different live shows for three time zones.

   Guest stars on the live episode included improv experts from Carey's other show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

-- JAM! TV

   Some nights this season on The Drew Carey Show, it just looks as if the cast is making things up. Tonight, they really are -- and just to make it a little trickier, they're doing it live.

   It's a high-wire act that few other shows could even contemplate. Imagine Brooke Shields working without a script on Suddenly Susan. (Come to think of it, that might be better.) Only the fearless Carey cast -- which is rich in improv players -- could pull this off.

   Although portions of tonight's Drew Carey Show are scripted, much of what you see is made up on the spot. The story, such as it is, involves a secret romance between Drew and Kate (Christa Miller). The cast has been rehearsing all week with a skeletal storyline, in much the same way that Christopher Guest shot his largely improvised comedy Waiting For Guffman.

   The difference is that Carey's show is live. In fact, the cast has to perform the show three times -- a live version for every time zone.

   "I think probably Ryan Stiles and I are the least daunted by it," says Kathy Kinney, who plays crayon-eyed office shrew Mimi. Kinney is a veteran of the Los Angeles based comedy troupe The Groundlings. "I've been doing improv for 20 years. I've always said I can do improv anyplace any time and now I get a chance to prove it."

   Stiles does improv each week on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Among his many stage stops was Toronto's Second City, where he performed a decade ago with the likes of Deborah McGrath and Linda Cash. "It was the best time of my life," says Stiles, who spent two seasons in Toronto.

   He's excited about the live Carey show, but isn't so sure about performing everything three times. "With improv, sometimes the first time's the best. You usually really go for everything the first time."

Ringer to spark cast

   Carey himself has picked up some valuable improv experience over the past year-and-a-half while hosting Whose Line. To boost the cast even further, the producers are bringing in a ringer -- Toronto Second City vet Colin Mochrie, who also stars with Carey and Stiles on Whose Line. On tonight's live show, he returns as Eugene, a character he played on one occasion last season.

   According to Mochrie's agent Jeff Andrews, Mochrie and Carey are going to test the limits of live TV. Shades of Ally McBeal's same sex kiss? "Something happens and it's pretty wild," is all Andrews will say.

   Mochrie, who performs with another Carrey, Jim, in the upcoming flick The Man In The Moon, says these live shows are usually more fun for the audience than they are for the cast. "When we do Whose Line, we tape for two hours, so you don't get to see the crappy stuff," he says. "With live television, there's a good chance you'll see the crappy stuff, so it adds that extra dimension of fun.

   "I personally think it will be fun," he adds. "I'm sure a lot of people will watch only to see what could go wrong."

   Which, come to think of it, is the only way to enjoy Suddenly Susan.

   Also Tonight: Carey fans stay tuned as Carey, Stiles and Diedrich Bader guest star as gambling addicts on Norm. Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley) also guests.

   HOLLYWOOD -- Hail, hail, the anti-Friends.

   "I think people are sick of shows where you never see anyone actually working but they have $80,000 worth of furniture in their apartment," says Ryan Stiles, one-fourth of The Drew Carey Show's comparitively downscale quartet.

   Ratings don't show a fade in audience fondness for those other friends, but they do make it clear that Carey has hit a nerve. Viewers who recognize themselves in the show's clock-watching working stiffs have made it a Top 20 hit in its second season.

   As assistant director of personnel at a local department store, Drew looks like an over-achiever compared to his pals. Kate (Christa Miller) had to wheedle her sales job from him and is always on the verge of screwing it up. Oswald (Diedrich Bader) is a courier and Stiles' Lewis is a janitor at a pharmaceutical company.

   "I think the thing that makes the show work is that Drew's really not a threat to anybody," says Stiles.

   "To women he's kind of like a big teddy bear, to men he's kind of like a sportsy, jock-ey guy and to older people he's kind of like their son working to make ends meet."

   Speaking of big, I'm getting a crick in my neck talking to Stiles, who stands 6-foot-6 and has excellent posture.

   Rising popularity hasn't changed the casual, close-knit environment on set, he says. The cast celebrated the first season by taking a Florida vacation together.

   "It's the same kind of work ethic. Drew and I, both having done standup, have the attitude that if the audience believes we're having fun, they'll have fun. If it looks like it's a pain in the ass having to be there, they're not going to have fun."

   For comedy followers who think Stiles looks familiar, note that he's not a Canadian -- he just played one from the ages of 10 to 29. His father, a commercial fisherman, moved the family from Seattle to Vancouver for work.

   "I sort of felt Canadian because I went through all my schooling there," says Stiles.

   How does Canadian feel?

   "It feels good. But as an actor, it's really hard. There are a lot of Canadian actors who would give their right leg to be in my position and have American status because they really don't take chances up there."

   After dropping out of high school, Stiles spent a decade on Canada's standup circuit. It wasn't until he joined Toronto's Second City in 1986 that he expanded into acting. Having gained confidence, experience and wife Pat, who's from Toronto, he moved to Second City's Santa Monica club.

   Off-stage he won parts on the series Parker Lewis Can't Lose, The Hitchhiker and Mad About You and a role in the action movie spoof Hot Shots and its sequel. He remains a regular on the improv series Whose Line Is It Anyway? on cable's Comedy Central.

   "When we get fan mail, I always get a little more because it's two shows I'm getting it from. I never tell any of them that," he says.

   As the inseparable Lewis and Oswald, Stiles and Bader have been known to toy with the studio audience on taping nights.

   "We'll be this close to kissing," says Stiles.

   "It's 'Are they or aren't they?' We're not, but we do it for the crowd's benefit."

   He's a little bewildered by an order from ABC that each series do an anti-drug episode next month.

   "That's going to be hard for us because I think we're the show that drinks the most beer," he says.

   Then again.

   "I do work at DrugCo, so maybe ..."

   Following the leads of Tim Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other TV comics, Drew Carey has agreed to a multi-million-dollar book deal with publisher Hyperion, reports industry trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter.

   The former stand-up comedian who created and stars in "The Drew Carey Show," signed the deal with the Disney owned book publisher over the weekend, The Reporter says.

   "The Drew Carey Show," which premiered two years ago, is part of ABC's arsenal of working class sitcoms which includes Roseanne, Grace Under Fire and Allen's Home Improvement.

   Along with Carey, Seinfeld and Allen, other TV personalities to garner major book deals recently have been Paul Reiser and Ellen DeGeneres. All have made millions presenting their stand-up routines in book form.

   NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Busy with his sitcom, Drew Carey doubted he'd be able to find time to think up some good jokes for an evening of stand-up. But an offer of Super Bowl tickets changed his mind.

   "It's hard, man, very hard to develop new stand-up material while you're doing a series," said Carey, whose The Drew Carey Show is a hit on ABC.

   "So when this guy says, 'How'd you like to play New Orleans?' I said, 'Well, I don't know, it's a lot of work' ... And he says, 'It's Super Bowl and I'll get you in the game,' and I said, 'OK.'"

   "It's really why I'm doing the gig."

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Former model Christa Miller is just one of the boys as Kate on The Drew Carey Show, a role she trained for in real life.

   "At my school, you could do theatre or sports," she says in the latest People magazine. "I chose sports."

   Tapping her background as an avid schoolgirl athlete, Miller plays a dressed-down, beer-guzzling tomboy on the ABC sitcom.

   "Christa is a lot like Kate," said Bonnie Trompeter, the actress' mother. "She's always wisecracking and knows how to get her own way."

   After high school, the former child model returned to modelling, switching to acting in 1990. Roles in TV's Kate and Allie, Seinfeld and Northern Exposure led to her success on the glamorless Drew Carey.

   LOS ANGELES (AP) -- With lines like "Bite me, doughboy" and a costume of huge fake eyelashes, electric blue eye shadow and garish clothes, Kathy Kinney is hard to miss on The Drew Carey Show.

   It wasn't always that way.

   The actress worked as a temporary secretary for nine years to make ends meet, and even her role as Carey's loud nemesis, Mimi Bobeck, was supposed to last only one episode.

   "I think I'm still a little baffled as to why people think I'm funny. I used to be afraid that if I figured it out, I'd lose it. Now, I don't worry about it. I just go with it," Kinney said.