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The series opener finds standup comedian Drew Carey in his familiar guise as...Drew Carey, overworked and underpaid assistant personnel director for Cleveland's Winfred-Louder Department Store. Hoping to cheer up his lifelong friend Kate O'Brien (Christa Miller), who has just come off another dead-end romance, Drew tries to get Kate a job in the store's cosmetics department. First, however, he is confronted by another applicant for the same job: the obnoxious, loudmouthed, makeup-laden Mimi Bombeck--who, when turned down because Drew doesn't like her attitude, threatens to sue the store for discrimination and harrassment. Initially conceived as a one-shot guest role, Mimi proved so popular with test audiences that Kathy Kinney became a series regular beginning with the very next episode, joining the august company of Ryan Stiles and Diedrich Bader as Drew's best buds Lewis Kinski and Oswald Harvey.