Computer crash. (broadcast).(use of computer animation in the Drew Carey Show)

Since its premiere in 1995, The Drew Carey Show has often deviated from the tried-and-true sitcom formula by adding elaborate song and dance routines to elicit laughs from the audience. In a recent episode, titled "Family Affair," computer-generated visual effects were inserted to augment such a segment.

The one-minute sequence opens with Carey working at his desk when suddenly his laptop computer freezes. He grabs it and storms over to the help desk, where a Bill Gates look-alike shakes his head to indicate the hopelessness of the situation. A ghostly apparition of the laptop's internal system emerges and waves good bye as it exits the machine. The scene segues to the rooftop, where Carey and his coworkers are shown tossing their computers to the street below. The camera follows Carey's laptop as it falls and smashes into pieces. The sequence then cuts to ground level, where file office gang breaks out into a "Riverdanee"-inspired performance as computers continue to crash down around them.

"The special effects were key to this segment," says Holly Sawyer Friedman, the show's producer. Timing was also critical, adds Jerry Spivack, creative director at Ring of Fire, the West Hollywood, California-based studio that created the CG effects. "The dance sequence had to be scripted tightly to the music, so we had to know how long it would take Drew to perform each movement," he says. To accomplish this, the team at Ring of Fire previsualized the segment, ...