 Ryan Stiles won the role of " hapless janitor " Lewis Kiniski . Despite being well known for his role on the British improve show Whose Line Is It Anyway ? , Stiles still had to go through the audition process along with everybody else . He said , " I don 't even think Drew was really even aware of Whose Line at that time because it hadn 't been on the air ( in the U.S. ) that many years . I think it was only on Comedy Central at that time . " Stiles admitted that he liked to have fun with his character and not psychoanalyze him . Following his appearance in The Beverly Hillbillies , Diedrich Bader realised he needed a regular income and decided to return to television . He tested out for The Drew Carey Show , but did not initially want to be cast in it . He told Kevin Smith that he wanted to drive up his price for the pilot of Partners . Bader lost out on the role of Bob to Jon Cryer and then learned The Drew Carey Show wanted to hire him to play Oswald Lee Harvey . 
