Temporary price reduction to drive sales / MON 9-18-23 / Actor Danny or Stubby of old Hollywood / Utah city that shares its name with a biblical kingdom / Rapper with a Harvard hip-hop fellowship named in his honor

Constructor: Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Medium (solving Downs-only)

THEME: COLOR COMMENTARY (62A: Broadcast booth analysis ... or a hint to 17-, 27- and 47-Across)— theme answers are verb phrases that describe a kind of speech (or "commentary") and that also contain a color:

Theme answers:

• TALK A BLUE STREAK (17A: Blabber continuously)
• TELL A WHITE LIE (27A: Harmlessly deceive)
• RAISE A RED FLAG (47A: Be cause for serious concern, say)

Word of the Day:"WHOSE Line Is It Anyway?" (28D: "___ Line Is It Anyway?") —

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American version, which ran until 2007 and was later revived by The CW in 2013.

Each version of the show consists of a panel of four performers who create characters, scenes, and songs on the spot, in the style of short-form improvisation games, many taken from theatresports. Topics for the games are based on either audience suggestions or predetermined prompts from the host. The show ostensibly takes the form of a game show, with the host arbitrarily assigning points and likewise choosing a winner at the end of each episode. (wikipedia)

This theme has one thing going for it, and that's the parallel rhythms / structures of all the theme answers. Yes, they all have colors, but more impressively, they all follow a strict "[VERB] A [COLOR] [NOUN]" pattern. This gives the set a thematic coherence that transcends the mere presence of colors. The one major problem I have with the theme set is that the first two themers are very much about speaking, whereas neither the clue on 47A: Be cause for serious concern, say, nor the answer (RAISE A RED FLAG), are necessarily speech-related, so the "commentary" connection there feels particularly tenuous. Behavior raises red flags. Maybe that behavior is speech, maybe it isn't. Frequently it isn't. And nothing in the clue points toward a spoken context, so that themer really feels like an outlier. Just doesn't have the obvious emphatic spokenness that the theme seems to require. But I think this is one of those horseshoes/hand grenades situations, where meh, it's fine, good enough, and as I said at the outset, the structural consistency on this set of phrases elevates the theme, making any infelicities much more forgivable. That was how much of the grid I had in place before I (finally!) got ROLLBACK (6D: Temporary price reduction to drive sales). Before that, yeesh. Wasn't til I got to the crosses at the bottom half of the answer that I was able to put something together that allowed me to parse the word. I needed MOA- (which was an obvious "B"), and LE-H (which, here, was an obvious "C"), before the back end of the answer (fittingly, BACK) became clear, which then allowed me to imagine ROLLBACK. The clue on that ROLLBACK just did nothing for me. I kept wanting the answer to be some kind of "sale," but "sales" was in the clue, so I knew that was out. But from there, where to go? At sea, I was, for ... well, you can see. Something close to half the puzzle.