Cleveland's woes -- population loss, failing schools, lack of economic spark -- are no joke to comedian and native son Drew Carey, who advocates for less government, more competition and lower taxes to bring the city back.

Carey took time off from his gig as host of TV's "The Price Is Right" to help produce and star in a series of Web reports detailing Cleveland's woes and a number of proposed fixes that will be launched next week on reason.tv, the Internet arm of the nonpartisan, libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation, on whose board Carey serves.

Carey established reason.tv three years ago and has developed a number of short Web documentaries to highlight government's heavy-handedness. Now, the lens turns to his hometown with a six-part series called "Reason Saves Cleveland." It comes on the heels of Cleveland's "most miserable city" ranking by Forbes.com.

"As you know, I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. I love Cleveland, Ohio. I based my whole career on being from Cleveland, Ohio," Carey says in the first installment of the series, for which he's also credited as an executive producer. "And you also might know that Cleveland, Ohio, is going through some tough times right now. The economy is in trouble, schools are in trouble, and people have been leaving the city in droves for a long, long time."

The series, reported and produced by reason.tv's editor Nick Gillespie, explores problems in Cleveland and other rust belt cities and offers solutions using examples from other cities -- such as Houston -- that are enjoying success and population growth.

Bottom line? As the Web site's motto reads, "Free minds and free markets." In other words, move out of the way, government. In a town like Cleveland, with big government bureaucracies, cumbersome regulations and old-school unions, the series argues, it's no wonder times are so tough.

The series includes segments suggesting ways to fix Cleveland schools.

"Your choice is, you know, go to a Catholic school or get the hell out of town and raise your kids somewhere else. That's not much of a choice at all," says Carey. He is also fearless in taking on teachers unions, saying, "Maybe hiring teachers just based on seniority isn't a good idea because just hanging around doesn't make you good."

Other segments recommend privatizing government services; simplifying zoning laws; cutting red tape; and ending reliance on big-ticket development projects such as the new medical mart/convention center.

"I didn't know Cleveland was such a bustling convention city. Take that, Vegas!" says Carey.

A chief goal should be to bring people back to the city.

"My only experience in running a city is SimCity, the computer game," Carey says in one of the episodes. "I know that when you raise taxes, all the Sims leave the city."

Gillespie interviews locals such as Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor Jonathan Adler, former Cleveland "tech czar" Michael DeAloia, Citizens' Academy Director of Development Lyman Millard, and Norm Plonski, owner of Major Hoopples and the Parkview Nite Club, who provides bar-stool common sense.

Carey's hope: "I would like everybody in Cleveland to have like rich kids' syndrome, where they feel guilty that they had all these opportunities and they have to go to Nicaragua now to do some work in the summer when they're off from college to make up for it."

Gillespie said the whole series was Carey's idea: "He came to us and said, 'You guys have a lot of ideas. What would it take to save Cleveland?' "

While the series digs into some ugliness here, Gillespie said it's in no way a slam.

"It's a valentine to Cleveland. One of the things that came back again and again is Cleveland has a tremendous amount of stuff going for it: Big city, brilliant skyline, great landscape. But it needs to get over that Midwestern reticence to finally admit there is a dysfunction in the family and we've got to fix things."