Baby, if you've ever wondered,
Wondered, whatever became of me,
I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP.
Got kind of tired
Of packin' and unpackin',
Town to town, up and down the dial.
Maybe you and me were never meant to be,
Just maybe think of me, once in a while.
I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati.
That song, one of the catchiest sitcom jingles ever, is back again with the release of Season One of "WKRP in Cincinnati," the popular rock-jock comedy that first aired in 1978. So is the closing song, a "scratch" track demo made by Atlanta studio musicians. But the rest of the original rock songs that appeared on the show, including tunes by the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd, and Ted Nugent, are missing--replaced by generic rock tracks.
Tragic? Yes, but we live in an age of intellectual property rights and royalties, and the fact is that it would not have been financially possible to buy the rights to all of the songs that were current when the show aired and keep the DVD under a hundred bucks. So fans get the kind of substitution show that was first tinkered with in the '90s, when "WKRP" was reissued in limited syndicated release.
That's the bad news. The good news is that the music replacement and dub job doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and the show, which had a huge cult following, is still hilarious because of its true ensemble cast of assorted crazies. Gary Sandy? Not exactly a household word, and he looked like the kind of guy you'd see in a Marlboro or Levi commercial in the '70s, with that dry-look over-the-ears hair that he'd flip from time to time. As new station manager Andy Travis, though, he was one of the few normal people at a Cincinnati radio station populated by neurotics and eccentrics.
When Travis arrives at WKRP, fresh from a gig in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they're wedged in the ratings basement and losing money faster than flashy, smarmy Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) can sell ads to places like the Shady Hills Rest Home. The problem, Andy instantly surmises, is that they're playing elevator music so lulling that their morning deejay can't seem to stay awake. Effective immediately, Andy changes the format to Top-40 rock, and the transformation in that morning deejay is instantaneous. Johnny (Howard Hesseman), a formerly hot rock jock had landed in this Siberia of stations because he said "booger" on the air. As he tells Andy, "the next thing you know I'm hosting a garden show in Amarillo." But once he plays his first Top-40 platter, he's rejuvenated, able to instantly reinvent himself as Dr. Johnny Fever. The cure he has for listeners? Same as for him. Top-40 rock, babies!
Fever and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), the late-night deejay that Andy had worked with in the past and enticed here), are the two deejays in the cast, a yin-yang duo not only because of the early morning/late night thing, or the black/white thing, but because their styles were so totally different. Fever was a burned-out, drug-addled space cadet who played air guitar in the both while records were spinning, was a fast-talking hipster. Venus was smooth, with a low-register voice that addressed his "children of the night," punctuating his relaxing ramblings with tiny chimes and gongs that are as New Agey as it gets.
But perhaps the biggest comic relief came from the show's nerdy newscaster, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), who seemed to take more pride in relaying the farm reports than any serious breaking news. Like his TV counterpart at "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Les also had a way of butchering proper names and phrases. Two memorable on-the-air mispronunciations? The city of Peoria, Illinois, was pronounced "Pee-o-ree-a," which of course sounded about as contagious as "gonorrhea," while golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez became "chai chai rodrigways." Les, an effeminate sort, always had a bandage somewhere, as if to emphasize how fragile this little man really was.
Running the station was "the Big Guy," Arthur Carlson, a clueless man who wouldn't have had a job if his mother (Sylvia Sidney in the pilot, and Carol Bruce thereafter) wasn't the owner of the station. His office was full of fishing gear and other toys, and he was constantly distracted by them. The blonde bombshell receptionist, Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) kept gently reminding him of his duties and tormenting the men of WKRP with her voluptuous figure and sexy movement. Herb especially would come on to her, with her turn-downs part of the humor each week. I had to laugh, though, when I read the box copy to see the staff described as Andy, Johnny, Venus, Les, Jennifer, "and the rest," because it reminded me of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song and the way that Mary Ann, the plain Jane, was summarized with that catch-phrase. Here, "and the rest" means Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers), a brunette with glasses who's eventually given more responsibility at the station by her new boss.
This season features the funniest episode to be broadcast in the series, and perhaps the funniest holiday show ever. I'm talking about "Turkeys Away," where the Big Guy gets tired of being a failure and never being really in charge, and works with Les on a hush-hush, top-secret Thanksgiving promotion. As a helicopter hovers over a mall parking lot crowded with holiday shoppers, it starts to throw big white things out of the door. And to hear Les on the ground covering the event with a live broadcast ("Oh, the humanity!") is as laugh-out-loud funny as the very best TV sitcom episodes. "As God as my witness," Carlson later tells Andy, "I thought turkeys could fly." PETA people may not be amused, but it's hard not to crack up over this one. Personally, I'd buy this collection just to have that episode to watch every Thanksgiving, to make it as much a tradition as "A Christmas Story" is a month later. Other episodes from Season One:
1-2) "Pilot"--Andy shakes things up at WKRP and survives protestors and Mrs. Carlson.
3) "Les on a Ledge"--When Les's manhood and integrity as a newsman is questioned, he goes out on the ledge with the intent of jumping.
4) "Hoodlum Rock"--Andy gets in trouble when he gets the station to sponsor a concert by rock bad boys Scum of the Earth in this fun episode.
5) "Hold-Up"--Johnny has to contend with an armed robber when he's broadcasting live from a local stereo store.
6) "Bailey's Show"--The staff resents Bailey when she's allowed to produce her own show and it actually becomes popular.
7) "Turkeys Away"--Les's location report on this Thanksgiving disaster is one of the funniest moments in sitcom history.
8) "Love Returns"--Johnny and Venus agree to go out on a date with the winner of an on-air contest, while Andy's former flame comes to town to heat things up for him.
9) "Mama's Review"--Mama blows in like the Chief Inspector, and throws Arthur into a snit-fit.
10) "A Date with Jennifer"--Les finally wins the Silver Sow Award for farm news reporting, and gets the shock of his life when Jennifer agrees to be his date for the awards banquet. (Yes, Herb, eat your heart out!).
11) "The Contest Nobody Could Win"--It's not quite the payola scandal, but Andy and Johnny could lose their jobs over a botched contest.
12) "Tornado"--The Big Guy takes action when a tornado hits Cincinnati, and Andy gets mouth-to-mouth . . . from Jennifer.
13) "Goodbye, Johnny"--Johnny gets an offer he can't refuse, especially when the gig is in California, his old stomping grounds.
14) "Johnny Comes Back"--But you can't say certain words on the air, and Johnny gets fired and comes back to WKRP hoping he can have his old job back.
15) "Never Leave Me, Lucille"--Herb and his wife split, with him more eager to be a swinging single than anyone expected. So naturally they try to get him back with his wife.
16) "I Want to Keep My Baby"--Johnny becomes a temporary daddy when a listener abandons her baby on the station's doorstep.
17) "A Commercial Break"--Herb's ad campaign for funeral packages clashes with the new station format in this funny episode.
18) "Who is Gordon Sims?"--Venus's picture in a newspaper leads to some unexpected revelations about his dark past.
19) "I Do, I Do . . . For Now"--Jennifer pretends she's already married to Johnny in order to dodge an old suitor (Hoyt Axton). Another highly entertaining episode.
20) "Young Master Carlson"--When Arthur agrees to let his 11-year-old son hang out at the station, everyone regrets it. He reminds them too much of Carlson's mother.
21) "Fish Story"--This funny episode has Johnny and Venus conducting an on-the-air experiment with alcohol to prove a point.
22) "Preacher"--A wrestler-turned-reverend proves to be a formidable challenge when Andy tries to keep him from using his show to rip off the public.
Wondered, whatever became of me,
I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP.
Got kind of tired
Of packin' and unpackin',
Town to town, up and down the dial.
Maybe you and me were never meant to be,
Just maybe think of me, once in a while.
I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati.
That song, one of the catchiest sitcom jingles ever, is back again with the release of Season One of "WKRP in Cincinnati," the popular rock-jock comedy that first aired in 1978. So is the closing song, a "scratch" track demo made by Atlanta studio musicians. But the rest of the original rock songs that appeared on the show, including tunes by the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd, and Ted Nugent, are missing--replaced by generic rock tracks.
Tragic? Yes, but we live in an age of intellectual property rights and royalties, and the fact is that it would not have been financially possible to buy the rights to all of the songs that were current when the show aired and keep the DVD under a hundred bucks. So fans get the kind of substitution show that was first tinkered with in the '90s, when "WKRP" was reissued in limited syndicated release.
That's the bad news. The good news is that the music replacement and dub job doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and the show, which had a huge cult following, is still hilarious because of its true ensemble cast of assorted crazies. Gary Sandy? Not exactly a household word, and he looked like the kind of guy you'd see in a Marlboro or Levi commercial in the '70s, with that dry-look over-the-ears hair that he'd flip from time to time. As new station manager Andy Travis, though, he was one of the few normal people at a Cincinnati radio station populated by neurotics and eccentrics.
When Travis arrives at WKRP, fresh from a gig in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they're wedged in the ratings basement and losing money faster than flashy, smarmy Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) can sell ads to places like the Shady Hills Rest Home. The problem, Andy instantly surmises, is that they're playing elevator music so lulling that their morning deejay can't seem to stay awake. Effective immediately, Andy changes the format to Top-40 rock, and the transformation in that morning deejay is instantaneous. Johnny (Howard Hesseman), a formerly hot rock jock had landed in this Siberia of stations because he said "booger" on the air. As he tells Andy, "the next thing you know I'm hosting a garden show in Amarillo." But once he plays his first Top-40 platter, he's rejuvenated, able to instantly reinvent himself as Dr. Johnny Fever. The cure he has for listeners? Same as for him. Top-40 rock, babies!
Fever and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), the late-night deejay that Andy had worked with in the past and enticed here), are the two deejays in the cast, a yin-yang duo not only because of the early morning/late night thing, or the black/white thing, but because their styles were so totally different. Fever was a burned-out, drug-addled space cadet who played air guitar in the both while records were spinning, was a fast-talking hipster. Venus was smooth, with a low-register voice that addressed his "children of the night," punctuating his relaxing ramblings with tiny chimes and gongs that are as New Agey as it gets.
But perhaps the biggest comic relief came from the show's nerdy newscaster, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), who seemed to take more pride in relaying the farm reports than any serious breaking news. Like his TV counterpart at "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Les also had a way of butchering proper names and phrases. Two memorable on-the-air mispronunciations? The city of Peoria, Illinois, was pronounced "Pee-o-ree-a," which of course sounded about as contagious as "gonorrhea," while golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez became "chai chai rodrigways." Les, an effeminate sort, always had a bandage somewhere, as if to emphasize how fragile this little man really was.
Running the station was "the Big Guy," Arthur Carlson, a clueless man who wouldn't have had a job if his mother (Sylvia Sidney in the pilot, and Carol Bruce thereafter) wasn't the owner of the station. His office was full of fishing gear and other toys, and he was constantly distracted by them. The blonde bombshell receptionist, Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) kept gently reminding him of his duties and tormenting the men of WKRP with her voluptuous figure and sexy movement. Herb especially would come on to her, with her turn-downs part of the humor each week. I had to laugh, though, when I read the box copy to see the staff described as Andy, Johnny, Venus, Les, Jennifer, "and the rest," because it reminded me of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song and the way that Mary Ann, the plain Jane, was summarized with that catch-phrase. Here, "and the rest" means Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers), a brunette with glasses who's eventually given more responsibility at the station by her new boss.
This season features the funniest episode to be broadcast in the series, and perhaps the funniest holiday show ever. I'm talking about "Turkeys Away," where the Big Guy gets tired of being a failure and never being really in charge, and works with Les on a hush-hush, top-secret Thanksgiving promotion. As a helicopter hovers over a mall parking lot crowded with holiday shoppers, it starts to throw big white things out of the door. And to hear Les on the ground covering the event with a live broadcast ("Oh, the humanity!") is as laugh-out-loud funny as the very best TV sitcom episodes. "As God as my witness," Carlson later tells Andy, "I thought turkeys could fly." PETA people may not be amused, but it's hard not to crack up over this one. Personally, I'd buy this collection just to have that episode to watch every Thanksgiving, to make it as much a tradition as "A Christmas Story" is a month later. Other episodes from Season One:
1-2) "Pilot"--Andy shakes things up at WKRP and survives protestors and Mrs. Carlson.
3) "Les on a Ledge"--When Les's manhood and integrity as a newsman is questioned, he goes out on the ledge with the intent of jumping.
4) "Hoodlum Rock"--Andy gets in trouble when he gets the station to sponsor a concert by rock bad boys Scum of the Earth in this fun episode.
5) "Hold-Up"--Johnny has to contend with an armed robber when he's broadcasting live from a local stereo store.
6) "Bailey's Show"--The staff resents Bailey when she's allowed to produce her own show and it actually becomes popular.
7) "Turkeys Away"--Les's location report on this Thanksgiving disaster is one of the funniest moments in sitcom history.
8) "Love Returns"--Johnny and Venus agree to go out on a date with the winner of an on-air contest, while Andy's former flame comes to town to heat things up for him.
9) "Mama's Review"--Mama blows in like the Chief Inspector, and throws Arthur into a snit-fit.
10) "A Date with Jennifer"--Les finally wins the Silver Sow Award for farm news reporting, and gets the shock of his life when Jennifer agrees to be his date for the awards banquet. (Yes, Herb, eat your heart out!).
11) "The Contest Nobody Could Win"--It's not quite the payola scandal, but Andy and Johnny could lose their jobs over a botched contest.
12) "Tornado"--The Big Guy takes action when a tornado hits Cincinnati, and Andy gets mouth-to-mouth . . . from Jennifer.
13) "Goodbye, Johnny"--Johnny gets an offer he can't refuse, especially when the gig is in California, his old stomping grounds.
14) "Johnny Comes Back"--But you can't say certain words on the air, and Johnny gets fired and comes back to WKRP hoping he can have his old job back.
15) "Never Leave Me, Lucille"--Herb and his wife split, with him more eager to be a swinging single than anyone expected. So naturally they try to get him back with his wife.
16) "I Want to Keep My Baby"--Johnny becomes a temporary daddy when a listener abandons her baby on the station's doorstep.
17) "A Commercial Break"--Herb's ad campaign for funeral packages clashes with the new station format in this funny episode.
18) "Who is Gordon Sims?"--Venus's picture in a newspaper leads to some unexpected revelations about his dark past.
19) "I Do, I Do . . . For Now"--Jennifer pretends she's already married to Johnny in order to dodge an old suitor (Hoyt Axton). Another highly entertaining episode.
20) "Young Master Carlson"--When Arthur agrees to let his 11-year-old son hang out at the station, everyone regrets it. He reminds them too much of Carlson's mother.
21) "Fish Story"--This funny episode has Johnny and Venus conducting an on-the-air experiment with alcohol to prove a point.
22) "Preacher"--A wrestler-turned-reverend proves to be a formidable challenge when Andy tries to keep him from using his show to rip off the public.
Baby, if you've ever wondered,
Wondered, whatever became of me,
I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP.
Got kind of tired
Of packin' and unpackin',
Town to town, up and down the dial.
Maybe you and me were never meant to be,
Just maybe think of me, once in a while.
I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati.
That song, one of the catchiest sitcom jingles ever, is back again with the release of Season One of "WKRP in Cincinnati," the popular rock-jock comedy that first aired in 1978. So is the closing song, a "scratch" track demo made by Atlanta studio musicians. But the rest of the original rock songs that appeared on the show, including tunes by the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd, and Ted Nugent, are missing--replaced by generic rock tracks.
Tragic? Yes, but we live in an age of intellectual property rights and royalties, and the fact is that it would not have been financially possible to buy the rights to all of the songs that were current when the show aired and keep the DVD under a hundred bucks. So fans get the kind of substitution show that was first tinkered with in the '90s, when "WKRP" was reissued in limited syndicated release.
That's the bad news. The good news is that the music replacement and dub job doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and the show, which had a huge cult following, is still hilarious because of its true ensemble cast of assorted crazies. Gary Sandy? Not exactly a household word, and he looked like the kind of guy you'd see in a Marlboro or Levi commercial in the '70s, with that dry-look over-the-ears hair that he'd flip from time to time. As new station manager Andy Travis, though, he was one of the few normal people at a Cincinnati radio station populated by neurotics and eccentrics.
When Travis arrives at WKRP, fresh from a gig in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they're wedged in the ratings basement and losing money faster than flashy, smarmy Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) can sell ads to places like the Shady Hills Rest Home. The problem, Andy instantly surmises, is that they're playing elevator music so lulling that their morning deejay can't seem to stay awake. Effective immediately, Andy changes the format to Top-40 rock, and the transformation in that morning deejay is instantaneous. Johnny (Howard Hesseman), a formerly hot rock jock had landed in this Siberia of stations because he said "booger" on the air. As he tells Andy, "the next thing you know I'm hosting a garden show in Amarillo." But once he plays his first Top-40 platter, he's rejuvenated, able to instantly reinvent himself as Dr. Johnny Fever. The cure he has for listeners? Same as for him. Top-40 rock, babies!
Fever and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), the late-night deejay that Andy had worked with in the past and enticed here), are the two deejays in the cast, a yin-yang duo not only because of the early morning/late night thing, or the black/white thing, but because their styles were so totally different. Fever was a burned-out, drug-addled space cadet who played air guitar in the both while records were spinning, was a fast-talking hipster. Venus was smooth, with a low-register voice that addressed his "children of the night," punctuating his relaxing ramblings with tiny chimes and gongs that are as New Agey as it gets.
But perhaps the biggest comic relief came from the show's nerdy newscaster, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), who seemed to take more pride in relaying the farm reports than any serious breaking news. Like his TV counterpart at "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Les also had a way of butchering proper names and phrases. Two memorable on-the-air mispronunciations? The city of Peoria, Illinois, was pronounced "Pee-o-ree-a," which of course sounded about as contagious as "gonorrhea," while golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez became "chai chai rodrigways." Les, an effeminate sort, always had a bandage somewhere, as if to emphasize how fragile this little man really was.
Running the station was "the Big Guy," Arthur Carlson, a clueless man who wouldn't have had a job if his mother (Sylvia Sidney in the pilot, and Carol Bruce thereafter) wasn't the owner of the station. His office was full of fishing gear and other toys, and he was constantly distracted by them. The blonde bombshell receptionist, Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) kept gently reminding him of his duties and tormenting the men of WKRP with her voluptuous figure and sexy movement. Herb especially would come on to her, with her turn-downs part of the humor each week. I had to laugh, though, when I read the box copy to see the staff described as Andy, Johnny, Venus, Les, Jennifer, "and the rest," because it reminded me of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song and the way that Mary Ann, the plain Jane, was summarized with that catch-phrase. Here, "and the rest" means Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers), a brunette with glasses who's eventually given more responsibility at the station by her new boss.
This season features the funniest episode to be broadcast in the series, and perhaps the funniest holiday show ever. I'm talking about "Turkeys Away," where the Big Guy gets tired of being a failure and never being really in charge, and works with Les on a hush-hush, top-secret Thanksgiving promotion. As a helicopter hovers over a mall parking lot crowded with holiday shoppers, it starts to throw big white things out of the door. And to hear Les on the ground covering the event with a live broadcast ("Oh, the humanity!") is as laugh-out-loud funny as the very best TV sitcom episodes. "As God as my witness," Carlson later tells Andy, "I thought turkeys could fly." PETA people may not be amused, but it's hard not to crack up over this one. Personally, I'd buy this collection just to have that episode to watch every Thanksgiving, to make it as much a tradition as "A Christmas Story" is a month later. Other episodes from Season One:
1-2) "Pilot"--Andy shakes things up at WKRP and survives protestors and Mrs. Carlson.
3) "Les on a Ledge"--When Les's manhood and integrity as a newsman is questioned, he goes out on the ledge with the intent of jumping.
4) "Hoodlum Rock"--Andy gets in trouble when he gets the station to sponsor a concert by rock bad boys Scum of the Earth in this fun episode.
5) "Hold-Up"--Johnny has to contend with an armed robber when he's broadcasting live from a local stereo store.
6) "Bailey's Show"--The staff resents Bailey when she's allowed to produce her own show and it actually becomes popular.
7) "Turkeys Away"--Les's location report on this Thanksgiving disaster is one of the funniest moments in sitcom history.
8) "Love Returns"--Johnny and Venus agree to go out on a date with the winner of an on-air contest, while Andy's former flame comes to town to heat things up for him.
9) "Mama's Review"--Mama blows in like the Chief Inspector, and throws Arthur into a snit-fit.
10) "A Date with Jennifer"--Les finally wins the Silver Sow Award for farm news reporting, and gets the shock of his life when Jennifer agrees to be his date for the awards banquet. (Yes, Herb, eat your heart out!).
11) "The Contest Nobody Could Win"--It's not quite the payola scandal, but Andy and Johnny could lose their jobs over a botched contest.
12) "Tornado"--The Big Guy takes action when a tornado hits Cincinnati, and Andy gets mouth-to-mouth . . . from Jennifer.
13) "Goodbye, Johnny"--Johnny gets an offer he can't refuse, especially when the gig is in California, his old stomping grounds.
14) "Johnny Comes Back"--But you can't say certain words on the air, and Johnny gets fired and comes back to WKRP hoping he can have his old job back.
15) "Never Leave Me, Lucille"--Herb and his wife split, with him more eager to be a swinging single than anyone expected. So naturally they try to get him back with his wife.
16) "I Want to Keep My Baby"--Johnny becomes a temporary daddy when a listener abandons her baby on the station's doorstep.
17) "A Commercial Break"--Herb's ad campaign for funeral packages clashes with the new station format in this funny episode.
18) "Who is Gordon Sims?"--Venus's picture in a newspaper leads to some unexpected revelations about his dark past.
19) "I Do, I Do . . . For Now"--Jennifer pretends she's already married to Johnny in order to dodge an old suitor (Hoyt Axton). Another highly entertaining episode.
20) "Young Master Carlson"--When Arthur agrees to let his 11-year-old son hang out at the station, everyone regrets it. He reminds them too much of Carlson's mother.
21) "Fish Story"--This funny episode has Johnny and Venus conducting an on-the-air experiment with alcohol to prove a point.
22) "Preacher"--A wrestler-turned-reverend proves to be a formidable challenge when Andy tries to keep him from using his show to rip off the public.
Wondered, whatever became of me,
I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP.
Got kind of tired
Of packin' and unpackin',
Town to town, up and down the dial.
Maybe you and me were never meant to be,
Just maybe think of me, once in a while.
I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati.
That song, one of the catchiest sitcom jingles ever, is back again with the release of Season One of "WKRP in Cincinnati," the popular rock-jock comedy that first aired in 1978. So is the closing song, a "scratch" track demo made by Atlanta studio musicians. But the rest of the original rock songs that appeared on the show, including tunes by the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd, and Ted Nugent, are missing--replaced by generic rock tracks.
Tragic? Yes, but we live in an age of intellectual property rights and royalties, and the fact is that it would not have been financially possible to buy the rights to all of the songs that were current when the show aired and keep the DVD under a hundred bucks. So fans get the kind of substitution show that was first tinkered with in the '90s, when "WKRP" was reissued in limited syndicated release.
That's the bad news. The good news is that the music replacement and dub job doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and the show, which had a huge cult following, is still hilarious because of its true ensemble cast of assorted crazies. Gary Sandy? Not exactly a household word, and he looked like the kind of guy you'd see in a Marlboro or Levi commercial in the '70s, with that dry-look over-the-ears hair that he'd flip from time to time. As new station manager Andy Travis, though, he was one of the few normal people at a Cincinnati radio station populated by neurotics and eccentrics.
When Travis arrives at WKRP, fresh from a gig in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they're wedged in the ratings basement and losing money faster than flashy, smarmy Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) can sell ads to places like the Shady Hills Rest Home. The problem, Andy instantly surmises, is that they're playing elevator music so lulling that their morning deejay can't seem to stay awake. Effective immediately, Andy changes the format to Top-40 rock, and the transformation in that morning deejay is instantaneous. Johnny (Howard Hesseman), a formerly hot rock jock had landed in this Siberia of stations because he said "booger" on the air. As he tells Andy, "the next thing you know I'm hosting a garden show in Amarillo." But once he plays his first Top-40 platter, he's rejuvenated, able to instantly reinvent himself as Dr. Johnny Fever. The cure he has for listeners? Same as for him. Top-40 rock, babies!
Fever and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), the late-night deejay that Andy had worked with in the past and enticed here), are the two deejays in the cast, a yin-yang duo not only because of the early morning/late night thing, or the black/white thing, but because their styles were so totally different. Fever was a burned-out, drug-addled space cadet who played air guitar in the both while records were spinning, was a fast-talking hipster. Venus was smooth, with a low-register voice that addressed his "children of the night," punctuating his relaxing ramblings with tiny chimes and gongs that are as New Agey as it gets.
But perhaps the biggest comic relief came from the show's nerdy newscaster, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), who seemed to take more pride in relaying the farm reports than any serious breaking news. Like his TV counterpart at "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Les also had a way of butchering proper names and phrases. Two memorable on-the-air mispronunciations? The city of Peoria, Illinois, was pronounced "Pee-o-ree-a," which of course sounded about as contagious as "gonorrhea," while golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez became "chai chai rodrigways." Les, an effeminate sort, always had a bandage somewhere, as if to emphasize how fragile this little man really was.
Running the station was "the Big Guy," Arthur Carlson, a clueless man who wouldn't have had a job if his mother (Sylvia Sidney in the pilot, and Carol Bruce thereafter) wasn't the owner of the station. His office was full of fishing gear and other toys, and he was constantly distracted by them. The blonde bombshell receptionist, Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) kept gently reminding him of his duties and tormenting the men of WKRP with her voluptuous figure and sexy movement. Herb especially would come on to her, with her turn-downs part of the humor each week. I had to laugh, though, when I read the box copy to see the staff described as Andy, Johnny, Venus, Les, Jennifer, "and the rest," because it reminded me of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song and the way that Mary Ann, the plain Jane, was summarized with that catch-phrase. Here, "and the rest" means Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers), a brunette with glasses who's eventually given more responsibility at the station by her new boss.
This season features the funniest episode to be broadcast in the series, and perhaps the funniest holiday show ever. I'm talking about "Turkeys Away," where the Big Guy gets tired of being a failure and never being really in charge, and works with Les on a hush-hush, top-secret Thanksgiving promotion. As a helicopter hovers over a mall parking lot crowded with holiday shoppers, it starts to throw big white things out of the door. And to hear Les on the ground covering the event with a live broadcast ("Oh, the humanity!") is as laugh-out-loud funny as the very best TV sitcom episodes. "As God as my witness," Carlson later tells Andy, "I thought turkeys could fly." PETA people may not be amused, but it's hard not to crack up over this one. Personally, I'd buy this collection just to have that episode to watch every Thanksgiving, to make it as much a tradition as "A Christmas Story" is a month later. Other episodes from Season One:
1-2) "Pilot"--Andy shakes things up at WKRP and survives protestors and Mrs. Carlson.
3) "Les on a Ledge"--When Les's manhood and integrity as a newsman is questioned, he goes out on the ledge with the intent of jumping.
4) "Hoodlum Rock"--Andy gets in trouble when he gets the station to sponsor a concert by rock bad boys Scum of the Earth in this fun episode.
5) "Hold-Up"--Johnny has to contend with an armed robber when he's broadcasting live from a local stereo store.
6) "Bailey's Show"--The staff resents Bailey when she's allowed to produce her own show and it actually becomes popular.
7) "Turkeys Away"--Les's location report on this Thanksgiving disaster is one of the funniest moments in sitcom history.
8) "Love Returns"--Johnny and Venus agree to go out on a date with the winner of an on-air contest, while Andy's former flame comes to town to heat things up for him.
9) "Mama's Review"--Mama blows in like the Chief Inspector, and throws Arthur into a snit-fit.
10) "A Date with Jennifer"--Les finally wins the Silver Sow Award for farm news reporting, and gets the shock of his life when Jennifer agrees to be his date for the awards banquet. (Yes, Herb, eat your heart out!).
11) "The Contest Nobody Could Win"--It's not quite the payola scandal, but Andy and Johnny could lose their jobs over a botched contest.
12) "Tornado"--The Big Guy takes action when a tornado hits Cincinnati, and Andy gets mouth-to-mouth . . . from Jennifer.
13) "Goodbye, Johnny"--Johnny gets an offer he can't refuse, especially when the gig is in California, his old stomping grounds.
14) "Johnny Comes Back"--But you can't say certain words on the air, and Johnny gets fired and comes back to WKRP hoping he can have his old job back.
15) "Never Leave Me, Lucille"--Herb and his wife split, with him more eager to be a swinging single than anyone expected. So naturally they try to get him back with his wife.
16) "I Want to Keep My Baby"--Johnny becomes a temporary daddy when a listener abandons her baby on the station's doorstep.
17) "A Commercial Break"--Herb's ad campaign for funeral packages clashes with the new station format in this funny episode.
18) "Who is Gordon Sims?"--Venus's picture in a newspaper leads to some unexpected revelations about his dark past.
19) "I Do, I Do . . . For Now"--Jennifer pretends she's already married to Johnny in order to dodge an old suitor (Hoyt Axton). Another highly entertaining episode.
20) "Young Master Carlson"--When Arthur agrees to let his 11-year-old son hang out at the station, everyone regrets it. He reminds them too much of Carlson's mother.
21) "Fish Story"--This funny episode has Johnny and Venus conducting an on-the-air experiment with alcohol to prove a point.
22) "Preacher"--A wrestler-turned-reverend proves to be a formidable challenge when Andy tries to keep him from using his show to rip off the public.
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