WKRP in Cincinnati
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WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982) was an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson. It premiered September 18, 1978 on CBS and featured Gary Sandy, Howard Hesseman, Gordon Jump, Loni Anderson, Tim Reid, Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders, and Frank Bonner. The series won a Humanitas Prize and received 10 Emmy Award nominations (including three for Outstanding Comedy Series). It also won an Emmy Award for Videotape Editing in season 3 (by Andy Ackerman, who would go on to direct Seinfeld). As was typical of most MTM Productions, the humor came more from running gags based on the known predilections and quirks of each character, rather than from outlandish plots or racy situations. The characters also developed somewhat over the course of the series, perhaps lessening the comedy of the series, but contributing to the fondness its fans have for the show. Episode concepts were occasionally drawn from contemporary events, such as the infamous Who concert in Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum on December 3, 1979, in which the show took a stand opposing festival seating.
Jump, Sanders, and Bonner reprised their supporting roles in a spinoff/sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran from 1991 to 1993 in syndication.
Story and characters
Premise and episodes
The series begins as Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) comes to the station as the new programming director, hired to improve the dismal ratings of the beautiful music station, run by weak-willed Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump). Travis abruptly changes the programming format to rock music, but WKRP's ratings fail to improve significantly in the fictional Cincinnati market it inhabits, mostly because of his unwillingness to fire the existing personnel when he takes over; their idiosyncrasies are more to blame for the station's fortunes than its format.\"Turkeys Away\"
The best-known episode is the first season's "Turkeys Away", named by TV Guide as one of the greatest episodes in TV history. It relates a disastrous Thanksgiving promotion, which includes Carlson dropping live turkeys out of a helicopter. The scene is reported live on the air by the station's news director, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), breathlessly describing the unseen birds plummeting to the ground, in the same manner as Herbert Morrison's coverage of the Hindenburg disaster, “It's a helicopter, and it's coming this way. It's flying something behind it, I can't quite make it out, it's a large banner and it says, uh - Happy... Thaaaaanksss... giving! ... From ... W ... K ... R... P!! No parachutes yet. Can't be skydivers... I can't tell just yet what they are, but - Oh my God, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenburg tragedy has there been anything like this!”
Afterwards, the stunned and bedraggled Carlson explains, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
Who concert tragedy episode
Another notable episode came out of a 1979 tragedy that hit the city during the series' run when several ticket holders for a Who concert were killed in a sudden rush for seats at the Riverfront Coliseum. In the story, WKRP promoted the concert and thus the staff felt they were partially to blame for the incident. However despite the fears of the staff, Arthur Carlson realized that poor concert management was to blame and refused to change the station's programming in response.Characters
- Andy Travis (Gary Sandy). For the most part, the character of Andy Travis serves as straight man or sane observer to the eccentric staff of the station he has been hired to run. He is a seemingly qualified professional, but is overpowered by the personalities of his staff. Gary Sandy often wore sweatshirts from universities all over the United States sent to him by fans as part of his character's persona. The show's opening theme song is about Andy and his decision to settle down in Cincinnati, a connection that is confirmed in an episode where Andy quotes from the theme song's lyrics in talking about his past ("I got kinda tired of packing and unpacking; town to town, up and down the dial").
- Arthur Carlson, aka "the Big Guy" (Gordon Jump) is the station manager, whose main qualification is that his tycoon mother is the owner. His bumbling, indecisive management is one of the main reasons the station is unsuccessful, although he is also a decent man and something of a father figure to his employees. Carlson's mother confronts Travis about changing the station to a rock and roll format, but relents when her son uncharacteristically gets the courage to defend the decision.
- Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman), a burned-out veteran of the radio industry. Cynical, neurotic and almost always hung-over, he is usually in one sort of trouble or another. For instance, he was fired from one major station when he inadvertently said "booger" on the air. In one episode, he tells his (supposedly few) listeners to dump their trash at city hall, and goes into shock when the trash heap turns out to be huge. He loses his voice and withdraws before finally finding the strength to confront his larger-than-he-imagined audience and tells them to stop the trashing of city hall, and to go to the mayor's house. The mayor of Cincinnati at the time this episode aired: Jerry Springer.
- Les Nessman (Richard Sanders). Fastidious, bow-tied news reporter, approaches his job with absurd seriousness, despite the fact that he is almost completely incompetent. Les is forever working to obtain the fictional Ohio radio news industry trophy "the Buckeye Newshawk Award", though he had already won it in previous years. Before approaching his desk, one has to "knock" on the nonexistent door, attached to the nonexistent walls, marked on the floor with yellow tape, of the nonexistent office he feels he deserves; those who don't face his ineffectual wrath. He is always wearing a bandage somewhere on his body (a running gag begun when Sanders showed up for the filming of the pilot episode wearing one after bumping his head). Johnny takes delight in ribbing Les on the air, sometimes closing his own segment with the announcement, "And now, more news and less Nessman!" Les occasionally has to read sports news, a subject he knows little about; reading a piece about golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, he mispronounces the name "Chy Chy Rod-ri-gwez". In the series premiere, we learn that Les has been doing traffic reports by thumping his chest so it sounds like he's in a helicopter.
- Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson). The beautiful blonde secretary and the station's highest-paid employee. She is informed, cool, and composed at all times. Although very aware of her sexual attractiveness with various important men at her beck and call, she is friendly and good-hearted with the station staff. Her apartment's doorbell chime, instead of the standard "ding dong", plays the opening bars of "Fly Me to the Moon" in dignified tones. One time Carlson tries vainly to lift the spirits of his staff, saying, "Nobody's perfect! I'm not perfect... You're not perfect... Jennifer probably is!"
- Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner). The advertising account executive, wears loud plaid suits (which he thinks convey the message "Trust me — sign my deal!") He can't sell the big accounts, usually succeeding only in selling commercials for trivial products such as "Red Wigglers — the Cadillac of worms!" (Available at finer worm stores everywhere). Another sponsor is a funeral parlor called "Ferryman's", for which the radio station staff sing a cheery-sounding jingle with lyrics, "There ain't no way to deny it / One day, you're gonna 'buy it'!" Although married to Lucille (Edie McClurg), he persistently pursues Jennifer, who shows no interest in him. Herb is shown as buffoonish in most episodes, but he does show real depth as a person in an episode that confronts how his alcoholism is costing him his job. In another episode, Andy has to fill in for Herb, and discovers that it's extremely difficult to sell ads on the low-rated radio station -- and that Herb's loud suits and obnoxious demeanor actually do inspire confidence in the desperate low-rent operators who can only afford to advertise on WKRP. As well, in one well-remembered episode (set up as a full half-hour episode of a fictional reality series called "Real Families"), the Tarlek family is shown at their home. Rather than see his family hurt further by the "Real Families" hosts' ridiculing of their eccentricities, Herb elects to evict the camera crew from his home, handing his son's beloved "security doll" back to him in the process.
- Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid). The soulful and funky overnight DJ, running his show with smooth-talking persona and mood lighting in the studio. His full name, Gordon Sims, was rarely used and he maintains an aura of mystery, which turns out to be a cover for the fact that he is wanted for desertion from the US Army. He was also a schoolteacher in his native New Orleans for many years before getting into the radio game; his teaching abilities are featured in one noted episode in which he teaches a gang member chemistry. In the series premiere he arrived decked out in full pimp gear and speaking heavy jive, an uncharacteristic display which a flashback in a later episode explained was a persona suggested by Andy.
- Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers). The young ingénue of the radio station, originally in charge of billing and station traffic, but later given additional duties as an on-air news reporter. She proves more capable than Les although she once made the mistake creating a fictional character in one of her reports (a device borrowed from current events) which almost cost the station its broadcast license, though it only became an issue when Les jealously plagiarized it on air. She is the most wholesome member of the WKRP team, and in one episode, she mentions being a member of her church's choir. She is vastly overshadowed by Jennifer, the blonde bombshell of the station, but still pretty and likable, and has been compared to "Mary Ann" in contrast to Jennifer's "Ginger".
- Mama Carlson (Sylvia Sidney in the series pilot, Carol Bruce afterward). Arthur Carlson's ruthless domineering mother and owner of WKRP, as well as a number of other unidentified business enterprises. She initially resisted Andy Travis' format changes, but when her son uncharacteristically stood up to her and threatened to quit if Andy was fired, she agreed to allow Andy to go ahead. In the final episode of the series, it was revealed that she had always intended WKRP to lose money (as a tax write-off), which explained why she allowed incompetent employees to stay at the station: their incompetence was part of the plan. When WKRP unexpectedly became a successful station, she considered switching the format again, but backed off when Johnny Fever threatened to tell her son about her plans.
The \"real\" WKRP
The call letters WKRP are currently assigned to a low-power TV station in Carthage, Tennessee. [link] The call letters are not currently assigned to any AM or FM radio station, and any potential user of those calls would have to receive permission from the TV station owners and the FCC. They were most recently assigned to an AM station in North Vernon, Indiana, about 60 miles from Cincinnati, but the call sign was changed to WNVI in 1997.When WKRP executive producer and show creator Hugh Wilson worked for an advertising agency in Atlanta, he dealt frequently with the radio station WQXI (then a pop music station) which served as inspiration for the series, station, and several characters. A disastrous promotion by WQXI general manager Gerry Blum, where ducks were placed on a hot plate to make them look like they were dancing, was incorporated into the "Real Families" episode of WKRP.
There is a radio station WKRC in Cincinnati. Except for almost identical call letters and being CBS affiliates, there is no known connection between the two entities. In the 1990s WKRP, we learned WKRP was at 1530 AM, current home of WCKY radio, with Jerry Springer's radio talk show. Coincidentally, Springer was the Mayor of Cincinnati during the original show's run.
Cincinnati also has a very popular rock/pop station called WKRQ (aka Q102) which was on the air during the show. As it is one letter away from WKRP in the alphabet, there has been speculation that it was the source of the name.
In the early 1980s, a station in Salt Lake City briefly identified itself on-air as "WKRP in Salt Lake City". Its actual call letters were KRPN, so they were really saying "(W)KRPN, Salt Lake City".
Gordon Jump's character was based on an actual person, as was Dr. Johnny Fever's. Arthur Carlson owned a group of radio stations in Central Pennsylvania under the name Susquehanna Radio. Based in York, Pa., it was one of the first radio "chains" to emerge in the late '60s and early '70s. Carlson also was a past president of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB). Fever was based on an afternoon drive DJ at one of Carlson's stations who was working under the name "Kevin McKeever". WCBG (now dark) was a 5,000-watt powerhouse in southcentral Pennsylvania.
WKRP's Tower
The transmission tower seen at the beginning of "WKRP in Cincinnati" actually belonged to Cincinnati's NBC affiliate, WLWT - it was at the now-former WLWT transmitter on 2222 Chickasaw St. in Cincinnati. [link]Musical themes
WKRP had two musical themes, one opening the show and one closing it.Opening theme lyrics:
- Baby, if you've ever wondered
- Wondered whatever became of me
- I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati
- Cincinnati, WKRP.
- Got kinda tired of packing and unpacking
- Town to town, up and down the dial
- Baby, you and me were never meant to be
- Just maybe think of me once in awhile.
- I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati.
Said to the bartender "Best night I ever had" Sang to the bar had a microphone in(to) her heart I said - Goodbye madam, I'd had a bird in hand I said - I'm doing good and put love in her heart
[link]
Music Licensing
Because of music licensing issues and the expense in procuring them, WKRP has not been made available on DVD. The show was one of the earliest examples of extensive use of contemporary music in television, and licensing deals for the rights to the music did not include syndication and other publishing rights. However, rights were much cheaper to obtain at the time, as the show was videotaped and not filmed. This was evident in all prints of the show issued since the early 1990s, which included its brief late-1990s run on Nick-at-Nite.20th Century Fox, which owns the MTM library, is reluctant to release WKRP on DVD because of the music issues, plus the fear that fans of the show would reject the DVDs if the edited versions were used. As indicated by sales of the first-season DVD sets of Roseanne and The Cosby Show, viewers prefer the original, uncut episodes over the edited versions seen in syndication.
Trivia
The rapper Eminem pays tribute to the WKRP news reporter in the 1999 song "As the World Turns" with the lyrics describing himself as a "class clown freshman, dressed like Les Nessman".
WKRP in Cincinnati was videotaped before a live studio audience at Goldenwest Videotape Division.
External links
- [] at TV.com
- [Summary and episode guide] from TV Guide
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