WKRP in Cincinnati

Time you got around to sponsoring a child

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. 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 three Emmy Award nominations during the early 1980s. The humor came from known predilections and idiosyncracies of each character, rather than from outlandish, racy language

Warning: Plot details follow.

Some particular character quirks of the show's characters included:

Before entering Les Nessman's news office, one had to "knock" on the nonexistent door, attached to the nonexistent wall. Those who didn't would face Les' wrath - always good for a laugh.
Jennifer Marlowe, the beautiful blonde secretary, was always informed, cool, and composed at all times. Even when a cast member visited her home, the doorbell chime played several bars of a classic easy listening tune in composed, dignified tones instead of the standard "ding dong".
Herb Tarlek, the advertising account executive, always wore loud plaid suits and couldn't sell the big accounts - which would lead to commercials for items such as "Red Wigglers - the Cadillac of worms!" (Available at finer worm stores everywhere.)
Dr. Johnny Fever, the "Everyman" of the show, was usually in one sort of trouble or another. In one memorable episode, he tells (the supposedly few) listeners of "the mighty KRP" to dump their trash at city hall. He is suprised when he is told by the program director, Andy Travis, he has to apologize - the trash heap turns out to be huge!. Johnny loses his voice and withdraws before finally finding the strength to confront his larger than he imagined radio audience and tells them to stop the trashing of city hall.

Even though WKRP switched to the rock and roll format, its ratings were still the lowest - or close to it - in the fictional Cincinnati it inhabited. Part of the reason it was low (or would start to rise in the fictional Arbitrons) was the absurd seriousness - bordering on inanity or hilarity - or chief news reporter Les Nessman. Les was envious/dismissive/competitive (depending on the moment) with the fictional radio station competitor WPIG (and forever working to obtain the fictional Cincinnati radio news industry trophy "the Silver Sow Award", though he had already won it in previous years).

The series began when Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) comes to the station as the new programming director hired to attempt to improve the dismal ratings of the classical music station run by Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump), a weak-willed son whose main qualification to be station manager is that his tycoon mother is the owner. Travis changes the programming format to rock music with the gleeful cooperation of the disgraced DJ, Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman). Carlson's mother confronts Travis about this change and only relents when her son gets the courage to defend the decision.

The best-known episode was the first season's "Turkeys Away"; it was named by TV Guide as one of the greatest episodes in TV history. It was centered around a disastrous Thanksgiving promotion, which included dropping live turkeys out of a helicopter. The station's goofy news reporter, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), breathlessly described the fiasco in the same manner as Herbert Morrison when he witnessed the Hindenburg disaster. Afterwards, Carlson explained, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Jump, Sanders and Bonner reprised their supporting roles in a spinoff, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran from 1991 to 1993.

There is a real-life radio station WKRC in Cincinnati, Ohio. Except for almost identical call letters, there is no known connection between the two entities.

WKRP theme song lyrics sung at beginning of each show

Baby,

If you ever wonder

Wonder whatever became of me

I'm living on the air in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, WKRP.

Got tired of the packing and unpacking

Town to town, up and down the dial

Baby you and me were never meant to be

So maybe think of me once in a while.

I'm at WKRP in Cincinnati.

External links

WKRP on IMDb
Summary and episode guide from TV Guide
The real WKRP, a low-power AM station in Washington, DC