WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American sitcom television series that features the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta. Many of the characters and even some of the stories are based on people and events at WQXI.
The ensemble cast consists of 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. Andy Ackerman won an Emmy Award for Videotape Editing in season 3.
WKRP premiered September 18, 1978, on the CBS television network, and aired for four seasons and 90 episodes through April 21, 1982. Starting in the middle of the second season, CBS repeatedly moved the show around its schedule, contributing to lower ratings and its eventual cancellation.
When WKRP went into syndication, it became an unexpected success. For the next decade, it was one of the most popular sitcoms in syndication, outperforming many programs that had been more successful in prime time, including all the other MTM Enterprises sitcoms.
Jump, Sanders, and Bonner reprised their roles, appearing as regular characters in a spin-off/sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran from 1991 to 1993 in syndication. Hesseman, Reid and Anderson also reprised their roles on this show as guest stars.
Premise
The station's new program director, Andy Travis, tries to turn around struggling radio station WKRP by switching its format from dated easy listening music to rock and roll, despite the well-meaning efforts of the mostly incompetent staff: bumbling station manager Arthur Carlson, greasy sales manager Herb Tarlek, and clueless news director Les Nessman. To help bolster ratings, Travis hires a new disc jockey, New Orleans native Gordon Sims ; and allows spaced-out former major market DJ Dr. Johnny Fever, already doing mornings in the easy listening format as John Caravella, to be himself. Rounding out the cast are super receptionist Jennifer Marlowe and enthusiastic junior employee Bailey Quarters. Lurking in the background and making an occasional appearance is ruthless business tycoon Lillian Carlson, the station's owner and the mother of Arthur Carlson.Characters
Main ensemble
- Andy Travis. For the most part, vice president and program director Andy Travis serves as the straight man for the eccentric staff of the station he has been hired to run. Before coming to WKRP, he had an unblemished record of turning around failing radio stations, but meets his match in his wacky staff members, of whom he becomes reluctantly fond. The show's opening theme song is about Andy and his decision to settle down in Cincinnati. In the season 4 episode "The Creation of Venus," Andy echoes the opening theme lyrics in talking about his past. Andy usually wears very tight jeans, something to which Jennifer Marlowe alludes, much to Andy's surprise, in the season 2 episode "Most Improved Station".
- Arthur Carlson, occasionally called the "Big Guy", is the middle-aged general manager, whose main qualification for the job is that his mother, a business tycoon, is the station's owner. Mama Carlson adopted strict methods in raising him in the mistaken belief that it would make him strong. Instead, it made him weak, and his bumbling, indecisive management style is one of the main reasons the station is unprofitable. Despite this, he is a principled, kind, decent and sometimes surprisingly wise man. He has far more interest in playing than he does in the radio station, often hiding in his office from people who want to see him on business.
- Dr. Johnny Fever is a veteran disc jockey who comes to WKRP after being fired from a major Los Angeles station when he said "booger" on the air. In the season 4 episode "Three Days of the Condo", always broke Johnny surprisingly receives a $24,000 out-of-court settlement from that station for wrongful dismissal. Cynical and neurotic, and an occasional insomniac who consumes large amounts of coffee, Johnny is usually in one sort of trouble or another. He adopts the "Fever" on-air name as a quick improvisation in the pilot episode upon being told by Travis to abruptly change the format of his morning show, but he has used other monikers on the air at other stations, mostly to conform to whatever station format he found himself working with.
- Les Nessman, the fastidious, bow-tied news reporter, who is a "mama's boy" of a man, approaches his job with absurdly earnest seriousness, despite being almost totally incompetent. He and salesman Herb Tarlek refer to themselves and Mr. Carlson as "the suits", compared to "the dungarees". As a running gag, Les wears a bandage in a different spot each episode, presumably due to attacks from his unseen monstrous dog Phil; the gag was inspired by Sanders bumping his head on a studio light and needing a bandage while making the pilot. Other gags are his fixation on agricultural news, and putting masking tape on the floor around his desk, which he insists his co-workers treat as the walls of his "office". He is staunchly patriotic and politically conservative, with the discovery of his biological father as a former card-carrying Communist making him deeply conflicted. Johnny Fever ribs him with wordplay by describing WKRP on the air as "the station with more music and Less Nessman."
- Jennifer Marlowe is the station's receptionist and highest-paid employee. Contrary to a common assumption that she is merely "eye candy" for the station, Jennifer is informed, wise, and able to handle practically any situation, no matter how absurd, with aplomb. She herself sees her main job responsibility as deflecting any business calls for Mr. Carlson. Although very aware of her sex appeal, with various wealthy, powerful men at her beck and call, she is friendly and good-hearted with the station staff. She is very strict about the limits of her job duties: she does not type letters, and neither makes coffee nor brings any to the office staff.
- Herb Tarlek is the boorish, tasteless and vain sales manager at WKRP, who is sometimes referred to as "Little Guy" to Mr. Carlson's "Big Guy". He often wears loud plaid suits, with his belt matching his white shoes. He is unable to land the big accounts, but is effective in selling air time for products such as "Red Wigglers – the Cadillac of worms!" Although a married man with children, he persistently pursues Jennifer, who has absolutely no interest in him. While Herb is portrayed as buffoonish most of the time, he occasionally shows a sympathetic side. One of Herb's catch phrases is "no problemo", another is "okay fine". Herb is based on radio executive Clarke Brown. Bert Parks appears in one episode as Tarlek's father, Herb Tarlek, Sr. The elder Tarlek is very much like his son.
- Venus Flytrap, the soulful, funky evening DJ, runs his show with a smooth-talking persona and mood lighting in the studio. His real name, Gordon Sims, is almost never used, and he maintains an aura of mystery. In an early episode, it is revealed that he is a Vietnam War deserter wanted by the US Army. In later episodes, his backstory is elaborated upon and it is revealed that after deserting, he spent several years as a high school teacher in New Orleans while working part-time as a radio personality. In spite of the fact that he is a nighttime DJ and Johnny Fever works the early morning shift, the two are often seen together and become good friends as the series progresses, with Venus taking the job in the first place in part due to his admiration for Johnny as a DJ.
- Bailey Quarters, the young ingenue of the radio station, is originally in charge of billing and station traffic. However, having graduated from journalism school with some training in editing, and intent on becoming a broadcast executive, she is later given additional duties as an on-air news reporter, in which she proves more capable than Les Nessman. As the series progresses, she overcomes her shyness and develops self-confidence. Beginning with the second season two-part episode "For Love or Money", she occasionally becomes linked romantically with Johnny Fever. The dynamic between Jennifer and Bailey has been likened to that between Ginger and Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island. Jan Smithers was one of two WKRP cast members who was the first choice for the role she played, Gordon Jump being the other. Creator Hugh Wilson said that despite Smithers' lack of experience, she was perfect for the character of Bailey as he had conceived her: "Other actresses read better for the part," Wilson recalled, "but they were playing shy. Jan was shy."
Other characters
- Lillian Carlson is Arthur Carlson's ruthless, domineering mother – often referred to as Mother Carlson – and the owner of WKRP. An extremely successful and rich businesswoman, her only regret is that her approach to parenting backfired as her son ended up indecisive, weak-willed and afraid of her. As a display of her cutthroat attitude, she has a painting hanging above her fireplace in her living room of two pairs of dangling legs of people just hanged. In the series' final episode, it is revealed she had always intended WKRP to lose money, which explains why she allows the incompetent employees to continue working at the station. The only one who is regularly able to get the better of her is her sarcastic butler, Hirsch.
- Carmen Carlson is Mr. Carlson's sweet-natured wife. The two met in college, he being her chosen date to a "bring a loser" dance at the sorority she was pledging, something he was unaware of until their twenty-five year college reunion as they never did go to the dance and she never did pledge that sorority. Though happily married, they are so anxious to avoid hurting each other's feelings that they rarely tell each other what they really think. They have a son, Arthur Carlson, Jr., whom they've sent off to military school. During the second season Carmen has a surprise pregnancy and during the third season gives birth to a daughter, Melanie.
- Hirsch is Mother Carlson's "houseboy." He is well into his eighties, but is energetic and seems unfazed by any new circumstances. Hirsch regularly expresses his dislike for his employer in otherwise charming and polite exchanges. His coffee is terrible, unless there is a guest, in which case he prepares it with care.
- Lucille Tarlek is Herb's devoted nasal-voiced wife, who, deep down, knows that he chases after Jennifer. Lucille is perhaps the one woman who does see Herb's charms. Herb and Lucille have an adolescent son and daughter, Herb III and Bunny.
- Three other DJs at the station are mentioned, but never seen. Moss Steiger has the graveyard shift after Venus and is mentioned as having attempted suicide at least twice; he eventually dies in The New WKRP in Cincinnati. Rex Erhardt hosts a program after Dr. Johnny Fever's morning show; and Dean the Dream has the afternoon drive slot. Another DJ, Doug Winner, is hired and fired in the same episode.
- Series writer Bill Dial infrequently shows up as Buckey Dornster, WKRP's station engineer.
- Longtime actor William Woodson served as the announcer of the series and did various voice-over roles during the run, including the pre-recorded announcer of the intro/outro to Les's newscasts, and the narrator of the trial results in the first-season episode "Hold Up".
Episodes
Timeslots and success
WKRP in Cincinnati debuted in 1978 in CBS's Monday 8 p.m. timeslot, competing against ABC's Welcome Back, Kotter and NBC's top 20 show, Little House on the Prairie. Initially receiving poor ratings, WKRP was put on hiatus after only eight episodes, even though they included some of the most famous of the series, including "Turkeys Away". But owing to good reviews and positive fan reaction, especially from disc jockeys, who immediately hailed it as the first show that realistically portrayed the radio business, CBS decided to bring WKRP back without any cast changes.WKRP was given a new timeslot, one of the best on the network, following M*A*S*H. This allowed creator Hugh Wilson to move away from farcical radio-based stories, which is what CBS mostly wanted at the beginning, and start telling stories that, while not necessarily serious, were more low-key and character-based. To allow the ensemble cast to mingle more, the set was expanded. A previously unseen communal office area was added to accommodate scenes with the entire cast.
Partway through the second season, the show was moved back to its original earlier time. CBS executives wanted to free up the prized post-M*A*S*H slot for House Calls. They also felt that the rock and roll music and the sex appeal of Loni Anderson were better-suited to the earlier slot, which at that time was thought of as mostly aimed at young people. The mid-season timeslot change did not affect the show's success; WKRP finished at No. 22 in the ratings for its second year. For the next two seasons, however, the writers and producers often had to fight CBS over what kind of content was appropriate for a show in the so-called family hour.
Starting from the second season, CBS moved WKRP around repeatedly. WKRP lost nearly 2.5 million viewers on average for each of four time slot changes in the 1979–80 season.
After the fourth season, the network decided not to renew the show. The final first-run episode of WKRP aired on April 21, 1982, and ranked No. 7 in the weekly Nielsen ratings. Prior to the broadcast, however, the series had already been cancelled.
Production
WKRP was videotaped in Hollywood before a live studio audience at KTLA's Goldenwest Videotape Division, later moving to the CBS Studio Center lot in Studio City.Fact vs. fiction
"Real" WKRP people
While Andy Travis received his name and some personality elements from a cousin of creator Hugh Wilson, he was based primarily on innovative program director Mikel Herrington, who also was the inspiration for the character Jeff Dugan in the 1978 film FM, written by Ezra Sacks who had worked at KMET. Dr. Johnny Fever was based on a DJ named "Skinny" Bobby Harper at WQXI/790 in Atlanta, Georgia. WKRP writer Bill Dial worked with Harper at WQXI, which is considered Dial's inspiration for the show. Coincidentally, Harper had previously worked at Cincinnati AM Top 40 powerhouse WSAI in 1964, before moving to 11 other stations, including seven in Atlanta. In 1997, Bobby Harper told WSB's Condace Pressley, "He went on record as pointing out which ones, including myself, that he based the characters on. was a nice little thing. You know? That was nice. I appreciated that." The Carlsons were a pastiche of Jerry Blum, WQXI's longtime general manager: Mrs. Carlson inherited Blum's brashness while Arthur borrowed his nickname "Big Guy," sense of style and some of his unorthodox promotions, including the turkey drop.Transmission tower
Although the show aired on CBS, the self-supporting transmission tower seen at the beginning of WKRP in Cincinnati actually belongs to Cincinnati's NBC affiliate, WLWT.Studios and offices
In the show, WKRP's offices and studios are in the Osgood R. Flimm Building, an art deco office building. When mentioned, the exact floor varies: in Season 1's episode "Les on a Ledge", WKRP is on the 9th floor, but in season 4's episode "Fire", it is on the 14th; the entranceway door is shown as 1412. The building shown during the show's opening credits is actually the Cincinnati Enquirer Building at 617 Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati.Real stations using WKRP
Long-standing Cincinnati radio station WKRC had and currently has a similar callsign. They did not object to the use of WKRP for the TV show, saying that it was the best publicity they had ever had, and it was free.In 2008, an unrelated independent television station in Cincinnati, WBQC-LD, took advantage of local nostalgia for the sitcom, promoting its conversion to digital broadcasting by renaming itself "WKRP-TV Cincinnati".
In 2014, a group in Raleigh, North Carolina received the call letters WKRP-LP from the FCC for a low-power radio station in the town that went on the air the following year.
Music
Musical themes
WKRP had two musical themes, one opening and the other closing the show.The opening theme, a soft rock/pop number called "WKRP In Cincinnati Main Theme," was composed by Tom Wells, with lyrics by series creator Hugh Wilson, and was performed by Steve Carlisle. An urban legend circulated at the time that Richard Sanders had recorded the song. Wilson stated in the commentary for the first season's DVD set that this was not true. Sanders would later "sing" the lyrics in a promo spot on VH1 for The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which parodied the U2 song "Numb."
A full-length version of the original theme song was released in 1979 on a 45 rpm vinyl single on the MCA Records label. It peaked at 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1981 and at 29 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1982.
Music licensing
The show's use of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" was widely credited with helping the song become a major U.S. hit, and the band's record label Chrysalis Records presented the producers with a gold record award for the album Parallel Lines, on which the song appeared. This gold record can be seen hanging on the wall in the "bullpen" where Les, Herb, and Bailey worked in many of the episodes in the second, third, and fourth seasons.The songs were often tied into the plot of the episode, and some pieces of music were even used as running gags. For example, the doorbell to Jennifer's penthouse apartment played "Fly Me to the Moon".
Music licensing deals cut at the time of production were for a limited number of years. Hugh Wilson commented that WKRP was videotaped instead of filmed because when the show was originally produced, a loophole in music licensing deals reduced fees for using songs in videotaped programs. The loophole was intended to accommodate variety shows. When the show initially went into syndication shortly after its 1982 cancellation, most of the original music remained intact because the licensing deals were still active at the time. Once the licenses expired, later syndicated versions of the show did not feature the music as first broadcast, but rather generic "sound-alikes" by studio musicians to avoid paying additional royalties. In some cases, some of the characters' lines had to be redubbed by sound-alike actors to either make buried lines audible again or to cover up artist or song references. This was evident in all prints of the show issued since the early 1990s, which included its late 1990s run on Nick at Nite.
The expense of procuring licenses for the original music in the series delayed any release of a DVD set for years. When it finally was released, much of the music was replaced by generic substitutes. Some scenes were shortened or cut entirely, and voiceovers were used to avoid using unlicensed musical content. However, some scenes that were originally edited out for television were added back into the episodes to give viewers the back story which further explained a later scene.
Home media
released the first season of WKRP on DVD in Region 1 in April 2007. However, due to heavy music replacement, sales of the set were poor, and Fox released no further seasons. InMay 2014, Shout! Factory acquired rights to the series for DVD release. Shout! had planned to include all of the copyrighted music that originally aired on the show, but was only able to obtain rights for 111 of the original musical artists. A disclaimer later stated, "In a few cases, it was simply impossible to get the rights." Fans of the show compiled lists documenting that the re-release featured approximately 85% of the series' original soundtrack. Along with this, almost all of the re-dubs done for the 1990s syndication airings were removed and the original dialogue was restored.
The complete series became available online on October 2014. In March 2015 Shout! released individual sets for Seasons 1 and 2. Season 3 was released in July 2015 and the final season was released in November 2015.
| DVD Season | Ep # | Release date | |
| Season 1 | 22 | March 17, 2015 | |
| Season 2 | 23 | March 17, 2015 | |
| Season 3 | 21 | July 14, 2015 | |
| Season 4 | 22 | November 10, 2015 | |
| Complete Series | 88 | October 28, 2014 |
The Shout! Factory DVD releases also present both the second-season episode "Filthy Pictures" and the third-season episode "Dr. Fever and Mr. Tide" in their original hour-long formats instead of the syndicated two-part versions, bringing the episode count from 90 episodes to 88 episodes.