WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982)

The staff of a struggling radio station have a chance at success after the new programming director changes the format to rock music

Creator:

Hugh Wilson

Stars:

Gary Sandy, Gordon Jump, Howard Hesseman

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 2 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Gary Sandy	...	Andy Travis (90 episodes, 1978-1982)
Gordon Jump	...	Arthur 'Big Guy' Carlson (90 episodes, 1978-1982)
Howard Hesseman	...	Johnny 'Dr. Fever' Caravella (90 episodes, 1978-1982)
Loni Anderson	...	Jennifer Elizabeth Marlowe (89 episodes, 1978-1982)
Richard Sanders	...	Les Nessman (89 episodes, 1978-1982)
Frank Bonner	...	Herbert 'Herb' Tarlek (89 episodes, 1978-1982)
Tim Reid	...	Venus Flytrap (87 episodes, 1978-1982)
Jan Smithers	...	Bailey Quarters (86 episodes, 1978-1982)

Storyline

Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson tries to run a failing Cincinnati radio station owned by his "tough as nails" mother. His own incompetence is overshadowed by the strange employees that work at the station. From wild Disc Jockeys: Dr. Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap to the geeky news director, Les Nessman and obnoxious advertising sales manager, Herb Tarlek. With the help of saner employees such as Bailey Quarters; the rather shy journalism major; Jennifer Marlowe, the beautiful receptionist who is the very opposite of a stereotypical "Dumb Blonde" and Andy Travis; the studly program director, Carlson tries gimmick after crazy gimmick to bring money into the station and make it a success.

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Plot Keywords:

radio | radio station | disc jockey | acronym in title | rock 'n' roll | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 September 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Radio Cinccinati

Filming Locations:

Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Company Four, MTM Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (90 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the 1990s, reissues of the syndication of WKRP had nearly all music played by the DJs changed. While the original run of the series prided itself in both writing and acting by using current hit songs, it was later deemed too expensive to keep the rights for the originals in syndication (hundreds of thousands of dollars were at stake). Instead, songs were removed and replaced with "generic" studio music; even original "generic" music was replaced to avoid any possibility of later lawsuits. Because the actors often spoke over the music, voice impersonators were hired to emulate the actors in those scenes. In some cases this meant revising lines so that jokes about the song just played were removed, and changed to often-meaningless new titles.

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Goofs

In the pilot episode, after the rock music change, the needle on the turntable is on the label of the record that's playing, yet the music is playing fine. Clearly, music was never playing from actual vinyl records when WKRP played their songs.

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Quotes

Les Nessman: [saying that Bailey shouldn't produce the show] This isn't the Ohio State School of Journalism, this is the big time.

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Crazy Credits

The lyrics for the closing credits consist of gibberish words.

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Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: Catherine Zeta-Jones/Franz Ferdinand (2005)

User Reviews

The Funniest Comedy of All Time?

Only a very few comedies have reached what I consider the height of mixing pathos, characterization, slapstick, verbal byplay. Night Court, Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore...and WKRP manages to surpass them all. WKRP comes out ahead of most of these (except maybe Night Court) because it was a true ensemble. It didn't focus on just Sam & Diane, or just Mary, but equally covered each of its cast members, giving them almost-equal screen time.

These were also folks who had _lives_ that didn't revolve entirely around the office or resolving the problem at the office: families, social lives, etc.

The recent Nick at Nite marathon (40 hours, five nights) just brought back home to me that this show was so funny, and why even some of the worst episodes are still a heck of a lot funnier than most "comedies" on the air today.

Hopefully WKRP will be settling into a long stay on Nick at Nite once the marathon runs its course.