The last great sitcom from the Golden Era of the 1970s was another MTM production- WKRP In Cincinnati. Like the other classic shows from that stable, in many ways, WKRP was a classic sitcom. It did not push boundaries the way the Norman Lear sitcoms did, but it was not as lightweight as most of the Garry Marshall sitcoms.
The show was created by Hugh Wilson, a former radio executive, and based on his experiences working in advertising as a client of a classic album-oriented rock radio station. The cast consisted included Gary Sandy as the station manager Andy Travis, Howard Hesseman as DJ Dr. Johnny Fever, Gordon Jump as station manager Mr. Carlson, Loni Anderson as his intelligent bimbo secretary Jennifer, Tim Reid as DJ Venus Flytrap, Jan Smithers as Bailey, Richard Sanders as newsman Les Nessman, and Frank Bonner as salesman Herb Tarleck. While a good ensemble, the show's four funniest characters were Fever- a drug user, Mr. Carlson- a Mama's Boy, the nerdy Les, and the lecherous Herb, who always lusted for Jennifer.
Many episodes centered around the dumb things Carlson, Les and Herb did or the wacked out adventures of Fever. Next to the Chuckles the Clown death episode on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, perhaps the most fondly remembered sitcom episode of all time is the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP. The show revolves around Mr. Carlson's attempts to prove he can run the station as well as Travis. He cooks up a turkey giveaway promotion by dropping live turkeys out of a helicopter over a shopping mall. As turkeys cannot fly, they die, crashing into buildings and cars as shoppers run for their lives. What makes the event even funnier is that, like the film My Dinner With Andre, we only hear (and do not see) a description of the event from on the spot reporter Les Nessman, who, at first believes the turkeys to be parachutists, but when he realizes they are turkeys, goes into a re-enactment of the famed radio broadcast of the Hindenburg Disaster of broadcaster Herbert Morrison, replete with an 'O the humanity!' DJ Fever quickly switches from the disaster, chiming in that the mall is being bombed with turkeys. Later, Mr. Carlson and Herb return to the station, covered in turkey feathers, and Carlson says, in a daze, 'As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.'
Here's the whole episode:
What sells the episode, and many of the crazy antics in the series, is that one believes that the characters are sincere. And, of all the sitcoms so far surveyed, WKRP is truly the most ensemble based, as it never had any real star. The show only ran 4 seasons- the shortest run for any of the great sitcoms after The Honeymooners and Gilligan's Island, but it has fared well in syndication.
None of the actors had much success after the series, save for Howard Hesseman, who had a mild comedy hit in the mid-1980s with Head Of The Class, a show starring an actor who shares my name, and later went on to produce mindless sitcoms for children on cable tv. But, other than that, WKRP In Cincinnati remained the highlight of many of the actors' careers, as well as the last gasp of a Golden Era for its genre.
