WKRP in Cin-ci-naaat-tiiiii....

Totally pivotal show for prepubescent me, along with One Day At A Time, Alice, Diff'r'n't Str'kes and Taxi.

As far as I could tell at the time Howard Hesseman was the epitome of cool.

Fond memories:

Carlson mistaking cocaine for foot powder.
Venus vs. Johnnie, drinking vs. reflexes.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ

Carp vs. pig FITE!

CANT WAIT TIL THEY REMAKE THIS SHOW AS A MOVIE

I feel it's my duty to at least make an appearance in this thread.

Whoa dude sorry I misspelled yr name there.

Put the devil in a bulgarian headlock.

CANT WAIT TIL THEY REMAKE THIS SHOW AS A MOVIE

Great, now I'm paranoid.

sorry i just kind of freaked out the other day when I saw an Underdog ad. Can't wait for the Magilla Gorilla remake!!!

(i.e. can't wait until they ruin everything!!!)

JABBERJAW: THE MOVIE

WKRP and Barney Miller were the two shows my Dad *always* watched in the era before Cheers. I often watched with him.

I don't have specific favorite memories of the show, but I do remember driving past Cincinnati on a huge group trip to Washington DC in 1992 for a pro-choice march. The entire van full of people sang the theme song from this show as we passed the city.

SILVER SPOONS: THE MOVIE

MANIMAL: THE MOVIE

SMALL WONDER: THE MOVIE

Even though I've been using the name Johnny Fever for a long ass time now, I barely have any memories at all of WKRP. I wish one of the cable networks had it on in reruns.

You have to call us "fellow babies," for a start.

MWAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAH

AAAHAHAHAHAAAAH

(I saw the sneak trailer for Get Smart...looks hilarious)

(sorry Ned for derailing yr thread)

love this show. they are in my top 8.

WHERE IS THE LOVE FOR SCUM OF THE EARTH?

Two best things about this wonderful show:

1. Bailey Quarters
2. Theme song

PHONE COPS!

Two best things about this wonderful show:

1. Bailey Quarters
2. Bailey Quarters

Steve Carell is a perfect choice for Maxwell Smart, despite his recent Noah debacle.

How would you make a WKRP movie? Radio stations don't work like that anymore. And we already have FM and Private Parts if you want movies about radio people.

Two best things about FM:

1. Martin Mull
2. the theme song

How would you make a WKRP movie? Radio stations don't work like that anymore

WKRP at the University of Cincinatti

How would you make a WKRP movie?

duuuuuuuude you'd set it in the 70's duuuuude

Fuckin' great, Will Ferrell as Johnny Fever.

yesssssssssssssss Jessica Simpson as Jennifer Marlowe

Jamie Foxx as Venus Flytrap

Howard Hessman as Mr. Carlson

the episode with WREQ "Ramblin Wreck radio" is a reference to the station I work for!

Who is perfect enough to be Bailey?

Wait, I got it: Hope Davis.

I would prefer Anne Hathaway.

I think this must have been one of the first US comedies I saw (aprt from possibly Soap). Totally great. I assumed completely that this was what America was like.

The Thanksgiving Day turkey drop -- "Oh the humanity!"

I also remember that after the Who concert in Cincinatti where 11 people were killed in the crush at the doors, they did an episode that had that event as the main focus. Starts with someone mentioning it after getting a phone call and others in the office not believing it. It was done fairly soon after the real event. I was pretty impressed with a sitcom gettin' real like that.

Errmmm, and Bailey Quarters.

I wish one of the cable networks had it on in reruns.

Wild guess: a problem with getting all the rights to all the music.

Yeah, that's why it wasn't on DVD for the longest time. A problem since rectified.

Same problem for the best show ever, China Beach.

Some say it will never come out.

This thread needs more pictures.

Yeah, that's why it wasn't on DVD for the longest time. A problem since rectified.

yeah, well, I still can't buy that set if there's no "Do you hear dogs barking?" "I do." scene.

xpost of Bailey

My random favorite song drop-in:

"We've only just begunnnnnnnnnn..."

Maura Tierney could be Bailey.

Favorite moment:
Venus Flytrap: On the air? I AM the air!

It is funny that the guy is basically in the suburbs of Cincy.

Been thinking a bit about "In Concert" today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSeWECDb3YM

love that episode so much ;_;

Many sad parallels. Like in Cincinnati, the Astroworld cops, security, and organizers -- that is, everyone supposedly trained in crowd management -- are all rushing to put all the blame on the fans. Obviously there were some asshole fans, but the situation was beyond out-of-control before those fans made things worse.

Chet Flippo's RS piece showed how fucked up the situation with cops and security in Cincinnati was, and this reminded me of the Travis Scott fans trying to get security and camerapeople to stop the show:

He couldn’t find his wife. He ran to the first policeman he saw and shouted, “What are you doing? People are getting trampled up there.” The policeman looked him over and asked, “What do you do for a living?” Klopp replied, almost in shock, “Working on a Ph.D. in language.” The policeman said, “Well, you just used a dangling participle.” Klopp, caught up in the absurdity, said, “I think I know more about language than you do.” The policeman smiled: “Well, don’t tell me how to do my job, then.” Klopp lost his temper: “People are getting hurt.” The policeman said, “Well, we can’t do anything.” Klopp finally got inside and found his wife.

A few feet away, Mark Helmkamp was pleading with a policeman to do something. He said to the cop, “Here, take my ID and bust me for false information if you don’t believe me.” He said the policeman told him to move along.

https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/rock-roll-tragedy-why-11-died-at-the-whos-cincinnati-concert-93437/

Today in 1979, Dr. Johnny Fever shows up at WKRP hung over and just does whatever the fuck he wants. pic.twitter.com/wLdo8HXxxZ

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) October 14, 2021

My man would've been around 39 years old in that shot.

He and Richard Sanders are/were basically the same age.

Aaaaand Gordon Jump was 47 in '79. Goodnight everyone!

Hesseman almost six months older than Sanders!

Held his own at the table with Jack and Kathy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bywUe7ZBAtU

RIP Johnny Fever

Only discovered this show in the last year, it’s so great. I kind of don’t want to watch all the episodes too quickly.

savor them like malt liquor

Black Death Malt Liquor!

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzMwM2E4NWQtZTUzMi00YjU2LWJmOTQtNzY1YmE1ZmUxNjA5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUxMjc1OTM@._V1_UY1200_CR576,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg

With his disdain for MOR, and his refusal to "play the hits", was Dr. Johnny Fever the first rockist character in popular culture?

Probably. Apparently Hesseman and Reid quickly became responsible for whatever their respective characters played on the show, with Dr. Fever hitting with an interesting mix of '50s Oldies (Bo Diddley, Elvis), Hippie Faves (Van Morrison, Grateful Dead, Hendrix), and most surprisingly, a good bit of New Wave (Pretenders, Blondie). He even plays the odd Rock-Disco track, despite being vehemently anti-Disco.

There's a funny moment in one ep where Andy Travis tells Johnny that he'll "shoot him if he plays that song again"; said song is not named, but it's implied that it's something from the first B-52's album, which we saw him cue up in the previous scene.

The Decades HD channel will be showing 24 Fever-centric episodes tommorow starting at 12:00 PM EST.

Here's today's schedule: https://www.decades.com/schedule/

Nicely picked, even though with 24 episodes we don't get the Rip Tide ep, the station bombing two-parter (PHONE COPS!), or the series finale, where Johnny saves the day and the station from a format change.

Also, for some reason the last one they're showing has the wrong title or episode description.

If you care more about musical cues than picture quality, Internet Archive has VHS rips with all the original music—albeit, two episodes per file, which makes it annoying to add to Plex or other home media servers.

was Dr. Johnny Fever the first rockist character in popular culture?

I might go with Paul LeMat/John Milner in American Graffiti, when "Surfin' Safari" comes over the car radio: "I don't like that surfing shit. Rock'n Roll's been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died."

(Which only makes sense in the context of 1962--the Beach Boys, obviously, ended up on the other side of that divide.)

Milner is a good one, and taking it back to TV, I imagine Fonzie or Richie Cunningham was pretty '50s Rockist on Happy Days, which predates WKRP.

Ick, they're using the old syndication versions, and whoo-boy those replacement cues are awful!

One neat thing about this though is that the version of "The Contest Nobody Could Win" has the original, lighter ending with Vincent Schiavelli as the scammer who attempts to steal the prize money before getting found out by Johnny. This version wasn't included in the box set.

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

One last thought on the "first rockist" question. I really don't want to detour the WKRP thread--actually looked for an "origins of rockism" thread, and even though there are five screens of rockism threads, none are on the origins.

Anyway, a drunk David Proval/Tony in Mean Streets, same year as American Graffiti: "Play only old ones tonight...only old ones." I think there's sort of an implied rockism there. (His request is followed by the Chips' "Rubber Biscuit," vintage doo-wop.)

Had no idea there were two endings to The Contest!

I don’t know whose hand she’s holding but I invite you to join me in imagining it’s Herb Tarlek’s. pic.twitter.com/mrkQiVuFFv

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 7, 2022

https://i.imgur.com/2Nja7Vb.jpg

Well, it's not Herb Tarlek, but ... one of the Waltons?

(Hi, Lou.)

Good catch--it was Judy Norton Taylor, a/k/a Mary Ellen Walton.

This was from the "Battle of the Network Stars," memorably sent up by SNL as "Battle of the Network Ts and As."

Well, that's not a nice way to refer to Ed Asner!

Don't devalue Asner's tits!

Anyone know what this shirt was about? Looks like it said "Firme" or something, very glittery.

https://i.imgur.com/P5Wvpmj.jpg

This eBay store is selling off Howard Hesseman's record collection: https://www.ebay.com/str/bananalouiestore

Some rad shit in there... hardly any bids, either

wow he really was johnny fever eh?

Got my eye on that August 1979 Trouser Press.

May and September 1979 too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPibSwtZhzw

i die every time

the classic-est

They've started showing it on Decades, but they're the ones with the soundalikes. That episode was on tonight, with <the moment> now soundtracked by a similar riff and an ott cock rock vocal singing on the nose lyrics about how "You got style!"

Terrible, but still funny.

yeah foreigner makes it extra-funny

https://super70ssports.com/arcade/turkey-drop/

Jan Smithers was a singer in a group called Hot Cup of Friends in 1973. She was the girlfriend of the band leader, who was Henry Mancini’s son

This was posted on fb, including a link to a Midnight Special in which this group appears (at about 37:00 if this link doesn't go the correct spot).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR_XNR6QwMg

OK, may have to rewind a bit.

I am drinking a Fentiman’s ginger beer and my brain just went to
Ferryman’s Ferryman’s
he’s the man with the plot
The man with the plan…

Every Johnny Fever intro with the full songs added in, to make a three-hour radio show, which works great because the original song selection was so good:

https://www.awphooey.com/wkrp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K4mK7R9zSA

pure gold

I knew what this would be as soon as I saw the thumbnail. I worked overnights at a radio station years ago. The pain is real.

I did these shifts as well … this one at least has a song to reduce torpor as opposed to the 60 seconds non-musical vocal drone of Alperts Furniture spots