The Real Mini-History of WKRP

NOTE: Here's a list of several excellent episodes of this series that are NOT the Turkey episode.
“WKRP in Cincinnati” is the most under-rated show in the history of the universe of the world. Every Thanksgiving, I see the same “party line” parroted by pop culture eggheads about this program… 1) the “Turkeys Away” episode is the funniest installment ever, and 2) the show was otherwise a huge flop and has never been on DVD because of music rights issues. Read on, and prepare to have your minds blown. We are through the looking-glass here, people.
“WKRP” was created by former Atlanta ad man, Hugh Wilson. He cut his TV teeth on various shows for MTM Productions, the company co-owned by (and named for) Mary Tyler Moore. To that point, it had most notably produced her classic, self-titled sitcom, as well as “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Rhoda,” “Lou Grant” and “The White Shadow.” Wilson’s idea for a zany show about zany DJs in a non-zany city was greenlit and joined the CBS schedule Monday nights at 8 on September 18, 1978. The show’s theme song laid out the original premise: lifelong radio programmer Andy Travis (played by wholesome Ohioan Gary Sandy) lands in Cincinnati at a sleepy, low-rated elevator music station and immediately changes the format to rock and roll. He’s the lone island of sanity, surrounded by a stoned DJ, a goofy newsman and various zanier zanies (zany was “in” in 1978). This first clutch of eight episodes included the original airing of “Turkeys Away,” which was trounced in the ratings by “Little House On the Prairie” (ironically, an episode that featured Mrs. Oleson’s cousin starting a town newspaper… when was the last time print beat out radio?!).
By early November, the show was “on hiatus.” But MTM had enough clout that the network allowed some fine-tuning, then a re-launch on January 15, 1979.  The new time slot was an hour later, airing right after “MASH,” then in its eighth season and already a huge hit and a TV classic. Changes included less focus on Andy and more of the ensemble cast.  To that end, a bullpen set was added for more staff interaction (essentially desks for everyone when they weren’t in the lobby or on the air). Ratings jumped, and the season finale, “Fish Story,” turned out to be the highest-rated episode of the series. (The broad slapstick in the episode embarrassed its writer, High Wilson, and he changed the credit to “Raoul Plager.”)
For season 2, the show’s production moved from KTLA to plusher digs at the CBS Radford studio.  Loni Anderson and Howard Hesseman became the show’s breakout stars, as evidenced by many of the show's promos.
Hesseman, aided by his improv background (he had been a member of The Committee comedy troupe), played ‘KRP morning man Johnny Fever.  The actor was sent out on promotional appearances, often on actual morning radio shows (which Hesseman remembers as occasionally torturous).  He even hosted “Saturday Night Live,” then at the peak of its ratings and popularity, and one sketch parodied clueless morning DJs, with Hesseman playing off of Harry Shearer.  (The clip isn’t online, but is on the SNL season 5 DVD set… it was also re-written to provide a memorable cameo for Shearer in “Wayne’s World 2.”)
With the show drawing stellar ratings and popular acclaim, CBS did the only logical thing… they moved the show from its comfy, post-“MASH” slot (9:30) back to its original slot, at 8 p.m.  Ratings dipped at first, before dipping some more – the competition was “Little House on the Prairie” along with the #3 show on TV, “That’s Incredible!”
“WKRP” ended season two as the 22nd-most-watched show on television, an average that would have no-doubt been higher if not for the mid-season time change.  The show that took the Monday night slot was hospital sitcom “House Calls,” intended as Wayne Rogers’ comeback vehicle after he left “MASH” in 1975.  Despite high ratings (higher than “WKRP”), "House Calls" was cancelled after three seasons due to squabbles between producers and co-star Lynn Redgrave over her on-set breastfeeding.  Rad.
Back to WKRP, season two picked up Emmy nods for Anderson, Hesseman, and Outstanding Comedy Series.  Season three began with a move to Saturday nights.  Seriously.  A decade earlier, this was the slot that propelled “All In the Family” to the top of the ratings.  Not this time.  “WKRP” and its companions (“Barbara Mandrell,” “Breaking Away” and even the Dukes of Hazzard-spinoff “Enos”) all died in the ratings.  This season featured some of the show’s most inventive episodes.
“Real Families” followed Herb around reality TV-style (parodying the show “Real People”).
“Clean Up Radio Everywhere” parodied Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.  (Richard Paul, the actor playing Dr. Bob Halyers in the episode, would actually play Falwell himself 15 years later in “The People vs. Larry Flynt”).
“The Airplane Show” had many scenes filmed outdoors, in Cincinnati.
“Jennifer Moves” was produced as a two-act play.
“Nothing To Fear” took on gun control, “Out to Lunch” took on alcoholism and “Ask Jennifer” dealt with domestic violence.
And “Venus and the Man” featured this famous scene with Venus Fly Trap explaining the atom.
In 1981, this episode won WKRP’s only Emmy, for tape editor Andy Ackerman.  (He would later direct and produce “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).  For season three, Anderson, Hesseman and the show itself were again nominated for Emmys.  Director Rod Daniel also got a nod.  He was one of the show’s most prolific directors.  Linda Day, Asaad Kelada, Will Mackenzie and Michael Zinberg also helmed many episodes, but “WKRP” never had a permanent director (as multi-camera shows often did).  Call me superstitious, but that seems to jynx the ratings of any great show (“The Odd Couple,” “NewsRadio” and the later seasons of “Taxi”).
The show's fourth season concluded the middling-ratings, time-slot-jumping, Emmy-nominated run, and had an increased presence behind-the-scenes for writing partners/producers Steven Kampmann and Peter Torokvei (later credited as PJ after gender reassignment, she sadly died of liver failure in 2013).  The show ended its run with an episode that came in #7 in the ratings, but by then the cancellation had been announced, most of the actors had moved on, and the show was finally dead... until a brief, strange 1991-93 revival.
On a side note, Kampmann would land on his feet a few months later and move in front of the camera, playing Kirk Devane in MTM's hit "Newhart," which was videotaped (at least in its first season) on the same soundstage as WKRP.
As a bonus, here's a 1981 mini-episode of WKRP, written and commissioned by the U.S. Government to sell bonds.  Weird.  "Cheers" did one of these a few years later.

The History of MTM Productions

Here's a post that never got published when it was supposed to (January, 2017). I present it here because it seemed a shame to waste all this work:

MTM Productions was named for Mary Tyler Moore, whose husband -- Grant Tinker -- started the company in 1969 to produce a show for his wife.  Rather than being some nepotastic disaster, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" became one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.  And it allowed the company to develop a whole slew of classic shows.  The couple split in the late 1970s, and both died recently.  So I've decided to publish some comments on many of the programs (that I know of) with which MTM was involved...

The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-77): Widely considered one of the greatest sitcoms of all-time, and with good reason.  Summing up its accomplishments here would be meaningless.  I will add that -- outside of major Northeast metro areas -- the show apparently did not fare well in syndication for very long.  Their loss.

The Bob Newhart Show (CBS, 1972-78): Another classic.  Newhart was originally going to be a guest star on the MTM show.  That role eventually went to Bill Daly, who would play Bob's neighbor on "The Bob Newhart Show."  The "Bob Newhart" pilot was apparently written over a weekend by David Davis & Lorenzo Music, and included a plot line about Bob & Emily Hartley managing their condo association.  That proved troublesome (CBS thought people would mis-hear it as "condom") and was quickly dropped, as was the far-out decor of the couple's apartment.  All of this is on display in the pilot episode, titled "P-I-L-O-T," and which actually aired as the ninth episode.

Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (1974-1975), The Texas Wheelers (1974-1975), The Bob Crane Show (1975), Doc (1975-1976), The Lorenzo & Henrietta Music Show (1976), Three for the Road (1975), Phyllis (1975-1977), The Tony Randall Show (ABC, 1976-77; CBS, 1977-78), The Betty White Show (1977-1978), We've Got Each Other (1977-1978): a bunch of well-intentioned, high-quality but ultimately unsuccesful programs that are nowhere to be found today.  "Phyllis" at least enjoyed solid ratings in its first season, but nosedived in year two.  The fact that her castmembers kept dying probably didn't help.

Rhoda (CBS, 1974-1978): Mary's neighbor got her own spin-off that actually had higher ratings than the parent show for a time.  However, the writers never found a way to make a happy, married Rhoda funny, and that led to her divorce and a weird, depressed Rhoda.  Lorenzo Music played her unseen doorman, which led to the 1980 animated pilot, "Carlton Your Doorman."  CBS passed on the show, which went on to win an Emmy and also got Music a lot of voice roles (such as Garfield the cat).

Lou Grant (CBS, 1977-82): the third classic from MTM, this multiple-Emmy-winner was one of the first examples of a sitcom spinning off a drama.

The White Shadow (CBS, 1978-1981): another classic, but oddly short-lived.

WKRP in Cincinnati (CBS, 1978-1982): yet ANOTHER classic, made by folks who had worked on "Doc," "The Betty White Show," "The Tony Randall Show" and other short-lived MTM properties.  These younger writers were the B-team at MTM after the A-list left to make "Taxi."  Almost the entire series is uniformly excellent, except...
In one early episode, everyone ends up fighting.  Near the end, Jennifer (Loni Anderson) goes around the room playing "truth-teller," sagely pointing out everyone's strengths and weaknesses, to prove they are realy just a big family.  It's the one "crappy sitcom trope" moment in the entire (original) series, which became a powerhouse in syndication after it was cancelled in 1982.  In fact, the final episode apparently placed #7 for the week, and CBS tried wooing the cast back.  Unfortunately, Howard Hesseman was already contracted to join "One Day at a Time," Richard Sanders had signed for (I believe) the pilot "The Invisible Woman," and Tim Reid was headed to "Simon & Simon."  The entire cast was in-demand throughout the 1980s, except for Jan Smithers (who maintained a low profile after deciding to raise her family) and Gary Sandy (a fine actor who was in smaller parts and a lot of theater).  So it wasn't surprising that they tried to bring back WKRP in 1991 with a hip, younger cast interacting with the original cast... all of them made cameos or signed-on as regulars EXCEPT Smithers and Sandy!  Strange.  Unfortunately, 1991 was not the time for a 1978 throwback, and "The New WKRP in Cincinnati" was cancelled in 1993 after two seasons in first-run syndication.

Mary (CBS, 1978)/The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (1979): In the fall of 1978, MTM conceived a lavish, big-budget variety show for Mary to star in.  It was essentially filling the void left by "The Carol Burnett Show," which ended in the spring of 1978.  Unfortunately, variety shows were on their way out.  Despite some top-notch talent (Dick Shawn, David Letterman, Swoosie Kurtz, Michael Keaton), the show was a flop.  It was revived the following year as "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour," an hour-long variety/sketch/sitcom hybrid that also flopped.  See for yourself: this possibly unaired episode features a reference to Mary's previous show, a nice sketch with Dick Shawn at 3:40, and an overlong, terrible "Saturday Night Fever" parody later in the show.  This unaired episode includes a catchy tribute to Canada, along with lots of Letterman.

The Last Resort (1979): A Gary David Goldberg dry (and not funny) run for Caddyshack, but with waiters instead of caddies?  In 2009, I asked Goldberg if he had any copies or memories of working on the show, and his answer (verbatim) was two words: "no idea."

Six O'Clock Follies (1980): a short-lived dramedy from (I think) Norman Steinberg (Blazing Saddles)?  This was trying to be MASH, except with Army news reporters instead of doctors.  Zzzzzz.  Includes a post-"Taxi" Randall Carver, plus a young Laurence Fishburne.  Awful theme song by the usually great Joe Cocker.

Paris (CBS, 1979-1980): aka a dry run for "Hill Street Blues."  This was first pairing for writers Stephen Bochco and Allan Kozoll, and starred James Earl Jones as a law professor.  Apparently not bad, but impossible to find.  I'm sure the mis-leading title didn't help.

By 1980, MTM shows had aired for a decade, almost exclusively on CBS.  MTM even co-owned the CBS Studio Center in Studio City.  In 1981, Grant Tinker assumed the additional role of president of NBC. Soon, NBC was picking up a number of shows from former MTM staffers ("Family Ties," "Cheers," "The Cosby Show").  Tinker was advised to step down as head of MTM to avoid a conflict of interest. His intention was to leave NBC after 5 years (in 1986) and return to MTM, taking over the reins from interim MTM president Arthur Price. However, Price fired many of the key players in the company's ranks, and by 1986 they had few shows left on the schedules.  Tinker did step down in 1986 (just as General Electric was taking over NBC's parent company, RCA), but did not return to MTM.  He tried creating a syndicated nightly news program in partnership with "USA Today," which was unsuccesful, and then largely retired.  Notice how crappy TV has been since then?

Hill Street Blues (NBC, 1981-1987): this show was actually picked up before Tinker joined NBC, and was as groundbreaking as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was a decade earlier.  Once again, re-hashing its accomplishments here would be a chore.  Go watch it!

Remington Steele (NBC, 1982-1987), St. Elsewhere (NBC, 1982-1988), Newhart (CBS, 1982-1990): More classics.

Bay City Blues (NBC, 1983): from the creators of "Hill Street Blues," but about a minor league baseball team.  Weird enough, till you learn that Dennis Franz and Sharon Stone were in the cast.

The Duck Factory (NBC, 1984): early Jim Carrey. One of the last single-cam-with-laugh-track sitcoms I can recall.

Mary (CBS, 1985-1986): a well-intentioned flop.

Fresno (1986): an interesting miniseries parody of "Dallas," with Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman and Charles Grodin.

Beverly Hills Buntz (NBC, 1987-1988): Dennis Franz's character was spun-off from "Hill Street" in this sitcom that feels like a really good episode of "Simon & Simon."  With Peter Jurasik.

The Popcorn Kid (1987), Eisenhower and Lutz (1987-1988), Annie McGuire (1988), City (1990), Capital News (1990), You Take the Kids (1990-1991): no idea.

Tattingers (1988-1989): man, do I hate what little I've seen of this show.  Stephen Collins plays a restaurateur who is sharing management of Tattinger's with his ex-wife.  Get ready to laugh!  I hope there were no groceries on-set, because this guy couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.  So horrendous.  The writers were lame yuppies who were smugly (and wrongly) secure in their hilarity.  Gross.  Oh, Stephen Collins also apparently has some issues.

FM (1989-1990): the very little I remember of this show is that it took place at a station with the wacky call letters, WIOU.  Phil Morris -- son of "Mission: Impossible"'s Greg Morris -- played against type as a shark GM (I think) of the station, and said in an interview at the time that he enjoyed the challenge.  (Phil Morris would later find fame as lawyer Jackie Chiles on "Seinfeld").  This seems to be one of the endless dramedies spewing forth for yuppies in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

The Trials of Rosie O'Neill (1990-1991): another dramedy.  Enough, already!

Boogies Diner (1994-1995), The Pretender (1996-2000; season one only), Family Challenge (1995-1997), Sparks (1996-1998), Bailey Kipper's P.O.V. (1996-1997), Goode Behavior (1996-1997), Good News (1997-1998): these don't even sound real.  They sound like fake titles you would used within another show.

MTM also distributed a number of shows at one time or another, including...
Xuxa, America's Funniest Home Videos (now owned by Disney-ABC Domestic Television), Graham Kerr, Evening Shade (with CBS Productions), Rescue 911 (with CBS Productions), Peter Gunn, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (with CBS Productions), Shopping Spree, Wait 'til You Have Kids, It Takes Two (1997) and Christy.  Also on the list is The Steve Allen Show.  I have no idea which iteration of his show this is.  However, the only one I know of that was called "The Steve Alen Show" verbatim, aired 1962-64 in syndication and was produced by Westinghouse.  Why would MTM distribute reruns of that?  And when?  I've never seen even a clip of this program, which was apparently a big an influence on future comedians such as David Letterman.

And let's not forget the MTM logo.

Steely Dan's finest outtakes

Poking around my old links, I found a bunch of Steely Dan outtakes that haven't been officially released.  In fact, the only "officially" released ones I know of were on 1993's "Citizen Steely Dan" boxed set...

FM (No Static at All) 1978 non-album single; won a Grammy for engineering (the first time it was given to a single and not an LP)

Bodhisattva (Live) non-album b-side recorded 1974, but released in 1980, with a drunken, rambling and hilarious intro by roadie Jerome Aniton

Here at the Western World 1976 outtake that was added to 1978's "Greatest Hits"

Everyone's Gone to the Movies 1971 studio demo (featuring Flo & Eddie) of a song that was eventually re-recorded for 1975's "Katy Lied"

And the box didn't even include their first single (which was briefly released, then withdrawn), Dallas/Sail the Waterway... the best way to get that on vinyl is the British "Plus 4" EP from 1977.

Here's some others that are unreleased, starting with my favorite:

Oh Wow, It's You Again piano demo from 1971 or so

The Second Arrangement apparently slated for "Gaucho," the multitrack tape was accidentally erased and they could never re-record it properly (I believe this is a rough mix of the lost version)

Kid Charlemagne backing track to the classic title cut from 1976's "The Royal Scam"

More Gaucho outtakes...
Kind Spirit

Kulee Baba

The Bear

Were You Blind That Day

The Heartland Music School of Acting

It's been a while since I wrote about TV record ads, and these ones from Heartland Music were THE WORST.  Instead of concert footage or photos of the acts, we get "regular people" in "regular situations" lip-synching!  It's the same people, too, in many of the spots.  At least some of them do look like they were in the store or the beauty salon or the office, and it's as if a camera crew surprised them and said, "excuse me, can you lip-sync to this song for a few seconds for our ad?"  First-rate acting.  One thing I noticed: there is not a SINGLE person of color in any of these ads.  NOT ONE.  Bizarre.  Also, the first three commercials feature a total of TWO songs by Black artists (at least among the ones being actually lip-synched).  Odd.


Man did I HATE this commercial growing up; it's also the one I recall seeing the most


This one is not as bad, and I don't recall seeing it often. The "elderly" folks here would, today, be people who grew up on Elton John (if you fast-forward the timeline)


The Unforgettable 50s (except they "forgot" anything that might have been labeled rock):


Finally we get to rocking (60s-70s); the hair dryer lady is trying way too hard.


I don't recall ever seeing this one, but the dude on "Love Will Keep Us Together" clearly doesn't know the words. And most of the couples move like they've never danced before.  During "Don't Worry Be Happy," you may spot Brian Baumgartner of "The Office."  And the lady on the left in "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" looks like Veanne Carter, who played Toby in the "Seinfeld" episode, "The Fire."


This is from Time-Life, not Heartland, and is just song clips with photos, as most people are used to. I just remember this being shown endlessly on Nick at Nite