Ep. 25 - Baseball

August 20, 2015

Writer: Hugh Wilson

Director: Hugh Wilson

Original Air Date: October 15, 1979

I don't know the first movie, or story or play that used the trope of the lone "nerd" standing out in the middle of a ball field praying for the ball not to come his way. I've seen the scene echo throughout entertainment, in later movies and cartoon episodes. I can't imagine it was originated by Hugh Wilson. If so, that's amazing. But even if not, Nessman is always the nerd I imagine and this is where it feels like that trope began.

If this boxset had director commentaries, this is definitely one of the episode I'd want to hear some background about. It is so different from the rest of the series, I'd love to hear both how it was technically produced as well as if it was any fun to shoot.

The cold opening is unique for several reasons. It is the only scene filmed at the station (so I wonder if they even bothered to shoot it in front of an audience). Also, in three minutes the entire plot and motivation of the episode is laid out. "Okay Herb. What about me?" We usually don't get that much that fast.

As the game begins, Les appoints himself as manager and pitcher, since he is the sports director of WKRP and this feels to me a little bit like Charlie Brown. He's the only person who truly cares about even playing this game, so he gives himself all of the most important roles however he is also the least qualified person do to any of those roles. By the end of the game, it's apparent he's not even qualified to stand alone in right field. I'm surprised nobody calls him "You Blockhead!"

A Nessman Out Standing in his Field

What is it about baseball that brings out the sepia-tone heritage heart tugging in Americans? Les uses this same imagery to convince the station to play in game in the first place. Where this really stands out is in the slow banjo music that plays throughout the game. For a show about a rock and roll station, this is the only music in the episode and it is suppose to remind everyone of those sunny summer days when everyone played ball with their... chief rivals on a $200 bet?

But that's not the music Les hears. He hears the scraping sounds of violin lessons and the bullying voice of his mother. This glimpse into Les' life is one of the main purposes of the episode.

The other purpose is one "WKRP in Cincinnati" loves to pull out every so often and that's to show the individuality of the characters outside of work. Johnny Fever brings a lawn chair while in centre field. Venus wears a scarf and carefully brushes himself off after diving across the field. Herb continues to wear double knit pants and white shoes. Andy is the only person (on either team) to wear a tank top -- gotta show off those guns to the ladies at home!

The completely blotto engineer Buckey Dornster (brought back for the last time in show history in order to fill out a nine man roster) smacking line drives while passing out is a nice call back to episode 21 in which Johnny gets faster reflexes the more he drinks. 

But the stand outs are Arthur "Moose" Carlson, who just wants to have fun but wilts under the pressure of competition, and his loyal friend Jennifer, who helps him out with a smile and her "new red shorts." 

Did you notice Andy is also in this picture?

This episode is like a buffet of WKRP, It's not a great episode itself, but there are a lot of good treats in it. After reading his paper and not caring for four innings, I love that Johnny finally says he's had enough and then explains to Carlson and Jennifer how to turn the game around. It results in five runs in one inning! Add to that Johnny getting himself hit by a pitch and Venus and him acting like he's been shot. Carlson's exclamation of "I should hope so!" when called safe at home after defiantly walking the bases is lovely understatement.

To me, the funniest joke in the episode comes when Les asks Bailey (who looks great even if she's not wearing short shorts) to lead the team in a prayer. Why her? "Because you're the most wholesome," explains Les. What's funny there is 1) how many of her friends at the station think this is funny, as if they know something more about her, 2) that she agrees anyway because she realizes that is her reputation and 3) that Les wouldn't consider himself the most wholesome. What dark secrets is he hiding?

The outcome of the game is never in question to an audience that has ever seen even one sports movie - (spoiler alert!) the picked upon Les wins the game on the very last play and is carried off the field on the shoulders of his team mates. A voice over plays that I don't recall from syndication of Les "recalling" the events of that day, as if in a memoir. It's more of the purple prose he uses at the beginning of the episode but what I found interesting is he says this was an experience most boys and girls have when they are ten or eleven, and here he was experiencing it "27 years later." That puts Les' age at around 37 or 38 years old! With the bow ties, receding hairline and general squareness of the character, I always thought Les was well into his 40's and maybe 50's. (IMDB says Richard Sanders was 39 in 1979, but he seems older, doesn't he?)

Other Notes: WPIG station manager Clark Callahan was played by actor Ross Bickell who was married to Loni Anderson at the time (maybe that why he wasn't distracted by her "playing in tight" at centrefield). Did you know when to laugh throughout the episode? Any laughs you hear are canned; not audience. This episode aired during the middle of the 1979 World Series, which the Pittsburgh Pirates eventually won. Pete Rose really did play third and first base, but the show is now three years past the Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine" dynasty which featured Pete Rose.

Ep. 24 - For Love or Money, part 2

August 15, 2015

Writer:  Mary Maguire

Director: Will MacKenzie

Original Air Date: September 24, 1979

One nice thing about a blog is if you want a recap of last week's episode, you just have to go back and read the last posting. Back in the days of episodic television, you needed to spend two minutes letting a narrator remind the audience of what had happened. One nice thing about watching a DVD boxset is you can watch the two episodes back to back and judge how well the narrator did.

He did fine.

It was neat to see how they used a couple of different cuts and camera angles in the recap than what they used in the actual episode. Johnny recap adds the line "She got nice and weird!" and Herb reclines to a full shot of the bull pen rather than a close up.

But that's really nit picking an episode that has some very nice acting and subtle themes. The episode has the same writer and director as the first episode which makes sense since this is really just one long episode cut into two rather than two completely different episode tied together as in the two-parter from season one (Goodbye, Johnny and Johnny Comes Back)

It starts almost exactly the same way as the first episode, with a wordless shot of Bailey alone in the station, and then she comes up behind the DJ (in this case, Venus) in the studio and startles him. Jan Smithers really gives her best performance in the series so far, because she is finally given something to do. With Venus, she is angry and embarrassed. but as she sits at Herb's mirror, primps her hair and goes on her imaginary date with Johnny, she's sweet and (to use the modern term) Adorkable. So when Andy catches her doing it, we can really feel her humiliation being piled onto the humiliation of being stood up.

The audience should be turning against Johnny right about now except we know he's having problems of his own. He's called Venus to come help him because Buffy, the woman he lived with in California for two years, is coming back to sue him for (a new idea in 1980) palimony.

"I put poison in the brandy!" "How very... medieval of you."

Now it's Howard Hesseman's turn to continue the fine acting we saw in the first episode. At first he is distraught and panicy. Maybe Buffy wasn't the only drama queen living in Laurel Canyon back in the day. Johnny swings from dramatically shocked and depressed, to resigned and even level-headed. Then he swings back to dramatic when he discovers he may have been poisoned! He finishes the episode acting as if he's on speed. Don't just listen to the fast talking, but look at the darting eyes and lip licking too. That's a lot of emotions in about ten minutes.

After everything, Bailey still wants Johnny 

Bailey delivers the heart of the episode by saying that some people "aren't cruel. Just thoughtless." She is directing this at Johnny, who at first thinks she means Buffy, and when the realization of what he has done to Bailey hits him, his whole demeanour collapses under the weight of the bad karma he has brought upon himself. If Johnny had only kept his date with Bailey, not only would none of this have happened but he could have been starting a whole new, healthy relationship with someone who isn't crazy. (Relatively speaking that is. This is still WKRP. Everyone is crazy). Another wide emotional swing that Hesseman sells well.

Let's go back a little bit to the scene in the booth when Andy and Carlson come in to discuss the budget numbers with Venus, before they all get routed to Jennifer's apartment. First, I don't remember most of this scene from syndication. The discussion for the price for a new transmitter? That seems new to me, but it doesn't fit with anything else in the episode so I can see why it might have been cut for time. However, it is interesting the show wants to show Venus as some sort of tax expert, or at least knowledgeable about finance. I said in the last post that the producers obviously wanted to develop the characters deeper this season, and the juxtaposition of funky nighttime DJ against jargon spouting accountant give both that depth while keeping the funny.

That scene of Andy, Venus and Carlson together in the booth is reflected nicely at the end of the scene in Jennifer's apartment. Bailey and Johnny finally go on their date and the three men are left alone in Jennifer's apartment. You would think these men wouldn't have much in common outside of work, but Jennifer's apartment is a "nice place." All three of them are curious to take the tour, drink the fine liquor... and check out Jennifer's bedroom. The three men getting caught together by Jennifer only tightens their peculiar bond.

Other notes: If your wondering which snifter Johnny picked up, he DID pick the "poisoned" cup. Carlson checks out the bottom of the same brass bowl Buffy checks out in part one.

Ep. 23 - For Love or Money, part 1

August 9, 2015
(...aaaaand I'm back!)

Writer:  Mary Maguire
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: September 17, 1979

So now imagine you are Hugh Wilson and the other writers and producers of WKRP and it is the summer of 1979. Against long odds, your weird and edgy sit-com has just been picked up for another season. At this time, you are looking back on what worked, what didn't work and how improvements can be made. What you you change? What things would you highlight and what things would you move away from?

Given what we see, here is the list I think that team came up with:
1) More character development. The audience is loving these eight people. Let's see more about their lives - where they came from and how they interact with each other.
2) Love (today, we would call it "shipping") Maybe some sparks could fly between our characters
3) We can be ridiculous with these characters and still not lose their humanity. Let's do more of that! But still keep current to issues of the day.
4) We need to do more with that Bailey Quarters character. Jan Smithers is a far more confident actress than we're showing now.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the minds at WKRP in Cincinnati bring you the two-part season opener "For Love or Money."

The very first character we see, for almost half a minute without speaking, is Bailey. She is going to be the fulcrum of this episode, the pivot point. The next thing we see is ridiculous: Johnny jumping up from under the console. Two ticks off the list and we're not to the opening credits yet.

These are now the opening credits fans will be most familiar with. Gone are the fake radio intros and long panning shots of barges on the Ohio River. A glimpse of Cincinnati and shots of the whole cast are presented, not just the names of Gary Sandy and Gordon Jump.

The theme of both parts of these episodes (but much more in the first) is the relationships and expectations between men and women, but it's heartening to see such a big topic is handled in a gentler way that it would have been in the first season. Those expectations are also about the power structure of men and women at that time.

I don't think the issue of a woman asking a man out on a date carries as much sense of empowerment as it did in 1979. (It might. It's been a long time since I was asked out!) It's strange now to see a college educated woman such as Bailey take so much pride in asking Johnny out to the movies. She worked up her nerve to to it then brags to Jennifer, not about the date, but that she had the courage to ask for a date! Remember, Bailey still has ties to the University... that's where the movie is being shown. Issues and discussions about Women's Liberation would be more prominent there than almost anywhere else in the city.

Johnny obviously doesn't see it with her same import. At first, Johnny thinks it's a group event. He tells Les it's nothing more than a movie. Then, once he agrees to go, he literally blows it off one minute later when another opportunity (with a better chance for sex) comes along.

As much as Andy and Johnny are teasing Herb to provide his "professional advice on women," his "objective" is the same as Johnny's... get her into bed. The River Flowing Past Both Doors is nice, but, the show tells us, we all really know what men want.

Law Suit?!?

In the same way, we know what women want. Enter Buffy! Laurel Canyon Buffy! No Kidding Around Buffy! She's crazy! She's spacey! She's casing the joint! From the minute she walks into Jennifer's apartment, she's figuring out how much everything is worth. It's a story that's been often told... Men want sex and will spend money to get it (Johnny asks everyone in the station for cash to impress Buffy) and women want money and will use their bodies to get it (Buffy drapes herself across Johnny while checking out the value of things).

There is one hero in this story who doesn't fit into this pattern, but we don't see that payoff until part two. So keep reading.

Lots of other things are happening in this episode to reintroduce us to these characters. Herb's whole speech, interrupted by the mere presence of Jennifer, shows both his depth and intelligence, and the sudden limits of those same depth and intelligence. Les displays his frugality and self control, as does Venus, albeit in a less Scroogey sort of way. Carlson shows he doesn't quite know what he sounds like to other people.

As I've said, the best thing about this box set is the inclusion of the original music. The show ends with Bailey walking around a darkened studio listening to Earth, Wind and Fire's "After the Love Is Gone." Not only is it an appropriately melancholy song for the occasion, but it's a song I can easily believe Venus Flytrap would actually play on his show. A different, watered down track wouldn't have worked as well.

Other Notes... Howard Hesseman obviously can not play the piano in real life. His scene at the piano should be a cue for him to play something special to Buffy, but he's really just hitting keys. "Raoul" was famously the fake name Hugh Wilson used when writing "Fish Story"