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"