Ep. 56 - Frog Story

October 9, 2017

Writers: Robert H. Dolman
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: January 24, 1981

^^^FAMOUSLY FUNNY^^^


First thing I need to get off my chest with this episode is that there is a running joke that I don't think most people get. It doesn't earn a laugh from the audience and none of the characters make a comment on it, so I need to point this out right now: nobody in their right mind spray paints the INTERIOR of their kitchen cabinets! Much less in pink! You would choke on the fumes! It would go on too thick, drip off, and make a huge mess! Spray paint in not durable enough for that much wear and tear - that why most cabinet interiors are left alone, or maybe have shelf paper in them.

Nobody spray paints the interior of their kitchen cabinets! Certainly not pink! It's a joke to show once again how clueless and lazy Herb is, and that it was his cluelessness and laziness that killed a frog. We all need to laugh at that for a minute before I can go on.

And how did the frog get into the kitchen cabinets to end up being spray painted in any case?!? The frog is kept in Bunny's room. So how did...

Nope, nope. I'm okay. I'm better now. With those huge logic jumps behind us, let's go ahead and analyze this generally very good episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati."

Remember that this episode appears only six years after the original MTM Productions show "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired its funniest episode called "Chuckles Bites the Dust." This episode is always listed with WKRP's "Turkeys Away" as one of the funniest episode of television ever aired. Ostensibly, that episode is about the funeral of kiddie show host Chuckles the Clown (and thankfully, not Sailor Ned) after a bizarre accident. But really it's about characters trying not to laugh at a ridiculous situation.  The writer of this episode, Robert H. Dolman (see: Other Notes - there's a lot about him) who only wrote this one episode for WKRP would definitely have known this and may have used the same idea to pitch a script to another MTM show.

Even before the credits, we see Jennifer trying to hold in her laughter so as not to appear rude to a distraught Herb over his painting of Bunny's pet frog. Bailey can't even bring herself to tell Les what happened. Andy is complete nonchalant about the whole incident. Venus thinks it's the setup to a joke until Les quickly says something racially insensitive about how Venus could help. Strangely Les is the only person who really tries to help by convincing Herb to take Greenpeace the frog to the only doctor in the building.

Les exhibits a behaviour I remember well from the 1970's that I don't see in the world as much today: doctors as Gods. Perhaps it is through changes in pop culture that takes us from the saintly "Marcus Welby, MD" through "ER" and into "Gray's Anatomy" that has pulled doctors down from their pedestals, but there was once a time when the word of a doctor was law. To ask for a second opinion was practically unheard of and the motivations of doctors were not questioned. That's why, eventually the opinion of a podiatrist is seen as valuable in the case of a chemically poisoned frog.

Let's also pause to note that I think this is the first time the word "environmentalist" has ever been used on the show. It's used to describe Herb's daughter Bunny and I think it's an interesting decision for the daughter of Herb and Lucille. It's as if this little eight-year-old has already looked at the adult role models in her life and said "Nope. There's gotta be another way to go."

WKRP is never more itself then when it takes a ridiculous situation and passes it from character to character to see how they handle it. Think of Ep. 35 in which Johnny thinks he hears God, or Ep. 20 when Carlson's weird son visits. Now they are passing around a frog in a shoebox so every character can give their explanations of death. Now all of that stifled laughter has turned into the same general condolences people give when a friend's relative dies: they don't know quite what to say but they want to appear sympathetic. Jennifer even says "my sympathies, Herb." Herb, who was so distraught earlier, is now the person who has to remind everyone that Greenpeace was "just a frog." Andy calls him "a great frog;" Venus goes even farther, saying "he was an all right frog."

Jennifer and Bailey go into a very deep discussion on the nature of death. To Jennifer "death is the logical, unavoidable conclusion to all things." Bailey mentions how waves may end but the water that makes a wave continue, and I believe that's proof that, at some point on her summer vacation, Bailey got high at the beach.

Through all of this discussion of poisonings and death, the staff misses the main point that has upset Herb so much: what will his daughter think of him? How disappointed will she be in him that he has killed something she cares about. Despite Herb trying his best to "Herb" his way out of facing the music, in the end he does come clean and tell his daughter the truth.

Which brings us to what I always remember most about this episode: "schistosomiasis!" Whenever someone around me is ill and they don't know what's the matter, I'll often yell "schistosomiasis" and nobody but me gets the reference.

Schistosomiasis, or "snail fever" is caused by parasitic flatworms and is caused by contact with contaminated fresh water. It is most commonly found in the developing countries in Africa and Asia (thanks, Wikipedia). In short, it is not the sort of disease a DJ in Cincinnati is likely to pick up. A lot of this episode is taken up with Les's frightening diagnosis of Johnny's cold, especially "the chin-chest thing." The highlight of all this is Johnny's complaint that people will care more about the health of an animal than another human. "It's like in the movies. You can waste the entire Confederate Army - nobody cares. 395,000 guys deader than doornails. But you kill one collie, everyone collapses in grief."

Roy


Other Notes: The writer is credited as "Robert H. Dolman." He would go on to greater success as Bob Dolman under which he won two Emmys writing for SCTV. In fact, he even married and had two children with SCTV star Andrea Martin and his sister was married to another SCTV alum Martin Short. He also wrote the films "Willow" and "Far and Away".
Johnny is referencing the collie Lassie, who was a TV staple in the 1950's and 60's. The actor who played the doctor, Kenneth Tigar, currently has 156 imdb.com acting credits. Stacy Heather Tolkin, who portrayed bunny both here and in "Real Families" was also a voice of Sally from The Peanuts cartoons.