Ep. 63 - A Simple Little Wedding

March 14, 2018

Writer: Blake Hunter
Director: Nicholas Stamos
Original Air Date: March 21, 1981

Writing this blog, I've learned that people who are into WKRP are really into Bailey, so before I get into this episode, let's talk about her.

In the cold open, when Mr. Carlson lets Bailey and Jennifer in on his secret that he and Carmen are going to renew their vows, Bailey is the first one to jokingly flirt with the Big Guy and suggest he have a little fling before getting married. She is the one who leads Jennifer into doing the same thing. Just two years earlier, she was the shy, mousy girl whose name Mr. Carlson couldn't remember. Now she is confident, not just with his authority but her own sexuality!

This is what I see on fan boards - men who are attached to this confident version of Bailey. How much of this should we attribute to Jennifer's influence; inarguably the most confident character on the show (if not in all of Ohio)? How much of this stems from her "dungaree" generation taking the power mantle from the "suits" in the station - specifically Andy's confidence in her? How much comes for the world around her in 1981, in which all women were taking greater control of their own destinies? I suspect it's the writer's reflection of the latter, but I'm interested in Bailey's in-universe development.

Getting back to the plot of this episode, we once again see Carmen Carlson, played by the delightful Allyn Ann McLerie, together with Arthur.  This is the partnership in which he has always been most comfortable because, despite all the Carlson money, the two of them are simple people. They are romantic in their love and want to show in with a marriage renewal... simple and understated.

But a wedding (kind of like a funeral) is often more about the family and friends than it is the couple. Twenty-Five years earlier, Mama Carlson tried to make it the social event of the year. She had invited Senator Taft and even President Eisenhower! The young couple ended up eloping rather than going through all that. But this time it will be different! This time they are adults and they will be in control!

Herb sees the whole thing as a chance to cut loose, party and even impress some clients in the process, as well as hopefully score brownie points with the boss. Nothing impresses a boss like Mr. Carlson like a 50's themed bachelor party! I need to point out here the very specific call back to Herb's drinking from last week's episode. I wonder if it was the CBS censors said it would be in bad taste to follow a "very special episode" about Herb's alcoholism with an episode in which he gets bombed at a bachelor party. Whoever was responsible, it was maybe the best call back ever made on one of the first sit-coms that ever cared about its continuity.

It's peculiar how this show that so often succeeds with "theatre of the mind" relies so heavily on sight gags in this episode. Herb coming into Mr. Carlson's office dressed like a flasher, only to later remove his trench coat and reveal an even funnier outfit underneath is one. The eyes of the six male main characters watching strippers performing in their office is one (only Herb is comfortable. The others range from confused to embarrassed to horrified). The site of the other women sitting stock still, afraid to move, at Carmen's bridal shower is another.

I spoke earlier about Bailey's growing confidence. To one employer, she feels confident enough to slide right up against him seductively. However, to this far more fearsome employer, that confidence is only strong enough to ask "Might I move about?"

Mama Carlson is a far more skilled manipulator than Herb Tarlek can ever hope to be. Where he jumps Arthur with loud music and strippers, Mama slowly turns the heat up on Carmen, asking for a simple bridal shower, then inviting a few more friends to the shower, then asking her to wear a formal dress, then planning a full high mass ceremony. It's enough to make Carmen raise her voice for the first time this episode, not in protest, but for...

"Hirsch!"

And we welcome the last major character to the WKRP universe, fan favourite "house boy" Hirsch. Played by Ian Wolfe when he was 85 years old, Wolfe's martini dry wit was the only thing Mama Carlson could not control.

How well do Arthur and Carmen know each other? When he escapes his own bachelor party and arrives to the Carlson estate, he sees his wife also needs rescuing. And if eloping worked 25 years earlier, surely it will work again.

The motel the Carlson's spent their first night as a married couple has changed in 25 years. It's now a make-out motel, with porn on the TV and a vibrating bed. See how gently McLerie delivers the line that there is a machine in the bathroom "that sells things." She makes the wisest point of the episode when, as Arthur notes leaving now wouldn't be the same, she says "it will be better."

Not all WKRP episode tie up as neatly as this one. The two parties ruined by their respective runaway guests-of-honour, Mama comes to the station to give her son a dressing down. But before she can, Herb rips into his boss about embarrassing his clients and leaving Herb stuck with the rental of a "red, crushed velvet tuxedo." He storms off with a sarcastic "Thanks a lot!" Arthur then turns to his mother, awaiting her attack. However, nothing she says could match what Herb has already gone over in far gaudier detail.

"Never mind." she sighes.

Roy

Other Notes - Twenty-Five years earlier would have put the Carlson's wedding in 1956. Somethings the writers got right were: Fred Waring & his Pennsyvanians was a big band radio show from 1933-1957, Dwight Eisenhower was president at the time and that probably was the way Les Nesman would have dressed then. Something they got wrong is that Sen. Robert Taft (son of the president) had dies in 1953.  Ian Wolfe has 303 (!) acting credits on IMDB and that site notes he appeared in 14 films that won the Best Picture Oscar.  Feather Austen, the actress playing one of the strippers, was also one of Herb's failed hosting candidates in the "Ask Jennifer" episode. A "Silver Bullet" is a drink made with gin and whiskey on crushed ice.