Ep. 80 - Jennifer and Johnny's Charity

March 10, 2020

Writer: Blake Hunter
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: February 3, 1982

America has now gone through one full year of Ronald Reagan as its President, and a year of Reaganomics - deep cuts in Social Services and deep tax cuts for the highest earners. The writers for WKRP have not been shy in taking swipes at Reagan this season. Just in the last episode, Herb gives a practiced speech about Trickle Down Economics which Jennifer calls "a little too good." But this is the first episode that takes this issue straight on and your political views probably shape how successful you think this episode is.

Right from the cold opening, we hear that the problems the Vine Street Mission has with rebuilding their kitchen after a fire swept through it, is the result os "a loss of Federal Funding." So the first half of the episode show that long standing WKRP trope of going from character to character to get their reactions to a situation. This time that situation is charity.

However, this time those reactions are as much a reflection of our characters political views as anything else. On the right side of the political spectrum, Les needed a little convincing, but eventually gives $10. Mr. Carlson offers $10 also, but is tricked by Johnny into donating $160, as is Andy. Carlson is fine spending literally sixteen times as much money on a toy for himself than giving that money to some charity of Johnny's. On the far side of the right is Herb, who says he doesn't believe in charity - that people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps ("like Venus did" which displays a different right wing view). He only decides to donate when Bailey tricks him into admitting he does claim to be charitable when he files his taxes!

Herb does bring up a point that the end of the episode is going to turn on. He thinks that people only give to charity so they can feel better about themselves.

On the left side of the spectrum, Bailey is not only donating, she's organizing the fund raising at the station. There was never a question she would donate. Venus is also willing to give, prepared to give triple of what Johnny is going to give (more in the Other Notes). Johnny gives what he can but he simply doesn't have that much to give. That's why he hangs out at the Mission in the first place - he needs the free meals.

Jennifer is happy to help, but stops when she figures she has already raised the $30,000 the kitchen needs. To the shock of everyone who is donating $10 or a little more, Jennifer is operating at a whole other level, where $30,000 is "a piece of cake." We are already seeing the income divide that would come to define politics and western economies in the 21st century.

Even the most generous of the WKRP staff has to consider how much they can afford to give. Jennifer and her friends operate in a whole other stratosphere. She knows just by throwing a little cocktail party with a couple of the right people, she can get $30,000 on one night. For everyone else on the staff, that's more than a year's salary.

The second half of the episode is the party in Jennifer's apartment. But wait! you say. Didn't Jennifer move into a house across the river last season? Yes, and the writers, in a great move of continuity explain away that small fact by commenting that she moved back when that whole neighbourhood was re-zoned to commercial. Most viewers wouldn't have remembered that, but it is wonderful someone on the writing staff cared (more than they do about the seemingly dozens of jobs Venus has held throughout his life, but I digress). The apartment is a far more opulent set than the house, which makes the later point of the episode more vivid.

What happens at Jennifer's party is little more than a pissing contest between two very rich men trying to one up each other and impress their own wives. Judge Randall offers a piece of land on which to build a new Mission. Mr. Mittenhoff ups him with a $50,000 donation towards the building of the Mission. Then the Judge matches that donation. And just like that, the Mission has three times as much money as they need.

Next, miscommunication rears its comedic head! Johnny, misunderstanding Jennifer from earlier, thinks bringing the people from the Mission to the party will help secure the money. Johnny operates in a world where all the stops need to be pulled out to get the kind of money he's looking for. Jennifer operates in a world where that kind of money is a rounding error. So Johnny brings Sheila, Charlie and Percy from the Mission and the rich people get to meet exactly the sort of people their money is going to. And those people are not impressed.

First of all, they don't want a new Mission built, and certainly not in the suburbs. "There are drunks out there looking for it.You can't move that thing a foot!" Next, they don't need that much money - they just need enough to rebuild the kitchen. They have ideas on how best to spend this money on themselves that are not in line with the fancy ideas of their benefactors.

Oddly, it is Jennifer who is most offended by the attitude of the Mission group. She feels they are being ungrateful to her friends. "I haven't heard a Thank you" she tells Johnny. Johnny feels the rich people are being condescending to his friends. "This is just chequebook charity," he says, thinking her friends just care about the tax deduction and not about the people involved.

It comes down to Sheila, speaking one on one with Mr. Mittenhoff to really get the heart of the situation because, as a former exotic dancer, she knows something about the way the world works (Herb had come to basically the same conclusion earlier in the episode and he is definitely not an exotic dancer, so I'm not sure what that really has to do with anything). She knows rich people like giving money because it's fun! "It's a kick," she says and we saw that plainly earlier at the party. "So see! Everybody gets what they want!"

Except the rest of the WKRP staff, who had no real need to be at this party, and all get shunted off to the kitchen while the real business of the episode is taking place anyway. As they proceed to set fire to her kitchen, Bailey concludes "this is just a very bad week for kitchens in Cincinnati."

Roy

Other Notes - Classic Les Nesman news bulletin as a "Monster Lizzard Ravages the East Coast." Listen to his entire report and notice that no other word would have used the letter B. The song "Come Together" is played during this episode, and it really sounds like the Beatles... but it's not. It's a cover band, which makes me wonder why Shout couldn't have used more cover bands for songs they couldn't clear.