Writer: Dan Guntzelman
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: March 17, 1982
Since starting this blog, I have learned there is a small but passionate subsection of the WKRP in Cincinnati fan base who are obsessed with the layout of the office. Where do the halls lead? Where is Andy's office in relation to Mr. Carlson's office. For them, this episode is a treasure-trove of information. For the rest of us, not so much.
"Fire" is like a combination of two earlier episodes: Ep. 12 "Tornado" and Ep. 37 "Put Up or Shut Up." In "Tornado," we see how each member of the staff respond in an emergency (spoiler: Herb is a coward), giving each cast member a couple of minutes to show their reaction to the same events. In "Put Up or Shut Up," Jennifer finally goes on a date with Herb. In the course of that episode, the two of them share secrets and become vulnerable with each other, resulting in them having a deeper friendship. Both of these things happen in this episode, but not as well as those original episodes.
Everyone is going home on a Friday night. Andy going to the Bahamas with a stewardess for weekend of snorkelling (I guess he doesn't need the "I'll Take Romance Computerized Dating Service" anymore!) that he's desperate for people to ask him about, but he's trying to come off as coy and humble. This comes off as if Andy is writing a letter to Penthouse magazine.
In a real nod to history, Bailey needs to deposit her paycheque as soon as possible so the other cheques she has written in the past couple of weeks won't bounce. Kids, cheques were these things people would write out to other people (usually in cursive) as an instruction for a bank to give some of your money to the person/company receiving the cheque. You would even receive a cheque as your payment from work! All this was before direct deposits or interact payments.
Suddenly there is the smell of smoke and a bunch of fire trucks are surrounding the building. Johnny says he doesn't know what's happening because, as he was coming through the lobby "everything was... kinda foggy." The Flemm Building is on fire!!
Well not the whole building, just an office on the fifth floor. But someone down there has opened a fire door, blocking the stairwells with smoke, and the elevator has broken down... with Jennifer and Herb trapped inside!
This sounds like the beginning of Herb's Penthouse letter. At first he's thrilled to be trapped with Jennifer. But then they are told there is a fire in the building and Herb starts to panic! He becomes claustrophobic and starts taking off his clothes. Jennifer tries to remain calm and be the adult in the room, but she is scared too.
Back up on the ninth floor, the gang is panicking. The fire warden for the floor is... Mr. Carlson. He wanted to wear the firefighters' hat. So that really means Andy is in charge. After speaking with the fire chief, he takes Venus' Security Hose (there's a phrase!) and looks for a volunteer to lower down onto the elevator car. The suddenly energized Dr. Fever decides to "leap into the jaws of danger" for reasons probably best described as "the writers wanted to lower Johnny down an elevator shaft."
Just as an aside, this is the episode that proves to me that, if WKRP were in the real world, Les would have been the most successful radio personality to have survived the 80's. A right-wing conspiracy theorist who can take a small event (like an office fire) and sensationalize it into a headline grabbing delirium (a towering inferno!). We are seeing the beginnings of a conservative talk radio host like Rush Limbaugh or Morton Downey jr. emerging from Cincinnati's "News Beacon."
Back down in the elevator, Herb says he knows why this is happening: "God wants me out of the way and He's burning down a whole building to do it. He's been working on this all my life. The heart trouble? I've had it. Drinking problem? That's me. Real Estate? I bought a home in the only neighbourhood in the whole world where the property values have gone down. My best friend is Les. Lucille thinks sex is a reward."
Both to calm him down and because she really is frightened, Jennifer asks Herb to put his arm around her. Then she tells him a secret: she didn't have any big weekend plans; she was just going to go home...alone... and read a trashy romance novel! I think we the audience are suppose to be much more shocked by this revelation. Herb is! But I think we are too familiar with the troupe of the beautiful, lonely woman to be very surprised. Herb's confession is that he tells every man he meets that he and Jennifer are together on the side. I always assumed he was doing that already.
These are Herb's and Jennifer's big revelations to each other, and as far as revelations go, they've each had more personal conversations in other episodes.
Then Johnny sticks his head through the top of the elevator car. He's learned he could just climb the emergency ladder down to them. Strangely emboldened by his success and hero's welcome, Johnny turns his attention to the control panel on which he somehow electrocutes himself. like a cartoon character, to bring the elevator back up to the gang.
Everyone is relieved and excitedly telling each other about their part in the story. The fire chief calls to let them know it's now safe to leave. But there's a bit of a let down after the adrenaline rush of the fire and everyone just sort of awkwardly leaves for the evening as they originally planned to.
Except for Herb. He takes the stairs
Awkward might be the best description of this episode. It's not wacky enough to be really funny. It's not vulnerable enough to be very touching. Much like the Friday night depicted, something happens and then it ends.
Roy
Other Notes: Is Hugh Wilson the voice of the Fire Chief? There is no credit given, but it sort of sounds like him. Does anyone know? "The Towering Inferno" is a movie from 1974 that the writers and audience would have been very familiar with. It stars... everybody and was the highest grossing film of the year. It is about a burning skyscraper that is a little taller than the Flemm Building... 135 stories tall!
