Ep. 7 - Turkeys Away

December 7, 2014

Writer: Bill Dial
Director: Michael Zinberg
Original Air Date: October 30, 1978
***VERY IMPORTANT***
^^^FAMOUSLY FUNNY^^^


Here it is!

If you are reading this blog, chances are good you jumped right to this post. TV Guide ranked it as one of the 50 funniest episodes of TV ever! It is the episode that saved the show from getting cancelled in its first season. Frankly, it would be impossible for me to overstate the importance of this particular episode to the history of WKRP.

It's the Thanksgiving episode.

Mr. Carlson throws live turkeys out of a helicopter. Chaos ensues.

That famously happens in the second half of the show. This episode can be divided into two very distinct halves. The first half follows Mr. Carlson's attempts to become relevant within his own station. Everything has been working for so long WITHOUT his involvement, the staff (both young and old) become suspicious when he wants to be in on the action.

It sets up the comeuppance of Herb, who literal "got in line" to complain about Carlson, but later brown-nosed his way into being "right by his side" at this moment of his greatest defeat. By the way, that "get in line" site gag is extremely funny. Yet it might be the fifth or sixth funniest thing in this one episode!

This also sets up the first of what, in my opinion, are the two best and most important aspects of this episode. First, there are no wasted moments - no throwaway lines. For example, one of Carlson's first attempts to help is with Bailey doing a promotion. Although we've seen she has done this before, we know from just the last episode that she has many other jobs in the station, including producing her own show. But this particular task sets up that Carlson has done "thousands of promotions" and that he will make a snap decision without getting all the facts.

The second important aspect is that the magic of this episode mirrors the magic of radio itself: it's all about the theatre of the mind. Radio is a medium that paints pictures with words. We see it performed in spectacular fashion on three separate occasions, kicking off the second half of the show.

First, Johnny tells Venus the story of the Guatemalan earthquake relief project. It could have been two minutes of filler on a different show. But it gets the audience in the practice of imagining ridiculous things. Johnny even says "I still have this picture in my mind of quake victims stumbling through the rubble... all looking like Dolly Parton!" Venus laughs at the mental image Johnny paints for us. But this only leads to the images we will create of the Pinedale Shopping Mall!

(Another quick example about no wasted moments: Les is yelled at by a shop owner before the promotion. It's funny but it doesn't mean much... until later when you realize that this encounter is the reason Les doesn't just take shelter in the store, but stays outside for the entire... promotion. No wasted moments.)

Nothing in the next few minutes of the show is not funny.

Starting from Les being unable to distinguish a banner he himself had made and the staff back at the station miming along, the comedy builds. And all the action occurs from the description Les gives us, as well as the reactions from the staff. When Les cries out "Oh My God! They're Turkeys!" we are watching the reactions of Andy, Bailey, Venus and Johnny. Andy throws his head back in recognition of the trouble the station is about to face. Johnny just smiles and shakes his head.

Les's news report is obviously an aping of Herbert Morrison's famous reporting of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, specifically when he says "Oh the Humanity!" Les is equating turkeys hitting a parking lot with deaths of dozens of people in a fiery zeppelin crash! But the screaming, destruction and confused terror from the crowd must make Les think about the worst.

Then the remote feed suddenly goes dead. Again, we are watching the reactions of the staff as the "theatre of the mind" comes to a sudden jarring end and reality snaps back in. Johnny is naturally the person who can handle that jar the best, with what is personally my favourite line in the show: "Les? Are you there? [pause] Les isn't there."

Back at the station, Andy and Jennifer are handling the fallout from the turkey disaster when Herb and Mr. Carlson return, disheveled and covered in turkey feathers.They are soon followed by an even more disheveled Les, who proceeds to tell everyone the aftermath of the turkey drop in the last great "theatre of the mind" piece. "It's like the turkeys mounted a counterattack!" No filmed footage could ever match what is in your mind's eye upon hearing a line like that!

Finally, as the credits start to roll, Mr. Carlson comes out of his office to deliver the single most memorable line in WKRP's history: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

It has taken me a while to write this post. I've wanted to touch on as many points as I could for this, the quintessential episode of a program about which I've promised to write 83 more posts. I may even come back to it again in the future. (Jennifer won't get coffee, but Bailey brings everyone in the control room coffee. Herb feels Carlson thinks off him as a son. Oh, there's so much here!!)

I see there are a number of people who have read these posts, and I thank you.  I'd love to hear about your memories of the show, your comments about this blog, what you think of the new box set or even just what brought you here.

Thanks
Happy Thanksgiving, whenever you're reading this
Roy