Writers: Richard Sanders and Michael Fairman
Director: Asaad Kelada
Original Air Date: January 22, 1979
Happy New Year everyone! My New Year's resolution is to write these reviews with a bit more regularity no matter what life throws in the way. So this is a good episode for new beginnings!
With Ep. 9 being a recap episode, Ep. 10 looks and feels like what the show would be for the remaining 80 episodes. Cold opening; character studies; one huge joke set piece. Some of the most famous stuff, that casual fans remember best, happened before now. The stuff that would have made you buy the box set and read "WKRP Relived" happens now.
Before we get into the episode, we have to deal with the bow tie wearing elephant in the room... look at who wrote this episode. Richard Sanders aka Les Nesman and his long-time writing partner (fun fact: he played the shop keeper in the "Turkeys Away" episode.) Sanders would go on to write a handful of episodes throughout WKRP's run and it is usually pretty easy to tell which ones are his. They are the ones in which he is trying to win himself an Emmy.
What I'm saying right now is simply my opinion and impressions, but I have always found Sanders' Les Nesman to be "actorly," to coin a phrase. He wants you to SEE the acting that is going on. His famous decision to always wear an unexplained bandage is a primary example. No character on the show has more eccentric ticks, and that is saying something - tape for walls, fear of communist invasion, whining for a traffic helicopter, whining about EVERYTHING! So in an episode he writes for himself, Les is FULL of his eccentricities. Some people would say he is showing commitment to his craft, even when he is in a broad situation comedy. I have always looked at it as a grab for the spotlight that doesn't fit an ensemble cast.
Having gotten that off of my chest, this is still a pretty good episode!
Eventually, somebody on the show had to go on a date with Jennifer (in later episodes, Mr. Carlson and Herb also went out with her), so the fact that someone is Les is funny itself.
We quickly peel back the over-compensating Les Nesman with the bombastic news intro who has just won the "coveted" Silver Sow award to the Les who feels like "the insipid jerk who makes other people want to throw up;" ugly and unlovable. This is a tremendous honour for him and he has no one to share it with.
It's interesting to observe the advice Les gets about how to ask a woman on a date. He must have done it in the past because he talks about having a girlfriend last year, who moved to St. Louis to "find herself." Both Johnny and Herb basically say the same thing... just ask her! Both both assume one has a certain amount of confidence to do it. Johnny with a "nonchalant" casualness; Herb with a ridiculous over-the-top set up line (which Jennifer shoots down with the best line of the episode "I don't like 'little gustos' Herb."). This entire episode is about Les finding confidence.
Now of course this is a pity date for Jennifer, but we all see the sincerity in Les as his confidence builds while asking her. I think that's why I really like her asking Les to put on a bow tie and plucking off his wig before they go the the ceremony. It's the sincere Les she wants to date.
Do we talk about that wig now? Or should we just go to the big set piece of the show? The selling point for the box set is the return of most of the original music and the best example so far has been Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" as the theme behind Les' transformation scene. Has anyone in television ever tied an ascot more dramatically? The wig, which all the boys mocked when they saw it, is every bit as absurd as you would hope from a store called Mr. Macho. ("That's M-C-H-O -- Macho!")
Other notes from this episode - Hello bullpen! This is the first time we see the back offices of the station, and with it, some of the most iconic WKRP images, including Herb's scissor-hinged mirror and Les' taped walls. Bonus points for Mr. Carlson's full embrace of the fake door and walls.
Jennifer is taking memos? Just a few episodes ago, she wouldn't take dictation. Must have been a job review after Mama Carlson left last episode.
Did you notice the book Les is reading is William Hedgepeth's "The Hog Book?"
I've stayed away from the theme of Les standing up to "the Man" and going against the rules because that's just a reflection of the major theme of the show - the younger generation having the confidence (here's that word again) to take on the older generation. These young folks, who all congratulate and accept Les for what he really is, are rubbing off on him. He can see the difference now between following a rule just because it's a policy and standing up for the right thing. Les has become Hot Blooded!
Roy
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