Writer: Blake Hunter
Director: Will Mackenzie
Original Air Date: February 5, 1979
"I'm in charge here now."
With those words at about the halfway mark, this episode takes a 90 degree turn from wacky slapstick to a deeper character study of Arthur Carlson. And my thought was "Aren't you always in charge? You're the station manager!"
But sometimes he has to remind everyone of that, including himself. I enjoy Mr. Carlson when he takes charge and leads the way. His humanity and goodness of spirit come to the fore and we can see why people would want to stay at this crazy radio station to work for him.
As we watched with the "Turkey Drop" episode, this one relies in the theatre of the mind elements of radio. If anything, the most unbelievable shot is the obvious stock footage insert of some generic tornado. However, when Mr. Carlson is talking a little seven year old girls into going down to her basement to hide from the storm, we completely believe she is there although we only ever see his side of the conversation.
Carlson shows some of that Marine leadership training in this moment (Does it seem odd that Carlson is a former Marine? Is this how you imagine most Marines are treated by their mothers?) , much better than the Marine training he uses early, when he demanded the Japanese businessmen to surrender.
The whole scene involving the arrival of the Japanese businessmen plays very favourably for "WKRP" in regards to a surprisingly positive treatment of minorities. This is 1979 and a lot of shows at this time would have gone for the easy racial stereotypes for the source of their humour. But "WKRP" goes for something different here. The mix-ups of a Spanish translator (actor Rene Enriquez, who later achieved fame on "Hill Street Blues") translating mid-west English to the Japanese is ridiculous without being insulting to either of those cultures. About the worst it gets is the stereotype of the Japanese being camera happy.
The mockery is saved for the dumbest characters: Herb calling his maid a "Kraut" and Les' obsession with a "godless Russian" attack.
Every so often, one of these episodes is a time capsule of the late 70's or early 80's and this is very much one of those time capsules. Look a technology! From the very first shot of Les pecking away on a manual typewriter to Les' teletype machine, with an actual bell attached, this does not look like any newsroom you would walk into today. No computers on any desks. Digging through paper filing cabinets for important documents. Even some of that basic translation we discussed earlier could have been fixed with an iPhone translation app today!
What makes it stand out is how much of what happens in this episode is dependent on that technology.
Other notes: No Bailey or Venus. They were wise enough to stay home in the storm I guess. I don't think Venus misses anymore shows after this one.
Johnny's speech about being trapped in a tornado with his mother is sweet but it gets left behind with so much else going on in this episode.
Herb might be on to something... it does seem like Andy and Jennifer have had that kiss before...
If you've been waiting for the WKRP episode with all the special effects, this is the one that has one! Enjoy that window!!
Roy
The stereotype about Japanese people being camera-happy isn't all that far fetched. I live near Yellowstone National Park and could tell you many instances of seeing Asian guys (it's almost never women) carrying multiple fancy cameras. It was even more prevalent during WKRP's time since cell phone cameras weren't around.
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