Ep. 21 - Fish Story

March 20, 2015

Writer: Raoul Plager
Director: Asaad Kelada
Original Air Date: May 28, 1979
^^^FAMOUSLY FUNNY^^^

This episode is just funny. No heartfelt monologues, no topical issues. "Fish Story" is just straight up, catch-your-breath funny. Because of this simple fact, it is one of the most beloved episodes in the series; perhaps the second most famous after "Turkey's Away." And it's all thanks to the writer Raoul Plager.

Almost any interview with Hugh Wilson, or members of the WKRP cast, will touch on the story of Raoul Plager. CBS kept demanding this new show be funnier - broader comedy for a larger audience. Wilson resisted, wanting to concentrate on more realistic topics. But CBS continued to insist, and thinking the show was about to be cancelled anyway, Plager was brought in to write a parody of a broad, farcical sit-com just to shut them up.

Raoul Plager is a pseudonym for Hugh Wilson himself. He was so embarrassed by the script, he took his name off of it. So how bad is it?

It starts with Johnny and Venus drinking on air. A fat guy (who is NOT Jonathan Winters) is leering at Jennifer  when Herb walks by in a fish suit. Bailey end up arrested in a men's room. All this while Andy is being interviewed for a magazine. The trick of stew isn't the ingredients - it's how all the ingredients are blended together. Although Plager may have thought the ingredients weren't the best, it's how each grows organically out of the situation that makes this a classic.

Isn't that what a "situation comedy" suppose to be? A simple idea taken to it's most ridiculous conclusion.

The 'B' story of this episode follows Johnny and Venus on the air together (!) participating in a drunk driving awareness campaign for which they take a drink every 15 minutes then have their reflexes tested by a sheriff. The test is to show even after one drink, a person's reflexes slow down. Except Johnny's keep getting faster, infuriating the Sheriff. Neither Reid nor Hesseman play drunk with any conviction, but Reid's "Drunk Venus" is weirdly over the top. He swings from being uncoordinated to quick witted and back; sometimes within the same sentences!

Of course, everyone who has ever been drunk has imagined they are just Dr. Fever - getting better at life with each drink. If only it worked that way, I could get these blogs out faster! ;)

The 'A' story is another instance of Mr. Carlson coming up with a station promotion. This one is not as stupid as hurling turkeys from a helicopter. Creating a mascot for the station and sending it to the university pep rally is not a bad idea - it's a stolen idea from their biggest competitor WPIG, but it's not bad. Sending Herb out to represent the station is probably a bad ideas.

But just look at this picture below, and tell me how this is not funny? In any language it reads absurd!

And if you watch this episode again, listen for the woman in the audience who is literally SCREAMING with laughter! That really just how the scene begins. Look at these shots:

Even Bailey takes a swing at the pig!

Nesman of Queensberry!

Everything about this is ridiculous!

Add to this that throughout all the craziness, Andy is trying to impress a reporter writing a story about how professionally the station is run.

If you've been keeping an eye on the original air dates, you'll notice this aired about a whole month after the previous episode. CBS was loosing faith in the show and looked to burn off what had been produced. Once episodes like "Fish Story" and "Turkeys Away" were played in repeats over the summer, word started to spread, a fan base grew and WKRP was brought back for at least another season.

Roy

Ep. 20 - Young Master Carlson

March 9, 2015

Writer: Hugh Wilson
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: April 30, 1979


Sparky Marcus was not the Omen. That was an English kid named Harvey Stephens. Sparky Marcus was just another 1970's precocious child star who worked a lot playing kids who acted much older than they were.

I bring that up because there is a scene in this episode, when Andy introduces Arthur Carlson jr. (played by Sparky Marcus) to Venus, that Johnny calls the child "the Omen" and the audience reacts with an enormous laugh - a much bigger laugh than that joke deserves. And I don't know why.

Big Guy and Little Arthur

I get that "Little Arthur" has a special gift for doing or saying the one thing that will offend a person the most. I just don't think that qualifies as the spawn of Satan. It might be something even more annoying.

The first time he meets Johnny, Little Arthur immediately moves into the role of an authority figure, telling Johnny to get a haircut and a shave. He doesn't act like that to anyone else but it would be the one thing that Johnny would hate the most - someone acting like a parent or a cop.

For Jennifer, it's digging into her personal things and disrupting her orderly life. For Venus, it's something else.

This is another episode about showing who these characters are, but coming at it from a unique perspective: How would our regular WKRP friends act if they met the person who most annoys them? That it's all the same person, a child, and the boss's kid (someone they clearly shouldn't retaliate against) makes it all the juicier.

Herb's reaction is uniquely Herb-ish. What annoys him is the idea that the Carlson family is talking about him  and he doesn't know what they are saying. Now, this is ridiculous! The Carlson family, especially Mama Carlson, doesn't think enough of Herb to ever mention him "around the dinner table." Only a complete egotist would think otherwise,.. oh yeah, we're talk about Herb here.

Les is bothered by Herb knowing something he doesn't know. Little Arthur is just using all of this to get $10 and amuse himself by watching two idiots fight over which one gets to be "adle-minded." Watching Les read the dictionary to find out what "obtuse" means, only to realize it is an insult, might be the funniest bit in the episode: "Don't tell me to calm down! I just paid $5 to find out I'm 'Rounded at the Free End!'"

The reason we are initially given for this behaviour is that Little Arthur has been away at Prussian Valley Military Academy and has been sheltered by their strict military ways. So much so, he is shocked to see a real, live black man! And in calling Venus "boy," Little Arthur both finds Venus' breaking point and loses all audience sympathy. Now he's not a precocious kid; he's a straight up racist and Venus is first the person who has threatened to kill him who might actually do it.

But the writers are playing with out preconceptions of what life at a military academy would be about. We learn he's flunking out and "just dying for attention." Arthur Carlson didn't learn to offend people from Prussian Academy; he's getting kicked out of Prussian Academy because he offends people.

So what would bother his father, Arthur sr., the most? We've always been lead to think it's the fear that he might not be a good enough son for Mama Carlson. It turns out his afraid he hasn't been a good enough father to his son.

It has only been two episode since Gordon Jump poured real emotion into standing up to, and standing up for Venus when he had to face the Army, going so far to say he was his "father." Now he does it again, giving an impassioned monologue about his guilt as a father. Carlson confesses his failings to his son for almost two minutes straight without a laugh. It's touching. Then it nicely sets us up to end on some warmhearted laughter over the Big Guy's collection of toys.

The lesson is just as strong in today's world. Mama Carlson says her grandson has just suffered "a traumatic career setback" to which Mr. Carlson argues "this is just an eleven year old boy." We see this argument played out today, with parents who push their children into better schools and academies, hoping to advance them in life, rather than just letting them be kids.

Other notes: Why is Bailey so unimportant she doesn't even merit getting annoyed? Her role in the episode just seems to be settling everyone else down. Prussia is the region in Germany around Berlin and is usually referred to for "professionalism, aggressiveness, militarism and conservatism;" Interesting choice for the name of a fictional military academy. 

Roy

Ep. 19 - I Do, I Do... For Now

March 4, 2015

Writer: Tom Chehak
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: April 23, 1979

When I started this blog, I didn't expect to use WKRP as an exploration where media and the entertainment industry have gone from 1979 to today. I thought I'd be writing about Johnny Fever quips. Well with this episode, I get to do both.

Meet Hoyt Axton. He is a successful singer-songwriter most famous for writing Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World" and right now he is playing guitar in the lobby of a fictional Cincinnati rock radio station. The only reason for him to do this would be to promote his upcoming album. But it seems to me that his being there is a huge missed opportunity.

Hoyt Axton is... T.J. Watkins

Remember, this show exists only three years after "Star Wars" taught the entertainment industry that kids will buy toys based on their favourite movies - something we all now take for granted. At the time of this writing is three years after the cast of "Glee" has had a dozen Top 40 hits releasing songs they sang on their show. Other shows like "Nashville" release musical tie-in albums. So I look back and wonder how did CBS or MTM Productions not think to release an album of songs showcased on "WKRP in Cincinnati:" the Linda Taylor ballad, the Ferryman Funeral Home jingle... and "Della and the Dealer."

To be fair, "Della and the Dealer" was released on a 1979 Hoyt Axton album called "Rusty Old Halo." It went to number 17 on the US country chart. But the producers obviously have some rights to the song because it has always been part of the show in syndication. If you bought this box set of DVDs, wouldn't you also be likely to buy a compilation album of songs from the show? Shout! Factory? Get on this! This could be the break Detective (the real band from "Hoodlum Rock") have been waiting for for 30 years.

With the previous episode we learned a bit about Venus' background; this time we learn about Jennifer's. Jennifer seems so worldly and beautiful, why would she be in Cincinnati? But when you think of her a little Jennifer Elizabeth from Rock Throw West Virginia, a big city like Cincinnati must have seemed like going to the moon! Loni Anderson even plays up a West Virginian accent when talking with T.J. (I looked it up - Anderson is from St. Paul, Minnesota. See? Acting!)

Now she lives such a fairy tale life, even her doorbell chimes "Fly Me to the Moon" (which is a wonderful recurring joke). Her apartment is massive, even by TV standards, and we've already seen the relatively modest apartments for Andy and Johnny. It's stuffed with a "warehouse" worth of gifts from her many "friends." So the thought of her losing all of this to marry T.J. Watkins and go back to West Virginia must have been so terrifying Jennifer understandably would do anything to keep her life.

Very Happy!

Cue Johnny's entrance. Kissing Johnny and lying that they are married seems a pretty simple solution that just gets away from her. As much as this is Jennifer's episode, Howard Hesseman performs some great physical comedy, starting with his delayed over-reaction to that kiss. I particular like how he continues to miss steps in Jennifer's apartment. He doesn't telegraph it coming, so the straight-legged fall is as jarring to the audience as it is to Johnny.

Tom Chehak, who just wrote the very serious Venus Fly Trap episode last week, now writes this very funny, very tight episode with a lot of nice lines for Johnny, like "Wait... I'm the chips!" followed later by the frightened "Chips are falling!"

In an episode full of great performances, I also want to mention Frank Bonner, whose Herb claims "squatter's rights" on Jennifer over Johnny. What a perfect phrase! Follow that with Herb's clear discomfort of having to listen to T.J. play, or obliviousness that it would be rude to drink two of the six beers you brought as a present to a party. That may only be topped by the loungey preparation he takes in entering Jennifer's bedroom for the first time.

I don't want to finish without talking about the scene at the elevator where Jennifer and T.J. come clean to each other. The very simple inclusion of one guy standing there waiting for them to be through with their argument injects all the humour in what could have been a very flat reading of exposition. That guy is Buzz Sapien, who was the stage manager of the show.

Other notes - um, this is a show about a ROCK radio station and this is clearly a COUNTRY artist singing a COUNTRY song? Why is Les so excited about Johnny and Jennifer being married? He sees conspiracy in everything, but this he doesn't question?

If you've liked these blog posts, or you have anything to say about them, please feel free to leave a comment. Let me know you're out there!

Roy