Ep. 42. - The Doctor's Daughter

March 25, 2017

Writer: Lissa Levin
Director: Frank Bonner
Original Air Date: February 18, 1980

Some episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati hold subtle messages that have taken on new meanings over 35 years, and this blog is an effort to peel back those layers to reveal those hidden story telling tricks. This is not one of those episodes. If you can't figure out that Johnny is coming face to face with his younger self, you need to stop reading this blog and go back to high school English.

So much of the show is taken up with Johnny being on the "parent" side of conversations we are certain he had 25 year earlier as the "rebellious teenager," there is almost no more room for anyone else. We've also heard enough about Johnny's first wife / Laurie's mother to imagine that Johnny was the rebellious teenage in arguments with her, when she needed to be the responsible parent to both Laurie and Johnny.

The thing that makes this episode work at all is the actress playing Laurie, Patrie Allen, who comes across as sweet and open. She's not cynical to the world in the least and really believes she can drift through her life in whichever way life takes her. The audience has to believe that SHE believes this is the way life works. We feel just as protective of her as Johnny does. Johnny's life has made him cynical (and it's those cynical bon mots of his that have kept him relevant in the intervening years). She isn't like Justin, who turns out to be not just a burn out, but rude and ungrateful, as we see in the departure scene from Johnny's apartment.

Herb Tarlek himself, Frank Bonner, is the director of this episode. It is the first episode of TV he ever directed, but after WKRP's run, he became a regular television director. There are a few nice touches he includes, most notably the number of two-shots (I counted four) of Johnny and Laurie facing each other, dressed similarly (black sweatshirt and jeans) with similar hair, emphasizing the "mirror" Johnny is looking into. Another is the physical examples showing how old Johnny is getting, like his trouble climbing up on Carlson's desk.

So at what age is someone a grown up? Johnny thinks it's the legal age of 19, but Carlson doesn't think that makes sense. It's a very appropriate point that Jennifer jokes (?) that Mr. Carlson isn't grown up yet! Johnny asks this question to those people he respects the most at the station: Mr. Carlson, Jennifer, Venus and Bailey. The writers show the interestingly point that each character answers with the age each of them believe they became an adult - Jennifer out on her own at 17; Bailey still dealing with father issues.

Does Johnny feel he is grown up? He warns Laurie not to end up living like he is when she "... forty... one." Maybe this is the first time, looking at the woman his daughter is becoming, that he has ever been on the adult side of the conversation.

Roy

Other notes: The episode ends with a terrible dub of obviously-not Gary Sandy yelling that Johnny is finally playing a hit. Shout Factory couldn't get the rights to The Eagles' "The Long Run," so an odd sound alike is being played instead.  That is a real picture of Hesseman with Mick Jagger. It was taken in 1968 when Hesseman was part of the improv group The Committee. Justin says "Keith Richards can't last forever! Am I right?" Keep waiting, Justin! In her letter to Johnny, Laurie writes that she is staying with "Aunt Leela and Uncle Frank." Is that a reference to director Frank Bonner and his wife, Lillian?