Writers: Michael Fairman and Richard Sanders
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: March 31, 1980
There is a lot I want to discuss about this episode, but I'd first like to discuss an issue in WKRP fandom that is a personal peeve. I have waited specifically for this episode to discuss it, because out of all the WKRP in Cincinnati episodes, this is the only one in which Jennifer and Bailey are made to confront each other.
If you do a cursory Google search on "WKRP in Cincinnati," two things come up most often. 1) "Turkeys Away" is the funniest episode of anything ever. (This usually gets more play around Thanksgiving) 2) Who is hotter: Jennifer or Bailey? Actually, let me rephrase that. It is usually posted by some guy who thinks he is wiser, deeper or more liberal when he posts "Bailey was actually sexier than Jennifer" with a lot of late 70's short shorts pictures to make his point.
A reminder about who I am. I am currently writing my 45th blog entirely about WKRP in Cincinnati. So I think a LOT more about this show than almost anyone on the planet, and I preach that it has a lot more to offer the world than just those two details. Also, I'm a straight white guy in my mid-40's. There is no question both Loni Anderson and Jan Smithers were very attractive (and still are) and that WKRP was not afraid to showcase the beauty of both women to draw their audience.
But this binary meat marketing of the characters (and it's always about the characters, not the actresses themselves), choosing between the curvy blonde bombshell and the smaller, bespectacled brunette is crude and reductive and should be left to the past. I'd say the same thing if I were writing a Gilligan's Island or Scooby Doo blog. I have never read a piece debating if Andy or Venus is sexier. And it does not make any guy "deeper" for opining that Bailey is the true beauty because she isn't as showy about it. This program has gone to great lengths to display both female characters as intelligent and desirable. Please, future bloggers of WKRPs: stop talking about which female cast member is hotter! Neither of them would have had anything to do with you anyway!!!
Thank you for indulging me there. Now, back to the important stuff, like how is Johnny going to get lipstick out of a rented tux.
Having just written the post about Ep. 44 "Venus Rising," I think this episode can be viewed as a companion piece to that one (especially in the crack where Les asks Herb why he doesn't just quit and Herb grits his teeth and says "Shut up, Les.") That one was about respect. This one is about responsibility. Each member of the staff feels the station is in some way their own responsibility and that by losing the Most Improved Station award, each feels they have neglected their responsibilities.
Bailey considers herself "basically an executive" (which I think would come as a surprise to Mr. Carlson and maybe even Andy) who has been reduced to fetching coffee for DJ's. In Johnny's opinion DJs are "what make radio alive" but that they are disposable and therefore insecure. Les feels the "management is not responsive to the needs of the news department" as demonstrated by his lack of walls. Mr. Carlson worries so constantly about the station he wakes up in mid-argument about his feelings of responsibility. We know from the end of last season how seriously Andy takes the success of the station and feels he doesn't get the support from a divided staff to get things accomplished.
But the solution writers Fairman and Sanders concoct to solve this problem seems very late 70's / early 80's. Today, communications consultants might be brought in to conduct team building exercises, but here the staff use bits and pieces pop psychology to confront their issues. Bailey suggests they break up into "dyads." (Why can't she just use the word "pairs"?) Venus tries relaxation exercises. But nothing actually gets accomplished until Johnny stands up and just speaks honestly from the heart.
This leads to Andy's "Walls" speech, and for my money, if you needed to show someone one minute from the entire series to explain what the character of Andy Travis is all about, this is that minute. Andy 1) confronts Les, 2) makes a heartfelt and intelligent point and then 3)undercuts the whole thing with a joke.
You would think Richard Sanders would give his own character the long climatic monologue of summing up all the characters but wisely he gives that to the character who spends the most time observing the others: Jennifer. She breaks down the family that is the WKRP staff:
- Mr. Carlson - Father - concerned
- Andy - Son - competent and success-oriented
- Les - Brother - bookish
- Herb - (no relationship mentioned) - lovable jackass
- Johnny - Uncle - weather-beaten ("no, I never could nail you down")
- Venus - Brother - spiritual and loving
- Bailey - Sister - beautiful, shy with brains
She doesn't put herself in this family, but the remaining role is clearly the compassionate, watchful Mother of the station. Her description is very specifically structured. Only Carlson and Andy are placed in a father-son relationship. The others are connected as brothers and sisters, apparently of Andy, except for Johnny, who as an uncle is on a near even level to Mr. Carlson as far as wisdom and experiences go, and Herb who, although loved, isn't really part of the family. That matches up to the previous episode in which we the staff wasn't broken up over possibly losing him to another job. Jennifer also leaves the person she was put in a dyad with, Bailey, until the end. Oh, bloggers of the future, please note that Jennifer recognizes Bailey is also beautiful.
It is the last statement of the season. If it had turned out to be the last statement of the series, I feel it would have been a satisfying wrap up, leaving all these characters in a better place than where we found them.
Roy
Other Notes: The station that WKRP loses to, "Those crazies" was WTNA. Twelve year old me likes that joke.
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