Ep. 53 - Baby, It's Cold Inside

August 31, 2017

Writers: Blake Hunter
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: January 3, 1981

Shirley Levy was 21 years old when Irving Berlin himself tapped her for a role in his latest Broadway musical "Louisiana Purchase" in 1930.  Later she played the lead role of Julie in the first major revival of Kern and Hammerstein's "Show Boat," directed by Oscar Hammerstein himself. Her career was dotted by appearances on radio, in movies and the big playhouse productions on television where statuesque strength and delicate voice combined keep her busy. She was a classic Hollywood beauty that belied sly comic timing, which she used in comedies such as "Abbott and Costello's Keep 'Em Flying." And somewhere along the line, she changed her name to Carol Bruce.

Bruce was not the first choice to play Mama Carlson. That was Sylvia Sidney, who had made a career of playing "tough dames," from gangster's molls in the 1930's and 40's to the grouchy afterlife administrator in "Beetlejuice." But after having Ms. Sidney in the pilot, scaring Arthur and the rest of the staff, Hugh Wilson decided to take a different approach to Mama when the show had a soft relaunch at episode nine. After being off the air for a couple of weeks, and in a new time slot, WKRP returned with a clip show (yes, after only eight episodes!) re-introducing the characters with "Mama's Review" of the station. But now Mama would be very different. She would not be shrill and mean - she would cold and imperious. She would not be a small hag - she would be statuesque and superior.

It is not surprising that the station member Mama Carlson most closely relates to is Jennifer. They are both strong, smart, beautiful who have used people's underestimations of them to their advantages. Jennifer is in many ways the guiding-force "mother" of the station and that Arthur relies on her so heavily because she is the compassionate mother figure he always yearned for. Mama has always spoken to Jennifer as an equal (followed closely by Bailey) and it would be easy to imagine that they both socialize in the same high brow Cincinnati circles. But she must also recognize Jennifer's compassionate side because it is to Jennifer that Lilian (she's not really "Mama" at this point anymore) discusses her past.

Wait! Why does she do that? Let's go back to the fundamental conflict of this episode. The heat is off in the Flemm Building. The Sales Manager has lost all feeling in his lower extremities! The staff is doing everything in their power to keep warm and Johnny's solution is to drink "brandy" on the air. This is a particularly strong beverage because it gets Jennifer drunk before the credits even run. We see one strong, controlled woman start to act silly and flirty after a few sips. Why not another one?

The drinking on the air subplot is just a distraction. The entire purpose of this episode is to give the audience a background on Lilian. How did she wind up as head of a business conglomerate like Carlson Enterprises? And, most importantly, what does she truly value. Most sit-coms, especially in the early 80's wouldn't risk an entire episode filling in the backstory of just a recurring character. Many don't bother doing this much for a main character.

She starts off laughing about how she "hasn't lost her touch" in scaring someone like Johnny just by looking at him. But what she really wants is a good old-fashioned gossip session with one of the girls, and Jennifer is the closest thing she's going to get to that. We just saw in the last episode where the General Manager was likely having an affair with his secretary. We don't know it until the final scene that Lillian has come to the station because she has the past on her mind, and with the help of the brandy, she gets sentimental about her late husband, her past as a singer and the price of her success. Carol Bruce delivers what might be her finest WKRP performance. It's is funny and poignant all at once.

If, as I suggest, the purpose is to give us some of Lillian's background, then the climax is her touching rendition of "Someone to Watch Over Me." She tells Johnny that she wants to hear it, but want she really wants is to perform it. Is she telling the staff that she is the one watching over them? Or does she miss having someone, like her husband, to watch over her? Or is she reliving a spotlight moment from her past, on a day when the past is on her mind? Either way, the producers were smart using the Bruce's talents in this way.

Moving away from Mama, the rest of the staff gives us some funny, panicky scenes. It has often been a struggle for the writers to explain why the night time DJ is hanging out at the station during the day. So for Johnny to call in Venus in a panic only to tell him to "Go home and get some sleep" actually highlighted that dilemma.

I don't know what is in that drink, but the flirtiness continues with Mama, who has her eyes on a certain cowboy. Gary Sandy is at his best when Andy is flustered and nothing gets him flustered faster than being hit on by a strong woman. Her touching of his knee knocks him off kilter for the rest of the episode. It takes a strong, forceful man to turn that flirting back on Mama Carlson.

Enter Les Nesman. He sees this as his opportunity to talk to her about getting walls. But Mama is drunk enough and strong enough to do what everyone else has been too polite to do... she laughs in his face! And calls him "ingenius" while she does it!

As anyone who has had too much brandy knows, once the giddiness subsides, reality steps in. Jennifer pops two asprins dry and Arthur comes to collect his mother. They were to meet to go visit his father's grave; the grave of the man she still loves. They leave arm in arm to the strains of Gershwin. So raise a glass to this episode...

"To Pale Grey."

Roy

Other Notes: I cannot find any references to a real Hoffman's Department Store in Dallas in 1980. Can anyone help?