Writer: Lissa Levin
Director: Linda Day
Original Air Date: April 14, 1982
*** FAMOUSLY FUNNY***
Here's another episode that feels like two separate episodes stapled together, and those staples are a staple remover salesman! The first half is extremely funny but the second half comes off like a "very special" episode about treating the disabled with dignity, which although important, isn't really funny.
Should we even discuss how advertising shampoo on the radio is a ludicrous notion to begin with? So at least WKRP and the Soul Suds company are putting cardboard standees of Venus Flytrap and his laid back hair in every grocery store and and drug store in Cincinnati. The attention this will bring the station should be huge!
But Herb messed it all up by being greedy, cheap, lazy and incompetent. Instead of hiring a professional photographer, Herb paid himself to take the pictures of Venus with his own personal camera. Instead of checking up with the printers to proof their work, he was in his backyard barbequeing. So when Herb showed up that morning and is ushered into Mr. Carlson's office, he is faced with dozens of cardboard standees of himself saying "I'm Venus Flytrap and I use Soul Suds Shampoo."
As Mr. Carlson questions "This is a shampoo marketed EXCLUSIVELY to the hip, young black customer. So why am I looking at a picture of a really idiotic looking white man?" And later "We can't even tell how the shampoo works on you, Herb, because you've got a hat on!!"
Then Venus steps into Mr. Carlson's office. Nobody is quite sure how to react until suddenly, Venus screams and runs to attack Herb! The next couple of seconds before the credits may seem like nothing, but they really sum up how Herb survives at the station: Andy and Arthur literally come to Herb's defense, holding Venus back while Herb nonchalantly dusts off a standee, pretending to not notice the chaos in his wake.
The thrust of this episode is to see just how incompetent Herb can actually get. This whole stunt with Soul Suds has cost the station $5000 ( which is worth about $13,500 in 2020). Bailey asks Herb if he thinks he should be fired and he thinks he's surprising her by saying Yes. But Herb is confident and comfortable that management will never fire him. "Carlson is a marshmallow. Andy is too nice of a guy." Herb even dares Bailey to pretend to fire him and even she can't bring herself to do it. And that is Herb's whole argument. "Nobody ever gets fired around here."
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're passing some very funny scenes, including the very first scene in the show. A salesman comes into the lobby trying all of his best lines to get past Jennifer to see Mr. Carlson. But she's heard them all before and each rejection is funnier than the last. How this gets woven in later is just great writing.
Coming back from the commercial, Johnny is playing the Soul Suds ad as Venus is walking down the hall dragging a Herb standee. He comes into the both and shows Johnny while the commercial says "so look for a life-sized poster of me wherever they sell Soul Suds shampoo." Hysterically Howard Hesseman waits and waits before telling Venus "You've got to stop using this stuff right away." The entire exchange in the booth is worth the price of admission on it's own, whether it's Johnny telling Venus he's now washed up as a black man or the end with Venus punching cardboard Herb in the face.
Getting back to Herb, Carlson confides to Jennifer that this time, he really is going to fire him. Jennifer knows he means it this time and she's shocked., because like Herb, she has come to believe that nobody ever gets fired from WKRP. Carlson asks her to send Herb in from the lobby. But Jennifer hatches a wacky scheme. She makes Herb go right away down to the offices of Hester Sherman, owner of Soul Suds to apologize and fix the situations and then she sends Les into Carlson's office to discuss the metric system for an hour and a half. She wants to distract Carlson, let him cool off and maybe Herb can right the ship.
This is where the first half of the show ends, the second half starts and two me, these feel like two totally different episodes that were jammed together. My notations calling this episode "Very Funny" and "Very Important" are all about the first half. Although the second half does have some funny things, there are some real jumps in logic and timing. Don't get too caught up trying to figure out for how long Herb, and then Jennifer are out of the office. But the split is so distinct, it occurs at the 11:35 mark of the episode.
That's when Herb walks into the offices of Hester Sherman, someone we have only heard described as "tough as nails..." twice! How has Herb never met this person before? How did he get the sale without knowing more about him. Herb is as rude to Sherman's receptionist as the first salesman was to Jennifer, but when she realizes he's the man on the standee, she sends him right in!
Sherman is blind. His guide dog barks at Herb loudly... dogs always know best. What comes next I think is only funny because it makes Herb look like a jackass; I don't believe Sherman is being belittled at all, but I do see the bullying taking place. Herb thinks he's being clever but he's obviously being a fool.
Herb obnoxiously "tests" Sherman to see if he really is blind. He waves his hand in front of his face. He spins in his chair. He takes papers off of Sherman's desk to pretend they are letter of praise from customers who love the standee. He pulls faces, shoots finger guns and even dances by the door. What is Herb thinking?!? He is so confident in his place in the world, he's not even offering the man behind one of his biggest accounts some basic human respect.
Sherman had already settled the issue with Andy on the phone but sarcastically tells Herb he's so delighted he came down there, he's going to call Andy up and change all that! Then he makes a face and shoots finger guns at Herb, indicating he's known what's been going on all along.
Andy had settled the issue with Soul Suds not pulling their ads, but Herb's visit changes that.
Jennifer now feels guilty because her wacky scheme has lost WKRP the client, so she goes to try to Sherman's office to change his mind with her feminine wiles.
This next bit in Sherman's lobby is the funniest bit in the second half and what ties the two sides together. Jennifer uses all the same tactics we saw used against her but Sherman's receptionist is as experienced as Jennifer and will not be fooled. So then Jennifer just waits... until that very same salesman comes in to see Mr. Sherman. So being A receptionist, she just sends him right in! In the confusion she gets into Sherman's office where, even blind, he knows this is a beautiful woman and agrees to meet with her.
Jennifer's treatment of Hester Sherman is the polar opposite of Herb's. She respectful, heartfelt and honest. She truthfully tells him "WKRP hires some people whole otherwise couldn't get jobs at another radio station." She also admits why she is fighting for a jerk like Herb: "I like him. It's crazy, but I like him." which is kind of what we saw in the "Fire" episode with them trapped in the elevator together.
But the episode quickly gets bogged down into a discussion of how the handicapped are perceived and treated by society. Sherman tells Jennifer "When you're handicapped, you're always trying to show the world you can be a little bit better. " The sentiment is nice, but it's not very funny. However, the worst thing about it is Jennifer relating being visually impaired with being beautiful.
"I'm a pretty blonde so when people meet me they naturally think I'm dumb."
"I didn't think that."
"Well, that's because you can see through all that." Jennifer jokes, and now the two of them are equals in society! But not really, right? I mean, I don't think most people think of being pretty and blonde as a handicap. Otherwise Loni Anderson would still be a brunette!
Very quickly, Sherman becomes as creepy as any salesman who has ever ogled Jennifer. "Can I feel your face?" Eeew. She rightly calls it out as "some sort of sightless come-on?"
When we get back to the station and everything has been sorted out (back to the arrangement Andy agreed on, I believe), we get the best call back of the show, and a bit of writing that takes this from a average to an above average episode. The original salesman comes back! He rightly tells Jennifer she owes him and she agrees, sending him into Mr. Carlson to pitch his "Super New Staple Remover," right after Carlson just finished discussing the metric system with Les. What should normally have been a one-off salesman-and-Jennifer joke to be quickly forgotten actually becomes a running gag that gooses the plot along and ties two separate plotlines together!
And that's how Herb kept his job!
Roy
Other Notes - Tom Sullivan was something of a celebrity in the late '70's and early '80's, primarily famous for being a blind musician and comedian. He appeared on many game shows and talk shows around that time, especially "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson." A movie based on his memoir, both called "If You Could See What I hear," was released in in 1982 (same as this episode!) starting Marc Singer.
According to the Michael B. Kassel book, "America's Favorite Radio Station," this is the final episode actually filmed.
Also, we only see two people, but are there no black people working at Soul Suds Shampoo?
I don't usually write about all the music on an episode, but this episode includes the first network airplay for Huey Lewis and the News with "Do You Believe in Love."
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