Ep. 38 - Put Up or Shut Up

February 27, 2017

Writer: Blake Hunter, Steve Marshall and Steven Kampmann
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: January 21, 1980

I don't understand how it took three credited writers to write the directions: "Frank Bonner acts ____." Panicky, seductively, guilt-ridden, humiliated. This is a weak script kept alive by a wonderful performance.

Let's look at the B-story first. Johnny is having "flashbacks" which is some kind of CBS corporate speak for drug-induced mental breakdown.  He hallucinates. He looks at his hand and sees a freeway map, with his thumb as an off-ramp. This is ridiculously lazy "druggy" talk. "The 60's were a crazy time, Art" is as pointless a line of dialogue as we might ever hear. But because there is nothing else in the episode for them to do, both Mr. Carlson and Andy end up a some point staring at their own hands.

The premise seems to be one the writers think the audience has been waiting for. What would happen if Herb and Jennifer went out on a date!. But last season, we saw Herb fall apart when Lucille left him. We know he can't go through with the real thing - it's all fantasy for Herb. But at least they figured out a clever way to have this date - Bailey convincing Jennifer to "call his buff" and say yes to Herb to shut him up.

It is quite a reversal for Bailey to offer Jennifer advise on anything, much less dating. It's strange Jennifer wouldn't see through Bailey's bluster of "I've done it a dozen times." But is it any weirder than Les' evil grin when he tell Herb that Yes, he can go through with the date? (Because of what he knows from his Sneaky Snooper. Really?) What does Les have to gain from seeing the date go through?

Where to start with Frank Bonner's portrayal of Herb as the proverbial dog that catches the car? What does he do now that he actually has a date with the beautiful Jennifer?

He has a really heartbreaking conversation with his wife on the phone in which he desperately wants her to know he loves her. We only see his side of the phone call, but we can imagine Lucille not understanding the importance of what he's saying. We've met her and Bonner shows his frustration with her as he's confessing his love and desperately wanting her to say SOMETHING that will pull him back from going on this date.

Venus congratulates him on having this date. It's the kind of macho recognition he's always wanted from the guys but it's odd Venus would be so anxious to see him cheat on his wife. Maybe Venus believes he won't go through with it, but it's become too important. Herb thinks he will "come back a Legend."

Amazingly, Herb confesses to Les that he can't do it, but then Les tells him about Bailey's plan. Now Herb is all sleazy bravado! A flourish of his leather coat and a look in his extendable mirror and Herb is ready to go!

All of this is in one scene in the bullpen; from heartbreak to bravado in five minutes. But is nowhere near what Bonner pulls off in the scene at Jennifer's apartment.

Standing in her doorway, the way he's seen romantic leading men do in movies for years, Herb acts the way he thinks suave men act. He brings Jennifer wine, but knows nothing about wine. He makes himself comfortable, but ends up sitting with his back to her at the dining room table. (Shout out to director Will MacKenzie for that fantastic bit of blocking). It's ridiculous and it's a credit to Loni Anderson that she doesn't break up.

I find myself just describing what you have already watched. Herb hyperventilating. Herb angry at his cowardice at the dining room table. Herb flourishing on his coat again, but now backwards. Bonner brings real pathos to such over-the-top moments, but you need to SEE Bonner doing all of this. There is so little else happening in the episode, there isn't much to write about.

Except this: WKRP is asking the "When Harry Met Sally" question nine years before the movie: can a man and woman just be friends? This is a very '80's question, with men and women just starting to work regularly together as equals. Posing the question today in a sit-com would be foolish, but WKRP answers the question as if it is some kind of revelation. Herb and Jennifer as friends? How liberal! Despite the fact that this is all they have ever been for years, and that after this episode, he goes back to being the same old Herb who make clumsy passes to Jennifer every morning.

Roy

Other Notes: It was such a specific reference that I had to look it up. Sammy Davis jr. really did win the first (and only) Disco Lifestyle Award in June 1979, according to Jet magazine.

Ep. 37 - Herb's Dad

February 23, 2017

Writer: Peter Torokvei and Steven Kampmann
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: January 14, 1980


^^^FAMOUSLY FUNNY^^^

And now a word about Bert Parks!

Bert Parks had been a game show host and announcer on radio and television since the late 1940's, but his greatest claim to fame was as the host of the Miss America pageant from 1955 to 1979. Upon crowning the winner, he would serenade her with "Here She Comes, Miss America." Today, beauty pageants are not that popular so it's difficult to think of the Miss America Pageant as being Must Watch annual viewing for the whole family. But it was! And Bert Park was the smiling host for 29 years. So when Parks first walks into the WKRP lobby and the audience roars with applause, there is a real reason for it. Parks was legitimately the biggest guest star WKRP had ever had to that time. (Yes, even more famous than Sparky Anderson or Michael DeBarres)

Add the fact that this fellow was famous for lightly flirting with beauty contestants made his casting as Herbert R. Tarlek SENIOR even more on-the nose.

And now a word about the "WKRP in Cincinnati Complete Series Boxset" on which this blog is based. For some reason I can't determine, the sound on this single episode is "unsweetened." I didn't know what that term meant until I tried to research this episode, but it means that there is no laugh track added after the recording. Because what was aired (and what actually went into syndication) was, and was always meant to be "sweetened," the audience was not mic'd. This is all a very long way of saying there is very little laughter or audience noise at all in the episode.

That's significant, because there are some depressing notes being played here and the lack of laughter actually makes the episode play more like a drama.

The silence is first very noticeable in the scene where Herb senior is selling Carlson fake Japanese indian jewelery. The audience should be laughing at the obvious hucksterism except we just sadly watch poor Mr. Carlson getting robbed. It comes across as mean rather than silly. Herb sr. meets the staff and slightly insults each of them while smiling, for example telling Les to seek professional help. Without the laugh track, we are insulted in behalf of the characters we know.

It is interesting to watch how the staff take to Herb senior. They tolerate him and respect him in a way they never do his son. He chums around with the DJs while playing Liars' Poker (a scene which has made this writer check the serial numbers on his dollar bills since I was 12 years old). Jennifer is charmed by the older man's advances (that just may be out of habit for her character).  He even flirts with Bailey. As we learn more about Herb sr, the staff learns more about Herb jr. By the end of the episode, the DJs are hanging out a little bit with Herb, even if he ruins it by cheating at Liars' Poker.

Most importantly, we learn about Herb R. Taklek jr. The man who starts the episode arguing with Andy that "in advertising, tasteless sells" is revealed as someone who will go to great lengths for his family. We might laugh when he uses the line about being able to buy the little things for his family to explain away why he would raffle off his paycheque. On the other hand, he has made the decision to not go on the road selling. He goes home to that family every night, and most of that $1000 probably would have gone to the family. Not all, because this is still Herb, but most. In the bullpen scene, in which son confronts father, he says "When I remember you, I remember you were never home."

But very differently from a lot of kids who might have resented this in their father, Herb admires him. No, Herb idolizes him. He can't even bring himself to put his hands on his father's shoulders. He has tried to imitate his father almost every way; from the suits and fast talking to cutting deals on the side. I can't think of another show that did this, certainly in 1980. Remember this was an age when very basic psychology was being introduced as explicit motivations for TV characters (shows like M*A*S*H.)  Fathers, if mentioned at all, were resented or hated. Herb truly loves his Dad and, at the very end, his Dad reveals he loves his son. The one thing Herb jr. is trying to improve upon his father his being home for his kids.

"Pop? I'm good. I can sell! I mean, me? I'm really pretty good!"

Something we realize in this episode is that Herb really can sell, if he's interested in selling. Selling Shady Hills to take his father back? He could do that, so much so that it impresses his father. Selling his paycheque, which in 1980 might have been $500 for two weeks work? He doubled his money. Selling airtime on a rock and roll station? Whatever.

Other Notes: Bert Parks would have been 67 years old when this was filmed. Herb notes that his father was suppose to pretend he was 70 for the Shady Hills people. There are a couple of scenes that were shortened in syndication, specifically when Les comes back to Jennifer's desk and she tells him she "likes a man of few words." We never hear about collecting salt and pepper shakers again. Regular story editors Torokvei and Kampmann were the writers on this episode.

Ep. 36 - A Family Affair

February 19, 2017

Writer: Tim Reid
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: January 7, 1980
***VERY IMPORTANT***

A new decade begins for the world and WKRP with another strange question for a sit-com... what do your friends really think about you?

The friendship between Andy Travis and Venus Flytrap might be the closest on the show. They knew each other BEFORE coming to Cincinnati; Andy having hired Venus "away from a station in New Orleans" to help him restart this failed radio station. Herb and Les wouldn't be friends if they didn't work together. Probably Venus and Johnny wouldn't be either. But Andy and Venus run in the same circles.

It can even be said that Andy has been a champion of Venus at the station, bringing him there, defending him to Mama Carlson and later making him Assistant Program Director. However, however.... what does Andy REALLY think of Venus?

It's very important to point out that this episode was written by Tim Reid, who portrays Venus. This is his first script for the show and I think, beyond the messaging, it is a very good episode. There is no wasted space. The B-plot of Carlson taking over the phones is funny itself, but also vital to the main conflict of the A-plot. The C-plot of Bailey getting Herb to hang glide in the fish suit is a great callback to the very popular "Fish Story" episode of Season One. It is clear how much thought Reid put into this script. But it is the message of generational racism that makes Reid's authorship important to the script.

Andy makes a joke later in the episode that Venus not wanting HIS sister to date Johnny isn't a question of racism but of good taste. If that's the case, why would Andy first approach Johnny about taking sister out on a date? Venus is his closest friend at the station - why ask a burnt-out DJ 15 years his sister's senior instead?

We, the audience, don't want to think about our surrogate into the show being anything but righteous, but the facts remain: when Andy looks at Venus, he sees black before he sees the man. When Andy says he's upset because Venus missed his show, it doesn't make sense because he never even thought about that until literally seven seconds before the show began. So he was worried about his sister with Venus.

And, OMG, is that what Andy thinks a black man sounds like?!? Or ANY man? Or, more importantly, is that what he thinks his own night time DJ sounds like?? Just sound like the calmest, warmest version of yourself and you could get though an hour of the show, Andy!  No disc jockey in the world sounds like a bad Truman Capote impression.

So, despite every genuine friendliness Andy has shared with Venus over the years, is the only answer as to why Andy is upset that deep down, Travis is a racist? That's the question in Venus' mind when the two confront each other in the lobby and I want to point out how great Tim Reid's acting is here. He is not flinching. Reid stares daggers and what remains unsaid between the two friends is louder than any speech Reid could have written for himself right there.

Johnny has some understanding when he explains to Andy's sister "we're all bigots, okay?"  Venus later says "We've chopped down the tree (of racism) but the roots run pretty deep." But Andy is still behaving naive and in denial when they all meet up at the bar. "I thought we had all of the black and white junk behind us," he says and genuinely believes it.

I'm writing this at the beginning of 2017 and "all the black and white junk" is definitely not behind us, as just a cursory look at the news will prove. Many things have improved in 37 years, but many things have not. How could Andy think racism was over only 12 years after MLK was killed?

We then see Andy exhibiting a different type of racism - overcompensating. Making Venus dance with his sister in a bar Johnny specifically warns them not to dance together or stepping in to defend Venus when he is confronted by the "real" racist.

Let's finish this up by going back to how tightly written this script is and look at the final scene. Jennifer comes back and everyone is injured! How? Carlson with laryngitis from the B-Plot. Andy, then Venus and finally Johnny with progressively worse injuries from the A-Plot. Herb on crutches from the C-Plot, finishing up with Bailey leaving the office dressed like a fish! Each craziness has been explained to the audience beforehand but the slow piling on in front of Jennifer just gets funnier and funnier until Johnny gets the last huge, deadpan laugh of the show.

Reid know that the message will be lost if the script is not, first of all, funny and he delivers.

Roy

Other Notes: Allison Argo, who played Andy's sister Carol, was mostly a soap opera actress who later became the producer of wildlife documentaries (thanks, IMDB!)

Hello to the dozen or so of you who actually follow this blog regularly...

Thank you for your patience!

A number of personal factors conspired to keep me from continuing this review of WKRP in Cincinnati. I will start posting again within the next week and will at least promise to finish season two.

I regret that, in changing computers, I haven't figured out how to include screen grabs in the posts. If I ever figure it out, I will update the posts.

Again, thank you for reading this blog, and I appreciate any and all feedback you may wish to send.

Roy

Ep. 35 - God Talks to Johnny

May 28, 2016

Writer: Hugh Wilson
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: December 31, 1979

The date is New Year's Eve, 1979 and it is less than four hours to the beginning of a whole new decade! A new president is about to take office, who will change the direction of American politics for generations to come. A decade of political turbulence and economic upheaval are coming to a close and the promise of prosperity and computers lay ahead and Hugh Wilson has one question for you...

Do you believe in God?

Why would he ask that, of his characters and of you, in the audience? As Johnny walks around the station asking everyone that same question, you can't help but try to ask it of yourself. It's an odd question because it's not asking for an empirical truth - he doesn't ask "Is there a God?" Wilson, through Johnny, is asking you at home for what is in your heart.

An answer is not provided because the answer is personal to you. Did Johnny hear a voice? Well, he believes he heard something and that belief is enough to effect him. Whether is was an actually voice he heard is irrelevant.

Each character in the station of course has their own opinion of God. Not surprisingly, Bailey takes a philosophical and intellectual approach, name checking theories she has studied in books but when pushed for her own opinion, she literally checks out for lunch. Les believes an authority figure from his childhood would have spoken to God, but not someone like Johnny. Andy is concerned about Johnny's mental state without really examining the spiritual questions.

I'm surprised Hugh Wilson doesn't explore Venus' feelings about God more - if anything, Venus is more of a jerk in this episode than we've ever seen him. He steals Andy's chair, makes loud noises and pretends to be a voice all so he can get something to eat. This does not match with the spiritual, cosmos-embracing guy we know.

It's the Big Guy who turns out to have the most thoughtful response to THE Big Guy. I've read that the religious elements of Mr. Carlson's personality were based on Gordon Jump's real life - that he really did go to church every week and teach Sunday School. Jump had given interviews in which he openly spoke about his faith. He doesn't recoil to Johnny's tale of speaking with God, or openly mock him like Herb does, but he doesn't embrace it either. He simply talks rationally and calmly about what Johnny experienced. It's another touching "Father-Son" moment for Carlson.

As rational as he is in that final scene, it's the scene in Carlson's office in which Jump is at his best. Some tremendous physical comedy, starting with the window blind, the pull, the drawer and finally the window that has Carlson slow-burn his way through a solid two minutes. The audience laugh builds through the entire scene (the way only "live before a studio audience" can sound) and softens what could have been a very hard topic.

Speaking of physical comedy, watch how much mileage Howard Hesseman gets out of a stalk of limp celery. What starts as one simple "nothing in my fridge" joke roles out for nearly three minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if it was created by Hesseman on the spot - it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would have been in the script.

Wilson may have been saying to audience at the end of the seventies, that we may not know about God, but we know about comedy, and we're going to need as much comedy in the eighties as we can get.

Roy

Ep. 34 - Sparky

April 26, 2016

Writer: Peter Torokvei and Steven Kampmann
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: December 24, 1979

What follows is my imagined WKRP writers' room meeting upon learning the show was going to have Sparky Anderson as a special guest on this episode:

"Who's Sparky Anderson?"
"He was the manager when the Cincinnati Reds won the world series a few years ago."
"Would our viewers know that? Would our characters?"
"We'll explain it all in the cold opening!"
"Is he funny?"
"No. He's a baseball manager."
"What's he going to do on the show?
"He'll just meet all of our characters. Maybe talk about getting fired out of Cincinnati."
"Wait! He's not even the manager in Cincinnati right now?"
"No. Now he manages in Philidelphia"
"Why is he in Cincinnati then?"
"To be on WKRP!"
"To do what?"
"Maybe he can host a sports talk show!"
"What does anyone in the WKRP universe know about hosting a sports talk show?"
"EXACTLY!!"

Watching the episode, you get the feeling this is about as much thought as went into having Sparky Anderson on the show. Anderson is a pleasant enough fellow and game enough to go through with the script. But there is a tonne of dumb stuff that is out of character for the staff and that we as the audience are suppose to forget in order for this episode to occur.

The episode opens with Andy breaking the "bad news" to Les that the Big Guy has hired Sparky Anderson to host this radio show, with dreams of syndicating it nation wide. Lots of problems there: a rock station is hosting a nationally syndicated sports radio show? It will be hosted by a locally fired coach who now works in another city? What happens to the show when the baseball season starts up again? Since when has Les been show eager to host a sports talk show - he has no interest in sports? Why would Andy think this is bad news - the last few episodes have been about him trying to get back on top? Why does Andy complain that he "hates looking like the bad guy" - we've just seen him recently want to be a tougher manager?

All those logistical problems and the credits haven't even rolled yet!

I understand that cold opening was written to provide a lot of exposition for the non baseball fans watching in 1979, but it may even be more valuable for those of us watching the episode 35 years later

There are many other logic problems.

Jennifer has seasons tickets to all the Reds home games and a computer like memory of baseball statistics that she has never displayed before and will never display again? Venus played three years of double A baseball in Texas? Was that while he was on the run from the US Army for being a deserter or while he was DJing in New Orleans? (Later in the series, we learn he was a teacher in New Orleans, but we never hear about baseball or Texas again). Neither of them showed any real baseball skills in the episode entitled "Baseball."

Staying with Venus for a moment, the shot of him introducing Sparky's new show must be the worst dub we have come across yet in the box set. Shout! Factory obviously didn't get the rights to whatever was playing, but a voice that is clearly not Tim Reid's refers to "The Surf Riders." Surely, a more talented voice actor could have imitated Venus better.

Returning to my complaints rant, I have two more. I don't know which one is worse; I'll let you decide.

Sparky on the Air!

The failure of The Sparky Anderson Show is that they simply rushed him onto the air, with no preparation, no producer handling the phones and no idea who his guest is. Bailey did hand Sparky a list of questions that could be asked. One of them had to be better than "What's your favourite colour?" She gave Sparky out of town scores (to what I don't know. It's not baseball season and the show seems to be on in the afternoon (although it's in the middle of Venus's night time show)) that he doesn't read. What exactly did Mr. Carlson expect Sparky Anderson to do for two hours.

They other is that sports coat! We laugh now at Herb's wardrobe, but really, does Herb dress any worse than Sparky does?

Are these two jackets really so different? One is stylish and the other is a joke

Let's get to some positive stuff now. Johnny's set up of calling Herb a jackass paid off much later for Sparky when he finally meets Herb. It's Sparky's best laugh of the show.

Les' dream about Mr. Carlson seems, to me, to be the writers' rebellion against what they had to know were the problems in a stunt casted show. "I'm a big fat muffin who loooooves to explode!" is ridiculous nonsense in the very best way. It is a great non sequitur in a whole episode that doesn't make much sense.

Other notes: The Cincinnati Kids were a real Indoor Soccer League team that only played in the 1978-79 season. Why use that team? Probably because it was co-owed by Spaky's old buddy Pete Rose. The oil man is played by Hugh Gillin who also played the WPIG reporter at the Linda Taylor press conference in "Love Returns." Regular story editors Torokvei and Kampmann were the writers on this episode.

Roy

Ep. 33 - Jennifer's Home for Christmas

April 14, 2016

Writer: Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall

Director: Rod Daniel

Original Air Date: December 17, 1979

Merry Christmas from Cincinnati!

I found this is an episode that didn't get shown as much in syndication. I don't remember it as well as others. That is kind of a shame because the writers take great pains to not trade in the typical Christmas episode tropes (I'm looking at you, ep. 53!) and it makes for a truly touching show - unlike last week's episode which swerved at the end to force in a touching moment.

It's also a rare episode that is both a frame for big set gags AND a fully rounded character study. Written by the show's regular story editors, Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall, maybe they were trying to show the other writers how it should be done.

The episode's first half revels in the cynical side of Christmas: Johnny playing syrupy music; Herb's house being infested with in-laws; even Bailey is grouchy about trying to get a flight to Chicago! Christmas can be a stressful, expensive and uncomfortable time. WKRP showed that years before movies like "Christmas Vacation," "A Christmas Story" or "Bad Santa" made complaining about Christmas a trope of its own.

Decking the Hall with Boughs of Holly

Mr. Carlson seems to be reenacting scenes from a Charlie Brown Christmas, especially when it come to Christmas trees. Telling the story to Jennifer about going out every year to find a tree only to have his mother be disappointed sounds to me like Charlie Brown and Lucy's relationship. Another sign of the tight writing here is the call back joke to this story at the end of the episode, in which Carlson takes all the trees to please his mother.

Rather than the Christmas tropes, this episode plays with the trope of the prettiest girl in school not being invited to the prom. Could Jennifer really be alone at Christmas?

Jennifer has made a family for herself in Cincinnati with her co-workers, even if they don't necessarily see themselves that way. She was happy to get them gifts without expecting anything in return. We saw by her apartment that gifts don't have much meaning for her. The office party was meant to be her time to enjoy the holidays rather than having to worry about being perfect in front of the Admiral or the children. She didn't ruin the party for them - they ruined the party for her first.

As much fun as we'e had in the first cynical half, the episode moves quickly to sweetness with Venus' panicky phone call to Johnny. Despite the cynicism, one of their friends is depressed and needs attention now! Rally the troops! Buy the tress! Christmas plans be damned! And eventually everybody comes to the realization Jennifer had originally - they are a family.

We get a chance to examine Jennifer Marlowe from many different sides on this occasion. Giddy Jennifer, planning a party and laughing at Mr. Carlson's corny jokes. Angry Jennifer, disappointed by her co-workers. Reluctant Jennifer, knowing how telling people she's taking orphans to Bethlehem sounds to regular working folks. Poignant Jennifer, touched at the outpouring of love from her friends. This is Loni Anderson's best performance to date.

It's a great character piece, but there are also many funny pieces here, like decorations on a grand tree! (Hmmm, maybe I'm getting a little too Christmas sentimental here myself). First is Venus as Santa; perfectly set up by Carlson trying to imagine what that would look like just before Venus walks in. No one in the audience could have imagined it, but the moment you see it, he couldn't have been anything else - it's what the cover of the Earth Wind & Fire Christmas album should look like!

Santa Cool

Herb has a nice running story about how crowded his house is right now, culminating in the phrase "I took a shower with a bald man this morning!" A great balance is achieved between Herb as sad sack loser and his slimier side, like coming over to give Jennifer a "Christmas Goose." Where the goose Herb, indeed.

The best gag is Andy telling Herb he has to leave Jennifer's place because he didn't bring a Christmas tree and the rest of the gang going along with it. Even Carlson plays along! I wonder what kind of tree Herb would have found, as the parade of firs into Jennifer's apartment continued to get scrawnier and scrawnier. Carlson's tree does look like the famous Charlie Brown tree sprung to life.

"I never thought it was such a bad little tree" said Linus.

These are playful scenes but they don't take away from the main plot. If anything they show the banter and friendliness that Jennifer wants to be a part of for the holidays.

Other notes: For those keeping track, Jennifer has now kissed three of her co-workers, Johnny, Andy (after the tornado) and now Herb. George Gaynes played the French admirer in Jennifer's apartment. He was the real life husband to Allyn Ann McLerie, who played Carmen Carlson in Ep. 30. Writer Steve Marshall plays the second delivery man; the one who says to Andy "Out of the way, Sport"

Roy