Talk:WKRP in Cincinnati

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Untitled[edit]

The NBC show newsradio was loosely based on WKRP, perhaps that should be mentioned 66.75.49.213 11:04, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Gordon Jump had a career before and after WKRP, becoming that famed publicity icon the Maytag Repairman.

Frank Bonner appeared in a two sitcoms afterwards portraying a detective and a catholic priest.

Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders and Gary Sandy have may have left national broadcast TV, but being 3 out of 8 cast members, which is a minority of the cast.

The format of WKRP before Andy arrived was music like "You're Having My Baby", which is definately not a piece of classical music as is commonly understood- User:Kchishol1970

  • Ick. That would be under the heading of "soft adult contemporary." Mercifully, most soft AC stations nowadays wouldn't touch that, uh, song with the proverbial ten-foot pole. Too much halfway decent music that falls under the format to include a 1970s clunker. - Lucky 6.9 05:26, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The song in question is sung by a choir like The Mormon Tabernacle (though the choir in question does not use that name) and is in a classical music style with the male voices hilariously adding the line "right now" at a given moment. MarnetteD | Talk 13:20, 14 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

--- One of the reasons the quality of the writing was so high was that many of those involved had been involved in radio. For example, Turkeys Away was based on actual event in the 70's, where some flightless birds (not turkeys, but I don't remember what) were thrown from a high tower (?) to promote an FM radio station.

Also, Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever) had been an actual FM rock n' roll DJ.

--- There has never been any independent confirmation of a radio promotion that consisted of turkeys being dropped from any height (I've seen rumors that a Dallas station threw turkeys off the back of a truck in the late 60's). The only known "real" radio promotion that made it into a WKRP script (though not shown) was "The Dancing Ducks" promotion, in which ducklings were made to dance by placing them on a large skillet and heating it with sterno. This was done by an AM station in Atlanta during the early 1970's and got several staff members disciplined.

  • According to a November 14, 1996 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Radio honors real-life 'WKRP' manager", Jerry Blum "leased an 18-wheeler, bought hundreds of live gobblers and lured listeners to a suburban shopping center for the Turkey Toss." - Cdk 18:47, 23 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

in the "Timeslots and Successes" section, The last episode of the 4th seaason did not end on a cliffhanger. The last episode of the 6th season (2nd season of the revival) ended on a cliffhanger! Profh0011 (talk) 04:35, 11 February 2018 (UTC)Profh0011 10 February 2018[reply]

Source of all letters[edit]

I couldn't put this in the article, since it would amount to what Wikipedian refer to as "original research" but I always though that KRP may have come from krap or crap radio. Any possibility of exporing this? -WCFrancis 18:19, 22 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The call letters could be based on Cincinnati's WKRQ. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 06:44, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The call letters came from which is only speculation: "We Keep Records Playing". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.43.172.50 (talk) 16:37, 31 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In at least one episode, the station has a "carp" fish mascot. 108.225.17.141 (talk) 17:15, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I had read at some point in the past that Wilson wanted to name the station WSHT, but the idea was vetoed by MTM. I do not remember the source so it is, perhaps, just an "urban legend".THX1136 (talk) 15:17, 15 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sane?[edit]

Sandy's Travis was a sitcom mainstay, the 1 sane person surrounded by lunatics. Cf Judd Hirsch in "Taxi" & the "black WKRP" of the '90s (not "Newsradio", I don't think; costar Ron Glass as "the fifth Top"). Trekphiler 19:39, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Music licensing and syndication[edit]

The article mentioned something to the effect that the original music was not licensed for syndication. This is partially true in the case of Nick at Nite, but I distinctly remember watching this in syndication (mid-1980s) and hearing the original songs as intended (e.g. The Eagle's "The Long Run" when Johnny's daughter shows up; "Tiny Dancer" with the Russian defector etc.) But I'm not sure how to clarify this because I don't know when the licensing changed. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 05:22, 22 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have been waiting for them to ever release this on DVD in the original form. More bothersome even than any change in any music on Nick at Nite was the fact that they cut from the original broadcast show for additional commercial time. I remember seeing it in syndication having the original text of all the show intact. This is commonly done with old TV shows and movies, they did not have as many commercials back then. Some stations (one in Chicago) went to the length of speeding up the speed of the video - noticed comparing an old Get Smart recording to their version at the time. It was better than cutting from the show. Waiting for REAL DVD's kidsheaven 04:55, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • There is the line saying that the episodes on WGN America are with the original music in tact. This is not true at all!!** —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.141.80.43 (talk) 00:08, 3 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes; I posted that. Substantially all of the original music is intact, according to several websites (at least one cited, I think) that list all the original music. We DVRed it and burned it; I could produce a list for you if you liked.
"Due to poor sales, Fox has not initiated any plans to release further seasons of WKRP in the future."
Attention FOX: THAT'S BECAUSE YOU FUCKED UP ALL THE MUSIC, AND IT'S A SHOW ABOUT A *RADIO STATION*. That is all.
--Baylink@en.w
Baby, if you ever wondered, wondered whatever became of the DVD...it's coming! Clarityfiend 00:04, 10 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • As mentioned here, I have read reviews by users on web-sites of how much music is changed, found the disclaimer of "Some of the original musical content has been edited for this DVD release." So far what I watched seems slightly different. Some mention is made of cutting, and/or re-recording voices that sound similar or content to match new music? One comment I read was "why can advertisers use some of the same music and FOX not be able to afford to use it for the DVD release." Some advertisers I have seen use now up to Frank Sinatra in advertising for a local family owned grocery chain of five or less stores - they actually re-did several of his songs into the Muzak piped into the store, with customized wording. Though I do see after an artist dies that owners to the rights are more willing to sell to anyone. Worst is where they take part of an old movie and re-dub wording to advertise a product. That is OK and affordable, but the actual use is not? Music rights are strange I.E. the lawyer who bought the music rights to public domain "It's a Wonderfull Life" to gain personal control to the movie rights - can't show it minus music.... Too often the performers who deserve credit are not the one's ever receiving much of the said rights money...Kidsheaven 21:33, 28 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

All 90 Uncut Episodes (4 seasons)are available for purchase at www.tvboxset.com <---- This is not meant to be an ad, I'm just a fan that wants to help other fans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.82.78.78 (talk • contribs) 01:09, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Beware of TVBOXSET.com. There are a great number of complaints about their service and their bootlegged products.

Having said that, I have seen several articles that included quotes from various people at Viacom that indicated that they didn't really try to extend the rights for the music because they assumed that it would be expensive and would take too long. The sad part is that most of the right holders have indicated that they would happily extend the original agreement to cover video/DVD sales. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mercwyn (talk • contribs) 18:16, 24 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The music section needs an update. In 2014, Shout! Factory released a set of DVDs with much of the original music intact (but not all; notable exceptions include Pink Floyd). They also published an article on their website with additional details about the music licensing. Dharmabumstead (talk) 09:47, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Arthur Carlson[edit]

This paragraph makes it sound like Arthur Carlson was a real person who owned radio stations:

Gordon Jump's character was based on an actual person, as was Dr. Johnny Fever's. Arthur Carlson owned a group of radio stations in Central Pennsylvania under the name Susquehanna Radio. Based in York, Pa., it was one of the first radio "chains" to emerge in the late '60s and early '70s. Carlson also was a past president of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB). Fever was based on an afternoon drive DJ at one of Carlson's stations who was working under the name "Kevin McKeever". WCBG (now dark) was a 5,000-watt powerhouse in southcentral Pennsylvania. --68.100.8.70 03:37, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, he really is. See the RAB website [1] for a pic. AUTiger ʃ talk/work 03:54, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hugh Wilson[edit]

Wilson worked for an advertising firm in Atlanta. He NEVER worked at any radio station.

Other characters[edit]

I distinctly remember seeing an engineer (Bucky?) in at least two episodes, one involving the softball game, and the other where Johnny does the remote show. He should be mentioned. Jimcripps 03:49, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Episode Guide[edit]

One anonymous editor has been adding elements of an Episode Guide in large chunks to this article during the last few days. Another anonymous editor, noting it is incomplete, deleted the whole thing. I've restored those deletions because I don't think deleting all that is appropriate without discussion, especially in the midst of its apparently being posted.

On the otherhand, it does seem to be a bit much for the middle of an article like this. Would it be more appropriate as a separate article? Is it appropriate in wikipedia at all? What is the usual process of dealing with detailed episode descriptions of television series?

Pzavon 00:54, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

From what I've seen, series with few episodes (Woops!, Quark (TV series)) have episode guides as part of the main article. But series with several seasons (Moonlighting, Gilligan's Island) have episode guides as a separate article. I don't know how many seasons would make the difference between including in the article or not, but I'd suggest three seasons. (Star Trek: The Original Series) But WKRP in Cincinnati lasted longer than that, so as long as it gets three or four seasons listed, move them to a separate article. Val42 20:24, 6 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Recent Ranking B[edit]

I would agree that for this main page the character detail is too much. Each has a link to their own page, so there is duplication that is not needed on the main WKRP page. Need a short summary of each for the main page, and retain the links to the character pages for those interested in further info. That would be my advice, and this is one of my all time favorite shows, so I am talking as a person who finds this of more interest than an average person looking at the page. kidsheaven 21:47, 30 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've shortened the character sections. See what you think. Joyous! | Talk 03:29, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You beat me to it by a whisker. Other than a few minor details, everything you did matches my would-be changes. Clarityfiend 04:03, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Song wording[edit]

Is it "Baby, if you ever wondered..." or "Baby, if you've ever wondered..."? The title of a 2nd season episode answers this question. Clarityfiend 06:06, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know who it was who determined that the closing credits were/are just gibberish, but I want to thank him/her. Now I don't have to beat my brains out anymore trying to figure out what he's "saying"!!!FlaviaR (talk) 09:15, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This site [2] is enough to make you think otherwise. Lambertman (talk) 23:05, 27 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

People don't seem to understand what is meant by the closing theme lyrics being 'gibberish'. They are all real words that Ellis put in as place markers that he was planning on changing to ones with a coherent theme. So the theme of the lyrics is somewhat incoherent and the words are sung in a deliberately hard to understand manner, but they are not 'fake words', though some of them are exclamations like, 'uh-huh' and 'yeah'. As I understand it, the lyrics are about a guy who asks a bartender for a beer and a pack of cigarettes, then he tells the bartender that the beer must have a good head on it, and then he thanks the bartender for putting a 'good, good' head on his beer.108.180.92.37 (talk) 05:13, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Character list[edit]

The characters are listed and described before the beginning of the actual character list. Is this really necessary? D. J. Cartwright 01:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's a much shorter summary of the characters, and the Premise section would be reduced to two sentences otherwise. But it doesn't have to be in the same point form. Clarityfiend 15:09, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Pigs on the Wing" vs "Dogs" by Pink Floyd[edit]

Under the DVD Releases section, there is an erroneous comment that the original song playing when Carlson interrupts Johnny Fever in the booth that the original song was "Pigs on the Wing". The original song was actually "Dogs," off of the same Pink Floyd album Animals as "Pigs on the Wing." (That's the album cover Johnny hands to Carlson to look over in that scene.) Fever responded to Carlson's comment about "Pigs on the Wing" by saying "I don't do requests," meaning he wasn't going to play a different song if Carlson had requested it -- that "Pigs on the Wing" (a slow acoustic number) was NOT the song currently playing.

I know this for sure because I was a rabid fan of this show and especially that album when the episode first aired, and I was blown away that they would include such an obscure song (obscure on radio anyway) that I so dearly loved. :oD

I'm replacing the song title in the note, but I wonder if the DVD version actually does retain the original song "Dogs." I "might or might not have" downloaded the episode from a peer-to-peer torrent, and the currently circulating version in that world still retains the original "Dogs." Also, I believe the episode title is "Turkeys Away." My favorite scene from my favorite episode! Dcs002 (talk) 02:42, 31 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just watched a Streaming version of that episode and Dogs was replaced with a facsimile of the original...guess they couldn't afford to keep the rights. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.224.198.162 (talk) 16:07, 9 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It might help you to know of a similar experience I had a long time ago: I heard that in the version of the Tom Hanks movie "Big" that was released for sale to the public, the song "Happy Birthday To You" was replaced with something else because they had not known that "Happy Birthday To You" was not public domain, and they had not acquired permission to use it. However, I have a legal VHS copy of the movie that I legally purchased, and in it, at the celebration of the 13th birthday of Tom Hanks' character Josh, everyone is singing "Happy Birthday To You".

BTW, one of the all-time greatest quotes in television history is Les Nessman saying "God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." (or something similar). HankW512 (talk) 08:11, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's station manager Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump) who says "As God is my witness... I thought turkeys could fly." He's the one who (secretly, in the show) did the promotion. Nessman's famous line from that episode is, "Oh, the humanity!" when reporting from the scene of the "turkey drop." Jororo05 (talk) 18:30, 2 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Venus Flytrap[edit]

The article states: "In later episodes, Venus's backstory is changed, and it is revealed that he spent several years as a high-school teacher before becoming a radio personality".

This should be changed as, in actuality, Venus' backstory was never changed (i.e. he was a teacher in addition to being a Veitnam Vet). In fact, his Vietnam experience is referenced in at least two episodes following the eposide in which it is revealed that he was a teacher. The timeline remained consistent - he left the army when he was 23, taught for three years, worked at a station in the Southern US (St. Louis?), and came to work at WKRP when he was thirty. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.65.69.117 (talk) 04:19, 28 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Music changes for late 1990s syndicated airings and DVD releases[edit]

This whole section doesn't meet the "who cares" criteria in my opinion. While it's somewhat "interesting" that music had to be changed due to copyright issues in syndication, the substance of the show hasn't been changed and thus this info is really non-notable minutia and is effectively just page-filler. For those that are veterans on this page and/or edit this section, what are some/any quality reasons for keeping this section and what exactly will be lacking if this entire section is deleted? Ckruschke (talk) 12:26, 4 June 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke[reply]

No one responded to my original post so I'm going to ask again. This section is extremely trivial and I'm not sure of it's point. In addition, none of the music changes are referenced so it appears to be 100% OR. So in my opinion, this entire section should be deleted and I plan on doing so in a week or so unless there are justified dissenting opinions. Ckruschke (talk) 18:41, 27 November 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke[reply]

The Tragedy At the December 3, 1979 Who Concert[edit]

I'm surprised that the article failed to mention the fact that a special WKRP in Cincinnati episode was made in direct response to the real-life event of eleven fans getting trampled to death at the entrance to a Who concert in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979 due to the use of "festival seating" (no assigned seats) and a delay in opening the doors to let everyone in. I was 16 when it happened, and I remember that that news story was HUGE at that time. HankW512 (talk) 07:35, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're asking a good question. I think that the series had a number of "very special episodes", so calling out one of them probably doesn't make sense. There was that episode, the one where Herb's father shows up, the one with the baby abandoned at the station, the one where the tornado hit, the one where Venus Flytrap's Vietnam War history was revealed...you get the idea. If you feel strongly about it, you may want to do a write-up about that episode (and maybe some of the others I just mentioned) for the show in the "Very Special Episode" article. --PoughkeepsieNative (talk) 00:26, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The difference though is the Who tragedy was a real-life disaster, and the episode was written and filmed within a couple months of the event and according to Tim Reid was only aired after the city's council gave permission. It was definitely a "ripped from the headlines" moment - not too far removed from how a number of series produced episodes responding to 9-11. There was also another timely episode where Carlson has a debate with a religious fundamentalist who was trying to get certain songs banned from WKRP (one being John Lennon's Imagine). That aired at a time when broadcasters were under pressure. 70.73.90.119 (talk) 03:15, 22 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Unsourced edits[edit]

User RaleighRadioGaGa has repeatedly added unsourced information about WKRP-LP (FM) and WBQC-LD. Sundayclose (talk) 16:21, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Sundayclose: You mean like this one [3]? Given your behavior, I might have used a similar edit summary. Toddst1 (talk) 16:24, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Toddst1: I appreciate your good-faith concerns, but my comment above relates to the unsourced addition, not the personal attacks. Sundayclose (talk) 16:26, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I've removed the section as it has nothing to do with WKRP in Cincinnati whether well-cited or not. Toddst1 (talk) 16:33, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Toddst1: Thanks. Sundayclose (talk) 16:35, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Trimming[edit]

I think this This edit by @Clarityfiend: sucked the life out of the prose describing Mr. Carlsen and Dr. Johnny Fever. It might have been a little wordy, I'm not really bothered by that, but others might think it could be trimmed. I'm biting my tongue to avoid directly reverting this at the moment. Can we hear from other members of the community? Or if someone else agrees with me, go ahead and revert. Trackinfo (talk) 08:49, 29 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This is an encyclopedia, not a trivia guide. For example, Mr. Carlson's war service had no bearing on any of the episodes that I can recall. Same with "booger". Clarityfiend (talk) 08:56, 29 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I'll grant the military service stuff, someone just added that yesterday. Other than the military school for his son, it wasn't a key element. Your rewording of Venus was good. Jennifer's saying Carlsen is dead, a one time gag, not necessary. However; fishing (and its association to "Red Wigglers," it was Carlsen's client) rather than the oddly worded "playing"; "burned out," the whole episode 1 backstory, decline, list of names on the mug, "Easy Listening," Fever's lack of confidence, particularly "booger" are essential to the full series make up of these characters, not just trivia. Trackinfo (talk) 22:29, 29 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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