man what i would give to have these kind of independently owned rock and roll stations again. with the real DJ's choosing their own music and just having a great time.
I remember those days back when I was young, when The Washington Team was called the 'Washington Redskins' and there was Murphy in the Morning to listen to. Those were the days. The Joy Boys of Radio were a great after school radio show to listen to with Willard Scott, now with PC, Anifa, BLM, BO - Barrack Obama, Dopey Joe, Krazy K and Dr Fasli I feel those days are long gone.
I lived all over the country growing up, so I got to hear a lot of radio stations in the 70s. The most WKRP-like ones I can remember are WRIF in Detroit and WTAK AM in Huntsville, AL. WTAK is now a standard FM twofer-Tuesday "classic rock" station, but back in their AM days they were awesome and unique, at least for Huntsville.
Dr. Johnny Fever was my inspiration when I deejayed at a bar in my hometown for two years. Now he has left us to go deejay in a better place. R.I.P. Howard Hesseman, you will be missed!
There is not one single radio DJ, Host, or Personality from my generation ( X ) that didn't grow up idolizing Dr. Johnny Fever. This was one of the last, genuine, "rolling on the floor in pain with tears and snot bubbles shooting out of my nose"- TV shows that my parents and I could watch together and just flip out.
Jan Smithers really was hot. They had her downplay it in the first few episodes of the first season and then it really began to manifest when she started dressing differently in the later seasons. Much, much prettier than Loni Anderson.
@WannaBeatle Is Jim Ladd still around? I grew up outside of LA and in the 70's he was on KMET radio. They went off the air years ago but remember Jim very well. Late night DJ
My Dad was in his early 40s when this show was on. He was in a band and a bit of a stoner. He looked and sounded so much like Dr Johnny Fever, that people would actually stop him and ask for his autograph! He passes away 4 years ago, but watching these clips from WKRP are like a time capsule. Our family loves this show. Every year on Thanksgiving, we always say to each other, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"
What??!!? Herb??? *googles* Awww, geez that bites. 😢 I was listening to The Rheostatics’ song The Tarleks around the time he died, too. Haven’t listened to the album in quite some time.
I tried to watch reruns a decade ago. I forget which station was running them. They had cut out all the original music because of licensing agreements. Or lack there of. I realize that the music didn't take up much time over all, but it wasn't the same with some generic muzak playing instead
Old friend of mine was a DJ in the 1970s. He guaranteed me that if he didn't live a WKRP script, he knew people at the station that did. I just did college radio, but even I recognized its realness from that alone.
@@mondoshredder5783 that line stuck with me for some reason since watching the reruns in junior high in the early 80's. Ha ha I guess I was into politics then.
@@BeeWhistler it was in the original intro theme just before the song kicked in. . . probably like the first season and maybe not the later episodes that season.
Ever look at the TV schedule for the '78-79 season? For every WKRP there's a Who's Watching the Kids, plus most of those 'great' shows weren't as good as you remember¹. Reality TV also isn't a new thing, it existed back then as well. Although the smaller size of the overall schedule meant that what would now be a series would be a single episode in a show like Real People². 1: This will be a combination of you being younger when you watched them and from you remembering, (or only ever seeing if you watched in syndication), the better episodes. 2: "Look at these people/jobs" style reality TV is about the only kind where the average quality has dropped over the past few decades. As I implied, this is mostly due to simply having more programming hours to fill, (in 1978, most US markets had somewhere between 80-120 hours of TV a day, now it isn't strange for there to be that much _per hour_ available).
@@psyberian Shows like Real People _weren't_ scripted. They were like the various "look at these people do their job" shows except what is a multi-season show now would have been a single episode then.
I knew I was going to be a fan of the show from this very first episode. I was 16 that evening when I watched a Kiss poster going up on the wall and then heard Terrible Ted blasting Queen of the Forest as the first song for the new format! I was hooked, like so many of my friends. There was nothing on TV at the time where you could hear rock music, except Don Kirshner's Rock Concerts and Midnight Special, both on late night Saturdays (if you were lucky). WKRP brought the music of the day into our homes with such great characters and great humour...at times, intelligent and at other times, stupid, but it was always funny! We would watch every week just to hear what music was going to be played. Imagine my sense of excitement when I actually got to hear Pink Floyd "Dogs"...ON MY TELEVISION!!!! WoW! Way Too Cool!
Man, I'm from your generation, watched the first episode, and had (and have) an extensive vinyl collection. But no Nuge albums, so I didn't recognize this song until you named it. So thanks! Solid Midwest choice, going with a deep cut rather than some obvious Stones thing.
Preaching to the choir here! I was a junior in high school, Ted Nugent's album was still pretty new, I'd seen him in concert, this show comes out...god I miss the 70's. Now I'm an old fat f*ck LOL.
@@asmith7876 yeah I'm one too the old fat part I was a junior in high school when WKRP came on also laughed so hard sometimes my mom would ask what are you watching? the turkey episode was a classic . and I have to agree with the other comments bailey was a fox.
Dr. Fever is so FM lol. I miss this era so much. Me and my sis were kids during this time. We all sit around the radio and phone while our babysitter would call in requests to the local station. My parents would be out partying with friends lol. This was a time when parents actually had lives and interests outside of the kid's every comfort.
Yeah, I think that was why the next generation decided that after being neglected by their parents, maybe they should spend some time with their kids. Great show, though. It was high on the list of the many, many shows that stood in for my parents.
Oh shit man that was 42 years ago, I’m fucking old but if this show were to be digitally cleaned up and put on tv today it would still be a smashing hit and I would watch it again for sure
John C you’re not seriously comparing mork and mindy to taxi and WKRP, are you?? Sure, Robin Williams was a comedic genius, but the show was nowhere near the level of the other two.
@@MrJett1971 The point was not to compare them, I don't know where you got that from. Just a very impressive week for TV to launch three such shows. Personally I prefer Taxi far and away to the other two.
We invested in the complete set of DVDs. I think we've been through the whole series at least three times. Well worth the investment. Heck, the turkey episode alone is worth the price...
@@Doggeslife The world changes. It HAS to. But it is remarkable how many good things we've thrown away for the sake of 'change'.... and the change is not always for the better. In fact, it's SELDOM for the better. A lot of people are convinced it's 'better', but in the end, it's just 'different'.... not 'better'.
That’s why I am involved with a pirate FM station 150:watts of pure digital sound with two servers a mixer and a dozen external hard drives we use a compressor to avoid over driving the audio section plus we have a really nice 150 watt transmitter in true stereo been at it for 5 years even the local police listen to us LOL have a burn phone from the hood as out request line with a mic on it for on the air talk and a kill switch if some one drops a F bomb but we tell people that they have to watch their mouth on air We dot play rap or and other crap I think thats why we dont get hassled we keep it clean and pro sounding we cover about 13 miles with a 50 ft tower and .95 wave antenna we involve local schools and churches with programming like ball games and services live with the China virus A lot of people tune in to hear Sunday services Good PR !
Remember that first attempt to have it on DVD, but with almost every song changed around? The song done was something that sounded similar but they sang, "You're too much. You're much too much."
The 70's were such an amazing time- records that came out stayed on the charts sometimes for 5, 10, even 15 years. " Dark Side of the Moon" stayed in the Top 100 for 14 years.
A really good show. Great comedy, great writers, and great characters. The show touched on a couple of social issues too. Most notable was the episode about the deaths of 11 concert-goers who were crushed to death in a crowd while attending a Who concert in Cincinnati in 1979. The WKRP episode helped bring an end to what was known as "festival seating" a.k.a. general admission seating. The show only ran for 4 seasons but was well watched and really funny. Some great one-liners.
I experienced the crush of a crowd waiting to get into a AC/DC-UFO concert at the Armory in Springfield, Illinois. We were waiting for the doors to open and I was right up front. As people saw them coming to open inside, the crowd surged forth and I was almost smashed through the glass. Zero control or ability to counter the force in any way. I've made sure to try and stay out of that situation since.
I went to a Triumph Allied Forces concert in 1987 at London Gardens in London, Ontario. It was ALL festival seating. I spent the night beside the left tower of speakers against the stage. Terrific concert, but should have worn hearing protection.
In Kansas City, in the mid to late 70s I found the danger of GA seating was directly related to who was performing. For instance, the crowd at the ELO concert was extremely mellow and I had no trouble walking quickly to obtain 3rd row floor seats. While just a few months later near riot-like conditions broke out around KC’s Municipal Auditorium waiting for a new band on their first tour called Van Halen! The auditorium people, seeing the crowd, got scared and delayed opening the doors until extra security could be brought in. As you can imagine craziness insured...🤟
@@kutzbill I was there, too. After the show, we headed over to the apartment that belonged to a friend that was within walking distance of Riverfront. On the way we're all singing Who songs and having a great time. We walked in his door, and he was sitting there staring and pointing at the tv. We looked at what he was pointing at and saw Al Schottelkotte on the Channel 9 News talking about the deaths. We knew the crowd was bad going in, but nobody had any idea of how bad.
Loved watching this back in the day. I still remember when they did the moment of silence at the end of one episode for those that died at The Who concert.
The producers and writers asked Howard Hesseman and Tim Reid to provide suggestions on what music to include in the episodes, and their choices actually helped boost the sales and popularity of these songs. I think one of them was Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”.
@riflemanusa I still have all the regular-issue Blondie LPs I bought before there were CDs. And I also have the cassettes I recorded them onto so I could play them in the car.
Tim suggested Earth, Wind and Fire's "After the Love Was Gone" and the group got their first gold record. The Gold LP was presented yo the cast and it hung on the wall behind Bailey's desk.
urban renewal, the payola scandal, cold war politics (defection), race relations, treatment of the handicapped, education - how many of us learned about the atom from Gordon "Venus Flytrap" Simms? The show was not afraid to shy away from current topics
First question I heard in a college radio broadcasting course was how two DJ's could run an entire radio station like on WKRP. Without batting an eye, my teacher responded "the real trick is having a station that apparently only has one salesman who's not that good."
I loved WKRP during its original run--CBS moved it around so much that it was often hard for viewers to find it--ultimately when it was cancelled and went into syndication the show became one of the most popular shows on the air (more so than Mary Tyler Moore show etc etc)
Except in syndication they couldn't use the original versions of the songs, because they didn't want to pay for the copyrights. So to me the show lost a lot of it's charm when it went indication
david graham Too many old geezers at CBS trying to kill it by constantly moving slots.... it worked.... too bad, it probably had at least three more solid seasons left in it....
@@Rick_Sanchez_C137_ once a show passes 100 episodes the network will often kill off the show as it can now take the show to syndication-and that's where the money is--nevertheless CBS/MTM productions were "floored" by how popular WKRP became in syndication--if they had continued making new episodes they would have had more shows to sell and more profit. Interestingly they tried to revive WKRP as the "New WKRP" a few years later but it wasn't as well received at all
It's not that anyone rates WKRP down, but that such ubiquitous schlock is overrated nowadays. Not that there wasn't always schlock around, just not to the degree that there is now.
Jeesh, if you had just stopped me on the street, said that too me, and walked off then I would have been tortured all day. I KNOW THAT PHRASE! But where was it from!? Thanks for posting that here, where I could quickly remember without any trauma. ;)
This show was an absolute trailblazer during its run. WKRP went against all the establishment norms and the comedy was historic. But it also had the guts to take on some of the most important issues within the music industry. Such as Fiesta seating at concerts. But overall, my vote goes to Bailey and Mary Ann.
Always Bailey. Always. Jennifer was that Lamborghini that few could afford, and those that could found out it was far too troublesome and expensive to keep up, not nearly as fun and fulfilling as they thought, and sure wasn't worth what it cost them. Bailey was that perfect everyman's Trans Am; great looks, great performance, right price, and you could have it right til this day and never be sorry for your choice.
In the early 70s I work at an FM station in Longview Kelso Washington. The format was dinner music... Jackie Gleason, big band music. Then we switched the format to rock and roll. But I never said booger.
😃 "...fellow babies..." That always made me *LAUGH!* 😆 I loved Howard... Fantastic cast all around. And "The Big Guy," Gordon Jump was always so contentedly oblivious to much of anything going on in the station. 😏
Just stumbled across this again. My cheeks hurt from smiling and tears of some kind filling my eyes. Giggly glad I can still see it here and sad it is gone. God what a show!
Even back in the broadcast TV days with a fuzzy picture I noticed this. The second turntable obviously didn't have a stylus, but props to Howard Hesseman for not breaking character and saving the take - it was a good one 😊
That is why we were never allowed to dance, play air guitar or air drums, or drum on the control board in studio. Hell, walking around too much in the studio was seriously frowned upon at my station back in the day.
Anyone who taped this has gold. Music rights made it prohibitively expensive to air reruns now. So if you have copies, hold on to them, transfer them, have video parties, because it's not coming back to TV or DVD.
I heard when they do air reruns, the music is changed to some general type music. I recall watching an episode and had no idea what song they were playing. Figured they probably changed the music to air the show. I would love to see the show as it originally aired.
The vast majority of the original music was restored in Shout Factory's DVD set. The righthand column of this spreadsheet tracks what is in/out. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14x1AnN8KV1MH3RYlnKR6FgOFuZ_-Qm-OUvuZo8G38kE/htmlview?usp=sharing#
