I met Gordon Jump briefly the year before he passed. I thanked him for the best 4 years of comedy TV there ever was, and he told me those were the best 4 years of his life.
You never saw the NEW Wkrp? It lasted for two years. It had many old faces and some new faces. I grew up in Cincinnati and the cast was like Honorary Cincinnatians. They were invited to grand openings etc. They always felt like they were a part of our City's history, even if it was in a fictional sense :)
@@jefffromjersey52 No matter how many times I've seen that episode over the years it still makes me laugh when they deliver the line "As god as my witness, I could've sworn that turkeys could fly"(I'm paraphrasing from memory).
@@randallfrank5682 It's like they went out of their way to pick the most prototypical 1970s bad suits for Herb to wear. His wardrobe on the show is the only ones that age badly, but in a good way for the character.
I grew up in Cincinnati, I watched this show faithfully as a teen. Lived through the Who concert and its aftermath. I have ALWAYS appreciated that WKRP did a show about the tragedy, that they acknowledged that this happened and faced it with truth, sympathy, and sensitivity. Thank you Tim Reid for discussing this.
Yes, they did. And he (Tim) explained it very well. You can't have a sitcom based on Cincinnati, when that tragedy occurred and ignore it. Especially when your show is based on a rock radio station.,
WKRP, Taxi and Barney Miller: Three of the best written, perfectly cast sitcoms ever made that had the best characters and were always terribly underrated and overlooked.
Gilligan's Island and M. A. S. H. were both the highest rated shows on television. Both on prime time, with Gilligan's Island. The television station owners wife liked Bonanza more so it got moved to Gilligan's Island's time slot. Which caused its ratings to drop. M. A. S. H. Boosted the ratings of the three television shows that you had mentioned.
Taxi came into its own in their 2nd season (1979-80) after they got rid of Randall Carver. WKRP should have done the same with Loni Anderson who added nothing comedically to the show. She was a weak link. At its best, Taxi was better than WKRP or Miller.
@@mikerawls9619 I used to watch taxi, followed by soap, i'd be so tired from laughing, I never had trouble going to sleep afterward. By the way, all the shows mentioned above. all excellent shows. all ensembles too
Tim Reid is an underappreciated treasure of modern television. He is so acute in his reading of how a 'funny' show like WKRP (which some might see as merely an amusing distraction) can actually touch on important themes. And he brought that same sensibility (say something meaningful, while at the same time entertaining) to his amazing show "Frank's Place."
Tim Reid and his former comedy partner Tom Dreesen were a groundbreaking act in the 60s for performing together as an interracial comedy team. They were billed as "Tim and Tom". Smart, funny guy.
"As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly." One of my favorite shows. When television had good writers and the world wasn't butthurt about everything.
armadillotoe -- about the world being butthurt... most all the stand-ups 60s, 70s, 80s and into the 90s were NOT former jocks, and their being class clowns was a way to BE as overbearing and insensitive and nasty and hurtfull as "the cool kids", but that was isolated, individual experiences. But those skrawny kids, those fat kids could be as viscious as any neanderthal jock. Then, those born in the 90s, when they got to puberty they had the internet, and each year's growing tech, and growing ownership all of them had the ability to reach out touch the shit out of anyone. Thru the latter part of the 1st decade, I think starting in 2008, in Fla - to the present the leading cause of death for girlsw aged 10 to 20 is suicide. And that is the result of uncontrolled social media. It is also one of the leading reasons women aged 20 thru 30 don't want children. What's really sad is how these kids are so easily led by shit on their tablet or I-phone that they are the beginnings of the Eloi.
That was a great episode. I didn't see it until years later. I was a baby then and my oldest sister's husband band went to that concert. It was such a tragedy to everyone involved. They still talk about it at times. They never got over it. 💔
To this day I still use Venus Flytrap's teaching the atom to a gangsta as an example of how the role of a teacher is to translate the knowledge into a language the student understands.
Oh my God. Thank you for your comment. That became the cornerstone of my teaching. I used to revert to an analogy all the time. Then I started by leading with an analogy. I do this because I believe most people don't get what you are saying when you explain something because if they got it, I wouldn't have to explain it. I call this the Venus Flytrap Method. I am positive I adopted this habit because of that scene. I never forgot it. Johnny Fever was sleeping behind the couch.
I am also a teacher. The best advice I ever got from one of my mentors about teaching any subject: "Make it relevant. Put it in terms they understand." My lessons always stuck with my students, and many of them have come back in later years and thanked me for making the lessons stick.
That was a good episode. Tim Reid was an engineer by trade before he became an actor, and probably could have taught high school/college chemistry or physics. It shows that he knows what he's talking about.
Hugh Wilson passed away this past January. Tim Reid spoke very eloquently at the memorial service about his friend as he did here. I got to know Hugh casually during the past five years and was a genuinely kind and funny man. Keep them laughing in heaven Hugh.
Actually, it was a 2nd generation SJW television program. Hide all the SJW points inside the comedy, so on the surface no one would notice. But subconciously the message gets into the mind. Used to love it. Now I hate it all.
NortonsNestMonthly I know, I'm a writer, and can't reveal the novel, but Jan's walkin'-away jeans inspired the description of the lead female in one of my stories.
Wonderful, kind characters who never hurt one another. The humour was derived from situations that were always resolved, while usually offering a small lesson in human behaviour. Perfect sitcom in every way. The actors appeared to share the same respect for one another that their characters did. I especially like Hersch the butler...
Rene Cordova that is a bit of a stretch, I can find women in my own town that are just as attractive, if not more so, than her. She is cute, the girl next door, but she is not stunning.
best ensemble period. I've seen people talk about some of the more downbeat episodes towards the end of the 3rd season...but always disagree with that statement. This show gave all it's characters a real human quality and the way they worked together really makes this show imo stand out as the best show about a 'family' of non related people. Brilliance from head to toe this show is.
@@bufnyfan1 WKRP is part of that magical 70's INTO 80's sitcoms (like Barney Miller) that benefited SO much from the shifting times...they left behind seasons of still great (to those who remember them anyways) television that represents time and history - in one way, like Taxi, Alice, The Jeffersons, Three's Co, Diff'rent Strokes, All in the Family, Facts of Life, etc... The KRP cast is as tight as you can get from an ensemble. They are literally PERFECT. WKRP, Barney Miller & Seinfeld are my favorite ensemble casts. I can't decide who is the best.Dr. Johnny Fever is probably my fav sitcom character. This show deserved to be left alone and given more money. Season 5 would have been great and could have ended it perfectly with the station being no 1 and that's the purpose of the ending not where all the characters end up. The sequel show is pretty good too. When Hessman arrives in season 2 for good, it's pretty entertaining. It's worth it to see the old cast pop up even if for just one episode. Shame Bailey and Andy never made it. They too, deserved at least a final season. Nowadays they at least find a way to give a popular enough show and ending with a 5 ep final season or something... They f'd us on that one - and the LAST episode was ironically their highest rated. Point is WKRP is the 'better show' yes. ;)
@@DJRitty I didn't grow up with it but over the past few years thanks to METV I fell in love with WKRP and Barney Miller. Two of the greatest workplace sitcoms ever made as well as two iconic sitcoms period that are underrated and overlooked. I feel like every modern day workplace family sitcom owes a thanks to both shows imo.
Les! Are you alright? I don't know a man and his two children just tried to kill me. That's my favorite line out of the whole episode. Watching this episode has become my personal Thanksgiving tradition.
@@ThomasFromTN Exactly. WKRP stood out because so much television was awful at that time. There have been great shows in the last 30 years and lots of garbage.
As I watched this, even before he mentioned the Who concert tragedy, I started thinking about that episode. That episode had such an impact. To this day, I only got to concerts with assigned seating, not matter how much I like a performer or band, I refuse to go to festival seating concert venues.
Yep. People are still developing heart problems from those "energy pills" - sold under a few names like "mini thins" and later "fen phen". Most were straight amphetamines, dexedrine, or analogues, like Ephedrine and similar. Now we have "energy shots" with high dose caffeine, B vitamins, creatine, taurine, and similar. The "fad" for "boosted energy and alertness" from these things comes and goes, but has not ever fully faded away since being introduced in 1936, and widely marketed in the mid 1950's.
What a short bit on this video. Tim Reid was so well spoken here, made me hungry for more from the rest. What a great show this was, certainly out of the ordinary with a totally different way of filming and directing. Loved seeing these folks again.
a true classic, in the best sense of the word , this is still one of my favorites of all time !! gordon jump was the only actor that could play the BIG GUY !!!!
I started my radio career at a small station in OK on the same day the series debuted. There were several times that first season where the silly things they were doing on 'KRP, we were doing as well. Great show.
Dana Hess Dana I used to be a part-time DJ for 88.7 the choice playing "rare classic rock" and I wanna get back into radio. talk? 8172981105 Ricky Parker 😎😎😎
Gary Sandy, and Frank Bonner visited wkzq in myrtle beach. They rode our float in the sun fun parade. They were amused that we had a lot of the ancient equipment that was also seen on the show.
I loved the running gag with Les and his bandages that were on a different part of his body each episode. Says a lot about the actors' devotion to the show and keeping it fresh. Same with the station employees sometimes kidding Andy about visiting Dayton (Gary Sandy's hometown).
There's a great short Twilight Zone episode from the mid 80s revival with Ron Glass as a hipster demon and Sherman Hemsley as a math professor outsmarting him. It's on RU-vid and is only about 10 minutes long, and it's brilliant.
@@bcatypical Not really. Hormonal response that drives attraction can surface at almost any age in different levels. Most of it will come on full force during puberty but it can start to fire signals of attraction in the brain of kids for either the same sex or opposite sex as early as 3, 4 or 5 years old. It just doesn't become sexualized until much later during the usually hormonally heavy teenaged years.
Bailey just did a better job in hiding hers. There are a few scenes where Bailey's goods stood out. The Softball game episode. The save the Flim building episode are 2 that come to mind. Oh how I loved her.
"Bailey just did a better job in hiding hers. There are a few scenes where Bailey's goods stood out. The Softball game episode. The save the Flim building episode are 2 that come to mind. Oh how I loved her." Yep, it's called "class".
5 лет назад
Great show!!!! Done by great writers, actors and all involved
Many, like myself had a huge crush on Jan. She aged so beautifully. If you wondering, go check out Jan in her younger years, even before WKRP. A stunner.
This wasn't nearly long enough! I wish the entire reunion was videoed and available for viewing. I found this clip very interesting, but just whetted my appetite for more!
This is the kind of television you used to get just but turning on the TV set. No cable needed, no HBO, no Hulu, no Roku, etc. Just good basic television. BAILEY QUARTERS!!!!!
Three episodes stand out to me. This one, the Who tragedy, the Communist Tornadoes episode, and the most memorable and, what has to be the est comedy episode of any show ever, 'The Turkey Drop'.
"If that's Jan Smithers in the middle in white, she's evolved into a graceful Silver Fox." Supreme genes. The only places they exist now are Canada/Scandinavia/Iceland/etc. But not for long.
Loni and Jan were both beautiful women - just in different ways. Loni had the Hollywood 'plastic' sort of look. Jan, on the other hand, had a more 'genuine' sort of appearance, like the girl you knew in high school.
+Squirmin Herman the one eyed German You and me both, brother. I recall an episode called 'Rumors' in which Johnny was staying at her apartment for a few days, and the rumors were flying at the station. Bailey devised a plan to 'give them what they want' and showed up for work wearing really tight jeans and Fever's trademark 'Black Death' T-shirt. I damn near died. I don't think there was a woman on the planet ANYWHERE who was more beautiful.
This would air in the early 80’s in UK after the News At 10, ITV on Fridays. I was too young to really geddit but loved the opening theme and I had a massive crush on the blonde. Thanks granpa for letting me stay up past bedtime.
Tim Reid just made a great tribute to the late Hugh Wilson when he said, "I thank him for that" concerning his handling of doing a "WKRP" ep about the Who concert chaos in Cincinnati back in '79.
The Who were playing a concert in Cincinnati in early December, 1979. The concert promoter decided to use a seating arrangement called "festival seating," where all seats are one price across-the-board and no seats are assigned. The Who drew a large crowd that evening and when the stadium gates were opened, there was a surge of people scrambling to get in first to grab the best seats. People were trampled, some were smothered. Can't recall the number, but quite a few people lost their lives in that mad dash for great seats. That was the end of festival seating not only in Cincinnati, but in all of America.
It's easy to come up with the idea of doing a show on the tragedy since it happened in Cincinnati. It's another thing entirely for Hugh Wilson to write such a sensitive episode over a week-end. I remember seeing the episode when it aired but was too young to realize what a risk he and the cast took to get it aired.
I've been watching this show recently and have found this show one of the funniest, crazy shows created. There is nothing currently being aired that even compares to it.
They did a great job not only with the concert episode but also giving every cast member their own episodes to shine. It wasn't always about Johnny Fever or Mr Carlson or it was everybody
I truly loved this show. I wish this had been a longer segment of the interview. I didn't see Gary Sandy, but I could pick out the rest of the cast easily. The chemistry was amazing. I remember Johnny Fever fighting to play John Lennon's Imagine because it was a socialist song. The day of the tornadoes. Drunk driving. Of course, the turkeys. So many great episodes. Booger!
Ihave been a fan of this show since i was a kid and it was in the air. I just watched the Who episode again a few days ago. It always makes me cry. It was such a wonder tribute and statement about that tragic day. It is a historic episode.
I am glad that this show popped up on my computer. I had forgotten about how great it was. I watched it every week. Yes Jan Smithers was beautiful. I believe she still is.
My dad worked in radio as a newsman for 40 years. WKRP did a great service portraying the characters that's for sure. I was lucky enough to go to work with my dad when I was a teenager. The NBC TV station was downstairs and the 2 radio stations(610 AM & KY-102 FM) were upstairs. In the upstairs copier room there was a triple paned glass window where I could look down and watch them do the Kansas City nightly news(6PM & 10PM). The FM and AM disc jockeys had their own studios with the news studio in between. Very small room, surrounded by soundproof glass with the very thick door having even more insulation on it's inside, similar to thick foam packing material. A bank of switches on a board, 2 cart machines with carts(cartridges) stacked in a row to the right on the wall. Once the news was done my dad would leave the studio and go back to the newsroom, a super small room with 2 teletypes, 3 tv's, & 3 desks with typewriters. Everybody there worked hard for little pay I can assure you that.
