O2D Laugh tracks aren't always a bad thing. When the laughs happen at the right time they are gold, when the laughs happen for no reason(like they do here) it makes it hard to watch or respect the show. That's really the only bad thing about this show. Anyone who says the original was "so much better" is either lying or hasn't seen the original in 30 years so they don't remember what it really was like. It was literally a show full of 50 year olds who were "edgy" and "pushing the envelope". Saying booger and being scared of mud people was all they had. If the original had aired in the 50's it would have been ground breaking. In the 70s it was just sad old people trying to be young and hip. This is just as good as the original, don't listen to the crusty octogenarians. BTW I love that Les looks exactly the same in the 90s as he did in the 70s. Did you know him and Travis were almost the same age???

keithgordonca Like almost everyone who tuned in, we were fans of the original show. Bill Dial (the original engineer, Bucky Dornster) was a major creative force behind the scenes in both, but was working in a different environment this time round. The new WKRP had paid great attention to the physical details of the sets, and brought back 3 strong cast members. Unfortunately that was less than half of the original ensemble, and despite what other reviewers have said, few of them seemed to work. French Stewart as Razor and Nancy Braithwaite were the only standouts, as they were drawn as broadly comedic characters like most everyone in the original WKRP. Claire, Dana, Jack and even Art Jr. were just too boring and plain, forcing the best story lines to lean on Art, Herb and Les too much, or to bring in guests from the first series. The 2 seasons were very different as well, since 4 main cast members from season 1 were replaced without explanation heading into season 2. This disjointed nature rose towards the end of season 2 with Donovan being killed off apparently in the second last episode, then zero mention in the final episode, while Mona just never appeared after the episode in LA with Johnny. So the overall story arc was a problem, along with the casting. Now that said, there were still moments of strong TV here, particularly as Herb and Les still are the wacky nuts they always were. Nancy provides a great foil for Herb, showing the reverse of the Jennifer scenario. He gets a taste of his own medicine for a change. When Johnny guests it is always a compelling tale, and the Hollywood version of WKRP mimics the "Real Families" episode from the original to great effect. Hopefully now that the show has finally appeared on the torrent and streaming sites it will be possible for more fans to rediscover this interesting, albeit flawed, bit of TV history.

miles-husoy 10. This is a reunion show, as mentioned above. 9. Only 1/3 of the original cast bothered to show up, thus supplying only 1/3 of the humor. 8. It's never a good idea to call something "the new version" of anything as it will only make fans long for the original (just like The New Leave It To Beaver). 7. Had this show started out as a new concept, people might not have noticed right away that it wasn't really that funny. But when you have the original to compare it to, it can be downright painful (just like Saturday Night Live after the departure of the Not Ready for Primetime Players). 6. Dr. Johnny Fever is NOT a regular. That factor alone hurts the show. 5. This show was syndicated, which means no major network would buy it. More often than not, the networks would never know a good show if it lived next door. This time, however, they made the right choice. 4. Who are all those other people? They have no personalities. They might as well be rejects from Murphy Brown or Newsradio. 3. Herb, Les and Mr. Carlson are funny, I'll give them that, but here they have nobody to get their laughs off of. 2. In the original WKRP, the premise was that Andy had to bring rock to the station against Mama Carlson's wishes and deal with all the buffoons. What exactly was the premise behind this show? Was there even a premise at all? You know a show's in trouble when someone says, "Uh, they're still running the station with Herb, Mr. Carlson and Les." AND FINALLY... 1. The Number One reason for this show bombing (and by that, I don't mean "the bomb")...Tawny Kitaen. Any show that's desperate enough to use her as the resident bimbo/sex symbol is desperate indeed. Any time you see her name (or the names of Pamela Anderson or Barbi Benton) in the opening credits, you know right away that what you're watching is utter crap. What a shame to blacken WKRP's great name this way.

rorygunn One of the things that made the original so good was that you had this sane character Andy Travis coming into what is essentially a nut house and becoming one of the nuts.But with this new one there are too many sane people who work at the station and also it centers around Carlson,Les Nesman and Herb Tarlick.While they were a bit off center in the old show they weren't the main characters.On this one they were and somehow without Jennifer to play off of Herb and Carlson to play off of Andy and Nesman to play off of everybody,it just doesn't work.Plus the original just had a great cast that that seemed to click.My advice would be to buy the original on DVD and try to forget this one