widsith-58602
In an era before cellphones, the internet or i-things, this was a little slice of heaven. The small, ensemble cast mesh wonderfully together. It takes a while for the angles and humour to work themselves out in the first few episodes, but like M*A*S*H or Friends, the cast stealthily grow on you until you catch yourself aping their mannerisms and quotes in daily life.The basic premise is a family-run classical music radio station that has to reinvent itself as a rock station to survive, for which they hire Gary Sandy as a new station director. He inherits a dysfunctional but enthusiastic set of individuals, including utterly self-possessed advertising salesman Frank Bonner, much loved but totally ineffectual office manager Gordon Jump, gorgeous secretary Loni Anderson and utterly gullible and forever earnest news presenter Richard Sanders.As a comedy it never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously, but does have quiet fun having a crack at racism, sexism and gay issues occasionally. It's really a character driven affair, and one watches episode again and again for the pleasure of seeing how the crew of the station either wind each other up or manage to pull together when crises hit.In spite of finishing a third of a century ago, it still comes over as fresh, and a league above many far more plush and 'daring' comedies of recent times. It doesn't have the answer to life, the universe and everything in it, it is just plain, heart-warming fun.
johnnysam2
but this was/is one of those shows that was just too good to be true. Along with "Freaks & Geeks, Arrested Development, and The Powers That Be," WKRP was perfection on a 19 inch TV. CBS exec's should have been fired for treating this classic show with such disrespect. I remember the excitement of waiting for the show to begin, when all of a sudden, CBS did the unthinkable, and replaced it with some mundane piece of garbage. Oh well, thank God for DVD's. Now it will live in infamy and anytime I want to hear Les proclaim, "Oh the humanity, " or Mother Carlson shouting, "Hirsch!" It will be at my finger tips!!! So, along with "Cheers, Newhart, and a few other" the classics live on! Now, if only FOX would release "Duet" on DVD. It would be heaven on Earth!
donheen
I remember during its second season a real life event happened in Cincinatti where 11 people were killed at Riverfront Stadium during a Who concert. Wkrp I thought handled this extremely well on one of their shows. I thought they handled this very well like the class act they were. One of their more memorable serious shows. The boss had come in the nest day and hadn't heard what had happened. The Music group The Who was performing a concert on December 3, 1979 and when the doors were opened for general admission there was a crowd serge and 11 people were trampled to death. It led to several changes of how concerts were promoted and also pretty much the end of general admission first come first serve seating
sbmcvp
This was simply one of the best sitcoms ever made (along with Barney Miller). Even when the episodes were centered around characters that I did not particularly find appealing, the show always had heart. Never in WKRP did the show become formulaic or repetitive. The stories were written with feeling and a depth that is long since vanished in any sitcoms since. I believe that the best episode (not the funniest) was "In Concert". It is the one that centers around the tragedy at the 1979 Who concert, where 11 people were trampled to death outside the stadium trying to get the best seats. This show was a far cry from the current trend of having character-A insult character-B to the sound of the laugh track!!