Thursday, New York City, New York

The television show WKRP in Cincinnati was a classic show that only aired for four years (1978-82), but became a memorable television program. Like every classic television show it featured memorable characters. It featured a wonderful leading man in Travis (Gary Sandy), the voice of sanity as the station’s Program Director. The classic actor Gordon Jump played the wonderfully bumbling station manager John, “the big guy.” Howard Hesseman was the memorable Dr. Johnny Fever, a burnt out disk jockey with an intrepid history.

The program also featured Les Nessman, the inept news director while blond beauty Loni Anderson portrayed Jennifer, the station’s receptionist and lust object. And idiot Herb was the sales executive who rounded out the cast. In essence, the show depicted every stereotype available in life. The writing was excellent, and the characters sharply defined.

Like every great television comedy, the WKRP’s ensemble cast depicted a wide variety of stereotypes. And who among us can’t relate to having people in our lives that reflect this broad array of human personalities? When we watch any television show with such characters, although portrayed in broad, almost cartoonish strokes, it represents much of what we experience in our own lives with the people around us. It is a delight to watch the nut cases around us who stumble along in life. Every life is a soap opera and we enjoy looking at someone else’s complex life for laughs.

Yet WKRP in Cincinnati had everything going for it to last a much longer time. It only lasted four years and it’s curious that it did not become a long term success. One suspicion is that the writing eventually waned. But given the clearly defined characters on the show, it seems odd that the scripts would not have gotten better over time. It certainly had its moments. For instance, during this very season of Thanksgiving, there was a delightful episode where the station, in a misguided but well intentioned attempt to reach out to their listening audience, decided to higher a plane to drop hundreds of turkeys down on the city as a gesture of goodwill. Of course it didn’t occurr to the staff that, as the station manager noted, “I swear it had it never occurred to me that turkeys couldn’t fly!” The show’s writing in its heyday was outstanding and evoked belly laughs.

In light of its short life on the air, yet reflecting on its great thematic premise, WKRP in Cincinnati reminds us of the power of the writers in media. As we read about the television writers on strike seeking their fair share of revenue, shows like WKRP in Cincinnati, as well as other great classic programs that never lasted more than a few years, are evidence that the variable for success is not with the actors or the characters that portray the leads. It is in fact with the power of the written word that is given voice with the talented actors under the direction of the producers. But it all starts with the writers and they are often marginalized in the process of revenue sharing. The writing s the fundamental.

If the writing is weak, every other person involved in the endeavor essentially works in vain!

There seems to be an imbalance between the lofty remuneration of the actors who appear on the screen, the networks that air the shows and the writers who make the the great characters that become a hit program.

The whole thing seems out of balance to me.