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Suzanne Schaller's excellent site "Television's Other 10%" includes, at http://freepages.tv.rootsweb.com/~eeyore/wkrp/index.html, a terrific selection of quotes from episodes of "WKRP In Cincinnati." What I'm going to offer on this page is quotes *about* WKRP, interesting things that people have said, mostly in newspapers and magazines, about WKRP, its characters, and the people involved with the show. By no means do I agree with all the quotes below, but I do think they're all pretty interesting, either for what they say or for who's saying it. Here goes:
ON WKRP IN CINCINNATI
"MTM executives seem to be looking to WKRP to salvage their comedic reputation in much the same way the ravaged Republicans looked to Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 (and Richard Nixon in 1968) to salvage their political reputation. Toward that end, WKRP is going after a broader, somewhat different audience. The rock milieu provides instant identification for young viewers, of course. It helps, too, that the male lead is a handsome young man--and that there's a black character, a jive-talking disc jockey named Venus Flytrap. But the most egregious accommodation is the casting of a stunningly sexy blonde, clad in tight sweater and skirt, who manages, in the course of the pilot show, to thrust her very noticeable breasts under the noses of two different characters at particularly appropriate points in the dialogue.
Although the comedy is still rather sophisticated, compromises have clearly been made; no one ever acted--or even looked--like that in the old MTM newsroom at WJM, Minneapolis."
-- David Shaw, TV GUIDE, 1978
"I happen to like the show. It's a funny show about funny people."
-- Colleen Dewhurst, 1979
"Cease transmission...inadequate scripts and characters who have too
few personable attributes."
-- Tom Shales, WASHINGTON POST, 1979
Last week Steven Kampmann was talking about WKRP In Cincinnati. As
story editor of the CBS comedy series, Kampmann is proud of the
program`s quality, its popularity, and particularly the way WKRP
regularly trounces Laverne and Shirley in the battle for viewers each
Monday night. "By beating that show, we`re doing America a tremendous
favor," he declared.
-- PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 1980
No thanks to the muddleheaded program bosses at CBS, WKRP IN
CINCINNATI is a hit...the splendid show about a ramshackle radio
station has taken its place alongside M*A*S*H and BARNEY MILLER as
that rarest of TV commodities--a weekly series featuring comedy as a
launching pad for stories about the human condition.
-- Gary Deeb, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 1981
"Let me put it this way: I wouldn't watch it."
-- Mary Tyler Moore
It was an intelligent, well-crafted show that got good ratings and
was well-liked by TV critics. Nevertheless, [Tim] Reid said, CBS and
MTM didn't like the show and let it be known in a lot of subtle and
not-so-subtle ways. For the show's first two years, the cast was
"distinguished," if that's the word, by being the lowest-paid cast on
TV..."MTM would
never associate themselves with us," Reid said. "Whenever they spoke
of shows from the MTM family, they would mention every show but
ours." Even when the show was a proven success, Reid said, MTM
wouldn't furnish money for little things such as promotional T-
shirts, even though "WKRP" came in $2,000 a week under budget... The
cast learned a lesson from that experience, he said. "They don't like
intelligent actors. They like actors to do the work and go home and
hopefully do drugs so they can be controlled. That's the hope of
Hollywood, let's say, not any one person."
-- PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 1984
"WKRP [showed] something happening between people--there was
something underneath about people trying to help each other out."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1986
The series was a bittersweet experience for [Tim] Reid. Although his
work as the fast-living DJ Venus Flytrap brought him to the attention
of the public, the critics and the network, he complains that WKRP
was treated as the 'stepchild' of MTM, that the show is never
mentioned when MTM officials list their successes ('The Mary Tyler
Moore Show,' 'Hill Street Blues'), and that CBS didn't treat it much
better. "In four years, we were moved sixteen times on the schedule
[sic]," he said. "MTM thought we were poking fun at a sacred
industry. And CBS never understood what we were all about."
-- NEWSDAY, 1987
ON ANDY TRAVIS
"I've always done the flashy roles, but here I'm a straight man. I
smile a lot, and I act forthright, and basically, I'm the cement that
holds a lot of wonderfully crazy people together."
-- Gary Sandy, 1978
"Andy Travis never lets his feathers get ruffled, because he always
knows exactly where he's at. He doesn't claim to be clever, but he's
a hard worker who always does the best job he can."
-- Gary Sandy, 1986
ON ARTHUR CARLSON
"He's a combination of the men who mismanage radio stations, types I
used to work with in my radio days. He's the antagonist in most of
the episodes, a bungling character who manages to be likeable and
human."
-- Gordon Jump, 1979
Jump was a broadcasting veteran himself, and knew the type. To make the role his own, he says, "I worked off of three general managers I knew. Whenever I had to come up with a take-charge attitude, the one guy I used was a guy from the station I worked at in Kansas. He was that kind of guy, no-nonsense: 'I don't care what you want, this is what I want, and this is what we're going to do. Got anything to say about it?' That was the attitude." He grins. "His wife shot him to death."
-- PHOENIX NEW TIMES, 2001
ON BAILEY QUARTERS
"I took matters in my own hands and decided that Bailey, while very
insecure and totally unlike Jennifer because she's not together and
not naturally outgoing, did have a lot of ambition and the capacity
to grow. I think lots of people can relate to that and root for
Bailey. That's the kind of mail I get--people say, 'I'm trying to
gain more freedom, too.'"
-- Jan Smithers, 1980
ON CBS
"CBS has done nothing to help this show. The only thing CBS changed
was our time slot. They seem to change our time slot every time we
start to build an audience. Right now we're starting to show good
numbers on Saturday, and so I figure it's just a matter of weeks
before they move us to another night."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1981
Hesseman says CBS is particularly annoyed at any WKRP references to
drugs--this despite the fact that such substances have been known to
find their way into the world of rock radio. Furthermore, he claims,
the specific CBS executive who tries to blue-pencil all dope gags
is a heavy consumer of marijuana.
-- Gary Deeb, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1981
"This show has had more moves than a Cincinnati Bengals linebacker."
-- Gary Sandy, 1982
"We are being programmed by mental pygmies."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1982
If ever a network deserved a kick in the butt for insuring that an
outstanding show failed to develop a huge audience, it has to be
CBS in its dealings with "WKRP." The razor-sharp writing and offbeat
characters created by producer Hugh Wilson never got much chance
to succeed, thanks to the continual foolish shuffling of the program
all over the CBS schedule. Since "WKRP" premiered in 1978, the CBS
pooh-bahs changed its time slot nearly a dozen times, so often you
needed a road map to find the show.
-- Gary Deeb, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1982
"I was on the show and I didn't know when it was on."
-- Richard Sanders, 1991
"There was a general sense that if you were going to get close enough to a CBS executive to tweak his nose, you'd only have one hand free because you were holding your own."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1994
ON THE CANCELLATION
Take a look at Monday night, once a linchpin of CBS's week. It was
never stronger than when "WKRP" was at 9:30, following "M*A*S*H,"
building a logical audience for "Lou Grant." Soon, though, "WKRP"
started getting jerked all over the schedule, replaced in that Monday
time slot by a bunch of yahoo comedies, and people started switching
to the football game or the movie after "M*A*S*H." Not surprisingly,
the ratings for both "WKRP" and "Lou Grant" declined, and now,
[Donald] Grant [CBS executive] has decided to kill them.
-- BOSTON GLOBE, 1982
"But hey, we went down in a blaze of glory. I think it's better to go
that way than just petering out like some shows."
-- Gary Sandy, 1982
"It was like losing your family suddenly on the freeway."
-- Gordon Jump, 1991
ON ENSEMBLE COMEDY
"The only problem is that there are eight regulars in the ensemble,
so if you do 24 shows a season and try to feature everyone equally,
that’s only three big shows a year for each character."
-- Jan Smithers, 1980
"One problem when you get energy and want to go with it is that with
so large a cast of talented people, you have to wait three or four
shows for some 'meat.'"
-- Tim Reid, 1981
ON FRANK BONNER
"The only thing that disturbs me about Frank is that he is too
consistently good and perfect. I am always looking for a crack
in the facade. I want to know that Frank is a believable humanoid."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1982
ON HERB TARLEK
"Herb is the kind of guy who gets so drunk at a business dinner that he
forgets to make the deal. He is tasteless. Look at the clothes he wears,
and the pinky ring. He's a redneck, a bigot and a hypocrite. He's the
kind of guy who has a lovely wife at home and yet always tries to hit on
some other woman, he's so insecure about his manhood that he hides
a .38 revolver in the night stand next to his bed, and on weekends, mostly,
he stays at home and hides."
-- Frank Bonner, 1982
"Herb is boisterous, aggressive...He's not a well-read man beyond the
cartoons in the paper and the sports section. Herb is primarily lazy.
He doesn't really want to work that much, but he certainly wants it
all."
-- Frank Bonner, 1986
"The Herb Tarleks have multiplied and grown. They are a thriving
breed."
-- Lee Abrams (program director for XM Satellite Radio), 1999
ON HOWARD HESSEMAN
Actor Howard Hesseman, alias Dr. Johnny Fever of "WKRP in Cincinnati," sounds
like he's in the wrong business: He says he doesn't like television, doesn't like to be
recognized by fans and doesn't think much of the scripts of the successful CBS
series. Nonetheless, Hesseman told the Cincinnati Enquirer he's an actor and he
likes to work. "I can't imagine ever doing another series once WKRP' is over. But
who knows? Maybe a deal could be struck; actors do a lot of things for greed," he
said.
-- BOSTON GLOBE, 1980
ON HUGH WILSON
"He's a gentle, smiling young man who fondles each episode of WKRP as
if it were a newborn baby. It's Wilson who's primarily responsible
for the program's offbeat humor and its development into a
crackerjack ensemble comedy."
-- Gary Deeb, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1981
ON JAN SMITHERS
"Recently, when I revealed a slight lust for Jan Smithers, it was a
first in 35 years of column writing...Smithers was gorgeous and, in
sweatshirt and jeans, made super-simonized Loni Anderson-Jennifer
Marlowe look like a high-speed collision between a beauty salon and a
cathouse."
-- Jim Fitzgerald, DETROIT FREE PRESS, 1986
ON JENNIFER MARLOWE
"Johnny, like all the rest of the men she meets, longs for her, but when
he's faced with her, just crumbles. So he becomes her friend."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1979
"Jennifer never had anyone who was really close to her. Jennifer was
perfect. She never made any mistakes."
-- Loni Anderson, 1986
When she was offered the role of Jennifer in "WKRP," said Anderson,
the character was there only for window dressing. She prevailed upon
"WKRP" writer-producer Hugh Wilson and Grant Tinker, then president
of MTM studios, to let her read the same lines with a note of sarcasm.
"They loved it and took off with it," she said. The result was a
wholly original character -- a beautiful blond receptionist with
kewpie doll features and a spectacular figure, who also was smarter
than everybody else on the show.
-- SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 1986
ON JENNIFER AND BAILEY
"Who says there can't be more than one very attractive woman on a
show without it becoming CHARLIE'S ANGELS?"
-- Loni Anderson, 1980
"We're fortunate to have two women of the vastly different appeals of
Loni and Jan. Men look at Loni's character in an animal-type way;
they look at Jan's in a more reverent woman-on-a-pedestal sort of
way."
-- Gordon Jump, 1980
"The Ginger and Mary Ann of the radio world."
-- Bruce Fretts, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, 1995
ON JOHNNY FEVER
"Johnny Fever wore oddball clothes and didn't bother much with the
conventions other people lived by. Howard Hesseman isn't much different."
-- Notes from a Los Angeles press conference, 1986
ON LES NESSMAN
"Les Nessman was a perfectionist who didn't know how to relate to
people at all. He was a very serious guy, kind of a throwback."
-- Richard Sanders, 1986
ON LONI ANDERSON
"Particularly fine is the top-heavy comedienne, Loni Anderson, as the
receptionist whose movements turn men to stone...she keeps her head
while all the men around her are losing theirs."
-- James Wolcott, THE VILLAGE VOICE, 1980
ON REAL-LIFE RADIO
"Every time I meet people working in radio, I'm a little embarrassed.
It's all pre-programmed, rigidly formatted stuff. Time and time
again, when I talk to jocks, they say how jealous they are of the
freedom we have on WKRP. I sometimes have to explain to them that
it's not a real radio station."
-- Howard Hesseman, 1981
"Even though WKRP was fictional, many of the show's elements rang
true for its era."
-- Frank Ahrens, WASHINGTON POST, 1999
ON RICHARD SANDERS
"Richard knows his craft better than anyone in the cast, he's the most
meticulous actor, but as a person he's a mystery."
-- Jan Smithers, 1981
ON THE TURKEY DROP
The turkey-bombing wasn't imaginary. Advertising Age, a trade
magazine, discovered while doing a story on radio promotional stunts
that it was based on a real incident in Dallas. The launching point
there was a speeding truck, not a helicopter, but the result was the
same: instant turkey loaf.
-- Alexander Auerbach, LOS ANGELES TIMES, 1979
ON VENUS FLYTRAP
"What helped me get the part was that I turned it down. When I read
the script, Venus was just a black guy who came in wearing a big coat
and a hat and making jive talk. I'd been up for so many of those! I'd
had enough of caricatures, what white writers conceive blacks to be.
I told the producer I wasn't interested in doing anything like that
for three or four years. He said that it was just a pilot, that Venus
would be given a human dimension and would be quiet off-the-air. I
wanted that input. I thought that side was as important as the comic
side. For 'WKRP,' too much of either would be bad."
-- Tim Reid, 1981