WKRP In Cincinnatti

This show is now coming out on DVD.

In 1978 WKRP in Cincinnati debuted. – it was a big hit with my high school crowd even though it was not a huge general success out of the gate. Andy Travis is hired as a program director to run a radio station that is 16^th in an 18 station market. In fact the station is owned by “Mother Carlson” and is essentially a play toy for her son Arthur. Andy decides to take the job seriously and he changes the format from snooze fest to contemporary rock. It also helped that as a kid I was a huge Reds fan - I never took to The Expos even though I was born not far from Montreal.

Of course most television shows, and especially comedies, are character-driven. Can you imagine Seinfeld without Kramer? Andy was the hunky cowboy who rides into town. Jennifer was the sexpot who had no particular function you could ascertain yet she drew a large salary, had rich men dripping off of her, but had wisdom of her own and was no dummy. Bailey Quarters was the quiet “girl next door” that just needed a bit of self-confidence. Herb Tarlek encapsulated the polyester “shoes match the belt’ excesses of the 1970s. Johnny Fever was the ex-hippie DJ who suffered from acid flashbacks. Venus Flytrap was the hip funkmeister DJ, a Barry White style ladies man.

The characters were well-set right away in the pilot even though it took us some time to get to know them. Andy and Jennifer always liked to let Carlson think he was running the place and they would protect him from his tyrannical mother.

Topics that are now routine were once new – in the 70s you could have a character that people mistakenly thought was gay, but not a gay character (think of Jack Tripper). Les Nessman, the bow-tied news announcer, is the victim of a misspoken comment when someone calls him a “queer little fellow”. A "Les is gay" rumour goes around and Les goes out on a ledge ready to jump off of the ledge at the station. Andy talks him back into the building.The misheard word or mistaken premise is a time honoured comedic trick that goes back to Roman farce, and of course flourished in Shakespeare.

The funniest episode maybe ever was when Carlson decided, as a Thanksgiving promotion, to throw 20 live turkeys out of a helicopter. The only problem is, they crashed to earth and died a splatty death. “With God as my witness”, Carlson says “I thought turkeys could fly”.

Who could ever forget the bait shop that was the station's main advertiser and their jingo that went: “Red wigglers – the Cadillac of worms”.

It was certainly one of the best comedies of the late 70s early 80s, and that means it stands up against the likes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Barney Miller.

If not the Cadillac of comedies, it was at least the Lincoln.

TF

How Language Changes

There is a book out:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I have never read her but I have seen her in documentaries and she is wonderful. She was talking about the book with Jon Stewart. Lincoln said "It is better to have your enemies in your tent pissing out than to have them outside pissing in". In another passage, she describes a letter between two civil war generals who were friends, and this is not a gay thing (If you want gay from that era, read Walt Whitman). Anyway, the one writes to the other "I cannot wait until we meet again by the lake, hold hands and engage in gentle intercourse".

In 2007 if I get an offer of gentle intercourse from another man, my response would begin "While I am certainly flattered....."

The famous line "It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all" was written by Tennyson regarding the death of a male friend.

No, he did not hang out with a steelworker, a guy in native headdress, a guy in leather chaps....

Thomas.

Denial

"I don't believe in Beatles "
- John Lennon

I am not talking about people with the wit and poetic talent of John Lennon! Denial is a great hobby these days for many people, and 3 major things come to mind:

The Holocaust

Nobody denies Pearl Harbour or the Yalta Conference, but from the very same conflict people deny something that was so immense that it would seem to me to be about as undeniable as the 2004 Tsunami. Hitler had the big lie and his modern followers, or bastard children, have the big denial. This has included the leader of Iran. Maybe some people in New York City should deny that Mohammed ever existed - oh, the Iranians would get quite the chuckle out of that - why don't we depict it in a cartoon!

Evolution

Another world leader who knows bupkes about world history is George W Bush. Acoording to him when it comes to Evolution, he says "The jury is still out". As comedian Lewis Black said "WHAT jury?. The jury from the scopes trail in the 1920s?". Religions such as Christianity are wonderful, amazing, complicated often very dangerous belief systems that people have spent life times studying. In complexity they kick the shit out of evolution. Here's evolution - sitting down folks? - "Things change over time". Boy, that ain't Thomas Aquinas or St. Paul! And why isn't George W Bush a Catholic? Because religions...um....evolve...over time.

Global Warming

Another world leader who knows jack-shit about world history is our own - Steven "W" Harper. He said since we can't predict the weather next week how can we possibly know anything about climate change? As Jon Stewart I think said "just because Venus is our sister planet does not mean we want IT'S CLIMATE".

At least the heartless bastards who took away Pluto's Planet standard do not deny it exists!!

How long will it be before people deny John Lennon was shot to death??

Thomas.