The Debut of WKRP!

On September 18, 1978 the situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati made its debut on CBS-TV. The show was centered around the least-listened to AM radio station in Southern Ohio. It featured Gary Sandy and Gordon Jump, two non "leading men" type character actors, as Andy Travis, the new program director, and Arthur Carlson, the owner and general manager of the station.

Happy Birthday, Richard Sanders!

Today is the birthday of actor-writer Richard Sanders. Sanders was a classically trained Shakespearean actor from Pennsylvania when he got the quirky role of Les Nessman, news director on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982). While enjoying that role, Sanders also wrote five episodes of the series, all of them centering on his character.

Happy Birthday, Hugh Wilson!

If you have never heard of Hugh Wilson, the talented writer, producer, and director, you have missed a lifetime of great comedy.

Happy Birthday, John & Loni!

Yesterday Aug 3 was the birthday of John C. McGinley.

Tomorrow Aug 5 is the birthday of Loni Anderson.

Happy Birthday, Hugh Wilson!

You may not recognize the name, but Hugh Wilson is a Hollywood writer, director, and producer and creator of one of my favorite shows, WKRP in Cincinnati. August 21 is his 70th birthday.

Before he created WKRP, Wilson worked on such great shows as The Bob Newhart Show, where he wrote three episodes, and The Tony Randall Show from 1976. After four years in Cincinnati he moved to New Orleans, specifically to Frank's Place, one of the few African-American based situation comedies on network television. It starred Tim Reid, who had portrayed Venus Fly Trap on WKRP. It only lasted one season.

He is also the director of the first Police Academy film starring Steve Gutenberg and Kim Cattrell. 

More recently he has directed films such as The First Wives' Club (starring Bette Midler and Diane Keaton) and Dudley Do-Right (starring Brendan Fraser). Currently he lives in Virginia.

Thanks for hours and hours of entertainment, Mr. Wilson!

Happy Birthday, Hugh Wilson!

 

Happy Birthday, Jan Smithers!

When I was in high school I watched WKRP in Cincinnati every week. I did not have a crush on Loni Anderson; no, I had a crush on Jan Smithers as Bailey Quarters.
WRKP only lasted four years, 1978-1982, but in that time the ensemble cast were each featured in special episodes that highlighted their characters, and Jan Smithers was no different. She started out as a cypher that nobody noticed, but blossomed into a well-rounded news professional.

Jan Smithers became famous when a photograph of her on a friend's motorcycle was made the cover image for NEWSWEEK in March 1966. Then she appeared in several TV-movies and as a guest-star on such shows as Hotel and Love Boat. By 1987 she had basically retired from acting.

Tomorrow July 3 is Jan Smithers' birthday. She will be 64 years young.

Happy Birthday, Jan Smithers!

I hope to see you in something again soon!

the Newsweek cover that "made her a star"

 

with WRKP co-stars Tim Reid and Gary Sandy

 

with WRKP co-star Richard Sanders

 

the closing theme from the show with stills of the stars

WHM 2012 TV Women of the 70s

There were plenty of strong women characters on TV when I was growing up in the Seventies. I woul like to take this time today to talk about some of my favorites.
No conversation about strong television personalities can ignore Lucille Ball, but by the time I was cognizant and choosing what shows I wanted to watch (i.e., the Seventies), Lucy was mostly off the air. So she was never one of my favorites. I LOVE LUCY is a TV classic, and I may write about it some time, but it doesn't fit the theme of today's article. I do remember watching HERE'S LUCY (1968-74) on some Monday nights, though. This was her last show, co-starring an adorable Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. I recall very distinctly the episode where she tries on the diamond ring belonging to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton but then couldn't get it off. I think the most memorable thing about this show was the Puppet Lucy that started the show, haha!

Speaking of Lucy, her co-star in the movie, "MAME" Bea Arthur was also a huge TV star in the Seventies on MAUDE (1972-78). I remember watching this some, but more for Adrienne Barbeau then for Bea Arthur, haha! She scared me, and I was never a fan of her sarcasm. I never watched her later series, GOLDEN GIRLS, either.

Can you identify Loretta Swit in this
photo of MASH cast season 5?

Another bossypersonality of the Seventies was Loretta Swit on MASH (1972-83). Margaret Houlihan started off as "Hot Lips," a shrill, opportunistic Head Nurse surrounded by men (in a cast of more than a dozen men, Swit was the only woman). By the end of the series, she was a more mature, emotionally open, divorced yet fulfilled woman. In many ways her character mirrored the changes going on in women's lives in the Seventies: she started out as dependant on a man but wanting independance, straining for an individual identity. And while I enjoyed MASH very much, Margaret was never my favorite character.

Of course, the most successful woman on US television in the Seventies was Mary Tyler Moore. Not only did she have her own show (1970-77), but her production company MTM (with a kitten instead of a lion; I loved that) was responsible for RHODA, PHYLLIS, WKRP, and dozens more. I always watched MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW but as a youngster it didn't really speak to me if you know what I mean. I was more entertained by BOB NEWHART, whose wife character was portrayed by the wonderful Suzanne Pleshette. I've since come around, of course, and appreciate MTM for being a warm, affectionate look at friends working together.

So which women *did* speak to me? I'm glad you asked!

The first TV woman I really looked forward to watching was Lindsay Wagner on THE BIONIC WOMAN (1975-78). Jaime Sommers was a tennis pro and former girl-friend of Steve Austin (a man barely alive...). When she suffered injuries in a parachuting accidentshe was given bionic legs, a bionic arm, and a bionic ear (the better to hear you with, my dear). She made her debut on a special two-part episode of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN starring Lee Majors. However, for some reason I can't recall now, her mind fought against the bionic implants and she had to lose her memory so that she could survive. I remember how sad it was for her to wake up after her final surgery and have no idea who Steve was, even though they had planned to get married. Talk about a tear-jerker! She was so popular that she had her own series spun-off. According to legend, actress Lindsay Wagner was so concerned about being type-casted as a super-hero that her contract stipulated that she had to play different types of characters as Jaime goes undercover to fight crime. So she played a teacher, a college professor, a wrestler, and a roller-derby player, just to name a few. It made for some fun episodes.

. No discussion of super-heroes on Seventies TV can be complete without mentioning Lynda Carter as WONDER WOMAN (1975-79). The original TV movie featured Cathy Lee Crosby in 1974. A year later the better known version made its appearance as a series of three TV movies set durin World War II. It became a series, but then switched networks (ABC to CBS) and time frames (WWII to the present). I have to say that although I watched it initially, after it became a series I was never a fan. Sure, I liked Lynda Carter. And I wanted to like it. But the stories got dumber, and the producers refused to bring in established bad guys like The Cheetah or Dr. Psycho. How many times were you going to watch Wonder Woman beat up spies and mad scientists?

Two shows where you knew exactly what you were getting were CHARLIE'S ANGELS (1976-1981) and THREE'S COMPANY (1977-1984). Oddly enough, I didn't care much for the first year of ANGELS, with Farrah Fawcett. It was in the second year, when Cheryl Ladd joined with Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, that I really started to watch it. These three were "my" Angels. I guess I was the only boy in America without a Farrah poster on my wall, haha! I was never  fan of the Seventies "feathered" hair look, for one thing. Give me long, beautiful, straight hair any day! I had a soft spot in my heart for Kate Jackson from when she played a nurse on THE ROOKIES, so she was my favorite. When she quit I stopped watching it.

As for THREE'S COMPANY, I was a fan of it when it first started, but after greed got into the act I moved on. The original set-up was of two women room-mates finding a guy needing a place to stay; he pretends to be gay so that the landlord lets him stay. Originally cast with Suzanne Sommers, Joyce DeWitt, and John Ritter as the room-mates and Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as The Ropers, the show was new and usually pretty funny. Then after the first year or so things started to happen. Joyce DeWitt permed her hair, making her less attractive to me. The Ropers moved off for their own short-lived series and were replaced by Don Knotts. I'm not a huge Don Knotts fan; his bug-eyed expressions just annoy me. And as a character, a swinging bachelor senior citizen is not as funny as a perve and his sex-crazed wife. And lastly, Suzanne Sommers wanted more money to stay; when she didn't get it, she walked. The chemistry of the cast was destroyed, and it never recovered.

One show that I never stopped watching until she retired it herself was THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW (1967-78). Carol Burnett is probably my favorite TV personality of all time. Not only was she incredibly funny but she was honest (I loved those "answer questions from the audience" segments) and she could sing adequately. Best of all, she surrounded herself with equally funny and talented people. Her variety show was one of the few shows that my whole family would watch together. "As The Stomach Turns" was her continuous take-off on silly soap operas. "The Family" was Eunace, Ed, and Mama facing various problems that later morphed into MAMA'S FAMILY. "The Later Show" was their regular parodies of old Hollywood movies which I tended not to know, but somehow still found funny. I mean, you didn't have to know "Gone With The Wind" to think Scarlett wearing a curtain rod in her dress was funny...it helped, sure, but it wasn't required. Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway were her supporting players, and a funnier group of comedian were not assembledon television until The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players. Her show had wonderfully talented guests, too: I remember Ken Berry, Jim Nabors, the Jackson Five, Steve Lawrence, and Betty White all making guest appearnances.

The last great comedy of the Seventies as far as I was concerned was WKRP in CINCINNATI (1978-82). This show was an ensemble cast with two equally wonerful women: Loni Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, the receptionist, and Jan Smithers as Bailey Quarters, gofer-Sales Assistant-News Assistant. Jennifer got the big laughs with her visual high-jinks and arced eyebrows; Bailey got the character-driven laughs. Both were enjoyable additions to the otherwise male cast. Similar to the great "Mary Anne or Ginger?" debate, I couldn't pick just one! And that's my segueway to next week's topic...so be here,aloha! :-)

My Favorite TV Shows

I don't hav any one "favorite" TV show. People often say, "I never missed FRIENDS" or "I'm totally a TREKKER" but I guess I'm just too picky to be able to say one particular show is my absolute favorite above all others. No, my favorites break down like this: shows that I love but also hate, and shows that I love.

SHOWS THAT I LOVE BUT ALSO HATE
aka Shows That I Will Check To See Which Episode It Is Before Deciding To Watch It

The best example of this type of show is MASH. The first three years with Trapper John and Henry Blake are good. The next two seasons with BJ and Frank are great. However, the last six years with Charles are, to put it mildly, uneven. So I can't very well say that MASH is my favorite show when I can barely sit through some of the melodrama of the later years. I understand why Larry Linville as Frank (right) wanted to move on, but when he did, he also took the heart of the comedy out of the show.  

The two shows created by Sherwood Schwartz, GILLIGAN'S ISLAND and THE BRADY BUNCH, veer wildly between awesome (usually the dream sequences on GILLIGAN and the middle years on THE BUNCH) and the awesomely bad (most guest-stars on the island and the last year with "Cousin Oliver").

BATMAN was fantastically entertaining in its first year, but in its second year it went TOO far overboard and then it got repetitive and just plain silly. Even the addition of sexy Batgirl can't make several of the last season episodes worth watching.

Super spy shows like MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE, THE MAN FROM UNCLE, and THE AVENGERS have more than their share of great episodes. However, UNCLE suffered from the same "camp" over-reach that affected BATMAN, and after it stopped taking itself seriously it couldn't find its way back to its core. Patrick Macnee had played John Steed for several years on THE AVENGERS with several other partners before Diana Rigg came on the scene as Mrs. Peel. Yet, it just wasn't the same after she left. And when Martin Landau and Barbara Bain walked away from MISSION the producers could replace the roles, but not the characters. It, too, was never the same without them.  

THE JEFFERSONS started out incredibly fresh and topical: one of the only TV series in the 70s with African-American leads, it also had the first bi-racial couple, The Willises, as supporting characters.

The first few years were all about the characters, but as the show got older and more established it became more pedestrian (for lack of a better term). When it lost its edge, it lost a lot of its appeal to me.

STAR TREK is supposed to be about an international (and inter-galactic!) crew working together to investigate the unknown. However, there are just too many Kirk-Spock-McCoy episodes. All of my favorite episodes featured most if not all of the Enterprise crew. Also, how many episodes did we really need about Man's Over-Dependance On Machines, or set on planets oddly similar to Earth?  

I loved the premise of the Space Family Robinson LOST in SPACE. However, there are just too many episodes centered around Dr. Smith doing something stupid, usually accompanied by Will and The Robot but nobody else. There were six other great actors on this show, but too often they were wasted because the producers took the lazy way out. 

DEEP SPACE NINE is my favorite overall STAR TREK series. It has a great premise, a great cast of characters who shared the spotlight in various storylines, and a great cast of actors portraying said characters. However, in its later years it got bogged down in its own mythology and continuing storyline. If I happened to miss an episode (which I did, because I was living in Japan at the time) it was difficult to figure out what was going on. By the last few years it was less like STAR TREK and more like DYNASTY. 

I was tempted not to include my two favorite variety shows, The MUPPET SHOW and The CAROL BURNETT SHOW, because both were always entertaining enough; it just depended on who the guest star was if the episode was truly classic. Still, I would prefer even the dullest guest on either of these shows to most anything else out there, then or now.

SHOWS THAT I LOVE

aka Shows That I Want to Own on DVD and Watch Repeatedly

F TROOP is the one I guess I have to call my "guilty pleasure." Watching it now there are only a few laugh-out-loud scenes. The repetitive schtick characters (the bugler who can't bugle, the near-sighted guard, the Alamo survivor) get old. The premise of a post-Civil War fort manned by con men and nincompoops, surrounded by peace-loving Indians, doesn't sound all that entertaining. Yet somehow....I find myself enjoying it every time I watch it. Go figure. Maybe it's the fun leads: Ken Berry as Captain Parmeter, Forrest Tucker as Sgt O'Roarke, Larry Storch as Corporal Agarn, Melody Patterson as Wrangler Jane, and Frank DeKova as Chief Wild Eagle. Maybe it's the colorful surroundings (I heard later that the series was filmed on one of Warner Bros.' old "standing lots" which means it looked real cool. Whatever it is, I'm thinking I'll go watch an episode right now. Maybe the one with the Bed Bugs. :-)

THE ODD COUPLE featured the over-the-top sloppiness of Oscar and the persnickity cleanliness of Felix. This was a wonderful dichotomy to base a situation comedy on. Even now, years later, I find myself thinking of scenes or bits from this series. Did everyone learn the "don't assume because it makes an ass of u and me" lesson from this series, or was it just helpful in getting the message out there? Anyway, it was no accident that both Jack Klugman and Tony Randall won Emmy Awards for their work on this show.

WKRP in CINCINNATI was originally supposed to be all about Andy (a great Gary Sandy) and his new life in Cincinnati as a program director at the least popular radio station in town. Pretty quickly, however, the show stopped centering on Andy's life and expanded out to all of his crazy co-workers. Blessed with fine writing and a wonderful ensemble cast, WKRP left us too soon. Plagued with royalty or copyright issues for all the real 70s and 80s music the show used, the DVD releases of this classic are also, sadly, delayed.

It took me about a year to get into the medical comedy/drama SCRUBS. The first few times I watched it, with JD's weird narration and surreal imaginary scenes, it didn't do anything for me. But then I saw a few "serious" episodes: one where the three leads each had to deal with dying patients and one where Dr. Cox has to deal with his best friend having leukemia. I finally got that what JD was doing was his defense mechanism agains the pain, fear, and sadness that surrounded him at Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital. After I "got" it, I  enjoyed it for its entire run.

I didn't know what to expect from MY NAME IS EARL. I'm pretty sure it came on between two shows that I already watched, so I kept it on and then learned to love it. The premise is great: Earl Hickey, perpetual bad guy, wins the lottery but then is hit by a car, causing him to lose the ticket. In the hospital he decides to change his life by writing a list of all the bad things he has ever done ("Lost Dad the election," "Pretended to be dead to break up with a girl," etc) and then going out to make them right. As soon as he leaves the hospital, he finds his lottery ticket, and thusly believes in Kharma. This show was one of the few where I could *not* guess what was going to happen every week. In one episode, Earl frets about having to tell an ex-con buddy that it was his fault that the friend has been sent to prison. The friend was an angry SOB so Earl was scared to confess to him. When they finally get together, however, what happened was something I never saw coming. For that sense of wonder so often missing from mainstream TV, it earned its place on this list.    

To me, the ultimate situation comedy is THE BOB NEWHART SHOW. Bob was fun to be with, whether he was at home with his funny & affectionate wife Emily (a fantastic Suzanne Pleshette) or at the office with his crazy but also very funny mental patients. Jack Riley as angry Mr. Carlin was especially memorable. I always liked Bob's deadpan delivery style of comedy. So while my parents liked ALL in the FAMILY and my sisters liked MARY TYLER MOORE, I always liked Bob. I was very lucky to meet "Carol," Marcia Wallace herself at a Mid-Ohio Comic Convention, and she graciously signed one of my DVD covers. 

If you haven't seen all of these shows I've talked about here, I strongly suggest you go to your local library or to youtube or Target and check them out. They may not all be to your liking, but I am guessing that if you made it this far, you'll find *something* you'll like. If you want specific episode or seaons recommendations, just let me know.