Favourite WKRP Moments: Watch For Falling Turkeys

[Kohola3]

4 hours ago, ganesh said:

Didn't they have like a whole 2 minute scene with them walking in the park or something? 

Yep, no audible dialog;  just lots of smiling and adoring looks.  I didn't mind it all that much.  There were other character-centric episodes for the others so why not Andy.

 

6 hours ago, PhoneCop said:

I guess I don't need to explain my user name here...

Now that had to rank right up with a favorite episode of mine.  Good choice for a name!

[PhoneCop]

"I'll play Barry Manilow, I'll play the Carpenters, just hide me!"

I was trying to think of another Andy spotlight—maybe the one where he's trying to talk Mama Carlson into replacing the transmitter? Granted, Mama was kind of the ninth main character...

Hirsch was definitely the best supporting player, but I wished they'd used Bucky more and Lucille was great. The phrase "I had impure thoughts at the kiln" runs through my mind relatively often for somebody who hasn't taken a ceramics course in decades.

[chitowngirl]

Bucky Dornster was great. And Bill Dial was right there! They could have put an engineer in easily.

[Kohola3]

Buffy:  "I sense you have become more prosperous  And slightly effeminate."   Hee!

[Shannon L.]

On 8/30/2018 at 3:41 PM, PhoneCop said:

The phrase "I had impure thoughts at the kiln" runs through my mind relatively often for somebody who hasn't taken a ceramics course in decades.

I love her description of Little House on the Prairie in light of telling the reporter that it was good, wholesome family viewing:  "It's about young, blind children and every week, someone dies in a fire or of a horrible disease."

[Macbeth]

Sadly my favorite moments consist when they actually play the original music aired. 

I just saw a show where not 1but 2 80s song were actually played: Pat Benatar's "Promises in the Dark " and The Stones' "Start me up".   Very nice. 

I really liked the Union episode.  It dealt with an issue a radio station would be facing.  It finally found an ongoing storyline for Gary Shandling's character. Andy and Mamma (with Hirsch) had many fine moments going forward. 

Bailey continued her development as a strong voice. And Jennifer had great comedic moments with an admirer and her membership in a quasi-religious Union of blonde receptionists. 

[Reality police]

After the Turkey episode my favorite is Les has a date with Jennifer. When Les is getting dressed the song Hot Blooded was played in the original. They have subbed something else in, but in my mind I always hear the original. 

[Kohola3]

I have always thought the episode about censorship was quite thought-provoking. In this episode I was impressed with both sides of the argument from Mr. Carlson. I was also very impressed with Johnny Fever's arguments since he can sometimes act like a goofball.

 Sadly I fear this is something that we are going to have to address again in the near future.

[friendperidot]

PhoneCop, I used Vicky Von Vicky as an email address several years ago. I set up a bunch of emails on free places so I could vote on DWTS. I quit voting years ago, so that account has gone away.

[Kohola3]

I introduced another generation to the Thanksgiving episode last night - I never fail to laugh!

[Driad]

What did Carlson expect would happen if the turkeys had been able to fly?  The helicopter was so high that Nessman could not tell what they were at first.  Likely they would have flown away, leaving onlookers baffled.  (Wild turkeys can fly, somewhat, but presumably WKRP had domestic ones.)

ETA:  Carlson wasn't the brightest bulb, and probably did not think it through, but he likely had some image in mind.

Edited November 22, 2018 by Driad

[Macbeth]

On November 22, 2018 at 8:35 AM, Kohola3 said:

I introduced another generation to the Thanksgiving episode last night - I never fail to laugh!

I showed it to my sister and she loved it. 

Glad to see Pink Floyd's music with the dogs barking was actually played. The interaction between Carlson and Johnnie about the song is another great moment in the show.  

I live in eastern Mass where wild turkeys are now present en masse. When Les relayed how the turkeys mounted a counter attack; I can attest that turkeys will do that.  You do not mess with them. 

[PhoneCop]

Started a rewatch of Season 1—I was just in the mood, the fact that it coincided with Thanksgiving was kind of happenstance—and I stand by my previous assessment of the "Love Returns" episode. Andy's scenes with Linda look and sound like bad soap opera and the weird flute-y music cues are so intrusive that they verge on parody. The goings-on at the station are passable, but it really is a sore thumb of an episode; the fact that it was written by Bill Dial, who also wrote "Turkeys Away," is a head-scratcher. Network interference, perhaps? I love that the Wikipedia summary says "NOTE: The show was placed on hiatus for two months after this episode aired," as if it were directly responsible for getting the show tabled.

This blog has a pretty good breakdown of "Love Returns" that I readily agree with, along with reviews of most of the show's run. The guy behind it is doing his rewatching/posting at his own pace (four years and counting), but since he's made it to early Season 4, I imagine he'll make it to the end eventually.

ETA: It's weird how I'm looking forward to the clip show that is "Mama's Review"—whenever I get around to it—but Carol Bruce >>>>>>>>>>>> Sylvia Sidney. I mean, maybe Sidney could've evolved with the writing and developed Mama into more than a one-note harridan if she'd stuck around, but Bruce was so great at making the character formidable without being completely unlikable.

Edited November 25, 2018 by PhoneCop

[Loandbehold]

18 hours ago, PhoneCop said:

ETA: It's weird how I'm looking forward to the clip show that is "Mama's Review"—whenever I get around to it—but Carol Bruce >>>>>>>>>>>> Sylvia Sidney. I mean, maybe Sidney could've evolved with the writing and developed Mama into more than a one-note harridan if she'd stuck around, but Bruce was so great at making the character formidable without being completely unlikable.

I think Hersch helped out a lot with this. Someone around to puncture Mama's balloon made her more human.

[PhoneCop]

Mama was pretty great purely on her own terms, though. They humanized her a lot in "Baby, It's Cold Inside," when she gets buzzed on Johnny's hooch and she just roams around the station telling her backstory, singing Gershwin, and terrorizing Johnny for her own amusement ("Have you enjoyed working in this hemisphere?") when she had just cause for firing him on the spot.

But Hirsch was a fantastic character and foil, no question there. His constantly trolling of Mama is the thing I'm looking forward to most whenever I get to Season 4.