History Trivia / WKRPInCincinnati

* WrittenByCastMember: Richard Sanders wrote five episodes, Tim Reid wrote three episodes, and Howard Hesseman wrote one episode.

* BlackSheepHit: To a certain extent "Turkeys Away" counts, since it's the show's most famous episode, but it's from the first season (in fact, only the 7th episode of the entire series), and it's a bit of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, since it's more farcical and less character-based than the rest of the series. It's even been suggested that the DenserAndWackier style of ''Series/TheNewWKRPInCincinnati'' was because it was using "Turkeys Away" as its role model.

** Music/{{Blondie}}'s "Heart of Glass" wouldn't have become as popular as it did if it hadn't been featured in the season 1 episode "A Commercial Break"

* ActorSharedBackground[=/=]CastTheExpert: Howard Hesseman was a radio DJ for a station in San Francisco before appearing in WKRP. He ad-libbed most of his on-air segments on the show.

** Sam Anderson appears about once a season, playing a different character each time.

** Michael Des Barres guest stars as Scum of the Earth bandmember Dog in the second episode; come ''New WKRP'' Des Barres plays Jack Allen, one half of the morning DJ team Burns and Allen.

* DuelingWorks: It debuted a few months after the release of the comedy film ''FM'', which has a similar setting and characters, but a slightly different premise.[[labelnote:Explanation]]They're both about a rock radio station with a cast of colorful characters, centered on a maverick program director who struggles with his more corporate-minded managers. The station in ''FM'' is wildly successful and the [=DJs=] are worried about being forced to SellOut. WKRP is a failing AM station that starts playing rock out of desperation, and it's the ''management'' who feels like they've sold out.[[/labelnote]] While ''WKRP'' is sometimes called a SpiritualAdaptation of ''FM'', the pilot was written before the film came out, and Hugh Wilson was concerned that the film might undercut the show's success.

* AlanSmithee: Early in the series, ExecutiveMeddling tried to force Hugh Wilson to take the show in a DenserAndWackier direction, which he didn't really want to do. Still, to appease them, he wrote "Fish Story", but didn't want his name on the episode, so it's credited to Raoul Plager.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Hugh Wilson used his experience working in sales at UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} radio station WQXI to create the series, with a number of episodes (including the "Turkeys Away" episode) based on incidents he witnessed on the job.

** Totally inverted by most of the main cast. Gary Sandy, Loni Anderson, Tim Reid and Jan Smithers all looked their age, but Howard Hessman and Richard Sanders, both of whom could have passed for over 50, were 38 during the first season, and Frank Bonner, also looking somewhere in his fifties, was 36. Gordon Jump, who could have passed for 60, was 46.

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Mr. Carlson, who drank fairly frequently, was played devout [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormon]] Gordon Jump.

** Creator/DavidLetterman was Hugh Wilson's first choice to play Andy, but MTM Enterprises instead decided to have him co-star in ''Mary'', a short lived variety show hosted by Mary Tyler Moore. Ironically, Letterman [[ActorSharedBackground began his career as a local radio host in the Midwest]].

** The 5th season would've revolved around WKRP's struggles to stay a top rated station.

** Michael Des Barres guest stars as Scum of the Earth bandmember Dog in the second episode; come ''New WKRP'' Des Barres plays Jack Allen, one half of the morning DJ team Burns and Allen.

* TheOtherDarrin: Mama Carlson was played by Creator/SylviaSidney in the pilot. She declined to return and Carol Bruce portrayed Mama Carlson for the remainder of the series, including a re-shot scene from the pilot in a PerspectiveFlip episode. It was an unusual recasting, since Bruce was almost a decade younger than Sidney, taller than her, and had a different acting style (Sidney had been known for {{Melodrama}}s in her younger days, while Bruce had been a singer and dancer who did lots of musicals).

* PermanentPlaceholder: The scat closing credits song was going to have lyrics, they just hadn't been written yet, but the producers heard the demo version and liked it just like that.

** "Pills" had Music/ThePolice song "Spirits In The Material Ward" go up to #25 from #54 after the original broadcast.

** Two episodes were planned but never produced because CBS rejected the scripts. "Another Merry Mix-Up" had Herb buying a joint to impress a prospective client, but Carlson, desperately nervous about a meeting with the station's accountant, is tempted to smoke it despite his ultra-square nature and lack of experience with the drug, then finally does, and is shocked by how well it makes him perform in the meeting. But Johnny informs Herb that he was ripped off and given a joint of oregano; Carlson experienced a FakeHigh. CBS, skittish about the drug content, said no. "Jennifer's Wedding" had Jennifer marry one of her elderly boyfriends. Though the producers never intended it to be permanent, CBS nixed it because they were afraid having Jennifer married would hurt Loni Anderson's sex appeal in some way. Oddly, later episodes that were produced could be considered follow-ups to these unproduced episodes. "Jennifer and the Will" makes more sense if you assume she was married to Col. Buchanan when he died, and "Another Merry Mix-Up" more clearly set up the concept that WKRP was meant as a tax write-off for Mrs. Carlson, which became the main plot point in the series finale.