History Series / WKRPInCincinnati

** Slightly subverted at the end, when Venus the kid's mother that the odds are he'll just drop out of school when the semester is over.

* BlackAndNerdy: Venus. Despite his cool showbiz persona, he's repeatedly shown to known more about business and investments than anyone else at the station.

A classic four-season WorkCom on {{CBS}} that was originally an underdog property of MTM Productions, only to have the syndicated reruns catapult the series to recognition as one of the greatest TV sitcoms of all time.

* YouLookFamiliar:

Brilliantly written and acted, as adult as was possible on network television at the time, and able to shift from wacky to satirical to outright surreal without losing a step, it was in all respects way ahead of its era -- in fact, it was the first series on JumpTheShark.com to ever be voted "Never Jumped". The episode referenced by the page quote was, in fact, voted the single greatest episode of any show, in any genre, in the ''history of television'' by the readers of ''TV Guide''.

* YouLookFamiliar: Sam Anderson appeared as a different guest character every season.

A classic four-season WorkCom on {{CBS}} that was originally an underdog property of MTM Productions, only to have the syndicated reruns catapult the series to recognition as one of the great TV sitcoms of all time.

Brilliantly written and acted, as adult as was possible on network television at the time, and able to shift from wacky to satirical to outright surreal without losing a step, it was in all respects way ahead of its era -- in fact, was the first series on JumpTheShark.com to ever be voted "Never Jumped". The episode referenced by the page quote was, in fact, voted the single greatest episode of any show, in any genre, in the ''history of television'' by the readers of ''TV Guide''.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: CBS changed the show's time slot a dozen times in four years, leading to its early cancellation. Although the show was getting decent ratings on Monday nights at 9:30 PM following ''{{Mash}}'', CBS moved it out of that slot as they wanted to free it up for ''House Calls'', which starred former ''M*A*S*H'' regular Wayne Rogers, and they also felt that the rock n' roll music and the sex appeal of Loni Anderson were better-suited to an earlier slot, which at that time was thought of as mostly aimed at young people. During the third and fourth seasons, CBS continued to move the show around repeatedly, so much so that cast and crew members claimed that even they didn't know when the show aired. This time slot shuffling hurt the show's ratings and it was eventually canceled in 1982.

* SignsOfDisrepair: variation -- instead of broken neon letters, the 'B' is broken on the news teletype, causing Les Nessman to announce in a panicked voice that a "giant lizzard" is approaching Cincinnati.

A classic four-season WorkCom on {{CBS}} that was originally an underdog property of MTM Productions, only to have the syndicated reruns catapult the series to recognition as one of the great TV sitcoms of all time.

The year is 1978. Hotshot program director Andy Travis (played by Gary Sandy) arrives for his first day of work at WKRP, a small Cincinnati radio station whose "soothing sounds for senior citizens" format (''aka'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_music Beautiful Music]], a Muzak-esque concept actually popular at the time) has "catapulted" it to a permanent position at the very bottom of the {{ratings}}. After encountering the requisite cast of oddballs working at the station, Andy immediately -- as in mid-song -- throws out the old format and replaces it with Top 40 music, then hires an oddball or two of his own to add to the mix.

* AnAesop: In "Venus and the Man," Venus uses an example of street gang politics to explain the structure of the atom to a tough street gangster and show him why going to school is worthwhile.

* ArtisticLicense: The show took several liberties with the way radio worked at the time. The WKRP [=DJs=] almost never wear headphones, unlike in real life, because that gives them more freedom to move around and talk to other characters.

** Venus in the pilot was something of a JiveTurkey, but this was actually explained away through a RetCon as being an act to fool Mama Carlson into giving him the job.
* ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam: "I Am Woman" has Bailey trying to save WKRP's old building when it's about to be torn down, even though it will enable them to move to a better building, because she sees older buildings as symbolic of a pre-machine era when people mattered more.

* DeadAir: Unsurprisingly as it's about a radio station, it had at least a few examples.

** In an earlier episode, the trope is invoked and subverted by Johnny. To get Herb to stop hitting on Jennifer, he tells Herb "Our receptionist, the beautiful Jennifer Marlowe, is a result of the most cunningly successful sex change operation in the United States!" The ploy works... sort of.

* DrugsAreBad:

* EmbarrassingSlide: In one episode some of the staff make a pitch to land an important new advertising account. As part of this, Andy Travis fires up the slide show: "...I have no idea where that pornographic slide came from."

** Suggested plots for the proposed fifth season would have focused on how much harder it was to run a ''successful'' radio station instead of a failing one.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** Literally, albeit indirectly. The station's official mascot is a [=KaRP=] fish, however the call letters can also spell [=KRaP=], as the ''MadMagazine'' parody pointed out.

* JiveTurkey: Played straight with Venus in early episodes, then subverted, as it turns out his slang and clothes are mostly just part of his show business persona.

* TheLastDJ: Johnny, who refuses to use the hit-heavy playlists Andy gives him, preferring his own instincts.

* MistakenForGay:

** On a meta-level: the television show about a radio station that's struggling with the ratings to stay on the air... is itself struggling with ''its'' ratings and trying to convince the network each year to keep the show going.

* SpiritualSuccessor:

** The show itself was also considered a SpiritualSuccessor to MTM's ''TheMaryTylerMooreShow''; Grant Tinker called it "a radio station cousin to Mary's show," and critic Tom Shales called Gary Sandy "Gary Tyler Moore." The MadMagazine parody ''WKRAP in Cincinati'' even ends with Mama Carlson firing all the station employees (including her son) and replacing them with the recently fired WJM staff.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Two of the third season writer-producers considered Herb their favorite character, leading to a season where one-third of the episodes were about Herb.

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Any time a character turns on WKRP, it's going to be playing a song whose title or content is related to what's happening in the episode.

--->'''Lucille Tarlek:''' ''Little House on the Prairie'', oh, that's a fine, wholesome show. It's about blind children out West, and every week there's a fire or someone gets an incurable disease.

* WholeEpisodeFlashback: "The Creation of Venus," where Andy and Venus recall what led up to Venus's entrance in the pilot episode.

* WorkingWithTheEx: In the revival, morning drive time [=DJs=] Burns & Allen are exes who still work together professionally.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''NewsRadio''
** The show itself was also considered a SpiritualSuccessor to MTM's ''TheMaryTylerMooreShow''; Grant Tinker called it "a radio station cousin to Mary's show," and critic Tom Shales called Gary Sandy "Gary Tyler Moore."
*** In fact the MadMagazine parody ''WKRAP in Cincinati'' ends with Mama Carson firing all the station employees (including her son) and replacing them with the recently fired WJM staff.

* DrugsAreBad: The DJ in "Johnny Comes Back" is taking payola to support his cocaine habit.
** Played with in the same episode, when to avoid complications Andy tells Carlson the packet of white stuff is 'foot powder'. The Big Guy promptly tries it out... cue hilariously panicked stomping when he finds out the truth.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: CBS changed the show's time slot a dozen times in four years, leading to its early cancellation. [[hottip:*:Although the show was getting decent ratings on Monday nights at 9:30 PM following ''{{Mash}}'', CBS moved it out of that slot as they wanted to free it up for ''House Calls'', which starred former ''M*A*S*H'' regular Wayne Rogers, and they also felt that the rock n' roll music and the sex appeal of Loni Anderson were better-suited to an earlier slot, which at that time was thought of as mostly aimed at young people. During the third and fourth seasons, CBS continued to move the show around repeatedly, so much so that cast and crew members claimed that even they didn't know when the show aired. This time slot shuffling hurt the show's ratings and it was eventually canceled in 1982. It probably didn't help, however, that MTM co-founder and president Grant Tinker had left the company to become chairman and CEO of {{NBC}} the year before. Incidentally, original ''M*A*S*H'' producer Gene Reynolds would later work for MTM himself as co-creator and executive producer of ''Lou Grant''.]]

* DrugsAreBad: The DJ in "Johnny Comes Back" is taking payola to support his cocaine habit.

* DocumentaryEpisode: One episode is done entirely as an episode of a sleazy reality show called "Real Families."

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: Miss America Pageant host Bert Parks, as Herb's dad.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: CBS changed the show's time slot a dozen times in four years, leading to its early cancellation. [[hottip:*:Although the show was getting decent ratings on Monday nights at 9:30 PM following ''[=~M*A*S*H~=]'', CBS moved it out of that slot as they wanted to free it up for ''House Calls'', which starred former ''M*A*S*H'' regular Wayne Rogers, and they also felt that the rock n' roll music and the sex appeal of Loni Anderson were better-suited to an earlier slot, which at that time was thought of as mostly aimed at young people. During the third and fourth seasons, CBS continued to move the show around repeatedly, so much so that cast and crew members claimed that even they didn't know when the show aired. This time slot shuffling hurt the show's ratings and it was eventually canceled in 1982. It probably didn't help, however, that MTM co-founder and president Grant Tinker had left the company to become chairman and CEO of {{NBC}} the year before. Incidentally, original ''M*A*S*H'' producer Gene Reynolds would later work for MTM himself as co-creator and executive producer of ''Lou Grant''.]]

-->'''Bailey:''' What kind of ruckus?