WKRP in Cincinnati/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Carlson: Do I hear dogs?!
Johnny: I do.

    • The theme song. "Baby, if you've ever wondered..."
    • The closing credits song, a hard rock number composed and performed by Jim Ellis, an Atlanta musician who recorded some of the incidental music for the show. According to people who attended the recording sessions, Ellis didn't yet have lyrics for the closing theme, so he sang nonsense words to give an idea of how it would sound. Series creator and executive producer Hugh Wilson, however, decided to use the words anyway, since he felt that it would be funny to use lyrics that were deliberately gibberish, as a satire on the incomprehensibility of many rock songs. Also, because CBS always had an announcer talking over the closing credits, and they would often mute the closing theme during said closing announcement, Wilson knew that no one would actually hear the closing theme lyrics anyway.
  • Deader Than Disco: A literal version. Though Johnny made several Take That comments against disco when it was still popular, "Dr. Fever and Mr. Tide," a full-length anti-disco episode, didn't appear until 1981, by which time disco was already dead.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In the first few episodes, the theme tune was preceded by a fake news bulletin, where an announcer says, "...but the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity." Weirdly, many years later Jan Smithers (Bailey) would get into a traffic accident while inexplicably -- allegedly -- driving in the nude.
  • Hollywood Homely: Many male fans "don't get" why Jan Smithers was cast as the "plain" foil to sexy Jennifer. What they don't get is that Bailey was actually supposed to be the sexy one - the hip, modern girl in comparison to Jennifer's old-fashioned 60s-era "sexy secretary". On the other hand, promoting Gary Sandy as the hunk when Tim Reid was in the cast can only be seen as a result of Most Writers Are Male.
  • It Was His Sled: The fate of those turkeys.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Most of the replacement music (for syndicated/DVD releases) sounds nothing like the original music. However, when a plot point or mood depends on a specific song (such as "Hot Blooded" in "A Date with Jennifer" or "Your Smiling Face" in "I Want to Keep My Baby"), a more obvious soundalike will be used.
  • Vindicated by History: a middling successful TV show during its run, WKRP now regarded as one of the best Work Com shows ever.