Shout Factory Working on a Complete-Series "WKRP in Cincinnati"

Yep, just caught 'Turkeys Away' myself, and loved hearing the 'dogs' bit with Carlson.

And 'The Contest' played just before the Turkey episode, in its original format, with Johnny trying to repay the $5,000, and then getting the money back, and also asking for his $12.50.

 

Damn, 'Turkeys Away" aired last night? I passed out during the 10:30 episode.

BTW, Antenna TV has 3 hours of WKRP scheduled for Sunday nights for the foreseeable future.

 

Too bad this intro couldn't be a part of the DVD extras.

 

Has anyone bought the Shout version of the complete series? Has the show stood up when watched at a later age? I remember watching it a lot when I was younger and am wondering if I would still like it. I took a chance with the show Soap and enjoyed that. This is the next one I'm thinking about.

 

I bought it and enjoyed watching each episode. Highly recommended.

 

I still think it's a top show. Not a weak link in the cast and superb writing. Rip Tide, Venus and Andy's sister, Jennifer and Hoyt Axton, coke foot powder, Tarlek family on reality TV, anytime they drank (Momma, Andy, Jennifer, Venus, Johnny), radio consultant, etc.......

 

I watched the whole series when it came out and thought it was just as good as I remember. Great to watch it with most of the original music intact. Watching some of the edited episodes in syndication was not as enjoyable at all. Two exceptions: "Turkeys Away" has the Pink Floyd music intact on syndication for some reason, and "The Contest No One Could Win" - the episode on the Shout set is apparently the original, but the one I remember seeing on TV is much better.

 

Bought it, loved it all over again.

 

Definitely worth purchasing, especially if it's on any sort of sale from the MSRP.

 

DO IT.

 

Found out there was a show called The New WKRP that ran for two seasons in the early 90's. I'd never known about it. Has anyone seen that?

 

Yes, and even though they had a number of the original actors in it, I felt that the writing was not particularly good. Certainly not to the standard of the original show.

 

Such a great group of actors on this show. Though out of the entire cast, a solid half of them mostly disappeared from high-profile work.

Frank Bonner moved into TV directing, Richard Sanders had a few tiny roles here and there, Gary Sandy I think did a bunch of theater work and also popped up in a nice, small role as an oily tobacco company attorney in Michael Mann’s The Insider, and Jan Smithers mostly vanished (but by all accounts seems to be living a fine life just doing her thing.)

the other half: Howard Hesseman, Tim Reid, and Loni Anderson all had a lot of high profile work after the show. Gordon Jump had his Maytag Repairman era, and a few other roles as well.

The show has aged pretty well and I think ultimately the good-natured appeal of the tone kinda offsets a lot of the material that might play weird today.

 

Bought the whole series and watched it, Enjoyed it very much

 

The New WKRP suffered from the same structural problem as AfterMASH... the actors who agreed to come back as series regulars played supporting characters, none of whom were strong enough around which to center a series. To some degree it gave the series verisimilitude, since it was realistic that Mr. Carlsen, Herb, and Les would still be stuck at WKRP ten years later, while the other characters were intelligent and talented enough to have moved on to bigger and better things. But the three characters who returned were not particularly likeable (by design) or charismatic. As with AfterMASH, new characters were created to fill the gap but they largely came across as pale shadows of the old character: Mykelti Williamson played what was essentially a rewrite of the Andy Travis character, while Tawny Kitaen played a DJ who was sort of a cross between Venus Flytrap and Jennifer Marlowe. The other new characters were forgettable enough that I can't remember them off the top of my head. Howard Hesseman made a few appearances (I see from wiki that he showed up nine times over two seasons) and my recollection is that his episodes were some of the better ones. If he'd agreed to be a regular cast member the series might have stood a better chance. The writing wasn't terrible, but it lacked the bite of the original series. Bill Dial, one of the main original writers, was heavily involved, but Hugh Wilson, the creator and showrunner of the original series, was not.

 

I see a lot of these DVD sets at really good prices on eBay (around $30-$35). As always if it seems to be too good to be true it probably is, but wondering if anyone has bought a set via eBay and if the set was legit/not counterfeit?

 

Wasn't the greatest, but tt did lead to a funny promo when it aired on VH1.....

 

I thought the only funny episodes were the ones where original characters returned. Also, it was an interesting twist to have the buxom and beautiful blonde reception be chasing after Herb instead of the other way around.

 

I’ve got the set, but have never watched it...


But what I find amazing is going back just one page in the thread and reading about people buying the set at Costco. My how things have changed...

 

I miss Bailey. Barbara Eden and Jan Smithers were the two most beautiful girls in the history of television.