Comments on: WKRP Music Cuts More Extensive Than Expected

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:02:08 +0000

Thanks for the pointers — it’s a shame that the show’s creator wasn’t even told about how extensive the music cuts were until a journalist pointed it out.

By: Dave Mahlin

Dave Mahlin — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:28:14 +0000

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7201

http://www.startribune.com/459/story/1131165.html

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:21:51 +0000

Things like this make me want to “steal” music off the internet. Watching old movies and shows often remind me of an album I do not have, so I go out and buy it. I guess the only thing worse would be the bluring of the posters in the back ground; but it would not surprise me.

By: Dave Mahlin

Dave Mahlin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:22:56 +0000

Re: Tiny Dancer: I remember that episode though not the song use. Perhaps “Almost Famous” has over-written it in my memory.

One other that stands out for me is one where Bailey invited Johnny to go to a movie with her and he forgot to show up. So there’s Bailey hanging around the station lobby with that “stood up” look (and, as usual, looking about 3,000 times hotter than Jennifer ever could), while Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After The Love Is Gone” plays in the background. THAT one stands out because it’s one of the junior-high slow dance classics of my generation.

….which of course underscores why retaining the original music is so important. The tunes really capture the flavor of the era and add a whole extra layer of enjoyment for the people who are mostly likely shell out for a boxed-set of a 25-30 year-old sitcom that never was much of a ratings hit in the first place. It’s like “the Graduate” with all the Simon & Garfunkel songs removed.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:10:05 +0000

That’s my number one music memory of WKRP as well. So heartbreaking.

By: Rob Staeger

Rob Staeger — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 04:05:00 +0000

The song use I remember was Elton John’s Tiny Dancer — it started playing at the end of an episode where (IIRC) an attempted Russian defector was taken away to return home. He left Bailey, who he was smitten with, saying “Holt me closer, tiny danser.” It was a sad moment, and the song’s brought it back to me ever since. (At the same time, I could be misremembering it entirely — but that’s what the song evokes in me just the same.)

By: Barry

Barry — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:13:41 +0000

I’ve been waiting for years for WKRP to come out on DVD and while I’d hate for whole scenes to be removed I have no problem with the music being edited, as that was never the reason I loved the show. With the exception of Layla in one scene, I don’t even remember the music they used. For me, the show was always about the comedy and characters and it was and always will be one of the funniest TV shows I’ve ever seen. So I’ll definitely be buying.

By: Dave Mahlin

Dave Mahlin — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:26:28 +0000

This is really disappointing news. WKRP is one of those shows that I watched over and over in syndication (I saw a lot of it first -run but I was about 11 when it started and didn’t get a lot of the jokes first time around) and have vivid memories of a lot of the bits and the music associated with them. I had high hopes after some of the things I’d read lately but perhaps I should have known better.

Les getting ready to attend the awards banquet with anything other than Foreigner’s “Hot Blodded” playing just seems wrong.

I remember another classic bit with Johnny and Mr Carlson, with references made to Pink Floyd. If “Animals” is not the album being heard at the moment, it just doesn’t work.

Imagine re-reading one of your favorite comic book story-arcs – perhaps in a new deluxe hardcover form after many years of it being out of print- and discovering that key sequences had been re-drawn by some hack no-name loser that you’ve never heard of. Feelin’ any pain now?

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:06:22 +0000

Sometimes the computer is very good at finding unexpected connections. Sometimes it gets confused. :)

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:38:53 +0000

“Related Posts: Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth”

Did Adam West whip out the Bat-Anti-Network-Radio in that story, as well? :)

//\Oo/\\

By: Tim O'Shea

Tim O'Shea — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:45:57 +0000

Venus Flytrap and Les Nessman are funny no matter what music is played. Plus as a listener to Atlanta’s WQXI (Wilson’s inspiration for WKRP) back in the 1970s, I love the series as a partial trip through my childhood.

I grew up with a dad who listened to the radio play by play of a baseball game while watching the game on TV with the sound off. So I figure if it’s bothersome enough, I’ll try a variation on that.

By: Dan Coyle

Dan Coyle — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:40:55 +0000

You know, that didn’t bother me as much as did later episodes, which had some horribly canned rock and pop switched out for more expensive songs- any episode set around Vinnie’s old neighborhood, in particular, was unlistenable.

By: Chad Anderson

Chad Anderson — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:27:03 +0000

I’m reminded of a review of the first-season DVD set of Wiseguy in the New York Times from a few years ago. I skipped the show when it originally aired, and the review made me feel like that was a big mistake. I was all ready to run out and buy the set when I got to the final paragraph, in which the writer described a pivotal scene in the series, and all that enthusiasm got deflated (and I quote):

“When this episode was first broadcast in 1987, the soundtrack swelled with the Moody Blues’ ”Nights in White Satin” during Vinnie and Sonny’s final heart-to-heart. Their eyes — blackened and swollen — locked right at the line, ”And I love you, oh, how I love you.” It is a profound disappointment that, for contractual reasons, ”Nights in White Satin” has been removed from the DVD version. In his commentary, Mr. Wahl also laments the song’s absence, ”because it really said it all.” Especially the parts that went unsaid.”

Total bummer. Guess I won’t be buying WKRP either.