WKRP in Cincinnati

Premise

Characters

Main ensemble

• Andy Travis. For the most part, vice president and program director Travis serves as the straight man for the eccentric staff of the station he has been hired to run. Before coming to WKRP, he had an unblemished record of turning around failing radio stations, but meets his match in his wacky staff members, of whom he becomes reluctantly fond. The show's opening theme song is about Travis and his decision to settle down in Cincinnati.
• Arthur Carlson, is the middle-aged general manager whose main qualification for the job is that his mother, a business tycoon, is the station's owner. His weak, bumbling, and indecisive management style is one of the main reasons the station is unprofitable. Despite this, he is a principled, kind, decent man. He has far more interest in his hobbies than he does in the radio station - often hiding in his office from people who want to see him on business.
• Dr. Johnny Fever is a veteran disc jockey who comes to WKRP after being fired from a major Los Angeles station when he said "booger" on the air. Cynical and neurotic, Johnny consumes large amounts of coffee and is usually in trouble. He adopts the "Fever" on-air name upon being told by Travis that the station format was changing to Top 40 rock and roll, but he has used other monikers on the air at other stations, mostly to conform to whatever station format he found himself working with.
• Les Nessman, the fastidious, bow-tied news reporter, approaches his job with absurdly earnest seriousness, despite being almost totally incompetent. As a running gag, Les wears a bandage in a different spot each episode, presumably due to attacks from his unseen monstrous dog Phil. Other gags are his fixation on agricultural news and putting masking tape on the floor around his desk, which he insists his co-workers treat as the walls of his "office".
• Jennifer Marlowe is the station's receptionist and highest-paid employee. Not merely "eye candy" for the station, Jennifer is informed, connected, and able to handle practically any situation, no matter how absurd, with aplomb. She herself sees her main job responsibility as deflecting any business calls for Mr. Carlson. Although very aware of her sex appeal, with various wealthy, powerful older men at her beck and call, she is friendly and good-hearted with the station staff. She is very strict about the limits of her job duties: she does not type letters, and neither makes coffee nor brings any to the office staff.
• Herb Tarlek is the boorish, tasteless, and vain sales manager at WKRP. He often wears loud plaid suits with his belt matching his white shoes. He is unable to land the big accounts, but is effective in selling air time for products such as "Red Wigglers – the Cadillac of worms!" Although a married man with children, he persistently pursues the uninterested Jennifer. Herb is based on radio executive Clarke Brown.
• Venus Flytrap, the soulful, funky evening DJ, runs his show with a smooth-talking persona and mood lighting in the studio. His real name, Gordon Sims, is almost never used, and he maintains an aura of mystery. After deserting the Army during Vietnam, Venus spent several years as a high school teacher in New Orleans while working part-time as a radio personality. He and Johnny are often seen together and become good friends as the series progresses.
• Bailey Quarters, the station ingénue, is originally in charge of billing and station traffic. However, having graduated from journalism school and intent on becoming a broadcast executive, she is later given additional duties in which she proves more capable than Les Nessman. As the series progresses, she overcomes her shyness and develops self-confidence. Jan Smithers was one of two WKRP cast members who was the first choice for the role she played, Gordon Jump being the other. Creator Hugh Wilson said that despite Smithers' lack of experience, she was perfect for the character of Bailey as he had conceived her: "Other actresses read better for the part," Wilson recalled, "but they were playing shy. Jan was shy."

  Other characters

• Lillian Carlson is Arthur Carlson's ruthless, domineering mother – often referred to as Mother Carlson – and the owner of WKRP. An extremely successful and rich businesswoman, her only regret is that her approach to parenting backfired as her son ended up indecisive, weak-willed, and afraid of her. As a display of her cutthroat attitude, she has a painting hanging above her fireplace in her living room of two pairs of dangling legs of people just hanged. In the series' final episode, it is revealed she had always intended WKRP to lose money, which explains why she allows the incompetent employees to continue working at the station. The only one who is regularly able to get the better of her is her sarcastic butler, Hirsch. Although she barely tolerated most of the staff, she did have respect for Andy, considering him her intellectual equal.
• Carmen Carlson is Mr. Carlson's sweet-natured wife. The two met in college, he being her chosen date to a "bring a loser" dance at the sorority she was pledging, something he was unaware of until their twenty-five-year college reunion as they never did go to the dance and she never did pledge that sorority. Though happily married, they are so anxious to avoid hurting each other's feelings that they rarely tell each other what they really think. They have a son, Arthur Carlson Jr., whom they've sent off to military school. During the second season Carmen has a surprise pregnancy and during the third season gives birth to a daughter, Melanie.
• Hirsch is Mother Carlson's "houseboy." He is well into his eighties, but is energetic and seems unfazed by any new circumstances. Hirsch regularly expresses his dislike for his employer in otherwise charming and polite exchanges. His coffee is terrible, unless there is a guest, in which case he prepares it with care.
• Lucille Tarlek is Herb's devoted nasal-voiced wife, who, deep down, knows that he chases after Jennifer. Lucille is perhaps the one woman who does see Herb's charms. Herb and Lucille have an adolescent son and daughter, Herb III and Bunny.
• Three other DJs at the station are mentioned, but never seen. Moss Steiger has the graveyard shift after Venus and is mentioned as having attempted suicide at least twice; he eventually dies in The New WKRP in Cincinnati. Rex Erhardt hosts a program after Dr. Johnny Fever's morning show; and Dean the Dream has the afternoon drive slot. Another DJ, Doug Winter, is hired and fired in the same episode.
• Frank Bartman is a cynical but practical attorney retained by the station in the fourth season.
• Series writer Bill Dial infrequently appears as Buckey Dornster, WKRP's station engineer.
• Longtime actor William Woodson served as the announcer of the series and did various voice-over roles during the run, including the pre-recorded announcer of the intro/outro to Les's newscasts, and the narrator of the trial results in the first-season episode "Hold Up".

Episodes

Timeslots and success