Classic TV History:
TV Guide named it as the fortieth best television episode of all time. On lists of favorite sitcoms, or favorite holiday episodes, it invariably ranks even higher. WKRP in Cincinnati’s seventh episode, “Turkeys Away” begins as a wholesome, almost bland, Thanksgiving show. Around the midpoint, though, the standard-issue sitcom setup – Mr. Carlson (Gordon Jump), orchestrates a secret radio station promotion – takes a spectacularly morbid and off-color left turn, one that sets up punchline after hilarious punchline. The last line of the show (which can be viewed on Hulu, albeit with substantial cuts and music replacement) has become one of the most oft-quoted gags in the history of television.
This post is from a few years ago but, in honor of the upcoming US Thanksgiving Day festivities, I thought some of you might want to read this oral history of one of the funniest TV episodes of all time.
WKRP is an under-appreciated gem of sitcom intelligence. It’s too bad the morass of music-rights predation made its home-video releases so compromised, especially for those of us who saw—and loved—the original songs in context.
One might think those songs’ copyright holders might have considered making it a bit easier for new audiences to hear the work, as it was used in its own era.
Thanks for this hilarious link, Shawn. Saving it for later.
I still love WKRP. Turkeys Away is one of best sitcom episodes of the last 50 years along with Fawlty Towers’ The Germans and Mary Tyler Moore’s Chuckles Bites the Dust.
Everyone should watch it on Thanksgiving.
“You know, Hugh, turkeys can’t fly.”
Three hours after reading this I’m still giggling. Thanks Shawn.
Another episode that sticks in my mind was the one about the Who concert where some fans were stampeded and killed. A very serious turn at the end of the episode, almost unheard of in a sitcom.
I have nothing but fond memories of WKRP. It was genuinely funny, original and pretty authentic considering the era it was broadcast in.