Television In Revolt

This was a really good episode. It was the one where Johnny Fever tries to blow up the radio station. You can see here in the picture that Earl has talked Big Guy into doing a ventriloquist act where the Big Guy is the dummy and has to sit on Earl’s knee! The act, despite Earl’s best intentions and total professionalism, is a disaster. The Big Guy has no talent and keeps wrecking the act. Seen here they have just performed it for the rest of the wkrp gang and bombed out miserably. Their own friends and employees are disgusted and enraged by the thinly veiled insults that Earl is dispensing through big guy’s mouth, and the wkrp gang are not amused. He’s getting a little too personal and it’s not funny anymore. You can see in the picture that they are throwing lettuce and tomatoes and wadded up balls of paper at them.
Meanwhile Dr Johnny fever has been suffering an acid flashback and has accidentally locked himself in the janitor’s closet, and in his delusional state has decided to rig up a homemade bomb to free himself from what he thinks is a Viet Cong Prisoner of War camp. He’s got some binder twine and a pack of hotdogs that he has connected to his chest and he is going to blow everybody up including himself! It is the desperate action of a desperate man and you can see this by the close-up photography of sweat on his forehead and his eyes darting back and forth. There’s intense, heat-of-the moment incidental music that sounds like seconds ticking away. Then the most amazing thing happens. Instead of ending the program with the expected climax and denouement, the writers get all Beckett on the TV viewing audience and put the absurdist “To be continued…” on the screen, leaving it open, never to reveal what actually happens to Dr Fever or Earl & Big guy’s showbiz careers. It’s a double whammy that really made me think all those years ago, a real “what if?” moment. It was a unique and thought provoking way to design television and considered to be quite revolutionary for its time, changing the way we look at television, and in turn, ourselves.

Another "Run-Through"

I’m going to go give this WKRP song another try and see if I can’t hammer it out. Wait for around 0:28 . The hook is there, and I’ve almost got the knack of it for about a second. I might not be playing it right…there are a lot of sharps and flat notes that I’m ignoring altogether. I’ll fix that after I get the over all feeling of the piece. It is a small masterpiece of MOR Adult contemporary television theme music, and in the simplicity of the tune, it is a deceivingly complicated piano-thing to deliver.

Great Expectations

HERE I AM MAKING ANOTHER BRAVE ATTEMPT AT WKRP IN CINCINNATI.
IT DOESNT SOUND ANYTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL. ITS EITHER that I’M DOING SOMETHING WRONG OR that THE GUY WHO TRANSCRIBED IT doesnt know what he’s doing! Its starting to sound worse.I MAY GIVE UP TRYING IF IT DOESNT SOUND BETTER SOON. there are some kenny logins songs in this book I am anxious to get to.

On A Brief Note...

I had to take my “Greatest Hits of the Eighties” piano book back to the library because I had already renewed it twice and I didn’t feel like waiting around for them to put it back on the shelves because the library makes me have to go to the bathroom, so I don’t have it anymore and can’t play the WKRP song for you this week, but I will get it back next week and we can again go together down the wonderful pathway that is my journey into piano lessons (self-taught)

Meanwhile, it has come to my attention that certain internet websites, namely ones that are run by foreign interests and primarily concern themselves with making fun of pictures from ratemyvomit.com and comparing teenage girls to ice cream cones thinks there’s something funny about my P-log.I don’t know who they think they are, or even who they are for that matter, but I will not take this lying down. I am going to launch a one man campaign and go running to a larger more public organ crying my fucking eyes out. those assholes-they really hurt my feelings, I’m gonna fucking destroy them. They don’t know who they’re fucking with. I’ll tell everybody I know not to look at crappy websites on the internet run by miserable losers! If I’m so fuckin funny why don’t they come down here and say it to my face. I’m not afraid, but I wont tell them where I am because I don’t want to impose on my neighbors as they will all have to run out of their houses to see the mister-I’m-so-funny-on-the-internet not be, so much, anymore! You Fuckin’ Goof!

A CALL TO ARMS

I just got off a rousing round at the forums over at <WKRPinCincinnatiBlog.com> and I must say the support you all have for me is warmly and deeply felt. The Internet is the greatest advancement for the human species, and its good to know all my buddies in Cyber Land got my back when the flak comes beaucoup. Just because some peck o’ wood sees fit to use the world wide web for slander and hate-mongering, it does not and will not deter upright tax paying citizens and Decorated Veterans our Constitutional Right to enjoy our enthusiasm for that fine program WKRP In Cincinnati. Across the Internet fans of WKRP are uniting, banding together and rising up the banner as a people’s cyber-militia. One conversation in particular I had with my good buddy and fellow vet fire4fever over at WKRP in Cincinnati blog stood out for me. We served together and were reminiscing about the ‘Nam, and through all the names, Sarge., Goodall, Corp. Whitelaw, and Stodges, he broke off into a long pause and out of the middle distance, unexpectedly reels into the strangest idea.

“When The Doctor was on the air, he seemed to always come alive, you know what I mean? Its as though he were becoming complete for the first time. It was a look that came over him and I’ve seen it before. In Paan Nang back in ‘67 when we were nearly ambushed doing recon in the foothills. You remeber…The look on Stodges’ face, you were there… back then… “

And I knew exactly what he was talking about. We had both traveled immediately to that moment in the past that neither of us had spoken about since, nor could we, if we could even find words, but we had both blacked it out, simply as a survival instinct.

“We ALL knew full well what was going on with Stodges,” he continued, “he’d been in it deep for weeks now, it was starting to just seem normal” He was speaking of the mental state that Stodges had been slipping into, and we all had seen it before, like many a young recruit serving in the ‘Nam for the first time and living under inhuman circumstances on a daily basis he was suffering the initial stages of PTS and was gripped under a psychosis we all witnessed the onslaught of but were powerless in our own struggles for survival, to intervene with or help. He was able, as if by remote control, to fulfill all his duties and remain at the ready as we were constatly under fire, yet he had adopted, casually, a strikingly disturbing trait. Sometime in the chaos of battle, and in the wreakage of his deepest mind something had already snapped. He had become a cannibal. At first it was like a joke, he did it so casually.We were surrounded by death 24 hours a day, so the humour turned sort of dark, another cruel survival instinct the mind comes up with under duress.One day Stodges comes up to us all around the fire and he’s holding a tiny arm, a baby’s arm charred from where it was blown off, and jokingly he’s holding it like bugs bunny with a carrot and he’s chewing the end, tearing off peices and eating them and making the same “nyahhh, nyeahhh” noises, grinning a cold blooded macabre grin like skin peeling off a skull roasting in the sun Its not something a civilian can comprehend. Stodges was still the most A1 Front Line Honor Roll blood and guts soldier any of us had ever seen and I have yet to see a more steadfastedly efficient combatant nor more fearless warrior since. We trusted him with our lives no matter how low he sank And he had that same look, the look on his face like Johnny Fever would get years later on WKRP. No matter how bat-shit crazy and whatever regrettable actions he may had taken in the past, he was a soldier, first and foremost, bound by duty, to Search and Destroy in the name of Rock And Roll.”

And you know what? He always did, no matter what. That’s why WKRP has always had a large and loyal following amongst our armed forces personnel, especially for me, a vet and DOUBLE AMPUTEE, it is for its accurate and sympathetic portrayal in the character Johnny Fever, of vets living at home and the challenges we face on a daily basis. With that in mind it would be preposterous to challenge the faith and passion of the many thousands of Americans loyal to Land, Liberty, and WKRP

NAILED IT!!!

As you know I took a little mini sabbatical from my piano studies last week. But look here what happened when I returned to my song! BOOM-RIGHT UPSIDE YO HEAD! I FINALLY GOT IT! check this out….(in your face streetboners!)

sometimes all you really have to do is just take a step back and breath…it is all it took for me to get WKRP right, I didn’t bother practicing or nothing all week, I didn’t even watch any of my ‘KRP boxset DVDs, I just fucked the dog and look what happens…Even though I basically knew I had the song down “pat” all along, I will admit it sounds “proper good” now. Indeed, I must say, it’s a very satisfying feeling.

So… While it is true that I have gone as far as I can with “WKRP” and I now know all there is to know about the piano, negating the need for me to study it any further, I realize that there are my legions of supporters following this plog, and I will, despite my lack of need to do so, carry on! If only for your, you the reader’s own benefit. So stay tuned, my babies, as the good doctor would say, for I have more exciting piano music to regail you with in the weeks to come. Yes it is true, I have found even more piano books at the library and, even though I am saving it for a surprise (hint, hint), I will return here in days to come with a new and even more exciting favorite from that golden era of popular music piano books…the 1980s. I promise to amaze you with my piano skills with a brand new, totally retro, top-secret surprise addition to my repertoire. (slaver, drool)

INSPIRATIONAL...

ONE NATION UNDER GOD AND THE MIGHTY 'KRP!

HANDING DOWN THE MANTLE

This one really puts the "Classic" back in "Classic Rock"

This talented youngster is sure to give Staind and Nickleback a run for thier collective monies. Keep an ear open for this mysterious dark horse. (I don't know the artist's name; if it is you, and you are reading this please contact me immediately)

THE RETURN OF THE “MAC”

As many of you have probably already noticed, The beloved WKRP BLOG that you all know and love so well, has been on hiatus for some time now. Seeing as I had to go into the hospital and have been otherwise incapacitated since last winter, your buddy, me, hasn’t had the time to update this here WKRP BLOG even though, as you well know, many earth-shaking ‘KRP related news events have transpired since then. I promise that I will do my best to get to each and every item of hard WKRP news and give my usual in depth coverage and ask the questions to the answers you need to know regarding all things WKRP!

Also, while I was in the Veteran’s Admin. Hospital I had time to do some serious thinking as to the very nature of this Blog, this thing that seems to breath a life of its own, its more than just a fan page, or tribute. It reminds me of the great honour roll that they will read out under old glory, in these fateful days to come. You see, I was “inside” having my gall bladder removed (apparently you don’t need one?) and 35% of my pelvis excised, due to that nasty bit of gangrene I picked up last summer somewhere. Doc says I probably got an infection in my wound when I went to the annual Veterans for A Better America BBQ weekender. since I am a DOUBLE AMPUTEE, and basically everything under my waist is referred to as my “wound” its not hard to imagine, when sitting in a musty tent and drinking plenty for 4 days straight, that a body can pick up a microbe or two. any ways, long story short, if the gangrene returns that could spell permanent sayonara for yours truly, so Doc has me on a strict antibiotic regime and boozing is Verbotten!

But its great really! The nurses at the VA are all top drawer, sweet as pie, and keeping that place spic and span, spit-shiny and fine form so’s the doctors and more importantly, the brave defenders of this great nation’s freedom, can rest easy and enjoy the comforts that this administration would gladly rip from under us in favour of funding its coddled affirmative action programs or some other hippy pinko bullshit. It makes me sick, it really does. and that’s in a HOSPITAL! Now that I’m back in civvies, the outlook seems grim! If it weren’t for the fine folks at HandyDart, and the miracle of Internet Technology, I shudder to think that these subtle terrors would move forward unchallenged. But NO! Says I! I Shall Return (to paraphrase the great MacArthur) To The Library! To Get The New WKRP Season 2 Complete DVD BOX SET I Put on hold! And to the pharmacy to get my meds! and the welfare office! because, if I have to get it together to get out the house, I better do all my errands, because getting around with no legs, and 65% of a pelvis, and no gall bladder, well, its a bitch, son!

 

 So it looks like I’m down for the “long haul” and that’s a good thing because WKRP needs us, this thing of ours, and it looks like I’ve got nothing but time on my hands to moderate, facilitate and disseminate the good news that is the mighty 'KRP. stay tuned my babies, for I will post regularly, but for now, its just plain old good to be back

DOSSIER : WKRP - SUBJECT #2 - Earl Tardjlic

The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships

I really am sorry about the title, it being this dudes name-but that’s what he’s called…it’s a funny name. He is South-African, Afrikaans, Dutch actually. That’s why he has a funny name and is always saying idiomatic Afrikaner shit like “Rumpo-stumpo, bal-lag,ya! pouffe! & Challakki dum pouffe! Marawayr fej n shit like that. You know him. You love him. You ask for him by name…The WKRP show would not be the same without him, yes! It’s Mr. Earl Tardjlik his own self, un-arguably the funniest and most lastingly endearing characters created in the Cincinnati Universe Involving radio station WKRP 105.3 AM.

Earl stole every episode he appeared in, most of the time the whole idea of the show focused on his perspective of the other soap-operatic proceedings at radio-station WKRP. Earl was this central POV, and it is wholly embodied in the comic sty lings of consummate method-player FrankBonner. Such suavetiere and flawless timing take it’s toll on even the few Olympic players who dare to pretend the throne and, sadly, as in Actor FrankBonner’s case, sudden death was surely the result!



No better way to die would ever surmise one’s bland expectations, especially in after-school time-slot syndications and rerun episodes. Earl was, and remains today the only truly redeeming feature of, comparatively, and conversely, the only endearment in an otherwise culturally un informed, intellectually bereft, and insignificant historical artifact vis-a-vis video tape. Years ahead of his time, he originated the single most important concept in contemporary culture: Corporate Rock. No other guy came near to what he did, he literally forged the template for what modern generations of A&R guy’s would begin to set their bar to the likes of your “Nirvana’s” and Rascle Flatts! I still remember it today, the first time I laid eyes on him, I knew it, I said to myself…this is the guy for me, I have stepped into my metier and need seek no further. Truly, a charmed life, as lived by one typifying grace under pressure.

How could anyone who has even heard mention of those eponymous call-letters “WKRP” or even seen an add in TVGuide or The Penny Pincher not entirely endorse every aspect associated with the character Earl Tardjlik of WKRP played by FrankBonner on NBC TV station in 1980s N America. If you Roger That Delta Niner than God Bless America! Bombs bursting forth lights, &c. Falcon 1-2-3

And if you rascals are on interfering Taliban frequencies, and listening in on good hearted god fearing American citizens, or any other variation of profiled personages and you think you can hold a mickey-mouse birthday candle to honest freedom loving citizen’s God-given rights and freedoms, especially manifest destiny, well than, you just read on Habib… Were into some heavy technology now! Can-Do-itive-nous & extreme adherence to good old American Know-How

Code seven blue!

Operation Yankee Rose in full effect..

All Systems GO!

Before the “other voice” kicks off…I am not at liberty to fully disclose on Character: Earl TaRDjlik. Even at this juncture, but please try back later or leave a comments in the posts. Thank you for reading this message.

Goodnight Mr & Mrs Internet & all the ships at sea

Over & Out

LONI ANDERSON SUPER-POST – An Introduction

Your Intrepid Reporter will stop at nothing to bring you the Full Loni Lowdown

  

   As many of you may have noticed, I appear to have been hesitant to tackle one of the main stars in the WKRP stable for my semi-regular DOSSIER  : WKRP section, and there is good reason for that. I am simply intimidated by the magnitude of the talent and accomplishments and struck almost speechless by the salacious real-life drama, and unbelievable twists and turns of fate, that surround probably one of the top 15 female comic actresses of all time. I’m not afraid to admit, that every time I approach the task of encapsulating this Mega-Super-Star’s career  trajectory and thrilling life story, I have to feel just a little humbled, and even I, knowledgeably; the World's leading Scholar in WKRP Historiography, Question Myself as to whether I am fit for this Herculean Task. For an actress who shot to dizzying hights of international fame and stardom, despite her seemingly hopeless, hard-scrabble beginnings, for her to be born with a repulsively deformed face, to penniless, illiterate, immigrant parents, themselves exiled in shame for unspeakable acts commited in "the old country". It is truly Epic in its scope to even consider the story of this meteoric clash with destny that is Loni Anderson. This inimitable, iconoclastic siren of both stage and screen, she not only overcame these disabilities but artfully turned them around on the audience and fully utilized them to further her innate genius for spreading mirth and enjoyment to young and old alike. A man has to remove his hat and show some respect, boys! Of course I am talking about Loni Anderson, whose path through the treacherous waters of fame I will endeavor to chart here; I've covered it all... the loves, the heartbreak, the family dramas and estrangements, the marriage to her cousin Burt Reynolds at the age of 14, the abandoned children, the destroyed lives, and suicides she left in her wake, even the scandal that proved too explosive for even the star herself, leading to her sudden withdrawl from the spot light, and even society itself, her final act, her swan song, taking the role of real-life shadowy recluse, which she remains to this day.

  For a life of such scope and magnitude, I inevitably thought it best to break her story into three parts, beginning next week with DOSSIER : WKRP  – LONI ANDERSON, Part 1. (The Early Years)

  So stay tuned right here to www.WKRP-log.blogspot.com, as I have done voluminous research and will expose shocking, never before heard, revelations,recounting, in blow-by-blow detail,  the dysfunctional family sagas,the cataclysmic romances and trails of shattered hearts and lives, the heroic battle against disability, and the gut-wrenching jests of fate that have all gone together in one of the most salacious tales of Hollywood excesses,  that have made this absolutely unique phenom the iconic superstar that she is today.