WKRP Episode: "Venus Rising"

Another episode from the second season: Venus is offered a higher-paying job at a rival station and I am not giving anything away by saying he doesn't wind up taking it. What's different is that instead of wasting two acts on a question we already know the answer to (will Venus leave), Venus's decision is pretty much made by the end of the first act, and the second act shifts to a different but connected story thread, about Herb trying to get the treatment that sitcom characters always get when they say they have an offer to leave... only it doesn't work exactly that way, because he's Herb. This was one of the first episodes to contrast WKRP with the "real" world of modern radio: the rival station, WREQ (run by Terry "Weekend At Bernie's" Kiser) is a corporate-owned station whose playlists are all computerized and the sales department is the only department that really matters.

The cold open includes one of my favorite uses of music on the show: Le Nessman trying to find an appropriate point to turn off "This is It" by Kenny Loggins. The timing is perfect and the lyrics of the song work both for the gag and for the theme of the episode. Other songs in the episode include "Money" by Flying Lizards, "Same Thing" by Sly and the Family Stone, and two other songs I can't identify (though this copy does have all the original music).


WKRP s02e23 Venus Rising by carpalton