WKRP Episode: "Sparky"

I thought Sparky Anderson was a somewhat overrated manager (though admittedly I may be just bitter because his Tigers beat the Blue Jays in 1987), but he's pretty good in the inevitable "gimmicky story built around famous sports figure who in real life would never work with these people" episode. Les's "Big Fat Muffin" song is probably the best part, though I still have no idea what the point of it is.

The episode was the first script written by Steven Kampmann and Peter Torokvei, who got invited to pitch to the show based on the SCTV "Cisco Kid" video they made with Martin Short; they also do uncredited voice work as callers on Sparky's show. Music: "Don't Let Go" by Jerry Lee Lewis (probably the artists Johnny played most often); "Survival" by Bob Marley (one of the artists Venus played most often).

Pointless writer trivia: any joke about Jerry Vale indicates that a scene was either written or re-written by Hugh Wilson. He had other Jerry Vale jokes in WKRP and a Jerry Vale joke in a Bob Newhart Show episode he wrote.