Friday, March 14, 2008

WKRP Episode: "A Family Affair"

Going back to the second season, here's an episode written by Tim Reid (though as usual Hugh Wilson's "voice" seems pretty strong in parts of the script). Andy's sister visits, Venus blows off work to show her around town, Andy gets upset and then over-compensates out of guilt for getting upset. Solid episode and not a "very special" episode despite the subject matter; it helps that it has a lot of little story threads for other characters that all come together in the closing scene.

The subplot about Herb being injured was written in because Frank Bonner had had an accident (I think it may actually be a skydiving accident) not long before this episode was taped. That's why the audience applauds for him (usually against MTM house policy) when he makes his entrance. Also, this was one of two episodes from the second season that had the guys from the station hanging out at a local redneck bar; the idea seems to have been to give the characters a place to hang out after work, but it was dropped. NewsRadio had a similar thing: they did two episodes with the characters hanging out at a bar after work, and then dropped it and just had everybody stay at the office all the time.

Music includes: "Lie to Me" by the Durocs; "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix; "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy; "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by Joan Baez; "Coward of the County" by Kenny Rogers; "Viva Las Vegas" briefly sung by Johnny. Also there's one other song in the bar scene that I'm not sure of.


WKRP s02e14 A Family Affair by carpalton

2 comments:

Chris said...

In keeping with the posting of second season episodes, how about the second season opener "Baseball" (episode 23). It's one of the funniest episodes, IMO. Keep 'em coming.

Cheers!!!

Angie Matney said...

(Sorry if I've posted this twice.) The other song in the bar is "Should I Go Home (or Should I Go Crazy)," by Gene Watson. Also, is this the first episode to suggest that Andy and Venus knew each other for some time before the events of the show? Andy's sister said they knew each other "for years." I know this was also implied in "The Creation of Venus." Thanks for all the WKRP.