WKRP Much-Awaited DVD Spoiled by Music Snafu

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED: FURIOUS FAN FRACAS OVER WKRP SNAFU

by MATHEW INGRAM
Globe & Mail
Report on Business
April 24

If you're a fan of 1980s sitcoms, you may have wondered from time to time why you could get almost any show on DVD, except for one: the legendary WKRP in Cincinnati, the show that launched Loni Anderson's career (such as it was) and introduced the world to characters such as Dr. Johnny Fever and Herb Tarlek.

Well, your prayers have been answered -- sort of. As of tomorrow, you can buy a three-DVD set of the entire first season. But you may not want to. Hard-core fans of the program have described the release as a "travesty" and an "abomination." And those are the good reviews.

Why so harsh? Because fans say that the DVD reissue ruins one of the main things that made the show so appealing: the music, which was often an integral part of the plot.

According to a source who worked at MTM Enterprises (now owned by News Corp.) when WKRP was being remastered for syndication, it was too difficult and/or expensive to get the digital media rights to the music that was used in the show, so the majority of it was replaced -- in most cases with Muzak-style background tunes.

In some cases, that removes a big part of what made certain scenes so classic, including the one in which sad-sack news director Les Nessman tries on a new toupée to the strains of Foreigner's Hot Blooded. Some scenes were removed altogether.

More than one reviewer has compared the DVD set to another iconic moment in the show, in which Les dreamed up a promotional event that involved dropping live turkeys from a helicopter -- a show that ended with his anguished cry: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Not this one, apparently. So fans: caveat emptor.