Archival Revival

 

1940-2022

Here's a Howard Hesseman post from a few years ago

Vital Viewing (Guglielmo Marconi Edition)

Actor Howard Hesseman, best known for playing deejay Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati, was born on this day in 1940. In this clip from 2013, he gives a brief interview on what was then the very funny 1970s sitcom's 35th anniversary:

"What a cool camera pack!" Unfortunately, the camera pack that so caught Hesseman's attention is not visible in the video, and it has me wondering what exactly it looked like. Some possibilities:

I'll leave it up to you to decide which camera pack is the coolest.

Anyway, here's two clips (originally one long extended scene) from the pilot episode of WKRP. A bit of background here. Dr. Johnny Fever was a popular LA rock-oriented deejay in the 1960s, until he said "booger" on the air. His radio career now in shambles, he eventually ends up at a low-rated station in Cincinnati playing the musical genre known in the 1970s as "easy listening", a.k.a. "elevator music", a musical genre that bores the hell out of him. Fortunately, a new program manager has just been hired who wants to change the format to rock, and Dr. Fever is in ecstasy:

Now, that was cool!

 Not so cool.