…wondered, whatever became of these guys…this cast of the ultra-hop late 70’s hard rock hard-hitting WKRP in Cincinnati. Well most of them wound up in Burbank or Los Angeles for a while, at least long enough to appear at the Hollywood Collectors Shows there.
The show was one of my favorites as a grade-schooler. I’ll admit that as a second-grader, the local connection eluded me, but I could most definitely relate to the rock and roll music that frequently abounded on the show. I mean really, what other prime time sitcom could one turn into and see a giant KISS poster adorning the wall of the office where the main characters worked?
Back in 1998, the Hollywood Collectors Show has a pretty cool cast reunion at one of their Burbank events, but unfortunately it was one of the many that I wasn’t at. My friend Bob gave me a great start though on the signed picture at the top of the posting with the four cast members who were present inscribing it: Howard Hesseman (aka Dr. Johnny Fever), Frank Bonner (aka Herb Tarlek), Gary Sandy (aka Andy Travis), and Gordon Jump (aka Arthur Carlson aka “The Big Guy”). At the time the autographs were probably $5 each, which would make the photo a $20 item. It sat dormant for over a dozen years.
Then in 2011 I was finally able to add a fifth signature to the eight-cast-member ensemble. I had not had any luck actually meeting any of the original four inscribers, and then in 2003 upon the death of Gordon Jump, my hope was dashed of ever getting to meet everyone in the cast. This was particularly sad because of all of the cast members, he would have been the one I’d most have like to have met. But with Loni Anderson, I met my first cast member from the show (as can be seen here) in 2011.
She popped up at other shows too, and I think it was her that convinces some of the other cast members to get back out there for another reunion. This one happened on April 20, 2013. Ironically only one of the participants at this reunion had been at the first one from 1998. Neither Gary Sandy nor Frank Bonner showed up for this one. So although I have their autographs, to date I have not met them.
This is also a bit ironic because Gary Sandy was in fact from Dayton and had attended high school with my Aunt Diana. She had not only known him then, but has gotten to see him again when he returned for one of their class reunions. But thus far, he has been elusive to me.
Howard Hesseman had been the only one who had been at both of these Hollywood Show gatherings. Having gotten his signature on the cast shot, as well as gotten an autograph from him through the mail, I didn’t need any more autographs. He had actually signed two items for me through the mail, the first being a portrait of him from Head of the Class, but it had smeared so badly that I don’t even keep it with my autographs. The second was the more recent shot above, which he kindly sent me.
Hesseman had many great credits to his name outside of WKRP, so I was particularly glad to finally meet him. He had also starred in The Andy Griffith Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Dragnet, Sanford and Son, Laverne & Shirley, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Soap, Rhoda, That 70’s Show, and even returned for the reboot of The New WKRP in Cincinnati.
With him being a virtual icon of the sitcom world, I had absolutely no qualms about shelling out $10 to get a photo with him.
Next at the reunion was Tim Reid, who had played Venus Flytrap on WKRP, and I was also extremely excited to meet him. This time I got to add a sixth signature to my cast photo. Carolyn was pretty excited to meet him as well as she had enjoyed him on the sitcom Sister, Sister.
He had a great sitcom background as well, starring in such shows as That’s My Mama, Rhoda, What’s Happening!!, Maude, Benson, That 70’s Show, as well as his own series Frank’s Place, and the TV movie It. He was the most friendly of the bunch, and gladly posed for a picture with Carolyn too, charging just $5 for the photo op in addition to the $25 for the signature.
Last in the lineup was Jan Smithers, who had been Bailey Quarters on WKRP. I had honestly always found her devastatingly beautiful, even more so than Loni Anderson, when she was on the show. Unfortunately her resume outside the show didn’t extend very far. She only had a few small parts in such shows at Starsky & Hutch, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote, before retiring from acting around 1987.
The kind of made her even more appealing since I really didn’t even know what she looked like today. I was glad to add her signature for the same cost as Tim Reid’s, making it the seventh out of eight cast members to sign my picture. Unfortunately she wasn’t quite as nice as Tim Reid and wouldn’t allow Carolyn to get a picture for free.
So what about the paranoid, bandaged newscaster Les Nessman, you ask? Actor Richard Sanders had no interest in attending the event, even when Loni Anderson herself pleaded with him to come down from his Washington home for the reunion. I got this information from Jan Smithers, and it made me sad, because after Gordon Jump, he’s the one I’d second most like to have met.
For now, the story is closed until I might get the chance to meet Gary Sandy, Frank Bonner, and most unlikely, Richard Sanders. For now, they’ll just have to live on the air in Cincinnati. Cincinnati WKRP.
Celebrities from the Spring 2013 Hollywood Show will continue…
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