Hugh Wilson talked his way into a job at MTM Enterprises at just the right time. When he arrived in the early ’70s, they were busy making sitcom history with The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. Wilson, who had no prior TV experience, could often be found up in the rafters, taking a crash course in Funny 101.
The result was his first series as a creator and executive producer, WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82).
In this “From the Vault” conversation from 2014, Wilson — who passed away in 2018 at 74 — talks about what it was like to strike gold with just the right cast at just the right time — even if his rock ‘n’ roll radio station sitcom was never a big hit in the States.
Among the surprising things he reveals:
“When the show first went on, it was struggling in the ratings in the U.S. But the ratings in Canada were great right from the beginning,” says Wilson, who used the Canadian response to successfully argue that the series needed time to find its audience. “I’ve never understood that but I’ve always been super grateful for it.”
Wilson also talks about the casting of the series, the importance of keeping the studio audience tapings as quick and painless as possible and why he felt that a series he made a decade later — CBS’s little seen Frank’s Place with WKRP castmate Tim Reid — would be a bingeble choice in the streaming era.
To listen to this episode with Hugh Wilson, simply click on the white arrow in the blue dot, above.
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