WKRP in Cincinnati Episode Rating Graph

Carlson thinks up a wacko Thanksgiving promotional gimmick.

Andy has doubts about an upbeat ad campaign for a mortician.

At a concert by the Who in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979, eleven kids were trampled to death when the crowd rushed to get seats. The first part of this episode takes place before that concert; the second act takes place the day after, and presents the characters' reactions to the tragedy.

Les invites Jennifer to a banquet, then suspects she only accepted out of pity.

With Herb in the hospital, Mr. Carlson pretends he is Herb and is impersonated by Les for an advertising client.

Jennifer tells her friends that she has nothing special planned for Christmas, and that she doesn't have a tree this year. Everyone begins to suspect that she might be alone for the holidays.

A broadcast from a stereo shop is disrupted by a holdup.

Johnny comes back to WKRP expecting to get his job back. Instead, he is assigned to the predawn show.

On a day when the furnace has broken down, Mama Carlson pays a surprise visit to the station and catches Johnny drinking in the broadcast booth.

Venus refuses to pose for an ad because he's wanted by the law.

Andy books a rock band whose members attack their audiences.

Andy tries to convince WKRP's owner that rock and roll will cure the station's ailing ratings.

When Johnny receives $24,000 in a legal settlement, Venus convinces him to use the money to invest in a condominium at Gone With the Wind Estates.

Just as WKRP hits #6 in the ratings, Mama Carlson announces that she plans to switch the format of the station to 24 hours a day of news.

Andy faces a fiscal crisis: Carlson won't finance a breaking-in period for the new format.

Colonel Buchanan, Jennifer's elderly gentleman friend, dies suddenly. As executrix of his will, Jennifer must deal with the press and with the Colonel's money-grubbing, rumor mongering relatives.

Les is barred from locker-room interviews when his manhood is questioned.

Jennifer tries to discourage a beau by revealing she's married--to Johnny Fever.

The new ratings book arrives, and WKRP has climbed from 16th to 14th place in the Cincinnati market. Everyone is happy about the gain except Andy, who knows that the station has not improved enough, in part because of his own unwillingness to fire incompetent employees like Herb and Les.

Andy starts taking Mama Carlson out after hours in the hopes of getting her to pay for a new transmitter for the station. But he begins to suspect that she might have more-than-businesslike expectations of him.

Andy tells a journalist that WKRP is just a "run-of-the-mill" station, even though a staffer is running around in a "carp" suit.

Andy is unable to warn Johnny and Venus when he realizes that the bomb is at the transmitter.

Everyone starts bickering after the station loses a broadcasting award.

Temporarily separated from his wife, Herb envisions a fanciful bachelorhood.

After Herb screws up an important advertising account, Mr. Carlson finally intends to fire him, but Jennifer takes pity on Herb and tries to help him keep his job.

Bailey's show brings out the weirdest people in town.

Once again, Mr. Carlson plans to give the staffers almost no Christmas bonuses. But in a dream brought on by eating one of Johnny Fever's brownies, the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future visit him to show him the error of his ways.

Johnny signs a contract to host a music TV program unaware that the songs will be disco.

Mr. Carlson hires legendary baseball manager Sparky Anderson as the host of a new sports interview show. But when the show proves a complete disaster, it falls to Mr. Carlson to fire his hero.

Herb's father, a lifelong salesman who shares Herb's taste in clothes, runs away from the Shady Hills Rest Home and visits the station.

Johnny's daughter shows up and moves in, and Johnny has to decide whether to express his disapproval of the shiftless boyfriend she's brought along.

When Bailey writes a news story on the Northside Children's Clinic, Les steals it and reads it on the air. This turns out to be a blow to the station's integrity in more ways than one when Bailey admits that she fictionalized part of the story.

Venus's latest date gives him an expensive diamond earring as a gift and then runs out on him; it turns out that she's a thief who has used the stolen earring to frame Venus as her accomplice.

Johnny forgets about his date with Bailey when he gets a call from Buffy, his old girlfriend from California. He borrows Jennifer's apartment to impress Buffy; however, that plan ends when she tells him she's suing him for palimony.

For the first time in her life, Jennifer is in love, with a penniless but handsome repairman who turns out to be even more of a gold digger than she is. Meanwhile, Les tries to get a raise, and Johnny becomes convinced that he's the man Jennifer is in love with.

When Mr. Carlson rehearses a dull speech in front of the WKRP staff, all the staffers drift off into daydreams about what they would most like to be: Herb as a Latin-American dictator, Jennifer as a '30s movie star, Les as a reporter covering the Blitz in 1940, Bailey as the President of the United States, Andy as a radio Mafioso, Venus as a standup comedian, and Johnny as a rock star.

When a fire destroys the kitchen at the Vine Street Mission, Johnny recruits Jennifer to help raise the $40,000 dollars to rebuild it. Jennifer throws a party for her rich friends and asks them to contribute, and everything is going fine until the contributors meet the people involved.

Bailey and Les attend a press conference given by a group of visiting Russian hog experts. One of the Russians falls for Bailey and asks her to help him defect to the United States.

Andy may have to leave WKRP when he rekindles his love for a touring rock star.

The Secret Service refuses to grant Les credentials for a Presidential press conference, suspecting him of having radical affiliations. It turns out that the man who raised Les wasn't his father, and that his real father was a card-carrying Communist.

When Venus learns that he's going to be interviewed by a militant black magazine, he adopts a new wardrobe and manner in order to seem more in touch with black culture. Meanwhile, Jennifer offers to change Herb's image, starting with picking out new, tasteful clothes for him.

When Johnny learns that his first ex-wife is planning to remarry, he is overjoyed at the thought of not having to pay alimony, and celebrates by inviting Bailey to take a trip with him. But he feels less happy about the situation when he meets the obnoxious womanizer his ex-wife is going to marry.

Herb starts selling insurance as a sideline, and sells a comprehensive policy to Les, who promptly has an accident.

Mr. Carlson's wife goes into labor and the WKRP staffers all visit the hospital to be there when she gives birth.

When Herb is called for jury duty, Andy takes over as sales manager and soon discovers just how tough it is trying to sell advertising time or collect from deadbeat clients. Meanwhile, Venus becomes acting program director and has to deal with Les's plan to disguise himself as a black man so that he can do a series of reports based on the book Black Like Me.

Herb and Jennifer are trapped in an elevator when a fire breaks out in the Flimm Building.

Johnny signs a contract to host a music TV program unaware that the songs will be disco.

Johnny calls his friends over to Jennifer's apartment to help him deal with Buffy and her threat of a lawsuit. Buffy arrives and, after having a drink with Johnny, tells him that she put poison in his drink.

Mr. Carlson runs for Cincinnati City Council. When Bailey discovers a potentially damaging piece of information about the front-runner in the election, Mr. Carlson considers using that information in a televised debate.

When Herb's family is featured in the show ""Real Families"", he is sure that they can serve as an example of a clean living family. Unfortunately, the image Herb wants to convey is different from the reality shown on screen.

In honor of their 25th anniversary, Arthur and Carmen Carlson plan to get married again. They want a small, private ceremony, but Mama Carlson has other ideas.

Herb fixes Les up with a date through his latest client, the I'll Take Romance Dating Service. Les hits it off with his date immediately, not knowing that the dating service is a front for prostitution.

While his apartment is being fumigated, Johnny accepts Bailey's offer to stay at her place, causing everyone at the station to think that the two are sleeping together. Johnny's also afraid that he's in danger of losing his time slot to Rex, the afternoon DJ, and when Bailey tries to cheer him up, he mistakes her friendliness for a come-on.

Herb tells everyone that he's going on vacation, but Les and Jennifer discover that he's actually checked into the hospital for heart tests.