WKRP in Cincinnati - The Complete Series DVD Review

[TJ]

WKRP in Cincinnati has finally arrived on DVD in a set that does proper justice to the series. In 2007, Fox released a season one set for the series that they admitted would have "some" music replacements, but promised there were very few of them and they had replaced everything with something comparable. Unfortunately, as it turned out, they replaced every last bit of music and created one of the biggest disasters ever in the history of TV on DVD. It seemed that would be it for the series on DVD, until now, as Shout! Factory has released the entire series in a form that is almost completely unedited... but still with a few small music edits.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it starred Gordon Jump as Arthur Carlson, the manager of WKRP, a low-rated 5000 watt AM radio station in Cincinnati. He is never in any danger of losing his job, since the station is owned by his overbearing mother, who sort of sees him as a failure, but loves him regardless. In the pilot episode, Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) is hired as the new programming director, and he has very bold plans for WKRP. He wants to turn the sleepy station into a rock-and-roll station. Despite a rough start, it goes over well and lasts for at least four years (the length of the series). Aside from the two guys in charge of the station, there was a large ensemble cast that was just as critical to the series, including DJs Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), secretary Jennifer (Loni Anderson), a news department headed by Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) along with the more competent Bailey (Jan Smithers), and the slimeball advertising man, Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner).

The series ran for four years on CBS before being canceled, but it quickly became a hit in syndication in the 80s. Unfortunately, at some point in the late 80s or early 90s, MTM Enterprises (the production company and original rights holder of the series) had fallen on hard times, and their library began to be shuffled around to different parties, before finally landing in the hands of 20th Century Fox in 1998 after the studio purchased Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment holdings (primarily to get The Family Channel, which was eventually purchased by ABC and is now ABC Family Channel). Somewhere in these shuffles, WKRP in Cincinnati was destroyed for syndication runs. The series disappeared from most local TV stations after the early 90s and had a run on E! Entertainment for a little while, and made a return in the late 90s on Nick at Nite with a "new" heavily music edited version that had fans very upset. This version became known as what fans expected WKRP to look like from that point forward, until WGN and Antenna TV returned the series with older prints that had much of the music restored. Now, Shout! is doing their best to bring fans a version that has perhaps the most music that one could expect to see on DVD.

Read our review by skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/wkrpinc...dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

[BigManMike]

Can you confirm this set is closed captioned? Because I see some reviews on Amazon that say this is not closed captioned even though the box has a CC bug on it. Can you test it to verify this?