Show notes for HMOTD 002: Scum of the Earth

6:45 I first read of the "benign violation" theory in the pages of Slate; this article summarizes the theories of Professors Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren, and this page has some of their published work on the idea, as well as a TEDx talk. Yes, the name of their humor research lab is HuRL.

10:00 Here are the details of the groundbreaking case that won women journalists access in locker rooms (in theory) and here is the sad story of the Lisa Olson case from Wikipedia. The Olson case loomed large in my own history, as a New Englander, a Patriots fan, and at the time, as an aspiring journalist. I was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper and I remember the details of the case being debated VERY intensely and fiercely by the editorial staff of my very Catholic all-boys' high school newspaper. I should also add that a large part of Lisa Olson's decision to relocate to Australia (by the way, sorry Australia, I did make a cheap shot at you there) was the Boston sports fans' harassment and threatening her after the story broke. There is sadly a long history of this in Boston sports fandom; sometimes it's really embarrassing to be a Boston sports fan.

14:10 Steve Buckley's excellent coming-out article is sadly now behind the Boston Herald's paywall, but this article from competitor the Boston Globe offers a good summary of the reaction.

I'd be remiss if I also did not mention two recent, very tragic stories around how badly the sports world and specifically the sports journalism world treated trans issues: the story of trans sports journalist Christine Daniels and Grantland's horrific handling of the case of "Dr. V," Essay Anne Vanderbilt.

17:30 The Golden Age of Dramedies! Listener Len McCain reminded us in an email this week about Hugh Wilson's late-80s project with Tim Reid, Frank's Place, which sits squarely in the dramedy movement of that period.

17:40 TVTropes is the best. Also... yes, in this first season of WKRP there is certainly a whole lot of humor at the expense of the mentally ill. Hello, 1978.

18:30 Abe Vigoda: still alive.

19:30 Rob's theory that sitcoms line up with the ages of comic books is entirely sui generis and all credit should be given to him. The various ages of comic books Rob discusses here can be unpacked and explored in more detail here. Or you could just read Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo.

23:20 That Dilbert cartoon can be found here. And that just goes to show you... man. I was reading Dilbert VERY early in its existence.

26:30 Check Rob's post from earlier in the week on The Wall Street Journal article about the birth of WKRP In Cincinnati.

28:30 I regret citing Silly Election and not The Upper-Class Twit of the Year Show.

30:40 QUINCYPUNK QUINCYPUNK QUINCYPUNK

31:15 Erratum 1: Rob of course meant to say Quincy M.E., for "medical examiner."

32:10 Am I crazy, or is Quincy's interlocutor here indirectly quoting or referencing Plato's Republic on music?

33:40 Erratum 2: Mike of course meant to say "Subaru" and not "Volkswagen." Jeremy Davies still remains guilty.

36:50 Much like Apple Records, look upon Swan Song Records' works, ye mighty, and despair.

37:40 The secret history of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa.

39:25 What You Want Is in the Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and the Who in 1973, the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born. Good title.

40:30 We are going to officially christen the Weirdness segment of our show, "The Cincinnati Triangle." Also, let's be sure to note that a scant couple of months after this episode aired, Ohio State football coach and local legend Woody Hayes had his infamous on-field incident at the Gator Bowl and was dismissed summarily. JOHNNY FEVER IS THE DEMIURGE

42:30 Charles Fort. Charles Fort is the best, guys.

43:30 We come full circle with Slate with this article about order vs. chaos muppets.

HMOTD 002: Scum of the Earth

Mike and Rob unpack WKRP in Cincinnati episodes 3 and 4, “Les on a Ledge” and “Hoodlum Rock.” Discussed: gender panic, hilarious suicide attempts of the 1970s, unconvincing rock star debauchery, and the punk rock car.
All audio clips are the property of their owners/creators and appear in this work of comment and critique under fair use provisions of copyright law.


Check out this episode!

WKRP in the WSJ

Hey, check this out: The following article was published in the Wall Street Journal on September 18, 1978, the day that WKRP in Cincinnati premiered on CBS. The article discusses WKRP's debut and describes the filming of WKRP's fourth episode, "Hoodlum Rock." We discuss that episode, and this article, in our second podcast, which comes out this Wednesday.

(Click through for the full article in PDF.)

Click through for the whole article in PDF. It's a great picture of the show in embryo, and a funny snapshot of the TV business at that time--it took 25 million viewers to be "on the way to becoming" a hit!

I'm happy to say we won't need those kind of numbers to consider ourselves a hit. As of this writing, our pilot podcast has been downloaded 200 times, which is humbling and kind of ridiculous. Thanks so much for checking out the show, and please continue spreading the word. Our next podcast, featuring WKRP episodes 3 & 4, "Les on a Ledge" and "Hoodlum Rock," will be posted here on Wednesday morning. But remember that you can subscribe and get every episode automatically by plugging the address of our RSS feed into the podcast app of your choice: 

http://holdmyorderterribledresser.libsyn.com/rss

See you Wednesday!

Show notes for HMOTD 001: Booger

Note: all audio clips in this podcast/still images in this blog are the property of their creators and owners and appear in this work of comment and critique under fair use provisions of copyright law.

Also note: These show notes do contain spoilers for our podcast. They're intended for those who've already listened.

4:30 Greil Marcus’s The Dustbin of History can be found here.

7:00 I don’t have $80 to blow on this, but just LOOK at this thing. For a TV nerd, that looks like an endless source of never-wases and couldn’t-bes.

9:30 But you should blow ~$80 on Shout! Factory’s WKRP boxed set. Other than TV sitcoms and great animated series, Shout! has kept MST3K alive on video for over a decade. As a BIG MSTie, this pleases me.

12:05 In the 1981 Grey Cup, the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Ottawa Rough Riders, 26-23. Edmonton scored only one rouge, in the second quarter. #CanCon

12:30 A Wikipedia article about the loss of Doctor Who episodes mentioning the ephemeralness of videotape in the 1960s and '70s.

21:00 When I think about iconic sitcom objects, I’m naturally thinking of the Smithsonian’s exhibits on American TV.

25:00 People have been mocking Lawrence Welk for being square since the FIFTIES. Thank you, Stan Freberg.

30:20 Wally Schirra played by the legendary Lance Henriksen in The Right Stuff. No reason to mention this, other than I love Lance Henriksen.

31:45 I can’t go off on a 1970s cults tangent, because I will be here all day, but you can watch Robert Stack beat up a bunch of cultists at the airport.

34:35 We got both Pulp Fiction and a Blue Album track onto this podcast. The dream of the 90s is alive on podcasts!

36:40 Apparently there are multiple commentaries out there on YouTube overlaid on KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. Most by KISS fans, which I find somehow oddly endearing.

41:00 Here's an excellent WBCN oral history. And a nice note: the producers and creators of WKRP made sure to take the station down from 50,000 watts to 5,000 watts after the pilot.

It is time for this town to get DOWN!

Some thoughts the day after our first episode went live...

First of all, thanks to everyone who's posted a link, downloaded and listened, or otherwise boosted our signal. We're very grateful and honestly pleasantly surprised at the response and reaction thus far.

Wednesdays are when our episodes will go live and be available for download, and on Fridays we'll present you with our collective "Directors' Cut" notes about references, errata, and other interesting facts about the episodes of WKRP we've just reviewed, so expect that tomorrow. These notes will contain spoilers for the episode just "aired," so keep that in mind if you plan to follow this blog.

I've just listened to my esteemed co-creator's edit of Episode 3 (due up on U.S. Tax Day, the 15th), and it is a doozy. A lot of stuff very near and dear to my own heart, and if you've liked our hazy, misty look at our respective childhoods in the late '70s, well, you're going to especially like this one.

HMOTD 001: Booger

In our pilot episode, we discuss the pilot episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, along with the show’s cleverly-named second episode, “Pilot Part 2.”

Check out this episode!

A WKRP Podcast? Really?

Hell, yes! WKRP in Cincinnati was one of the great American sitcoms, underappreciated in its own time but kept alive in syndication and deeply loved by the kids and teenagers who grew up with it in the 1970s and 80s. The recent release of the entire series on DVD—in a great package from Shout Factory, cleaned up and carefully restored with virtually all the original music intact—is the perfect opportunity to rewatch the show and/or (re)discover it (again) for the first to third time.

Mike and I are your genial hosts. In each episode of the podcast, we’ll discuss two episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati, returning to our childhoods—not without trepidation—to see what holds up, what’s aged poorly, and what has changed since the days of Linda Ronstadt and the KISS Army.

You can watch along with us, but you don’t need to watch to enjoy the podcast. Each episode is really just a jumping-off point for a wide-ranging discussion of TV and radio history, the politics and culture of the Carter to Reagan years, Bailey’s unfortunate fashion choices, and whether Johnny was high. Not to mention the occult conspiratorial weirdness that seems to crackle just beneath the surface of the show. And besides loving WKRP, Mike and I are both Professional Historians with advanced degrees from Snooty Schools*, so you know our pop history riffs and rants are the real deal.

*This podcast is in no way endorsed by any Snooty Schools, though I occasionally borrow audio equipment from Western University’s world-class digital history lab.

So check out an episode or subscribe to our RSS feed. We'll be launching on iTunes and all the other fine podcast aggregating services once we have a few more episodes in the can. A new episode will come out every other Wednesday, with show notes, errata, and apologies on Friday. (That means our “Turkeys Away” episode comes out on April 22. Mark your calendars!)

Hold My Order, Terrible Dresser is a labor of love—nerdy, nostalgic, misguided love—so it’s unsponsored and absolutely free. But we do need you to boost the signal! I apologize in advance for the hustling we’re going to be doing for links, likes, tweets, and those all-important iTunes reviews. That’s how it goes in the Economy of Clicks. I don’t think we have any illusions about how many people are out there waiting for a WKRP in Cincinnati podcast, but we want to make sure that everyone who IS out there waiting for a WKRP in Cincinnati podcast gets a chance to discover HMOTD. So please let them know.

And yes, at some point we’ll explain our inane title.