Month: February 2022

Is D.J. of ‘WKRP’ Bound for Cultdom?

From New York Times – 8 December 1979

No, he does not look like Erik Estrada or any of the other usual American male television idols. His blond hair is thinning, his forehead is heavily lined, and underneath the sunglasses he almost always wears deep pouches ring his eyes. He does, in fact, look slightly dissipated.

Yet when Howard Hesseman walked down the Avenue of the Americas the other day, many passers‐by did doubletakes, beamed and pointed at him. Several of them shouted, “Hey, Johnny Fever, is that you?” One man even grabbed him and hugged him. And Mr. Hesseman said he was still recovering from the surprise of being ardently kissed twice by a fan,a woman, while he was trying to eat brunch in San Francisco.

The 39‐year‐old Mr. Hesseman plays the freewheeling counterculture disk jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on the popular CBS‐TV series “WKRP in Cincinnati.” He and Loni Anderson, who plays the station’s blond receptionist, are the leading characters on the series, which last week ranked sixth in the Nielsen popularity ratings.

Virtually a Cult Figure

Mr. Hesseman, virtually a cult figure these days, is causing commotion in Manhattan because he is in town to be the host of “Saturday Night Live” tonight at 11:30 on NBC. A former member of San Franclsco’s famed improvisational group the Committee, Mr. Hesseman said his “Saturday Night Live” stint was “like going borne, except your cousins have moved into the house. “Saturday Night Live” is the logical media outgrowth of what the Committee and Second City were doing 10 and 15 years ago, and I’m really thrilled they asked me to do the show.”

Sitting in a restaurant over a plate of sea bass, which he ordered because he said be liked “a fairly tasteless fish,” Mr. Hesseman bantered with a fawning waiter and then talked about his battles with the CBS censors, who he said were afraid of the “counterculture aspects” of his character.

Dr. Johnny Fever, as Mr. Hesseman makes clear in his portrayal of the disk Jockey, has ingested a fair share of drugs in his lifetime. He is one of the first characters on commercial television to openly espouse a style of life alien to much of middle America.

Alcohol and Drugs

“I think maybe Johnny smokes a little marijuana, drinks beer and wine, and maybe a little hard liquor,” Mr. Hesseman said. “And on one of those hard mornings at the station, he might take what for many years was referred to as a diet pill. But be is a moderate user of soft drugs, specifically marijuana.”

“The network, needless to say, is terrified about that element,” he added. “But by no means am I advocating drug use. I understand the fears. I have a fair share of friends who are dead because of drugs, or close to it. I just think the fears are overblown.”

Mr. Hesseman, who favors the decriminalization of marijuana, said he did 90 days in the San Francisco County Jail in 1963 for selling an ounce of marijuana — a conviction that was later thrown out for entrapment. When asked if he still used marijuana, he smiled and said, “It’s sort of a residual hobby.”

The six‐foot, 165‐pound actor, who was wearing a plaid wool shirt with a matching plaid necktle and black denim jeans, said he was upset CBS was moving “WKRP” from its 9:30 P.M. time slot on Mondays to 8 o’clock. When the show came on the air last year, it faltered in that time slot and was dropped for a while.

‘Some Sophisticated Issues’

“None of us feel we’re doing Shakespeare or Strindberg or anything,” he said, “but we don’t feel we’re an 8 o’clock show. We’ve dealt with some sophisticated issues, like the boss’s wife getting pregnant at the age of 47, and things like that can’t be too fascinating to young viewers.”

He added that he thought pitting “WKRP” against NBC’s “Little House on the Prairle” and ABC’s “Laverne and Shiriey” would result in all three shows dropping from the top 20.

Mr. Hesseman is well qualified to play a counterculture disk jockey. Back in 1967, while be was a member of the Committee, he worked Saturdays as a disk Jockey for San Francisco’s pioneering underground rock‐and‐roll station, KMPX. “Most of my friends said I wasn’t that good,” he said. “I have pretty eclectic tastes, and I got into some pretty bizarre riffs on the radio. I was terrified of the technology, and I knew nothing about running the boards. There was none of Dr. Johnny Fever’s amphetamine‐euphoria approach to the weather reports.”

Because of his real‐life deejay experience, Mr. Hesseman said he adlibbed all of Johnny Fever’s on‐the‐air patter, and also picked the records to be played.

He said he was originally considered for the part of Herb, WKRP’s sales manager, a solidly Middle Western type who often wears plaid suits, a white belt and white shoes. “I could have played Herb, I’ve played that type many times before,” Mr. Hesseman said. “But I told them, ‘Johnny is the only one I’m interested in.”

Before “WKRP,” Mr. Hesseman was one of those character actors whose face, if not his name, was sort of familiar. Known as Don Sturdy while he was with the Committee, he took back his own name in 1971 when he was cast in his first movie, “Steelyard Blues,” with Jane Fonda. He also had small parts in “Billy Jack,” “Shampoo,” “The Sunshine Boys” and “Silent Movie.” He has also appeared in a number of television movies and had nmning roles as a patient on “The Bob Newhart Show,” the prosecutor on “Soap” and the psychiatrist on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

Mission From ‘The Jerk’

He was to have appeared as a rowdy carnival worker in Steve Martin’s coming movie “The Jerk,” which will open Friday. “But it’s gone, the whole thing was edited out,” he said. “I was disappointed, because I got to work with four other members of the Committee with one of my heroes, Carl Reiner. the scene is not sorely missed from film.”

Born in Salem, Ore., Mr. Hesseman Is single, after two failed marriages. He said he lived in a rented Hollywood bungalow, drove a 1964 yellow Oldsmobile convertible, and collected Oriental rugs and Buddha statues. He tries swim a mile a day, he said, to ward the effects of smoking two packs cigarettes daily.

The actor said that his goal was to work in films, and that he was under consideration for five or six major roles.

“Some are total departures from Dr. Johnny Fever, and that makes me happy,” he said. “One part I like is a community leader, a hail fellow well met, in a small Florida town. Now that’s really a departure from Johnny.”