What kids today will never know is that until the 80s and 90s, there was so little content on TV that a show could be popular for decades. I know that cable does reruns too, but it’s not the same when you’ve got 3-5 channels to choose from. Basically every show was as big as “Seinfeld” and “Friends” by virtue of just being the only thing decent on right now. You could reference ancient shows from the literal dawn of recording TV broadcasts like “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show” and reasonably expect a random stranger to know what you were talking about. In a HS art class, all the students marveled at the Japanese girl who’d never seen “The Wizard of OZ”. A movie that was annual broadcast event on network TV like the Oscars.
Anyway gag from the holiday episode in an obscure TV sitcom in the 70s is going to be familiar to just about everybody born between 1945 and 1980.
mid eighties checking in.
Fun fact, the WKRP Cincinnati first annual turkey drop is an homage to a real event in Cincinnati, where they tried to release 2 million balloons.
The resulting chaos killed two people.
I feel this is not a fair assessment.
2 people did die, but not because of the balloons.
2 people were out on the lake and their boat sank, the balloons hampered the rescue efforts.
Before anyone gets any ideas that the balloons crushed someone or suffocated them.
In some ways I feel sorry for them and in other ways I’m envious. Envious because of the mind blowing amount of content, but mostly feeling sorry for them missing out on huge, cultural, shared experiences.
We used to, basically, be on the same page. Now anyone can read from any page they like. BTW, got any unpasteurized milk?
Can confirm. Never saw the episode, still know the gag.
I was fortunate enough to inherit the entire series, taped from VHS from my dad, which I promptly converted to digital for my jellyfin server. All the original music from the disc jockeys, none of that “we lost our license and have to put bullshit replacement music in the DVD release” nonsense. Hell it’s a radio station, the music made the show.
Here’s the relevant part in 5min
As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly
Oh the humanity!
