WKRP In Cincinnati's Most Iconic Episode Was Partly Inspired By A Famous Aviation Disaster

One of the most iconic scenes in television history is Les Nessman reporting in sheer horror as live turkeys plummet to the ground in the legendary "WKRP In Cincinnati" episode "Turkeys Away." Richard Sanders, the actor who portrayed Nessman, based some of that dialogue on the very real Hindenburg disaster. Even though the series itself may be an '80s show that's often forgotten, it's nearly impossible to forget him in this scene.

As the turkeys are falling, Nessman narrates the scene perfectly, even copying one of the most recognizable lines in news radio history: "Oh, the humanity!" Those were the same words uttered by Herbert Morrison as he watched the Hindenburg crash in New Jersey in 1937. In fact, much of what Les Nessman says in that scene was modeled after Morrison's reporting. Show writer Michael Fairman told the Classic TV History Blog how the idea came about. "We [Fairman and Sanders] both listened to it together at one point," said Fairman. "It was Richard's idea. He said "Why don't I announce it as if it were [the Hindenburg broadcast]?"

Tim Reid, who played Venus Flytrap on the show, said the entire crew watched Sanders narrate the Hindenburg disaster and knew he was on to something. "We all sat in the room, and we watched the actual crashing of the Hindenburg as it was recorded, over and over, and we sat there as he [Sanders] did it," said Reid. "And he did it so well." So well, in fact, that it turned "Turkeys Away" into one of the most iconic sitcom episodes of all time.

If you've seen "Turkeys Away" before and didn't pick up on the reference to the Hindenburg disaster broadcast, don't worry. Network executives assumed no one would get it. In an interview with the Classic TV History Blog, creator Hugh Wilson said that was a note they got frequently. "[W]e'd put in a line, and invariably somebody from the network would say 'I don't believe people, particularly younger people, know what that line about the Hindenburg means,'" said Wilson. "And my answer was always, 'So what?' They were always deathly afraid that we would be going over people's heads."

Writers continually went head-to-head with network executives over some of their deeper references, with the network pushing for more easily accessible humor. Wilson, in that same interview, said the writers were just concerned with writing good material, not worrying about every person understanding every joke. "We did a commercial once that was for a beer where it said, 'Look for the smiling face of Archduke Ferdinand on every bottle!'" Wilson remembered. "Somebody said, 'Hugh, it was his assassination that started World War I.' And I said, 'So what?'"

One of the references network executives didn't have a problem with was the name of the radio station itself. The call letters "K-R-P" were meant to sound and look like "crap," alluding to the poor ratings the mythical radio station would get on "WKRP In Cincinnati." Even the music on the show was a reference. While the opening song remains one of the most popular '70s TV themes of all time, the closing song was complete gibberish. The lyrics were supposed to be replaced with real ones at some point, but the writers liked how it sounded like so many non-sensical rock songs of the era.