Sunday Morning Coming Down

I love Sunday morning, I always have. Got up, had breakfast, praised God and read the paper on the porch. I had the Ipod symphony out there so, the tunes were awesome.
The playlist went something like this:
"Walkin Slow"-Jackson Browne, "Time Out Of Mind"-Steely Dan, "If Love Should Go" by Steve Walsh's old band Streets, "These Days" by Dan Fogelberg, "New Girl Now" by Honeymood Suite, "Do The Strand" by Roxy Music, "Pressure Point" by Charlie and "Brown Sugar" by the Stones.

I then hung some shades to keep the sun out of the back porch and my good mood turned sour when I found out that Josh Hancock, a 29 year old relief pitcher for the Cardinals was killed last night after driving into the back of a tow truck pulled off to the side of the road...

It's every parents worst nightmare to bury one of your kids. They called off the Cubs-Cards game tonight. In the name of Darryl Kile, what the heck is going on? This is the second time during a Cards-Cubs series that a pitcher has died in the past five years.



It's just not the same
The show is/was great and it will always be very funny, but not being able to hear Dr. Johnny Fever kick off the new format with "Queen of The Forest" by Ted Nugent and not hearing "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner at a critical scene kinda sucks. They couldn't get the rights to ANY of the music. It makes the package lose a whole letter grade for me, so, as good as it is, it only gets a B-. Looking back after all these years, I know so many people like the people on WKRP. I like to think I had a little Johnny in me. I worked for a sweet, lovable guy that had nary a clue, or so you thought, then he would surprise you. I have worked with Herb Tarlick (and hope I don't become him). I have fallen in love with someone that reminds me of Bailey and got real close to an overnight guy like Venus. The show was prophetic, funny and most of all, real. That is the thing that separates it from the movie "FM" which also had GREAT music. So, the music is gone, but the talent of the performers remain. I wish that I didn't concentrate so much on the missing soundtrack, but unfortunatley,for me, it does. That's because I remember what I was doing in my life not neccesarily by dates but by what was on the radio. Here is what the cast members said about losing the music..."I know that that was the most difficult issue," said Loni Anderson, who played receptionist and blond bombshell Jennifer Marlowe."But the comedy is still there, and it's still the same." "I am loath to learn that that's happened, but I have no control over it," said Howard Hesseman, who played disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever. "It's a drag." In any case, the Fox Home Entertainment release contains all 22 episodes of the 1978-79 season -- including "Hoodlum Rock" and "Turkeys Away."
WKRP was nominated for 10 Emmys before being dropped by CBS, which moved it around the prime-time lineup like a hot potato."Our joke was, we wanted to do a commercial each time they moved us," said Anderson, 61 (61?). "We wanted to say, 'You'll love us -- if you can find us.' With series creator Hugh Wilson, the actress developed the role of Jennifer into a "mother figure" -- who had a decided preference for wealthy old men. Hesseman based his laid-back, sleep-deprived, shades-wearing Fever on "a melange of guys I knew in radio and what Hugh Wilson had put on the page to begin with and who I am -- just an ungodly mix," the 67-year-old said. Although cast members Jump (who attended Otterbein College in Westerville) and Gary Sandy hailed from Dayton, Anderson had never traveled to Cincinnati before WKRP premiered -- although she has visited since. Hesseman, meanwhile, has experienced the Queen City only once, in 1973. The show managed to click on several levels, according to the co-stars. "It's like the perfect storm," Anderson said. "It just comes together with the writing, which was brilliant, and the casting. Hugh never really centered on one person. . . . He made sure that we all got our share of screen time and writing time, and it makes the show fuller if you have each character in it every week." The cast members still get together each year. (Jump died in 2003.) "The family feeling that was there while we were doing it is still there," Hesseman said. "It was a very special time, and I'm thankful to have been there." And they still hear from fans of the sitcom. "I was just in Hawaii recently," Anderson said: "A girl ran up to me and said, 'My name is Loni, too, and I was named after you, and my mother went into labor while WKRP was on." "It warms my heart when somebody says 'Hey, Doctor!' on the street, and I always think it's for me," Hesseman said. "And then I turn, and there's an ambulance and somebody bleeding on the sidewalk.

"But I'm willing to wave back, nevertheless."