WKRP in Cincinnati
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50 free WKRP in Cincinnati trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
WKRP in Cincinnati ran for four seasons from 1978 and never sat at the top of the ratings, yet its struggling rock station became one of television's best-loved workplaces. The staff were the draw: a burned-out morning man, a reporter with imaginary office walls, a salesman in loud plaid and a station manager with one very bad idea about Thanksgiving. This quiz covers the characters and the actors who played them, the famous episodes, the guest stars, the real radio people behind the scripts, and the story of how the series was made and scheduled. It opens with questions most viewers can get and works up to deep cuts for people who know every shift on the dial. It is written for fans who watched the first run, for anyone catching the reruns on classic TV channels, and for quiz hosts who want a ready round on a favourite sitcom.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In WKRP in Cincinnati's famous Thanksgiving episode, live turkeys are dropped on a shopping mall from what?
A helicopter
A helicopter carried the birds on screen, but the real promotion behind the story tossed live turkeys off the back of a truck. Station manager Arthur Carlson kept his plan secret from most of the staff.
Q 02Which actress earned three Golden Globe nominations as glamorous Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati?
Loni Anderson
Loni Anderson was offered the part after producers saw a poster of her in a red swimsuit. She disliked the character as first written and reshaped the role with Hugh Wilson.
Q 03Creator Hugh Wilson first wanted which future late-night host to play WKRP program director Andy Travis?
David Letterman
David Letterman was the first pick, but the studio put him in a variety show that lasted three weeks, and Gary Sandy won the part instead.
Q 04WKRP in Cincinnati's episode In Concert dealt with a real hometown crowd tragedy outside a show by which band?
The Who
The Who were the headliners when eleven fans died in a crush outside Riverfront Coliseum. The episode aired ten weeks later and follows the station staff's guilt at having promoted the show.
Q 05Les Nessman's horrified live report of WKRP's turkey giveaway echoes the famous radio account of which disaster?
The Hindenburg
The Hindenburg airship burned in 1937 while reporter Herbert Morrison described it in anguish, and Les borrows his tone as the birds fall. The chaos itself is never shown on screen.
Q 06Which Blondie hit did WKRP in Cincinnati help break in America, earning its producers a gold record?
Heart of Glass
Heart of Glass became a major American hit with the show's help, so Blondie's label gave the producers a gold record for the album Parallel Lines. It hangs on the office wall in many episodes.
Q 07Why can nobody make out the words of the hard-rock closing theme of WKRP in Cincinnati?
They are gibberish
They are gibberish: the singer had no lyrics yet, so he mumbled nonsense on his demo. Hugh Wilson kept that take as a joke about how hard rock vocals are to understand.
Q 08WKRP in Cincinnati came from a production company founded by which sitcom star and her husband Grant Tinker?
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker set up MTM Enterprises in 1969 to make her own sitcom. The studio later turned out Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere.
Q 09WKRP's Arthur Carlson actor later spent years in commercials as the lonely repairman for which appliance brand?
Maytag
Maytag cast him in 1989, and he played the idle repairman with nothing to fix until he retired in 2003.
Q 10WKRP in Cincinnati creator Hugh Wilson went on to direct which 1984 comedy that launched a seven-film franchise?
Police Academy
Police Academy came his way when he agreed to rewrite a low-budget comedy on condition that he could direct it. His biggest later hit was The First Wives Club.
Q 11Which actor, a real former San Francisco disc jockey, played burned-out morning man Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP?
Howard Hesseman
Howard Hesseman had spun records on San Francisco's underground station KMPX under the alias Don Sturdy. He was first considered for Herb Tarlek but decided Johnny was the part he wanted.
Q 12Which actor played smooth evening disc jockey Venus Flytrap on WKRP and later starred in Frank's Place?
Tim Reid
Tim Reid also wrote for the show, including an episode about race and friendship in which Venus dates Andy's sister. His future wife, Daphne Maxwell, turned up as a guest star.
Q 13Which WKRP in Cincinnati actor doubled as his own character's embittered, fiercely anti-Communist mother?
Richard Sanders
Q 21Dr. Johnny Fever landed at lowly WKRP after a big Los Angeles station fired him for saying which word on air?
Booger
Booger was the word that cost him the job, and on his first rock show in Cincinnati he gleefully says it again. He later wins a cash settlement from the station that sacked him.
Q 22WKRP newsman Les Nessman wears what in a different spot each episode, a running gag that is never explained?
A bandage
A bandage first appeared because the actor had genuinely hurt himself backstage. The writers kept it going, with only hints that Les's huge unseen dog, Phil, was to blame.
Q 23What does WKRP newsman Les Nessman put on the floor around his desk to mark the walls of his imaginary office?
Masking tape
Richard Sanders played both newsman Les Nessman and the mother who raised Les to see Communists everywhere. He also co-wrote several of the show's scripts.
Q 14On WKRP in Cincinnati, what is the real name of the smooth evening disc jockey known as Venus Flytrap?
Gordon Sims
Gordon Sims is almost never called by his real name, which stays hidden until late in the first season. Andy picked Venus after the planet that rules his star sign.
Q 15Which secret from Venus Flytrap's past surfaces late in WKRP's first season, prompting Mr. Carlson to step in?
He was a deserter
He was a deserter from the Army, having walked away after his Vietnam service with little time left to serve. Persuaded to turn himself in, he receives a general discharge.
Q 16In a prize-winning WKRP episode, Venus Flytrap wins a bet by teaching a gang leader what in two minutes?
The atom
The atom becomes a turf war in his telling, with protons, neutrons and electrons as rival gangs. Hugh Wilson's script, Venus and the Man, won the Humanitas Prize.
Q 17What is the name of the disco-loving television persona that gradually takes over WKRP's Dr. Johnny Fever?
Rip Tide
Rip Tide is the slick host Johnny invents for a well-paid TV dance show, only to find the character creeping onto his radio programme. He finally sends Rip off with an on-air meltdown.
Q 18Which WKRP co-worker, a shy journalism graduate played by Jan Smithers, has an on-off romance with Johnny Fever?
Bailey Quarters
Bailey Quarters starts out handling billing and traffic, then grows into an on-air reporter. Hugh Wilson based her on his own wife.
Q 19WKRP in Cincinnati's final episode reveals that owner Mama Carlson had always wanted the station to do what?
Lose money
Lose money was the plan all along: she kept the station as a tax write-off, which is why its hapless staff were never fired. Johnny uses the secret to save the rock format.
Q 20What is the name of Mama Carlson's sarcastic, elderly butler on WKRP in Cincinnati, played by Ian Wolfe?
Hirsch
Hirsch is the one person who regularly gets the better of his fearsome employer, insulting her in the politest of tones. His coffee is terrible unless there is a guest.
Masking tape marks out the walls, and Les insists that colleagues knock on a door that is not there. He has even been seen locking it with a set of keys.
Q 24WKRP sales manager Herb Tarlek pairs his loud plaid suits with a belt and shoes in which colour?
White
White belt and white shoes are his trademark, bought with his suits at a golf pro shop across the river in Kentucky. When he tries tasteful clothes, his clients stop trusting him.
Q 25WKRP's glamorous Jennifer Marlowe grew up in the fictional small town of Rock Throw in which state?
West Virginia
West Virginia is the home she left at seventeen, and her mountain accent slips back whenever her mother phones. She takes offence when Mama Carlson calls the town Rock Pile.
Q 26In WKRP's final episode, Mama Carlson plans to scrap rock for which radio format just as the ratings soar?
All news
All news was her answer to an awkward success: the station had climbed to sixth in town with the top morning show. She backs down before her son learns why.
Q 27Which office does WKRP's Arthur Carlson seek, then try to throw the race after blurting out a rival's secret?
City council
City council is the prize, but the kindly Carlson feels so guilty about wounding the incumbent in a televised debate that he sets out to sabotage his own campaign.
Q 28Herb Tarlek dresses as which creature, the WKRP mascot, for a publicity outing that ends in a brawl?
A carp
A carp is the station's mascot, and Herb's costume ends up brawling with a rival station's pig. Hugh Wilson wrote the slapstick script under a made-up name to signal his annoyance with the network.
Q 29In an on-air drinking test on WKRP, what happens to Johnny Fever's reflexes with every drink he takes?
They get faster
They get faster with every round, to the bafflement of the officer running the test. Years of heavy drinking have apparently given Johnny a near superhuman tolerance.
Q 30WKRP in Cincinnati creator Hugh Wilson based the series on what he saw at radio station WQXI in which city?
Atlanta
Atlanta was where he worked in advertising and got to know the Top 40 station WQXI. Its general manager and one of its disc jockeys became the models for Arthur Carlson and Johnny Fever.