WKRP in Cincinnati (TV Series) Carlson for President (1979) User Reviews

Big Guy For A Big Job

[JasonDanielBaker · 26 August 2011]

Carlson runs for Cincinnati City Council. Travis is all for it for the obvious reasons that the Big Guy, whom he likes an awful lot will realize a lifetime ambition to serve the public, and more importantly be too busy to be at WKRP leaving Travis with the free hand to run things the way he has always wanted.

Everyone at WKRP chips in to get the Big Guy elected. Bailey finds out that the very popular incumbent Chuck Tillman is an alcoholic which is why he missed 80% of council meetings during his last term and only voted 6 times. When she lets it slip Carlson of course refuses to use the information saying "That's not the high road!".

During the televised debate things go poorly for Carlson (Wearing bright red face paint) and he can offer nothing but platitudes and cryptic responses up until another opponent raises the issue of Tillman's attendance at council which is a logical concern. When asked what he thinks about it by the moderator Carlson says that if a guy is hired to do a job he should show up for work.

Tillman, feeling cornered and not so privately insulted that anyone would dare to run against him for his council seat makes the perfectly reasonable observation that Carlson can't even run a small radio station. Lumping Carlson in with the other flake nuisance candidates opposing him Tillman refers to the debate proceedings as "clowning around".

Carlson, an earnest and moral man loses it and states that at least he is at work every day and is not off getting drunk someplace. The Big Guy thus strikes his glass-jawed opponent with a knockout punch, is the hands down winner of the debate and immediately surges ahead in the polls.

But, because Carlson is an earnest and moral man, he feels bad about what he has done like a lot of politicians...might. Unlike a lot of politicians (Or pretty much any) he decides to set his campaign to self-destruct. The deadline has passed for him to withdraw his candidacy so he enlists the staff at WKRP to help him lose.

Carlson is so determined to lose he circulates a campaign poster of himself looking as though he has just seen someone die, publicly insinuates that he beats his wife and lets Les spread the rumour that he is a transvestite all of which probably got the minds of a lot of amateur psychologists percolating particularly given Carlson's relationship with his mother.

While the episode utterly defies logic in countless ways it is at very least a return to the screwball roots that made the show famous. I for one never really cared for the episodes which tackled serious social issues or delved deep into the lives of the respective characters.

This episode is one of the few later ones in the series that made me laugh the way the ones at the beginning of the series did. I liked all of the difference aspects of the Big Guy's campaign.

His campaign commercial set to the theme from Star Wars features Fever's voice announcing "In the decade ahead America will be in space - Arthur Carlson is already there!" is a priceless moment in the series.

Off Some Place Gettin' Drunk Tillman

[sandcrab722 · 10/10 · 20 February 2022]

South West Ohio pinko infestation.

Smithers hot AF. Again.

A thought provoking exploration of the more profound moral dimensions permeating electoral politics.

If this ep were Elaine's boyfriend it'd be sponge worthy.

From A Political Buff's Angle, A Poorly Done Episode In Every Way

[bixman71 · 2/10 · 8 March 2009]

As people who read IMDb show reviews regularly will find out, I like to write reviews on shows I've seen whose episodes occasionally have a political campaign as part of the plot. I like them because of my love for politics and because I like the fact that each cast handles these scripts in a different way, regardless of if the character wins or loses. Most of the political episodes of TV shows I've seen in my lifetime, which include the Dick Van Dyke show, Mary Tyler Moore show and Wings to name a few, have been well written and well acted. And since most of these shows are comedies by genre, they make you laugh and wish you could be a real political candidate and still get away with half of the jokes the shows pull. I would never put the "Carlson For President" episode of WKRP in that selection. This episode was poorly done from start to finish. I think the actors themselves from the main cast to the guest stars could have come up with a better script then they did for this episode. Artuhr Carlson decides to run for Cincinnati City Council. A good way to help the community, the viewer thinks, until Andy lets it slip that he's running to impress his mother, who is the owner of WKRP. As a person who has run for my hometown's city council once and its county commission twice, I can tell you that impressing your mother is not a good reason to run for office. And no offense to the actors, but the WKRP staff ran a less than serious campaign and violated the law in the process. I know this because I have a friend in radio who was going to run for office herself until she found out that she would have to quit her job temporarily to do it. They also couldn't come up with a decent campaign ad to promote Carlson's candidacy. The part that really gets me though is that according to the script none of the candidates were at all impressive. One was running to promote her book, another was running strictly to oppose communism. The incumbent councilman was the worst. He couldn't answer a question without saying he intended to write a position paper on it, which Les tells Carlson to use for his answer. This councilman missed eighty percent of all council meetings. If a council member did that in my hometown, they would be recalled before I finish writing this review. When Carlson defends himself from one of the incumbent's charges and upsets Bailey doing it, he decides to sabotage his campaign. As I said, a poor episode from start to finish. I know they shoot this in Hollywood, but still if you can't make it believable, don't watch it. And that's what I suggest with this episode.