S4E16 - "Circumstantial Evidence"

Send a note to Allen & Donna…WELCOME BACK!!
Venus snuck a girl past the night guard. Okay, so this is not unusual for Venus. What's different this time? The girl is using Venus as cover so she can engineer a robbery at a Wholesale Jeweler elsewhere in the Flimm Building.

Sounds like "Law and Order: WKRP", right? It kind of is! The fuzz shows up in the bullpen and Venus is hauled downtown in cuffs.  Johnny, in disguise, visits the jailbird. His fake beard had to sign the visitor's log separately.

We spend a lot of time in a courtroom and Venus might GO TO PRISON!! The whole gang is enlisted to act as character witnesses. Max Wright returns as fearless Carlson Enterprises attorney Frank Bartman. 

It looks bad for Venus. He might be in real trouble. In the end, a whole lot of prayer and a little bit of luck saves the day. Venus is returned to the station and you can hear about the whole thing by pushing "Play." 

WATCH ALONG DETAILS...
[Want to watch along with us? It's a blast!! We highly recommend the 'Shout Factory' boxed DVD set of the entire WKRP series. For reasons you'll have to listen to in the "Prolog" episode, all streaming versions of the original "WKRP in Cincinnati" have had the original music cues removed. Generic music beds and stings were used in place of the original music for the syndicated version of the series. 'Shout Factory' has been able to restore an estimated 85% of all WKRP music cues to the original "as-aired" content for their DVD release. They've also restored scenes that had been cut to shorten episodes for syndication. The original eps ran 25 minutes. The syndication eps were shortened to 22 minutes. Over 88 episodes that's more than four hours of lost content, including the performance by "Detective" at the end of "Hoodlum Rock." Get the COMPLETE series...get the Shout Factory DVDs. The Shout Factory complete series box has a release date of 2014. All individual seasons of Shout Factory disks were released starting in 2015.]

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everybody, This is Jerry Sandy and thank you very
much for listening to the wuk Rpcast.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
So just sit right down, relax, open your ears real wide, and.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Say weather today in the greater Cincinnati area. Are you awake.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Now? But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated,
could not explain his nudity.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Same what Dear God, She's gonna kill us all.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to the WKRP Cast. My name is Alan Stairs.

Speaker 5 (00:31):
And I'm Donna Stair. This is the fourth and final
season of our week by week, episode by episode.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Rewatch join us for this final season as we're getting
into the music, the.

Speaker 5 (00:42):
Trivia, and the fun of WKRP.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
So, fellow babies, stay tuned and stay cool. It's time
for the WKRP Cast. WKRP Simpson, Welcome back to the
WKRP Cast. This week, we've got a real caper happening.
What is our episode, Donna?

Speaker 5 (01:04):
We are ready to discuss circumstantial evidence. The air date
was February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty two. Written by Tim
Reid and PJ. Tarrokvi as Peter Tarrokvi, story consultant Lisa Levin,
directed by Frank Bonner, Venus's girlfriend gives him a diamond
ear ring. She then excuses herself from the room and

(01:27):
leaves the station. The next day, the police visit the
station to question Venus. The ear ring she gave him
was stolen, and they think Venus is the thief.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
This episode is heavy. It almost feels like it could
be an hour police procedural. There's a reason for that.
Tim Reid spoke extensively about this episode in the Michael
Castle book America's Favorite Radio Station. He said he wrote
the episode along with PJ to rockf basing it on
an actual case from Texas. A black man was sentenced

(01:58):
to life in prison for a crime he did not commit.
He was put away based on questionable eyewitness testimony. Reid
said this episode was written to shine a light on
the deadly serious side of that old stereotype they all
look alike.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
Tim said he'd originally intended the story to play as
an hour, if not all one night. He saw it
at least as a two parter. He had the green
light for the longer format after the story was first pitched.
At the last minute, the network pulled the plug on
the expanded story. He was forced to condense the original

(02:39):
down to a single half hour, so less than twenty
five minutes of storytelling space. Reid said he felt like
they had to cram a lot in the story was rushed,
and the ending never quite suited him. Even with the
serious undertones, Reid said he was proud of the last
they were able to find in this serious subject matter.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
This episode also features Daphney Maxwell, who would later become
Daphne Reid. We first saw Daphne on wkarp as co
host of the Real Families episode. We made an incorrect
statement during that podcast episode. We said the Real Family
Zepp was when the future mister and Missus Reid first met.
This is not the case, as I later discovered in

(03:24):
the book Tim and Tom. Daphney Maxwell is from Chicago.
She and Tim had cross paths both personally and professionally
throughout the nineteen seventies while in Chicago. Tom Dreeson had
a print ad from nineteen seventy two showing both Tim
and Daphney posing together for a magazine ad in Chicago.

(03:45):
Although they knew each other, their Chicago era relationship was
professional and only in passing. The relationship never became romantic
because they were both married at the time.

Speaker 5 (03:56):
By the early eighties, both Reid and Maxwell were divorced.
Maxwell had also made the move from Chicago to LA
She found work modeling and acting. One of her early
jobs was the WKRP appearance, which allowed her to rekindle
her acquaintance with Reid. Maxwell tells the story in Tim
and Tom about meeting Reid for what was supposed to

(04:18):
be a ten minute drink. Five hours later, they were
having breakfast and still laughing their butts off. She fascinated
read because she wasn't consumed by her career the way
he was. Reid started using his new Writers Guild Association
card as a way to see Daphney. He would write
scripts containing a black female character role just perfect for Ms. Maxwell.

(04:43):
This is one of his stories that made it to production.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Reid said he's particularly proud of this script because of
the level of humor they were able to mine from
a pretty dire place. Now forty years later, the prison
jokes sound well worn, but at the time, Reid said
nobody was doing those kinds of jokes. He particularly mentioned
our line of the episode, so be listening for that.

(05:06):
The end where Venus praise was also heavily influenced by
Reid's personal life and personal beliefs. He said, you Wilson
gave him a lot of leeway when it came to
letting Venus talk about his beliefs. The spiritualism of Venus
was grounded in the life and study of Tim Reid.
So hang on, fellow babies, as we get into this

(05:27):
heavy half hour hour co written by Venus and directed
by Herb Surely.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
We begin this episode with an outside evening shot of
Cincinnati from across the river looking to the northeast. This
is one of the light up Cincinnati shots that Bob
Gerding told us about during our visit. The video washes
out a lot of the detail, but if you freeze
this shot on a decent screen, you can see how

(05:54):
many lights are on in the riverfront buildings. Had you
been listening in February of nineteen eighty two, you'd have
heard Take My Heart by Cool in the Gang playing
out over the nighttime air waves. Originally, we'd have heard
a talk bit from Venus where he name checks both
songs in the break as we fade into the studio.

(06:16):
We pulled the original audio for this scene from the
Big d Dale Kovars set of recreated discs. It sounded
like this the night it first aired.

Speaker 6 (06:31):
You're listening to the voice of mister J. T.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Taylor of Cool in the Gang.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
Something entitled take my Heart, this is Venus, My children
go to fill your hearts with the saxy sound of
the Greek Tom's Guy. Something entitled we Belong Together.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
Let the church say Amen.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
But that's not what's on the shout Factory disc And
what's there, it turns out, is pretty interesting. It's also
something we missed back in season three. Yep, in the
first ten seconds of this when I went down a
pretty deep rabbit hole. Hang on, fellow babies and follow along.
We'll get through this together. Okay, So shout Factory couldn't
clear the Cool and the Gang cut we were supposed

(07:12):
to hear right at the open of this episode. Since
Venus name checked both songs and they mixed under his voice,
it turned into a messy editing assignment. They couldn't mention
the Cool and the Gang song, so the talk bit
mentioning both songs got cut. What's there is really Venus's voice,

(07:33):
so it's not a recut. I finally figured out what
they did here to cover. Venus's talk bit sounded familiar.
Give a listen. This is what he says at the
top of this episode on the Shout Factory disc.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
This is Venus, my children, here, my s I let
the sounds of music in our ears, saw stillness in
the night become the touches sweet army.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
I was certain I'd heard him do that one before.
I did a tech search on our past scripts.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
Hey, we have heard that one before. At the beginning
of the season three episode The Baby, there's a commercial
for an at home announcer. Course, Venus comes out of
the ad with his announcer pride a bit hurt, so
he launches into this smoking talk bit.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
We're in the white pages the Mike Wallers School of Broadcasting,
not affiliated with a guy in sixty minutes, this is.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Venus, my children. Here, we sit and let the sounds
of music creep in our ears, saw stillness in the
night become the touches of sweet harmony. So if you
learn that at Home Chump.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
Sound familiar, it's not just the same script. It's the
exact same recording. They reused what must have been a
clean talk bit. It was perfect because it didn't have
background music. And he didn't mention any specific songs or artists.
Shout Factory figured they could get away with reusing this

(09:14):
snippet of voiceover to cover an edit here more than
thirty episodes later. Discovering they'd reused a piece of audio
from earlier in the series was fun, but not nearly
as cool as the other thing we discovered.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Since I had the tech string already typed and copied,
I went ahead and dropped it into a Google search string.
I was surprised to discover this is not a Venus original.
We missed it during the Baby, so we're catching up here.
This quote is lifted almost word for word from William
Shakespeare's sixteenth century comedy The Merchant of Venice. In the

(09:51):
first scene of the fifth act, Lorenzo is speaking to
Jessica when he says, how sweet the moonlight sleeps upon
this bank. We sit and let the sounds of music
creep in our ears soft stillness, and the night become
the touches of sweet harmony. Venus should really be crediting
his quotes.

Speaker 5 (10:11):
This is also not the first reference the show has
made to the Merchant of Venice. There was Herb's client,
the Merchant of Venice Pawnshop, who he mentioned at the
start of Mike Fright.

Speaker 7 (10:22):
Mister Bravanski owns and operates the Merchant of Venice Pawnshop.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Merchant. They are all over.

Speaker 7 (10:30):
Town as get this, he is planning to open one
up and akron, Akron.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
I'm not kidding, all right, but enough with the rabbit hole.
Back in the studio, it's dark, no one is in
the booth, and the turntables are empty. The camera does
a zoom to the real to reel tape player through
the window. Back in production, it's rolling. Venus is running
a voice track. In the original airing, we hear Venus's

(11:03):
voice from the tape introducing the next song titled We
Belong Together by Tom Scott.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
The song we didn't get to hear and Venus's talk
bit was take my Heart from Cool in the Gang's
thirteenth studio albums, Something Special. Although Cool in the Gang's
most remembered for celebration, we don't want to forget. They
were responsible for thirty hot one hundred hits throughout through
seventies and eighties. This one would go to number seventeen

(11:31):
in October of nineteen eighty one.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
Many Time is a right time.

Speaker 8 (11:36):
Baby, Come on and see my ho.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
It's all yours.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
If you wanted baby, my God is damn all of that.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
I'll say, yeah, if you want it.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
You want come and get it, babe. But if you
want it, ah yeah. This cut also spans seventeen weeks
on the Hot one hundred.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
Venus goes into We Belong Together by sax player Tom Scott.
This is still another cut from Scott's nineteen eighty one
live album Apple Juice. Scott is the session sax player
who's played with everyone and seems to know somebody at MTM.
We first heard him on WKRP during the episode Rumors,

(12:30):
then again in the record library scene of Changes and
now Here. Scott has added his smooth tenor sacks to

(12:52):
dozens of radio hits, but nothing from this album will
even crack the Hot one hundred. We're curious how this
album wound up with three tracks on WKRP.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
To not be a rock guy, Tom Scott is getting
on son of coverage on KRP. It's weird how much.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
He's get because of Venus' shows.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
He must be and I don't know if somebody knows him.
Maybe he's a friend of Hugh Wilson's or something, but wow,
he got a lot of coverage. We do a cross
dissolved from the reel to reel into a very dark bullpen.
There are candles and lamps providing some dim light. We
can see bottles of alcohol and glasses on the DJ's desk.

(13:43):
As our eyes adjust to the dark, we see Venus
and a very pretty young woman sitting on the couch.
Venus is pouring some wine into their glasses. The woman
takes a sip.

Speaker 9 (13:54):
Nice choice, Yeah, con, I've got something for you.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Minus sets his glass down and he leans closer to
the woman. He's thinking kiss, but she presents him with
his small jewelry box. Venus looks inside.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Oh, this is nice, nothing but the best.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
For the people I care about. You mean this is
a gift, of course, silly.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
She then drops a sly quote from the nineteen eighty
one film noir Body Heat.

Speaker 10 (14:28):
You're not too perceptive.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
I like that in No Man.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Lawrence Kasden directed Body Heat from the previous year, would
be Kathleen Turner's film debut. After first meeting William Hurt's character,
she says almost the same line, you're not too smart.

Speaker 6 (14:45):
I am.

Speaker 10 (14:47):
I like that in Noman.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
This is miss Maxwell's second appearance on the show. We
first met her in a very different part in the
third season episode Real Families, herb Elaine Parker speaking, you
got a beercan on the night? Isn't that a beer
cat on the night table?

Speaker 10 (15:03):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
I don't think so. I don't know what it is.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
HI filter for a bio on Daphne. Check that episode
of the podcast. If you do, go check that episode.
Ignore our comment about it being where Tim first met her.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Venus takes the box, still looking at what's inside, He
tells the woman he didn't expect this.

Speaker 10 (15:20):
I'm full of little surprises.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
She puts her arm around Venus's neck. It's kind of
a forceful move. She kisses him firmly on the lips.
Venus leans into the kiss, eagerly pushing the woman down.
She gently pushes him away.

Speaker 10 (15:34):
Hold that thought while I go freshen up.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Venus sits up and teasingly tells her to hurry back.

Speaker 10 (15:42):
I never heard.

Speaker 9 (15:45):
That.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Homan goes to the door. She turns back to Venus
before leaving.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
While I'm gone, why don't you tune up your imagination.

Speaker 5 (15:58):
Let's talk for a minute about the tape venus is using.
This is what's called a voice track. It's a little
like a mixtape. You make one the same way you
used to make a mixtape, one song at a time live.
The songs had to be played in real time, and
the DJ voiceovers had to be done live while the

(16:18):
recording tape was still moving. Voice tracks are primarily for emergencies.
If a DJ is going to be fifteen or twenty
minutes late for the board shift, the previous operator would
be able to get through the top of the hour
break and start the next operator's show using a voicetrack.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Back in the days of live air personalities, not every
station would allow the use of voice tracking. For perpetually
late DJs, voicetracks would become a crutch. If a station
had voicetracks, they were usually sitting on a rack somewhere
in the live boost, so they were easy to get to.
For a pop or top forty station, air people had

(16:57):
to keep their voice tracks up to day eight with
current music.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
These days, voice tracks are digital talk bits can be
recorded on their own, then dropped in at the right
spots between songs by the computer. This is actually how
most radio shows are done nowadays, even live shows aren't
truly live. The producer or boardop will time shift talk bits,
call in segments and interviews so they can be edited

(17:25):
before they are played back on the air. If you've
ever talked to a radio show at seven oh eight
but not heard your call until seven forty five, that's
why your comment was edited. Maybe cut for time, took
out a few ums and pauses. Then the DJ had
a snappy, funny line which he maybe added a couple

(17:47):
minutes later. The segment is edited so it sounds perfect,
and it gets played back neatly between spots or other segments.
Not much of what you hear on air actually in
big markets is truly live anymore.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
We transition to inside the darkened studio. Andy walks casually
by the studio window out in the hall, and he
glances in as he passes. He stops and looks more closely,
realizing the studio is empty. Uh oh. In the bullpen,
Venus is sitting with his eyes closed. He's not sleeping,

(18:26):
because we see him grinning and his eyebrowser bouncing up
and down a few times. He seems to truly be
tuning up his imagination while waiting on his lady friend
to return. Andy walks in quietly, holding a glass of something.
He has his seat next to Venus, and he puts
his hand on Venus's leg. Venus's eyes still close, smiles.

(18:49):
He puts his hand on Andy's realizing something's not right.
Venus feels Andy's wrist, then his lower arm, his upper arm.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
Andy, what are you doing in here?

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Andy tells Venus he was looking for him.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
You doing holding a seance, of course.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
Not having a meeting.

Speaker 5 (19:08):
Andy chuckles and asks Venus.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
With who my spiritual advisor?

Speaker 5 (19:12):
Venus stands. Andy asks where she is? Interesting? Andy assumes
this spiritual advisor is female. Venus asks what's up with
all the questions.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
The inquisitive type? As I don't suppose I could have
a little bit of that there holy water.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
I do if you promise to drink it in your office.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
Andy tells Venus he's got a deal. Venus pours some
wine into Andy's coffee cup. Andy thanks Venus as he
heads to the door.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Andy turns to look back at Venus. By the way,
on the day that the last power you've been in
violation of Title forty seven CFR, Section seventy three point
one two zero one. Venus looks at Andy, what does
that mean? Simply stated, if you don't hurry up and
put on a station IDKRP could lose its license and
you good job.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
The gobbledegook Andy was spouting is in reality the Federal
Statute regarding Radio Station Identification CFR stands for Code of
Federal Regulations CFR, Title forty seven, Chapter one, sub Chapter C,
Part seventy three, sub Part H, Paragraph seven to three

(20:23):
point one two zero one is titled station Identification. It says,
in part broadcast station announcements shall be made hourly as
close to the hour as feasible at a natural break
in program offerings.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
This paragraph also covers the content of the announcement, which
is basically call letters in city of license, Morning Johnny.
When it comes to legal things DJs have to do,
this is one of the most basic and important. Being
able to quote this statute is impressive, Travis, quite impressive.

Speaker 5 (21:02):
He's amazing. We see Venus start to dart out of
the bullpen heading to the studio when he suddenly stops.
He slowly saunters over to the door leading to the
studio hallway. He puts one hand on the door jam
and leans on it.

Speaker 6 (21:16):
One should never hurry, Andy, remember that.

Speaker 5 (21:19):
Venus calmly leaves the bullpen As we head into our
theme UKR Censon.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
We come back in the hallway outside of the studio.
There's a quarter flash poster through the door at the
end of the hallway, and the ringos stand up is
still directing traffic just inside the door. The song Mental
Hopscotch by Missing Persons is playing over the monitors. Venus
and Johnny are talking as they come through the doorway
at the end of the hall.

Speaker 6 (21:50):
Well, I can't figure it out. Well, man, maybe you
just frighten her off with your animal magnetisms.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Maybe she got kidnapped by aliens on our way to watch.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Venus rolls his eyes, giving Johnny a fed up look.
Johnny tells Venus maybe the woman decided she hated him
and split.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Are you kidding? First of all, the woman doesn't get scared.

Speaker 6 (22:11):
Second she comes up, he addressed really dangerous, brings me Champagne,
gives me a gift.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Venus leans down, putting his left ear right next to
Johnny's face.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
Check out the dollar value of this, huh, I tell
you if you ain't love is a vicious case of life.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Johnny takes Venus's ear lobe and looks closely at it.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
The song We're Hearing was a local number one on
K Rock in Los Angeles, but most of the rest
of the world missed it. It's called mental hopscotch by
the band Missing Persons. Missing Persons was led by female

(22:55):
singer and co founder Dale Bosio. She and her husband
tear Ry Bazzio had contributed extensively to act one of
Frank Zappa's rock opera, Joe's Garage. It's where they met,
formed a band, and married. The EP this song came
from was recorded in Zappa's News Studios in nineteen eighty.

(23:16):
Missing Persons had the reputation as a must see band
in the LA area in the early eighties. Their self
promoted four song EP sold seven thousand copies and led
to the band being signed by Capitol in nineteen eighty two.
Interesting tidbit about lead singer Dale. She was a former

(23:37):
playboy Bunny from Boston.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Andy comes through the doorway at the end of the hall.
He walks towards Venus and Johnny as Johnny is still
checking out the gift Venus God from the night before.
That's what I like to see one man admorring another
man's ear rings. Venus and Johnny back away from each other.
Venus asked Andy if he saw a girl last night.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
As matter of like I did in my apartment.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
It's quite fun now. Venus means around the station, Oh,
you mean, did I see your guru? Andy continues on
into the bullpen. Johnny and Venus follow Venus ass again
if Andy saw her.

Speaker 6 (24:15):
No.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
Before we leave the studio hallway, we have one quick
poster to talk about. On the wall to the right
is a cutout for the Sammy Hagar album Standing Hampton.
This was the Red Rockers sixth studio album, and his
first after moving from Capitol Records to Geffen. It had
been out about a month here, released in January of

(24:36):
nineteen eighty two. Sammy was the frontman for Montrose from
nineteen seventy three until nineteen seventy five. Then in nineteen
eighty five he takes over from David Lee Roth as
frontman for Van Halen. During the decade between, Sammy moved
some serious product as a solo act.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
This album went to number twenty eight on the US
This Album Chart. It also featured five singles, none of
them would crack the top forty, but I'll Fall in
Love Again came close. Now it peaks at number forty

(25:33):
three on the US Hot one hundred. This album would
also spawn a major Sammy anthem. The British version of
this album included a bonus forty five called Conversations with

(25:53):
Sammy Hagar. We've never heard it, but we're betting they
talked about tequila and hair care products.

Speaker 5 (25:59):
Movie Into the Bullpen Less, Herb, and Bailey are all
gathered around Herb's desk looking at some papers. When Johnny,
Venus and Andy enter, they hear the tail end of
the conversation and they want to know who Venus is
asking about.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
Venus lost a girl?

Speaker 5 (26:15):
Less, Bailey and Herbs stand up from looking at the papers.
This sounds interesting.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
Lost a girl when last night?

Speaker 9 (26:23):
Why would you want to do that?

Speaker 6 (26:25):
I didn't, I mean I didn't exactly lose her. It
was more of a case she dumped him.

Speaker 11 (26:31):
And Now a special look at this episode's bandage placement
for the five time Buckeye News Hawk Award winner less Nessmund.
This is the less Nessman Bandage Report. Now here's Donna
Stair with her report about less ness Men right Temple.
This has been a look at the bandage placement boys
Silvery Sow and Copper Cobb Award winning journalist less ness Man.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Herb asked what happened? Well, Johnny's only two happy to
fill everyone in.

Speaker 6 (27:01):
Seems our man was having a romantic interlude and.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
She went to the washroom's nodding his head knowingly. Venus
is staring at herb.

Speaker 12 (27:11):
Used to having to me all the time.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
She take her purse, Venus tells her, But yeah, she did.
Herb explains, if they take their purse, they aren't coming back.

Speaker 12 (27:21):
That's why I always try to get their car keys.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
And that was my vote for line of the episode.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
It's a good one.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
Bailey asks Venus if he went after her. He says
he did in the ladies room. Venus says, yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Venus, I knocked first, good Collie.

Speaker 5 (27:42):
Venus decides this is a good time to mess.

Speaker 6 (27:45):
With less Verbiz are in there too.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Really, I don't see anything quite like it in my life.

Speaker 11 (27:51):
Really, excuse me.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Les leaves the bullpen quickly. He's on a mission. Bailey
tells Venus maybe he was coming on a bit too hard.
Venus doesn't think this is the problem.

Speaker 6 (28:06):
Actually, she was coming on. I was still trying to
tune up my imagination. Now I'm all tuned up. No
place to show.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Jennifer comes into the bullpen, followed by two men in
suits Venus.

Speaker 12 (28:18):
These are sergeant's.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
Alcorn and Davies.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Johnny looks up, concerned.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
Air force please.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Johnny grabs his jacket and hilariously covers his face with it.
He SLINKs out of the bullpen. One of the officers
has grabbed Venus by the arm.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
And Gordon's see I'm also known as Venus fly Trap.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Venus tells him, Yeah, what's this all about?

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Crime?

Speaker 2 (28:45):
The burglary of a wholesale jeweler in this building. Are
you familiar with a woman named Jessica Langtree?

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Oh? Venus tells the officers yes and asks where she is.
They tell him she is in custody. Venus, who shock?

Speaker 9 (29:00):
For what?

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Detective Davies is being played by John Witherspoon. John Witherspoon
is one of those actors you know, but he never
really had a breakout starring role. Spoon, as he was
known to friends and co workers, was born in Detroit
in nineteen forty two. He would rack up more than
eighty actor credits on his IMDb profile over a forty

(29:22):
three year career. He and Ice Cube are the only
two performers to appear in all three Friday movies. Spoon
first appeared on The Richard Pryor Show as an uncredited
background performer. Interesting to note, a young actor and writer
named Tim Reid was also working on The Richard Pryor
Show at the same time as Spoon. They even appeared

(29:45):
in the same episodes. John Witherspoon died of a heart
attack in Sherman Oaks, California, in October of twenty nineteen.
He was seventy seven years old.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Detective Alcorn is being played by Michael Pataki. Now you
might recognize mister Pataki. Not only does he have one
hundred and eighty seven performer credits, he was also on
WKRP and another role. Back in season two, It's Ivan.
Michael played the much beloved defector Ivan Papa, Ivan Papa's.

Speaker 10 (30:22):
Papa, son of.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yvon Pa Sonaviski.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, that's it from the Americanization of Ivan. For a
look at Michael's bio and a fun show, make sure
to check our americanization of Ivan episode of the podcast.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
The other officer takes Venus's other.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Arms, sims you underrest.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
Johnny's arm comes through the studio hallway door. He is
gripping his jacket in his hand as he shakes a
pointer finger in the direction of the officers.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
Hey, you guys need a warrant for that.

Speaker 5 (30:55):
Andy lean's on the DJ's desk and he looks at
the police.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Yeah, you got a law for this.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Of course, we have a wart.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
We're professionals.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
The officer reaches into his back pocket and pulls out
some handcuffs. They have. Venus put his hands behind his
back and they cuff him.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Is that really necessary, the officer tells Jennifer it is.
The other officer begins reading Venus his rights. Venus is
staring at the officer in disbelief. The door from the
studio hallway opens and artwalks in. Carlson walks by Venus,
not really looking at him. N how's it going real?

Speaker 8 (31:34):
Good?

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Well good? Carlson crosses quickly in front of the camera,
cross his back, then leaves the bullpen. Either he's oblivious
to what's happening, or he's quickly assessed the situation and
decided it's time to get out of there.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
He's oblivious, Yeah, probably oblivious. There's a quick cut to
an outside shot of a very tall, gray concrete government
looking building. Police are coming in and out of the
front door. We were hoping this might be a bob
girding exterior from Cincinnati, but it's not. This is the
City Hall in Los Angeles, located at two hundred North

(32:10):
Spring Street. It's about a twenty minute drive from the
Radford Studios. The screen dissolves into a shot of Johnny
on the phone looking through a window at Venus, who
has a phone up to his ear. Johnny is wearing
a beard as a disguise, and it's pretty hilarious.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
Are you doing in that beard?

Speaker 1 (32:30):
It's part of the disguise.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
Man, He's wearing that beard to disguise him. But he
still has his sunglasses and his nit cat.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Sure and the t shirre his giant beard.

Speaker 5 (32:42):
Johnny asked Venus if he got any sleep.

Speaker 9 (32:45):
Are you kidding?

Speaker 6 (32:45):
I don't have what you would call great accommodations here.
This place is a palace compared to where I did
time in Mexico.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
Then, I mean you could barely eat the food. How
is the food here now.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
The last time I was here, I.

Speaker 6 (32:56):
Don't care about the food, Johnny, I want to get
out of here this place. He's serious, man, I haven't
been here twenty four hours. You had already three guys
have asked me to dance, and these guys really want
to dance. You understand what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Venus is very intense, which brings us to the line
of the episode.

Speaker 6 (33:14):
I mean, if I'm not out of here soon, I'm
gonna become one great boxer, one hell of a great.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Dancing And that's a line that Tim Reid actually talked
about in America's favorite radio station. So Johnny tells Venus
they tried to get him out yesterday and they will
bail him out today, but.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
You have got a lot of legal problems.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Venus is getting upset. He asked Johnny what kind of
legal problems?

Speaker 4 (33:39):
I haven't done anything.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Johnny tells Venus. It's this girlfriend of his.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
One of the cops told me they stopped her car
and she had a lot of jewelry.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
She wasn't wearing it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
It's the loot from the robbery down on the fourth floor. Now,
Venus is tied in with it thanks to his lady friend.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
Because you snuck into the building past the night guard.

Speaker 6 (34:03):
But I'm always sneaking woman into the billing.

Speaker 9 (34:04):
I can't believe that.

Speaker 5 (34:05):
Johnny tells Venus, mister Carlson has an attorney for Venus
and not to worry. As Johnny is speaking into the phone,
we hear static times up Johnny and Venus can no
longer hear one another. Venus is panicking. He begins yelling
through the glass.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
No, no, not, mister Carlson.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
You get the lawyer you know, not you Jennifer Layer.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
And if you think about it, who at the station
would you want hiring your lawyer? I'd trust Jennifer and
Mama Carlson. But that's about it. Could you imagine the
lawyer Herb would hire.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Y I Herb has a lawyer client a drive through.
Maybe Johnny is miming for Venus to relax. He puts
his hands together, kind of doing a Nama stay pose
center yourself. He bows his head to Venus. Venus waves Johnny,
we're on Venus's the glass so we can hear his comment.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
Going back to the old ballroom, Johnny.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Looks through the glass with a questioning expression. Venus begins
to waltz with an invisible person. Johnny definitely shakes his
head no to this. He begins boxing at the air.
Remember he's doing all this with an enormous beard. Venus
nods his head and puts his hand on the glass.
Johnny does the same from the other side. They then

(35:27):
both walk away. The hands on the glass was kind
of a touching moment of solidarity.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
Brought tears to my eyes.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
We transition to mister Carlson's office, where we see mister
Carlson in his chair. He's talking to his lawyer, Frank Bartman.
Bartman tells mister Carlson it's a classic case of circumstantial evidence.
The camera scans the room and we see everyone except
for Johnny. Everyone is in the office to hear what

(35:55):
the lawyer has to say.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
And when the camera pans across Herb, whoa time, Herb,
Darli Nation Alert Herb.

Speaker 5 (36:08):
He's a plaid nightmare. He is wearing a suit entirely
of maroon, green, white, gray orange plaid. I mean it's
the jacket and the pants all are the same plaid material.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
A really aggressive plaid.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
This outfit makes you dizzy. He has on a white
dress shirt and a brown tie with what looks like
paint splotches of tans and browns on it. He is
wearing his white belt and shoes.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Our attorney Frank Bartman is being played by Max Wright
and a big welcome back to Max. We first met
Max here on WKRP when he represented the station against
Wickerman's weight loss in the episode Pills.

Speaker 13 (36:51):
Hanging by a thread with a Snowball's.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Chance in Hell?

Speaker 5 (36:59):
How do you mean?

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Whole bio on Max. Make sure to check that episode
of the podcast.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
And get out your stenopads and pencils. Fellow babies, It's
time for Law one oh one with Professor Frank Bartman.
Mister Carlson thought it was good news when Bartman said
it was a classic case of circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 13 (37:20):
No, no, there's no good or bad in the law.
In determining Whetherstone has actually broken the law, evidence must
be brought forth. Direct evidence is simple, number of people
see the man commit the crime. Circumstantial evidence is something else.

Speaker 8 (37:35):
Again.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
It's a puzzle.

Speaker 13 (37:36):
It's like a puzzle. It's just I'll let me give
you an example.

Speaker 8 (37:40):
There's an isolated house in the middle of a field,
a body on the living room floor, a bullet hole
to the living room window, footprints in the newly fallen
snow leading directly from the window to our man standing
alone at the edge of the field.

Speaker 13 (37:56):
Is he guilty?

Speaker 5 (37:57):
Bailey has her hand raised and Bartman points at her.

Speaker 10 (38:00):
Maybe he just looked in the window after the crush.

Speaker 13 (38:03):
That is right, That is exactly right. Do you understand
that another piece of that puzzle is necessary? We need?

Speaker 5 (38:09):
Bartman puts his hand up to his ear to let
them know he's waiting for someone to answer.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Bueller, Bueler, He's sick.

Speaker 5 (38:18):
They all just look at him, clueless.

Speaker 13 (38:20):
You need the smoking gun and the smoking gun. Do
you see how you see how the picture changes if
we find our man standing there is still holding the
smoking murder weapon's trengling hand. Add to this little history
of animosity between a man and the murder victim, the
balance tips toward guilt, even though nobody has actually seen
our man do anything.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Less stands. He tells them he has a question.

Speaker 9 (38:43):
How did the man in the field keep his gun
smoking so long?

Speaker 5 (38:46):
After the shoot Less is looking at mister Bartman seriously.
He's expecting an answer.

Speaker 9 (38:52):
What bless, I just don't go on smoking forever.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
Go on less sits back down.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
That really was an impressive scene on Max's part. He
was just running that room.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
And he was getting into it. He was really teaching
them some law.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Believed he was a lawyer. Yes, it takes Bartman a
minute to gather his thoughts and remember where it was
he left off after running into the brain of less nessmun.

Speaker 13 (39:18):
Let me see, Simms has been arrested on the basis
of a very few pieces of very circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
However, I don't believe.

Speaker 13 (39:26):
That anyone has a smoking gun in this case.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Jennifer reminds Bartman. He said they could help. She asked him,
how well.

Speaker 13 (39:33):
I need all his character witnesses. I need you all
to testify that mister Sims had neither the motive, nor
the opportunity, nor the inclination to commit this crime.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
That's no problem.

Speaker 13 (39:43):
I think I'd be wanting to use all of you,
with the possible exception of mister Nessman until things start
to go bad when we're looking for a mistrial.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
So that would make less the self destruct button for
the case.

Speaker 5 (39:57):
We transitioned to a courtroom. Venus is sitting at a
table with his lawyer and the rest of the crew
is sitting behind him for support. Venus sees Jessica in
the room, he makes eye contact with her briefly. The
judge bangs his gavel to begin the preliminary hearing. The
prosecutor stands to read off what Venus is being charged with.

Speaker 6 (40:19):
Mister SAMs is charged with five counts of burglary, one
count of possession of stolen property, also a conspiracy to
commit a felony and pandering.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
The prosecutor then calls Jessica as the first witness.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Judge H. P. Nukeam is being played by Jack Khrushan
Jack's Canadian. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in nineteen
twenty two. Jack spent several years on the stage before
getting into film and TV work. Jack worked a lot.
He landed his first movie role in nineteen forty nine.

(40:54):
Between forty nine and his retirement from performing in nineteen
ninety seven, notchen incredible two hundred and twenty five actor credits.
Many of those represent multiple episode appearances. Jack was nominated
for a nineteen sixty Academy Award for his role in
the movie The Apartment. Jack died in April of two

(41:15):
thousand and two at the age of eighty at his
home in Chandler, Arizona.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
The prosecutor is being played by Robert Hooks. Robert Hooks
was born Bobby Dean Hooks in nineteen thirty seven in Washington,
d C. The name Bobby didn't suit the serious looking
six ' one actor. He decided to act using the
more formal Robert. Hooks's height and air of authority have
led to a number of roles as either a doctor, attorney,

(41:43):
or cop. His very first listed acting credit is as
a detective on the nineteen sixty three series East Side
West Side. Hooks is probably best known as a series
regular on the nineteen sixty seven through sixty nine series NYPD.
He played Detective Jeff Ward in forty nine episodes. Hooks

(42:04):
hasn't had a performing credit since twenty eleven, but he
does still have agent info listed on IMDb.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Jessica walks to the witness box and takes a seat.
She looks like a school teacher, wearing a black skirt
and a jacket with a high collared white blouse button
to the neck. She isn't wearing much makeup at all.
This does not look like the woman we met the
other night in the station. Her watches her walk up
to the witness box. Dailey shoots herb look. The prosecutor

(42:34):
asked Jessica to explain how she came to be in
court today.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
I guess I'm here because I'm a victim of love.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
I loved Venus. I did anything he wanted me to.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Oh, Venus has been set up. The prosecutor makes it
clear of Venus and mister Sims are the same person.
Jessica goes on to explain Venus had a plan that
would give them everything they wanted. Venus's looking at her
with a shocked expression.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
Then you went along with this plan.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yes, I did anything he told me.

Speaker 5 (43:09):
Venus drops his head into his hand. As Jessica expands
on her testimony.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
We burglarized a jewelry wholesaler.

Speaker 5 (43:17):
Jessica begins to cry a little.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
I'm so ashamed.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
Venus can't believe what he's hearing.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
She explains that Venus put on a pre recorded tape
of his show so it would sound like he was
on the air while the two of them committed the crime.
Andy is watching his mouth hanging open. Oh my goodness,
is in trouble, stinking girl.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
The prosecutor asks if this was the only time that
she and mister Simms had committed a burglary.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
No, they were.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Four other times.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Four times. She's fine, she's lying. Whoa Venus explodes out
of their sound and stands. He puts his hands on
Venus's shoulders, pushing him back down in his chair as
the judge bangs the gabble. The judge tells Bartman to
control his client.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
I'm not going to sit here and let her lie.

Speaker 10 (44:11):
You have to.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
This is a court of law.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
The scene fades to a commercial break, the rapid fire
editing and the jump cuts from one witness to the next.
Give these upcoming segments the hurried feel that Tim Reid
had mentioned. You can tell they seem to have had
more to say with each witness, but time wouldn't allow it.

Speaker 5 (44:35):
We come back from commercial to find Officer Davies on
the stand. The prosecutor asks the officer to tell everyone
what they found in Venus's apartment after their search. The
officer begins reading from a report.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
The collection of organ of porcelain, the remnants of an
anti gold coin collection and thirty four dollars in cash,
and the usual furnishings and accoutrement switch. In this case,
it had a certain elegance.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
He doesn't say if the porcelain and coins were stolen.
It sounds like the ear ring is the only thing
they could tie to a robbery, so these must be
Venus's personal collections. Having that much cash on hand seems
a little weird, especially for somebody who is well known
to be an investor. Using the inflation calculator, just over

(45:23):
eleven thousand dollars in nineteen eighty two translates to about
thirty four thousand in buying power in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
I just did not get what that list meant.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
And maybe in the original script the long scrip explain that.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
But they didn't tie those things necessarily to a robbery.
They didn't tell us if those were his personal things.
It just they left it hang and seemed odd.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
I wish we could see the original.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Script, the longer cut it had, and yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:54):
I'm sure it would answer a lot of questions.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
There is a time jump. The second officer is on
the stand. He was asked what else they'd found during
this investigation. Well, at the.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Time of mister sims arrest, he was wearing a diamond
ear ring, which, upon further investigation, proved to be one
of the stolen items taken from a previous burglary at
Brands Jeweler's.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
The officer tells the corey there have been four burglaries
committed in exactly the same way during the past month.
The prosecutor uses the term modus operandam, which is where
we get MO. It's Latin for mode of operation. The
officer snickers.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
Sergeant, you're laughing? Is something wrong?

Speaker 3 (46:35):
No, sir, I find the use of Latin funny.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
This seemed like a really forced attempt at a joke.
It felt like a writer's room pitch. This segment was
really heavy, so it felt like somebody said, hey, we
need to punch this up with a laugh. Well, instead
of lightening the moment, this quirky humor just seemed to
really fall flat.

Speaker 5 (46:58):
In my opinion, I think they should have scanned over
to Johnny sitting in the audience and have him wearing
his beard.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
That would have been a funny punctuation.

Speaker 5 (47:07):
Yeah, now it's mister Carlson's turn to take the stand,
Carlson says, Venus does the.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
One we're shaving drivetime shift in fourty eight.

Speaker 5 (47:15):
This is news to us. We've always thought Venus was
the nighttime guy. Nighttime Guy would be on from seven
or eight until midnight. We've always wondered how Venus was
able to get off for group gatherings in the evenings.
During Jennifer's show, we heard Dean the Dream was leaving
the station to go to law school. At the time,
it felt like Dean was the afternoon drive time guy.

(47:39):
Maybe after Dean left, Venus got moved to the earlier
time slot.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
When asked what time people usually go home, Art tells
the court five pm. The prosecutor points out Venus is
alone at the station between five and eight, and who's
coming in at eight to relieve him? We don't know
that person.

Speaker 6 (47:58):
This is ridiculous, now I know, and sims to be
a fourth right and upstanding.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
First, the prosecutor shows Carlson a composite drawing and asks
if this is mister Simms. Carlson takes the picture and
looks at it. This sort looked like a prosecutor explains
to the court, this is a drawing done from an
eyewitness description. The eyewitness claims to have seen this man
running from the back of the office at Branch Jewelry

(48:23):
on the night of the robbery with a satchel in
his hand, at seven fifteen pm.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
We cut to Travis on the stand. The prosecutor asks
if he noticed if mister Simms used a tape recorder
that night, a standard practice.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
No, no, no, no, no, no, just answer the question.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
Andy says yes. The lawyer asks Andy how long the
recorder had been playing?

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Gosh, that's hard to say, but just wel.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
Andy hesitates, not wanting to say we know he was
tracking it because he wanted to hear that legal id.
He finally says.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
An hour, maybe hour, maybe maybe more.

Speaker 11 (49:03):
Maybe.

Speaker 5 (49:03):
The prosecutor asks Sandy if he saw mister Simms that night.
Andy tells him yes, and the prosecutor wants to know
for how long. Andy answers very quietly.

Speaker 10 (49:15):
I said a few minutes.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
The prosecutor comes in for the kill.

Speaker 6 (49:19):
So you don't know where he was for an hour
maybe more.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
No. There's a cut to Bailey, who is now seated
on the stand and she is ready to fight.

Speaker 10 (49:30):
It's simple. She's a liar.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Bailey shoots daggers with her eyes in Jessica's direction. The
judge warns Bailey about making wild accusations. He tells her
to confine her remarks in the matter to mister Simms.
Bailey addresses the judge and pats his hand.

Speaker 10 (49:47):
In your honor. I am sure you do your job
very well, But unlike you, most people ignore their responsibility
to justice. The law says you and kill baby seals.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Bayley's bearing off into one of her soapboxes.

Speaker 10 (50:06):
Just bash their heads in, So don't tell me about
the law. It's the same with the dolphins, you know, flipping.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
Bailey uses her hand to make the motion of a
dolphin jumping in and out of the water.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I get to feel that Bailey was maybe a little
stoned here. It kind of had that feel in the
Consultant when she was doing the Stone character with farfol Yeah,
this was that same kind of attitude. And I'm wondering
should we be concerned how much Bailey's hanging out with Johnny.
This to me almost sounds like Johnny's magic Brownie's talking and.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
Speaking of Johnny, it's Johnny's turn.

Speaker 6 (50:48):
I know for a fact that Gordon Simms is a
fine man who would never break the law under any circumstances.
You have my word on that, your word, that's right,
mister Karen Villain.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
Have you ever been arrested yourself?

Speaker 5 (51:08):
Johnny pauses, looks around. You can see he's not wanting
to answer the question, and then cut.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
And I think Howard Hessman's eyes were even bigger and
sadder in that cut. They are so tight on his face,
and he does not have his sunglasses on, and man,
talk about these big hang dog eyes. So Jennifer has
taken the stand.

Speaker 10 (51:32):
It's my feeling that mister Sims could never be involved
in what you've suggested.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Prosecutor tells Jennifer. She sounds very sure of herself.

Speaker 6 (51:40):
She tells him she is, even after hearing the overwhelming evidence.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
The judge bangs his gabbl sal will be enough of that.

Speaker 7 (51:50):
This witness is kind of consented to come down here
and answer all your questions.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
You've done nothing but browbeating. I will not have that
sort of thing going on in my court.

Speaker 10 (51:59):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Don't you dare question Jennifer. Truly, we'd have been shocked
and disappointed if Jennifer didn't know.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
The judge I love his nickname Ky. Now Herb takes
the stand. He is being questioned by the WKRP lawyer,
mister Bartman. Bartman asks Herb if he and mister Simms
get along.

Speaker 12 (52:23):
Oh heck yeah, I mean we have our difference. This
most black and white people do.

Speaker 10 (52:29):
When you can.

Speaker 12 (52:30):
Disagree, as long as you don't shoot anybody.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
Herb shut up. Mister Bartman quickly jumps.

Speaker 13 (52:37):
In, you're not saying that mister Simms carries a firearm.

Speaker 12 (52:41):
Oh heck no. Venus doesn't even like guns. He almost
shot Andy one night and has been sick about it.

Speaker 5 (52:49):
Ever, Herb's talking about that tense Friday evening during the
episode Nothing to Fear.

Speaker 9 (52:56):
We got the rod, the rod, Sure rod, Peace, get iron,
it's Andy Venus put the gun down.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
But really, Herb should stop talking. Instead, he turns to
the judge to make it clear it wasn't Venus's fault.
Herb breaches up on the bench and he pets the
judge's hand. He's got that crazy storyteller look he gets
sometimes in his eye.

Speaker 12 (53:26):
See he thought that Andy was a burglar. See we'd
had burglary in the station.

Speaker 5 (53:31):
The judge is trying to help him along.

Speaker 9 (53:34):
You mean there was another burglary in the same building. Right.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
See, I've never seen in a courtroom setting so many
people actually touch the judge. Uh oh, Less is in
the chair. The self destruct has been activated.

Speaker 9 (53:54):
Let's say he did do it, hold on, you would
still have to prove it.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
That's the law.

Speaker 9 (54:04):
Yes, smoking gun.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
As Less if he knows if Venus has ever been
involved in a crime before, and he's talking to Les
like he's talking to a crazy person, he is.

Speaker 9 (54:22):
Just the one time when he broke into a photographer
studio to steal some photographs of a friend of ours
who is naked at the time. But that was different.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
He had to it wasn't his idea.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Oh perfect, Less has the memory of an elephant. He's
going all the way back to season two's hour long
episode Filthy Pictures.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
I think what we should do is turn ourselsie.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Oh NOI see.

Speaker 6 (54:51):
I know we were bad boys and we're going to
hell for what we did, but we can't go to
no prison. I mean, I can deal with going to hell,
but I can't deal with bl We.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
Cut to Venus on the stand. You've probably noticed from
the editing and sets, but this episode was shot without
a live studio audience. Looking at the composite drawing, Venus
tells everyone it isn't him. When told it does look
like him, he answers.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Yes, it's a black man with a beard.

Speaker 5 (55:19):
Mister Bartman tells him to explain to the court how
he came to be there today. Venus tells them he
feels like a character in a Kafka novel.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
I haven't done anything. I've never stole anything in my
entire life. The earpiece was from her. It was a gift. Now,
I can't account for my whereabouts every minute of the day,
but nobody can.

Speaker 10 (55:41):
I tell you.

Speaker 6 (55:41):
The worst thing I ever done in my life was
I worked for Nixon once.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
But it was only for an hour, and it.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
Was because it was because of what Because this looking
girl asked me, excuse me.

Speaker 5 (55:58):
Mister Bartman grabs his as if he's having a heart attack.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Venus cannot resist a pretty face. So Venus mentioned feeling
like he was in a Kafka novel. This would be
more of Hugh Wilson's intelligent script writing. Franz Kafka was
a German speaking Bohemian novelist. He's considered one of the
major figures In twentieth century literature, the term kofka Esque
has entered the English language to describe someone in a

(56:25):
situation like Venus. Examples of a kofka Esque situation would
be bureaucracies that overpower people in a nightmarish way. Put
upon citizens in a kafka Esque narrative are left with
feelings of disorientation and helplessness. A kafka s situation is
marked by incredible complexity and bizarre or illogical behavior. Kofka's

(56:48):
best known works are the novels The Trial and The Castle.
Kafka died in June of nineteen twenty four at the
age of forty from tuberculosis.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
The prosecutor now takes a turn at questioning Venus.

Speaker 6 (57:03):
Mister Simms, why do you think miss Langtree says that
you committed these burglars.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
Venus tells the court it's because she can get a
shorter sentence.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
All she has to do is turn into ring leader.
So she says, it's me.

Speaker 6 (57:17):
After that, she will be on the street in six months,
and then I'm sure you'll find her in the real
ring leader sipent pina coladas in the Caribbean.

Speaker 4 (57:24):
Meanwhile, I'll be trying to make the prison boxing team.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
The judge bangs his gabble and informs everyone he's considered
the evidence carefully. He finds the prosecution has substantiated a
case against mister Simms, even though it is primarily circumstantial evidence,
and he is sending this one on to the grand jury.

Speaker 13 (57:45):
Please, your honor, I'd like to request that mister Simms
remain free on his own recognizance denied.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Judge sets bail at two hundred thousand dollars and tells
Venus he must go back with the officers to county
until bail is arranged.

Speaker 6 (57:59):
Oh well, well.

Speaker 5 (58:02):
We cut to a hallway in the courthouse where Venus
and the officer are waiting for the elevator to arrive.
Venus is in handcuffs once again, and Detective Alcorn is
holding Venus's upper arm. We can see Jessica and her
guards standing behind Venus. Venus turns to the officer, I'm innocent.

Speaker 10 (58:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
Well, I've seen a lot of guilty men go free,
but I've never seen an innocent one go in yet.
Just don't happen that way.

Speaker 11 (58:30):
My friend.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
Venus closes his eyes and he begins moving his lips silently.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Praying, you're doing some Muslim thing.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
Venus tells him he is praying to his god.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Eh, well, a lot of good that's going to do you.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Now. The elevator doors open, Venus and Jessica get on
with their guards. We hear an instrumental version of High
Hopes playing inside the elevator. Just before the door is closed,
someone calls for them to hold the elevator. An African
American man in handcuffs gets on with his officer. Detective
Alcorn's eyes get wide. He looks at Jessica and sees

(59:05):
her reaction to this new guy who just got on
the elevator. Alcorn looks at the officer with him and
asks what he's got. The officer tells Alcoren he's in
for Burglary JULIUSA. The camera backs up and we can
see this man is Venus's doppelganger.

Speaker 5 (59:23):
The officer escorting Venus's look alike is being played by
Tony Lucas. You only see him for a literal second,
but Tony Lucas did speak as he brought bad Venus
onto the elevator. If you speak on WKRP, you get
a credit. Tony is listed on IMDb as playing the
sheriff in this episode. This was only his second listed role.

(59:47):
He'd had a small part in a made for TV
movie the previous year, called for Ladies Only, about male strippers.
It had been filmed almost entirely in Atlanta, so it's
possible to Tony new Hugh or some of the Atlanta
crew from WKRP. He would go on to have a
total of thirteen acting credits. Eleven of those would happen

(01:00:10):
in the decade from nineteen eighty one through nineteen ninety two.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
The music in this scene is as usual. Making a
comment about the scene, we hear a cheesy, tinkling musac
version of High Hopes playing in the elevator. The song
had been popularized by Frank Sinatra. It was introduced by
Sinatra and child actor Eddie Hodges in the nineteen fifty
nine film A Hole in the Head. Sinatra also recorded

(01:00:37):
a single version with a children's choir instead of Hodges
on the chorus, anyone.

Speaker 7 (01:00:42):
Knows and can't move a robatory plant, But he's got.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Hoopes, He's got.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Hoops. He's got.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
A different take, also without Hodges, would appear on his
nineteen sixty one album All the Way. Sinatra would also
relyric the song so it could be used as the
theme for John F. Kennedy's nineteen sixty presidential bid K
E double n.

Speaker 10 (01:01:22):
E d Y.

Speaker 9 (01:01:24):
Jack's the Nation's Favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Guy Everyone Wants to Back Jack Jack Is on the
Ride Tracks.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Nineteenth six on The single version was released in June
of nineteen fifty nine. It would peak at number thirty
on the US Billboard Hot one hundred. I Hope's also
goes to number six on the UK Singles Chart.

Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
We get one quick shot of the two men standing
side by side in the elevator. Tim Reid is playing
both parts. If you freeze on the frame and look
at the left arm of criminal Venus, you can see
where some of the texture of the elevator wall is
bleeding over his arm. They don't hold on the scene
for long because the split screen effect is not great.

(01:02:23):
Tim is doing a good job giving both characters different personas.
Venus still has his eyes closed and he's still silently praying.
He has not seen that his prayers have just been answered.
Alcorn closes his eyes and pinches the top of his
nose as if warding off a headache.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
We come back to the bullpen for our cap rous scene. Venus,
who's sitting on the desk talking with Johnny Les, Andy
and mister Carlson.

Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
The guy confess, Yeah, but he's not the real ringleader.
Now it was the woman, Jessica all her idea. He
was just some poor sucker who would do anything for
a good looking woman, not like you.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
Huh, that's right, and practically puts you in San Quentin.

Speaker 10 (01:03:07):
Man, you're lucky.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Venus tells them luck had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 6 (01:03:11):
It was hardcore prayer, a miracle, pure and simple, my friend.

Speaker 11 (01:03:15):
And now a special look at this episode's bandage placement
for the five time Buckeye News Hawk Award winner less
Ness Men. This is the less Nessman bandage Report. Now
here's Donna Stair with her report about less ness Men,
right thumb. This has been a look at the bandage
placement coys Silver Sow and Copper Cobb Award winning journalist

(01:03:38):
bless ness Man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
A second Nessman bandage alert. They work hard to keep
the show based in Ohio, but sometimes they do make mistakes,
like just now when Andy mentioned Venus almost wound up
in San Quentin. San Quentin is the oldest prison in
California and one of the most famous prisons in the
United States, but it would be impossible for Venus to

(01:04:02):
serve time there. You have to be a prisoner of
the state of California in order to become an inmate
at San Quentin. Most likely, had he done time, Venus
would have been a resident at the Lebanon Correctional Institute
in Lebanon, Ohio. It opened in nineteen sixty and sits
about thirty two miles north of Cincinnati.

Speaker 5 (01:04:21):
Less tells everyone he's often thought he had a double.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
Imagine that too, of them.

Speaker 5 (01:04:27):
Less goes on to share a theory of.

Speaker 9 (01:04:29):
His I think there's another universe just like ours, right
next door, with all our doubles. A double station, double desks,
double doors, double dates.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Yeah, Johnny tells them all. He thinks he met his
double once.

Speaker 9 (01:04:43):
Oh yeah, what didn't you look like?

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Venus is smiling. He tells everyone he sure has learned
his lesson.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
Now you prayer that and never listen again to a
good looking woman.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
And on cue. The door from the studio hallway opens,
Jennifer sticks her head through.

Speaker 10 (01:05:00):
Venus, would you do me a favor coming.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
Up, and that's going to do it for circumstantial evidence.
A serious, serious episode, but still fun to watch.

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
Yeah, but I do feel like it was rushed and
I'd like to have seen the original script and what
was cutting that long wait cut changed.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
If they had been on a streaming service instead of
restricted by the twenty five minutes of a sitcom format,
I think we'd have had a lot more fun stuff.
So that's going to do it for this week's WKRP Cast.
What is our episode next week, Donna?

Speaker 5 (01:05:37):
Next week we will be talking about fire. A fire
alarm sends the crew home early. However, Herb and Jennifer
get trapped on the elevator going down. Herb then tells
Jennifer about some rumors he's been spreading about them being together.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
Thanks for joining us for this episode of the WKRP Cast.
If you'd like to watch along with us, make sure
to check our show notes. Find us on social media.
You can follow our Facebook page at WKRP Cast. For
more WKRP fund become a patron go to patreon dot
com slash WKRP Cast from behind the scenes, fun, full

(01:06:15):
interviews and more.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
Got a question, comment or correction? Let us know about it.
Write us Wkrpcast at gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
And remember to please rate and review us on Apple Podcast.
Thanks for listening. Bye, now, may the good news be yours.
The WKRP Cast is not endorsed by MTM, Enterprise, Use
Shot Factory, or CBS. This podcast is intended for entertainment

(01:06:49):
and informational purposes only WKRP in Cincinnati. The WKRP logo
and all names, pictures, and audio of WKRP and Cincinnati
characters are registered trademark of MTM, CBS, Shout Factory, or
their respective copyright holders.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
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