WKRP in Cincinnati: Season 4
Season 4 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Picks up essential narrative continuity directly following the events of WKRP in Cincinnati Season 3.
- Character alliances, factions, and personal loyalties undergo significant shifts under escalating stakes.
- Addresses unresolved cliffhangers and thematic mysteries introduced during previous seasons.
- Establishes the primary seasonal conflict that drives serialized character arcs toward the finale.
Episode Guide
Season 4 Progress Shield
An Explosive Affair (Part 1)
Oct 7, 1981 · 25 min
After the station receives a bomb threat, Andy sends Johnny and Venus to broadcast from the transmitter tower while the station is being searched.
An Explosive Affair (Part 2)
Oct 14, 1981 · 25 min
Andy is unable to warn Johnny and Venus when he realizes that the bomb is at the transmitter.
The Union
Oct 21, 1981 · 25 min
The staff of WKRP considers joining a union. Mr. Carlson is furious and rushes to his mother for advice, while Andy tries to appear neutral in this labor-management conflict.
Rumors
Oct 28, 1981 · 25 min
While his apartment is being fumigated, Johnny accepts Bailey's offer to stay at her place, causing everyone at the station to think that the two are sleeping together. Johnny's al
Straight from the Heart
Nov 4, 1981 · 25 min
Herb tells everyone that he's going on vacation, but Les and Jennifer discover that he's actually checked into the hospital for heart tests.
Who's on First?
Nov 11, 1981 · 25 min
With Herb in the hospital, Mr. Carlson pretends he is Herb and is impersonated by Les for an advertising client.
Three Days of the Condo
Nov 18, 1981 · 25 min
When Johnny receives $24,000 in a legal settlement, Venus convinces him to use the money to invest in a condominium at Gone With the Wind Estates.
Jennifer and the Will
Dec 2, 1981 · 25 min
Colonel Buchanan, Jennifer's elderly gentleman friend, dies suddenly. As executrix of his will, Jennifer must deal with the press and with the Colonel's money-grubbing, rumor monge
The Consultant
Dec 30, 1981 · 25 min
Mama Carlson hires a professional radio consultant to evaluate WKRP. The man she's hired, Norris Breeze, is an old friend of Andy's who also runs a radio programming service. Andy
Love, Exciting and New
Jan 6, 1982 · 25 min
Andy starts taking Mama Carlson out after hours in the hopes of getting her to pay for a new transmitter for the station. But he begins to suspect that she might have more-than-bus
You Can't Go Out of Town Again
Jan 13, 1982 · 25 min
Mr. Carlson goes with Carmen to a college reunion where he learns the disillusioning truth about how he and Carmen first met; Bailey is frustrated in her attempts to get a computer
Pills
Jan 20, 1982 · 25 min
Herb sells ad spots to a seller of ""diet pills""; after it turns out that the pills are a legalized way of selling speed to teenagers, it also turns out that the station can't leg
Changes
Jan 27, 1982 · 25 min
When Venus learns that he's going to be interviewed by a militant black magazine, he adopts a new wardrobe and manner in order to seem more in touch with black culture. Meanwhile,
Jennifer and Johnny's Charity
Feb 3, 1982 · 25 min
When a fire destroys the kitchen at the Vine Street Mission, Johnny recruits Jennifer to help raise the $40,000 dollars to rebuild it. Jennifer throws a party for her rich friends
I'll Take Romance
Feb 17, 1982 · 25 min
Herb fixes Les up with a date through his latest client, the I'll Take Romance Dating Service. Les hits it off with his date immediately, not knowing that the dating service is a f
Circumstantial Evidence
Feb 24, 1982 · 25 min
Venus's latest date gives him an expensive diamond earring as a gift and then runs out on him; it turns out that she's a thief who has used the stolen earring to frame Venus as her
Fire
Mar 17, 1982 · 25 min
Herb and Jennifer are trapped in an elevator when a fire breaks out in the Flimm Building.
Dear Liar
Mar 24, 1982 · 25 min
When Bailey writes a news story on the Northside Children's Clinic, Les steals it and reads it on the air. This turns out to be a blow to the station's integrity in more ways than
The Creation of Venus
Mar 31, 1982 · 25 min
When Venus lets it slip that he was a schoolteacher before he came to WKRP, Andy has to tell Mama Carlson the truth about how he hired Gordon Sims as a DJ and how they came up with
The Impossible Dream
Apr 7, 1982 · 25 min
On his birthday, Les announces that he's going to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a world-famous broadcast journalist by auditioning for The CBS Evening News.
To Err is Human
Apr 14, 1982 · 25 min
After Herb screws up an important advertising account, Mr. Carlson finally intends to fire him, but Jennifer takes pity on Herb and tries to help him keep his job.
Up and Down the Dial
Apr 21, 1982 · 25 min
Just as WKRP hits #6 in the ratings, Mama Carlson announces that she plans to switch the format of the station to 24 hours a day of news.