Only WKRP episode filmed in Cincinnati featured Kings Island scene

“Baby, if you’ve ever wondered,

Wondered, whatever became of me,

I’m living on the air in Cincinnati,

Cincinnati WKRP.”

If you lived in Cincinnati and watched television in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there’s a pretty good chance that you not only watched WKRP in Cincinnati, but also knew the lines, word-for-word, to the show’s opening theme song. What many don’t know, is that of the 90 episodes of WKRP that aired between 1978 and 1982, only a single episode was filmed in Cincinnati. That episode? The third season’s premiere, “The Airplane Show” which originally aired on November 1, 1980 and featured a scene at Kings Island. Aside from the Cincinnati scenes filmed for the opening and closing credits by local cinematographer Bob Gerding, it would be the only time that the show was filmed in Cincinnati. The other 89 episodes were filmed in Studio 4 of KTLA’s studios in Hollywood.

If you haven’t seen the show,  it featured the dysfunctional staff at fictional rock-n-roll radio station WKRP located in Cincinnati. The ensemble cast included Gary Sandy (Andy Travis), Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever), Gordon Jump (Arthur Carlson), Loni Anderson (Jennifer Marlowe), Tim Reid (Venus Flytrap), Jan Smithers (Bailey Quarters), Richard Sanders (Les Nessman) and Frank Bonner (Herb Tarlek).

The filmed-in-Cincinnati episode’s storyline featured WKRP’s news reporter, Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), and his latest antics to be more competitive with rival WPIG’s helicopter traffic coverage. In the episode, Les takes it upon himself to cover local news and traffic for WKRP from the only thing he could afford, a World War I biplane flown by misunderstood war veteran, Buddy Barker (Michael Fairman).

The 1934 Waco open cockpit biplane in the episode was loaned to the show by the “Flying Mayor of Moraine” Harold Johnson who served as the pilot during the episode. He also flew it seven days a week during Kings Island’s summer acrobatic flying demonstration known as the Kings Island Firestone International Air Show. The episode featured shots of the plane with Cincinnati’s skyline as well as other Warren County locations including the Rose Hill Cemetery in Mason, an airstrip in South Lebanon and Kings Island’s parking lot where the biplane lands when it runs out of gas. The park’s Eiffel Tower, Front Entrance and Kings Island Theater (American Heritage Music Hall) are visible in the background.

WKRP’s producers originally planned to film the entire episode in Cincinnati. Instead, because of the 1980 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike, all interior shots were filmed in Hollywood after the strike. Actors Richard Sanders and Michael Fairman were given a special SAG waiver to film for the episode during the strike since they were the writers of the episode. 

Helicopters and aerial news coverage were common themes on WKRP including the show’s pilot where Les Nessman would beat his chest to simulate a helicopter during his news coverage, and the famous Turkey Drop episode, creating the most famous line from the show’s four season run, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

More About Kings Island’s Airshow

Kings Island’s airshow featured multiple planes, a hot air balloon, skydivers and stunt pilot Harold Johnson. If you did not get the chance to see it firsthand, check out this home video by Youtube contributor VideofromGeorge.