WKRP Pilot & "The Flying Mayor" Harold Johnson Passes Away

[Brian Damage]

MORAINE, Ohio (WDTN) - A local aviation pioneer has passed away. Harold Johnson was known as the "Flying Mayor" of Moraine.

An accomplished pilot, Johnson founded the Moraine Airpark, The Dayton Air Show, and helped develop the Aviation Heritage Trail.

Johnson made his name as a dogfighter in the King's Island air show and even flew a plane during an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. He was an early board member of the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Harold Johnson was 85 years old. Funeral plans are pending.


"The Airplane Show"

This is the first episode of season 3, and the background of it is strangely relevant now with the ongoing Screen Actors' Guild negotiations. The start of the 1980-1 television season was delayed by a SAG strike, and that ruined plans for WKRP to do an episode on location in Cincinnati. But because Richard Sanders and Michael Fairman were the writers of this episode, they received a special waiver from SAG allowing them to act in their own material. (I guess it's similar to the rule that comedians can write some of their own material during a writers' strike.) So they changed their story so they would be the only actors going on location, with Sanders as Les and Fairman as an insane biplane pilot whom Les hires when the station won't give him a helicopter. They shot their scenes in and around Cincinnati with stunt pilot Harold Johnson piloting the plane, and then after the strike, the rest of the cast shot their scenes in the radio station (without an audience). You'll notice that by the end of the story they basically run out of plane footage and have to resort to cheating by dubbing in a lot of ADR dialogue over the same footage.

The episode has a bunch of music, with three songs in particular standing out: the song in the scene with Johnny, Venus and Bailey in the booth is "Whip It" by Devo (WKRP would include more New Wave songs starting with this season); Johnny is playing "Master Blaster" by Stevie Wonder when Les calls him in Act 2, and most memorably, "Had Enough" by the Who accompanies Les and Buddy taking off to carry out Buddy's plan to blackmail the town into holding a Veteran's Day celebration.

Also, in a nice bit of continuity, Les makes a reference to the pilot episode, where Andy promised to get Les a helicopter.

http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2008/08/...lane-show.html

[robyrob]

this story is a little old - Johnson died Wednesday, Jan. 12, in Florida, they've already had the funeral.

This was big news here in Dayton when it happened - he was the Mayor of Moraine for 17 years.

here's the local news story:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/...a-1053656.html

[Marvo301]

Harold Johnson

[catlover79]