The Office and 25 TV shows that were never supposed to be hits
By Kareem Gantt
21. WKRP in Cincinnati (CBS)
Series run: 1978-1982 (4 seasons/90 episodes)
“I’m at WKRP in Cincinnatiiiiii.”
The theme song is iconic, and it may be just as famous as the show that it introduced.
Ask anyone about WKRP in Cincinnati, and that theme, composed by Tom Wells, comes up every single time. CBS brass at the time, however, didn’t know what a cultural phenomenon WKRP in Cincinnati would become, and it almost didn’t even make it out of its first season.
Created by Hugh Wilson, the show was supposed to compete against Welcome Back, Kotter and Little House on the Prairie, the two titans on the tube back in the day. But WKRP’s ratings were non-existent, and CBS actually pulled the show off of its schedule just eight episodes in.
It looked like WKRP was done, but fans of the show and some shining reviews from television critics pushed CBS to bring the show back on a new timeslot, right after M*A*S*H. It was a golden move, and it helped WKRP gain staying power on primetime television.
The series and its iconic theme song would fall silent after the 1981-82 TV season and was brought back in the early ’90s as The New WKRP in Cincinnati.
We’ll forget the new version even happened, though.