Was the Legendary ‘WKRP In Cincinnati’ Turkey Drop Episode Based on a Real Event?
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On October 20, 1978, WKRP in Cincinnati aired an episode from its first season titled “Turkeys Away,” in which radio station manager Arthur “Big Guy” Carlson (Gordon Jump) launches a Thanksgiving promotion gone terribly wrong. Believing the plan to be a festive crowd-pleaser, Carlson arranges for live turkeys to be dropped from a helicopter—under the misguided assumption that the birds will gracefully take flight and land, ready for lucky listeners to collect for their holiday feast.
They did not.
The result was one of the funniest and most beloved moments in television history, as man-on-the-scene Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) delivered a breathless play-by-play of the pandemonium that erupted in a news report hilariously reminiscent of the Hindenburg disaster.
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