The Only Major Actors Still Alive From WKRP In Cincinnati
"WKRP in Cincinnati" may not be easy to find on streaming these days, but it's still a highlight in sitcom history. The show about a failing radio station run by a groovy and eccentric team was a hit in the '70s, garnering 10 Emmy nominations and the coveted Humanitas Prize before signing off after four seasons. Unfortunately, the show's heavy emphasis on popular music has made it a rare quantity today: according to MTV, the show didn't make it to DVD until 2007 in part because it was tricky to secure the rights to all of the songs featured in its original run. It's currently only available digitally if you buy it on Apple TV, and versions of the show available today are still reportedly missing some songs, with stock music added in their place.
Still, the ultra-'70s show is worth seeking out for comedy fans and music fans alike, even if you might have to queue up Spotify at the same time to get the full experience. The show's Thanksgiving episode, "Turkeys Away," is often cited as one of the best holiday specials in TV history, and other episodes, including "Venus and the Man" and "Fire," have been singled out with Emmy nods. Once you've seen the original show, it's also worth catching up with what the cast has been doing in the 43 years since "WKRP in Cincinnati" ended. Stars Howard Hesseman, Gordon Jump, and Frank Bonner have all sadly passed away, but several other cast members continue to work –- on screen and off –- to this day.
Gary Sandy (Andy)
Gary Sandy starred in "WKRP in Cincinnati" as Andy Travis, the program director of the Ohio radio station that gives the series its name. Hired to keep the radio station afloat amid financial troubles, Andy was the show's straight man, and in 2021, Sandy told The Hamilton Spectator that he was typecast in Hollywood after taking on the role. "I was pigeonholed," he said. "If there was ever a part for a guy in tight jeans and boots, I got it."
After the show went off the air, Sandy continued appearing periodically on screen, including in shows like "Murder, She Wrote," "L.A. Law," and "The Young and the Restless," on which he had a five episode arc. The actor never took on a starring role in a TV show again, but he told the Spectator that was by choice:
"I suppose I would have been better off financially if I stayed in TV, but the series I was offered were dull and uninteresting. I just couldn't make myself do them."
Sandy told the outlet he always wanted to go for serious roles in "big movies and shows," but it seems he found more success in theater, anyway. His most well-known movie roles post-"WKRP" were in Michael Mann's "The Insider" and the 1986 horror comedy "Troll," but he worked on Broadway in "The Pirates of Penzance" and has appeared in productions of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Chicago," and more. Sandy's last on-screen role was in the 2004 TV movie "A Place Called Home." According to the Spectator, he's now retired and living in Kentucky.
Loni Anderson (Jennifer)
In "WKRP in Cincinnati," super-competent receptionist (and frequent crush of everyone, on the show and off) Jennifer Marlowe was played by actor Loni Anderson. Jennifer was much more than a '70s sitcom bombshell; she was clever and regularly helped keep the station running. In a 2023 interview with Us Magazine, Anderson spoke about the significance of the character, saying that "young women, especially, identified with [the idea that] you can be hot and also be the smartest person in the room." She noted that the well-rounded character "spoke seven languages and she took care of everybody like she was their mom," positing that Jennifer would probably be a CEO today. In an interview with Page Six, she also once revealed that she teamed up with Howard Hesseman to negotiate for higher salaries partway through the show's run.
After the sitcom wrapped up, Anderson appeared in movies like the dark kids' flick "All Dogs Go To Heaven," Will Ferrell comedy "A Night at the Roxbury," and the Steve Martin starrer "The Lonely Guy," in which she played herself. She also starred in the short-lived comedy series "Easy Street" and the '90s NBC sitcom "Nurses," and most recently headlined the web series "My Sister is So Gay." She additionally popped up briefly in shows like "Amazing Stories," "Melrose Place," and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," and co-starred alongside Lynda Carter in "Partners in Crime," a show she's said both women ended up hating.
Additionally, Anderson appeared on several game shows throughout her career, including "Hollywood Squares" and "Match Game." In 1995 she released the memoir "My Life in High Heels," and she's also worked to raise awareness about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Like several other people on this list, Anderson participated in a Paley Center reunion with the "WKRP in Cincinnati" cast and appeared in two episodes of the sequel series "The New WKRP in Cincinnati" in the early '90s.
Richard Sanders (Les)
Before there was Dwight Schrute, there was Richard Sanders' Les Nessman, the hilariously annoying company man who takes his job at WKRP way too seriously. Sanders played Nessman for the show's entire run and continued working on screen after it ended. Soon afterwards, he played a driver's education instructor in the Nicolas Cage classic "Valley Girl" and nabbed a role as an authority figure antagonist in the teen show "Under One Roof." His most noteworthy post-"WKRP" TV roles to date include stints on "Designing Women," "Growing Pains," and "Berrenger's," plus a major role in "The New WKRP in Cincinnati" (unlike some castmates, he stuck around for the bulk of the sequel series).
On the big screen, Sanders appeared in movies like the Cuba Gooding Jr. drama "Men of Honor," the horror flick "Lovers Lane," and 1991's "Neon City," which even Letterboxd officially describes as a "Mad Max" knock-off. Sanders co-wrote the 1983 TV movie "Found Money" along with some episodes of the "WKRP" sequel show, and he's credited as producing an episode of the documentary series "Witness." He also popped up in the cult classic early video game "Day of the Tentacle," which was made by Lucasfilm's game subsidiary.
As of 2007, Sanders lives in Woodinville, Washington. That year, he spoke to the Seattle Times about the sitcom's influence over popular music, saying, "We used actual music at the time, the music that everybody was listening to at the time — and sometimes before they were listening to it. It became almost like a radio station. Record companies would send us copies of their new releases and people would listen and decide."
Tim Reid (Venus Flytrap)
Tim Reid played talented DJ Venus Flytrap in the show, and as one of the station's only Black employees, Venus often ended up at the center of episodes about Black culture. Reid also wrote for the show, beginning with the season 2 episode "Family Affair." In a 2021 interview with the Television Foundation Academy, he said that he wrote the episode in response to presumably racist current events that left him "enraged." "What I wanted to say about race," he recalled, "was 'it's in all of us.' We all are embedded with this sort of racial consciousness that, depending on how we grow up and who teaches us, [is] a certain thing that we're always in conflict with."
"WKRP" ended up being just one of several memorable, career-defining roles that Reid would take on. He took a lead role in the '80s detective series "Simon & Simon," which ran for eight seasons, then played patriarch Ray in the beloved ABC show "Sister, Sister" in the '90s. He earned Emmy nominations and an NAACP Award for his role in the gone-too-soon series "Frank's Place," which he starred in and executive produced. Plus, he played Hyde's biological father in "That '70s Show" and Mike Hanlon in the original "IT" miniseries. On the film front, he's been in a surprising number of Christmas movies, plus Disney Channel Original Movies like "You Wish!" and "Alley Cat Strike."
A multi-talented artist, Reid has written, directed, and produced projects, and he created Tim Reid Productions, Inc. in 1989 (per the company's website). He also founded New Millennium Studios and created the Legacy Media Institute, the latter of which empowers young, diverse filmmakers through events, workshops, and other support, per Ransom Note. "I'm dedicated to using my 50 years of media experience to create projects that will have a positive impact on society, history, and culture of the African Diaspora," he said in a quote shared by Soul Vision Magazine.
Jan Smithers (Bailey)
Before she played up-and-coming radio station employee Bailey Quarters on "WKRP," Jan Smithers had already found fame after a Newsweek cover story propelled her onto the worldwide stage. According to the outlet, she ended up being photographed for the story "The Teen-Agers: A Newsweek Survey of What They're Really Like" after magazine staffers asked to take her picture while she watched a friend surf in 1966. The cover launched her acting career, but it didn't last long: her most recent on-screen appearance was in 1987, five years after "WKRP" ended.
In an anniversary interview with Newsweek, Smithers explained that she initially planned to take six months off work after giving birth to a daughter in 1986, but she ended up deciding to become a full-time mom. "I loved having a career, but when I met Molly, I just looked at her and told her, 'You need me,'" she recalled in the 2016 interview. "And she looked at me so innocently. I thought, I have to stay! She changed my life. I really longed to be her mom." Smithers did participate in the Paley Center "WKRP" cast reunion in 2014, but it seems a lot of her focus these days is spent on environmentalism and Indian spirituality (she cited gurus Swami Muktananda and Mata Amritanandamayi as important figures in her life in the 2016 Newsweek piece). She told reporters she spent 16 years visiting India, where she studied meditation and "got out of myself," as she put it.
If you want to check out some of Smithers' post-"WKRP" roles, you can find her in episodes of "The Love Boat," "Murder, She Wrote," and "Hotel," plus in the 1987 film "Mr. Nice Guy." The former actor said that she doesn't tell people about her past life spent in Hollywood these days. "People don't even know I'm an actor!" she told Newsweek. "If I ever let them know, they're so surprised."