TVSquad

Baby, if you've ever wondered, wondered whatever became of WKRP...well, it didn't really exist. It was a TV show. But now it's back, and it's even in Cincinnati.

However, there's a twist: this time it's the call letters of a small TV station. WBQC-TV has changed it's call letters to WKRP-TV. I can already sense the backlash that this move will inspire, fans of the show calling it "lame" and rival TV stations saying that they must have been "desperate" to make such a move. Personally, I think it's a great idea. I'm not saying that they have to start recreating episodes of the show at their station - especially not the turkey flying one - but this could give the station some buzz and identity.

Now, if they're smart, they'll try to run reruns of WKRP in Cincinnati on the station. Has that ever been done before, a TV station running a show that has the same name as the TV station itself?

Over at his cool pop culture blog Something Old, Nothing New, Jaime Weinman posts a list of the changes coming to that long-awaited WKRP in Cincinnati DVD set, and the changes aren't going to make fans happy. Not at all. In fact, it's worse than we could have imagined.

Almost all of the songs are being replaced, even ones that you might have heard in the butchered syndicated episodes several years back. Even songs like "Jailhouse Rock." But that's not even the worst news. As Weinman reports, because they haven't separated the dialogue track from the music track, they are going to actually cut out whole scenes so the music (that they couldn't get the rights to) isn't in the scene. That, fans, is barbaric.

Whirlpool (yes, they bought Maytag last year) is looking for the next Maytag Repairman, the guy in the blue uniform who never has anything to do because Maytag appliances work so well.

200 guys showed up for a casting call yesterday, including a guy who talked to appliances like it was a wife, a guy with dreadlocks, and yet another guy who sang. They're holding auditions in other cities, and also accepting them by mail (though you better hurry, they're picking the new spokesman in March).

I haven't seen a TV commercial featuring the Maytag Repairman in quite some time, though I'm sure they still run. The current guy is Hardy Rawls, who took over for Gordon Jump (WKRP in Cincinnati), who took over for Jesse White.