Dr. Johnny Fever
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Dr. Johnny Fever was an off-the-wall character who was a DJ on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. He was inspired by Skinny Bobby Harper. The character was portrayed by Howard Hesseman.
Johnny Fever, whose real name was John Caravella, came to WKRP from a major station in Los Angeles, where he worked under the name "Johnny Sunshine" and did a popular show called "Johnny Sunshine, Boss Jock." After he said the word "booger" on the air, complaints were received at the station, and he was fired with a year left to go on his contract; he sued the station and later received a big cash settlement. After being fired, he led a nomadic existence, going from town to town. His first job after leaving L.A. was hosting a garden show in Amarillo. He has used many on-air names, including Johnny Duke, Johnny Style and Johnny Cool. He finally hit "rock bottom," in his own words, when he landed in Cincinnati at the worst radio station in town, WKRP -- the only station that would hire him. He found himself hosting a "beautiful music" show in the morning, so obviously bored with the music that he didn't even bother to make up a new name or on-air persona.
When Andy Travis took over as program director of WKRP and changed the format to rock n' roll, Johnny was initially doubtful that he could succeed as the morning man in the new format; conscious that he was older than the average morning DJ, Johnny advised Andy to find someone "about fifteen years younger," but Andy insisted that Johnny could do it. When he got on the air to change the format, Johnny came alive, signalling the format change with a loud drag on the playing record and immediately adopting the new, hyper-excited persona of "Dr. Johnny Fever," playing the song "Queen of the Forest" by Ted Nugent, and telling his listeners:
All right, Cincinnati, it is time for this town to get down! You've got Johnny - Doctor Johnny Fever, and I am burnin' up in here! We all in critical condition, babies, but you can tell me where it hurts, 'cause I got the healing prescription here from the big 'KRP musical medicine cabinet. Now I am talking about your 50 000 watts intensive care unit, babies! So just sit right down, relax, open your ears real wide and say, "Give it to me straight, Doctor, I can take it!"
He then triumphantly said the word that got him fired in L.A.: "Booger!"
In an early episode of WKRP, Johnny's new persona and his immediate popularity earned him a job offer from another station in L.A. -- the biggest competitor of the station that fired him. His co-workers at WKRP threw him a party where they tried to convince him not to leave, and at the party Johnny admitted how much he loved and cared about the people he worked with. But in a reversal of sitcom conventions, Johnny actually left the station and took the job in L.A., and because it was so early in the show's run, some viewers might actually have been tricked into thinking that Johnny had in fact left the show. However, in the next episode, Johnny returned: he had been almost instantly fired in L.A. for saying something obscene on the air (it was bleeped out when he said it, but we are to assume that it was something much worse than "booger").
WKRP settled Johnny down and established a relatively stable ensemble of associates for him, although the tradeoff was a cramped apartment and low pay. He has been married twice, with both of his ex-wives collecting alimony; he also had a college-age daughter, Laurie, who briefly moved in with him. There was some suggestion in one episode that he might still be in love with his first wife, Paula (Ruth Silveira), though they agreed that their relationship was over, and Paula got re-married to another man. We never met Johnny's second wife, but it was indicated that their parting was not as amicable: she tried to kill Johnny with a Ronco Veg-O-Matic.
The "Doctor"—not a real medical doctor or Ph.D.: it was a self-assigned moniker for him, as in "The Doctor of Love"—was a great talker to his radio audience when he was in a confident mood. He could jive with the best of the DJ's of his era. He once gave Bailey Quarters, nascent newswoman, this sage advice: "Talk into the microphone as if you were talking to your best friend." Later, in that same episode, he would have to gather the courage to take his own advice (the "Mike Fright" episode).
Never a lover of disco, the new music fad of the era, he was a lover of rock and roll, although he felt he was getting too old to be a DJ in the genre (aside from two episodes on which he adopted a disco persona for a high-paying television job--see below). A great tune on the playlist would get Fever to be a smooth-talking introducer of the artist (and why he liked that artist) and the tune (and why he liked that tune). Tunes like "Hey Jude" were used for bathroom breaks or extended chats with friends or the program director, Andy Travis.
Though the format of WKRP was supposed to be Top 40, Johnny frequently refused to play any songs off the station playlist, choosing instead to highlight his old favorites like Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Otis Redding. Andy frequently tried to get Johnny to stick to the playlist, admonishing him: "Play the playlist. Play a part of the playlist. Play one song off the playlist. Play a part of one song off the playlist!" But Johnny continued picking his own music, to the point that Andy actually went into a state of shock when he heard Johnny playing a song by The Eagles: "That's a hit! He's playing a hit!" Fever's unorthodox choice of music paid off as the series went on, and by the final episode he had become the number-one morning D.J. in the city.
Herb Tarlek, the account executive, never could land the big accounts. As a result, Fever and the other DJs on WKRP had to give voiceovers (done live in that era) for spots for funeral homes and worms (Red Wigglers, the Cadillac of worms). Johnny Fever's voice inflection was impeccable on these spots and could be rather humorous (such as when he added the live tag line "available at finer worm stores everywhere!"). However, he had his scruples as when he walked out of such a recording session for sports aids when he realized his dialogue was laced with euphemisms for dangerous drug effects. While it was strongly implied that Johnny was a frequent user of marijuana, he didn't go in for harder drugs, and led a campaign to shut down a businessman who was trying to sell speed to teenagers.
Later in his WKRP career, Johnny Fever was approached by a female television producer to be a TV DJ for her program. "Rip Tide," his TV persona, was money-hungry, disco-loving, and a very different voice and personality than WKRP's Dr. Johnny Fever. In the two-part episode, Fever becomes Rip Tide during WKRP on-air time (he loses control of who he acts like). He seems to be totally taken over by the Rip Tide character until sanity (in the persons of Andy Travis and Jennifer Marlowe) takes hold. He then defiantly turns down the big bucks from the TV producer, and Rip is R.I.P. for good.
Dr. Johnny Fever never did leave for good his rock and roll roots, and he never left the WKRP "family" of employees. He would admit this was a good situation for him, but did of course wonder from time to time about what he was missing by being "under wraps" and largely out of the national limelight by staying with WKRP in Cincinnati. As a WKRPer, his refreshing inanity and Everyman character status endeared him to the ensemble cast, and to his viewers.
The role of Dr. Johnny Fever was originally intended for Richard Libertini, but he became unavailable. Howard Hesseman was known to WKRP's production company, MTM Enterprises, from his recurring guest role as Mr. Plager on MTM's The Bob Newhart Show; he was originally considered for the role of Herb Tarlek, but when he read the pilot script, he decided that Johnny was the part he really wanted. He was particularly suited for the part because he had himself been a disc jockey at one time, and he brought some of his experience to the character of Johnny -- including picking most of the songs that Johnny played on the show. Also Hesseman had played wacky hippies before in Dragnet and in the film Billy Jack.
