I dunno if I made it clear but the WKRP in Cincinnati episode with the turkeys is on TV Land this weekend. Depending on your time zone and cable company, it will probably air either at 9:30 Saturday evening or three hours after that. Speaking of which, my pal TV writer Michael Reaves sends the following info on it…

The justly-famous turkey episode of WKRP (right up there with "Chuckles the Clown", IMHO), was, as I'm sure you know, written by Bill Dial, a very nice man who was later a producer on Sliders. When I wrote for that show I asked him about the story's genesis, and he said the idea came from a PR man's plan for a stunt to advertise the opening of some public attraction. It was planned, but fortunately never executed (and I use the word in every possible sense here). Bill said the same guy also planned another stunt, in which there would be a small "farm" in the middle of a mall, with ducks who would dance to country music — they'd be inspired to "dance" by the electrical current heating the floor of the set. And they say American entrepreneurship is dead…

One other interesting thing about the "turkey" segment: It was only the seventh episode taped of WKRP, and I don't think the series had even gone on the air yet. Most long-running sitcoms do their most memorable episodes after the show has been around for a while and things have shaken down. The Mary Tyler Moore Show's infamous "Chuckles Bites the Dust," for instance, was a sixth season episode. If we were to compile a list of great episodes of shows, I'll bet very few of them would be from the first thirteen. Bill Dial and the folks at WKRP had their act together almost from day one.

I had lunch this afternoon in the commissary on the Disney lot. As I was walking back to my car, I noticed that one whole side of a studio building had a huge billboard for 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter with a big picture of the cast. And rather than take it down in light of John Ritter's death, they instead added a huge banner across the billboard. It read, "We love you John."

I don't know why but that struck me as a classy thing to do.

In case Hugh Hefner ever drops by your house for dinner, you might want to know what Hef eats. This is from an article about his impending visit to Las Vegas…

Before Hefner dines out, his handlers routinely fax his dinner instructions to the restaurant of choice. The instructions are always the same: three lamb chops on a warm plate bearing his HMH initials, 15 ounces of Le Sueur Early Peas, three 90-count size potatoes, two tomato slices "on a plate lined with lettuce," apple sauce and a glass of milk "on a paper napkin." A hand-drawn map includes how Hef wants the place setting.

And they didn't mention this but I believe the Viagra tablets are placed to the left of the salad fork.

That's the title of a comic book-style story that appears in Al Franken's new book, Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them — A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. It was drawn by a terrific cartoonist named Don Simpson…as you can see on this site where Franken's publishers have made the story available for free viewing.

In the past, I've complained about networks not starting their shows precisely on time, thereby screwing things up for those of us who record via VCR or TiVo. If you have a TiVo, you've probably just received this lovely on-screen notice…

NBC is airing shows on Thursday evenings with non-standard start times and lengths. If you have a Season Pass for one or more shows during primetime on Thursday, you should check your To Do list, Recording History, and Season Pass Manager to make sure your programs are recorded. Check your viewers guide or www.tivo.com/support for more information on these features.

NBC is playing dirty pool here. E.R. Thursday night starts not at 10 PM but at 9:59. They're figuring, I guess, that when the show before it ends, you'll be hooked on E.R. before you have the chance to change channels. But of course what they're also doing is making it difficult for you to record a show on another channel (like CSI) that ends at 10:00. Friends runs from 8:00 to 8:48, followed by Will and Grace from 8:48 to 9:27, which will screw up people who have a VCR that sets record times in five-minute increments.

I don't watch any of these programs but I've often gotten burned by shows not starting and stopping as scheduled. This morning's airing of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart started early so my TiVo recording lost the first minute or so. A couple of times, I've recorded a movie or an episode of something and when I watch it, I find that it's actually longer than the scheduled time and that I didn't get the ending.

If there's any ratings advantage to playing these games, I would think it would be small and more than offset by viewer annoyance. I think all the TV networks should get together and pledge to air shows (live events, excepted) at the advertised times and on the half-hour. And while they're at it, they ought to all agree to go back to credits you can read without splitting the screen to stick in advertising.

Joshua Micah Marshall on the problems the White House is having in dealing with the United Nations.

Each year, ratings for the Miss America Pageant get worse and worse. Last Saturday's set a new low which will stand until next year's…that is, if any network is even willing to run it next year.

There are a lot of reasons for the decline of what was once a significant event, many of them having to do with the pageant's antiquated, vapid concepts of what qualities are admirable in a woman. One I'd like to underscore is that the Miss America promoters have been beaten at their own game. Once upon a time, it was a unique way to create an artificial celebrity who could be sent out to cut ribbons at mall openings and endorse products. Today, "reality television" provides a series of extreme ways to make a nobody into a somebody, and they have to do a lot more than walk down a runway with good posture. They have to eat slugs or live in exile or dangle over sharks or marry someone on TV or, in some cases, demonstrate actual talent. Becoming Miss America looks like nothing.

I don't know anything about the company that runs the Miss America pageant but I have a hunch what's going on in their offices this week. They're having conferences and saying things like, "We have to find a way to make the pageant relevant." They're looking at tapes of Fear Factor and Joe Millionaire and wondering if there's anything they can adapt from those shows without puncturing the merchandising veneer of their manufactured celebrity. There probably isn't but before the Miss America pageant becomes too unimportant to even be televised on a network, I'll bet they institute some real stupid changes to the format. Furthermore, I'll bet they don't work, either. The problem is like the old Groucho Marx joke about not wanting to belong to any club that would have him as a member. If you honestly summed up the traits and skills that a woman ought to have to be worthy of the mantle of "Miss America," they would include not entering that kind of contest.

Here's Part Two of Timothy Noah's piece on why the folks talking about Hillary Clinton running for president are almost all Republicans.

Jonathan Chait on why some people (himself, included) hate George W. Bush.

As it happens, the WKRP in Cincinnati episode about the turkeys is scheduled to air this coming Sunday morning, September 28 at 12:30 AM on TV Land. To some, that will be late Saturday night. Consult your local listing to make sure and set the TiVo. And thanks to Brent Seguine, Steve Billnitzer and others who alerted me.

With its usual flair for accuracy, The New York Post is referring to Peter Paul, who never had anything to do with Spider-Man in any capacity, as "The Spidey Swindler." Paul, by the way, has entered a plea of Not Guilty.

Gordon Jump, who died the other day at age 71, was the kind of actor I really like: A guy who worked constantly. He is best remembered for playing the befuddled boss at radio station WKRP in Cincinnati and for succeeding Jesse White as the lonely Maytag repairman. But take a gander at this list of credits over at the Internet Movie Database. The guy was on everything…and that list isn't even close to complete. For example, it omits two pilot-specials he appeared on in 1976-1977 that attempted to turn the Archie comic books into an odd cross of a variety show and a situation comedy. Audrey Landers played Betty, Hillary Thompson played Veronica, Derrell Maury played Jughead and there's a bizarre story about who played the title role of Archie Andrews. (I'll tell it here tomorrow unless I forget.) I was working for the company that produced the shows and while I wasn't assigned to the project, I was the only person on the premises who knew the comics and for some reason, that made the producers think my opinion was worth something. They kept calling me in and asking, "Does this guy look like Moose? Would this actor make a good Dilton Doily?" (I just recalled who played Moose's girl friend, Midge. It was Sue Blu, who has since become one of the top voice directors in the cartoon business.)

One afternoon, they called me in to watch a very nervous actor read some lines as either Archie's father or Mr. Weatherbee. I forget which one it was. I immediately recognized Gordon Jump from an episode of Harry O I'd seen the night before and told him he'd been very good in it. He said, "Well, I'll see what I can do to lower your opinion of me" and everyone in the room laughed. He then proceeded to read the scene with the lady casting director playing Archie…and you could see that all the producers and execs in the room immediately said to themselves, "This is the guy." After he left, they all verbalized their agreement and that was it…except that when the casting concluded a few days later, they still had one role unfilled. Someone suggested that since Jump was so good in the part for which he'd auditioned, he could probably handle this other one. So he was switched from playing Mr. Andrews to Mr. Weatherbee or vice-versa. Whatever it was, no one apparently told Gordon. He showed up for the first day of rehearsal with the wrong part all memorized.

This did not throw him one bit because he was every inch the professional. In fact, the screw-up seemed right in keeping with the kinds of characters he usually played. He took a copy of the script, went off into a corner by himself for fifteen minutes, and came back in the correct role. In his last few years when he taught an acting workshop, he often told that story. Someone who took the course told me that. She also told me it was the best "how to audition" class she ever encountered. Given how often Gordon Jump auditioned and got the job, that's not surprising.

One other thing I should mention: Gordon Jump spoke what was, to me, one of the all-time funniest lines in the history of TV situation comedies. It was…

If you don't know the episode, you can read about it here or, better still, watch for that installment of WKRP. If you do know the episode, you're laughing right this minute.

Over on Slate, Timothy Noah says a lot of the same things I said an item or two ago about Hillary Clinton.

Sydney H. Schanberg discusses what George W. Bush has done for education. This is another one of those areas where Bush's supporters don't even attempt to mount a defense. They just change the subject to Saddam Hussein.