The Great Turkey Drop - WKRP in Cincinnati

[Jim Koepke]

In 1978 a television program did a sketch of dropping turkeys as a Thanksgiving Day promotion.

It went terribly wrong.

Still fun to watch > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGFtV6-ALoQ

jtk

[Stan Calow]

I remember seeing it the first time. It's funny how certain bits from old TV shows have a life of their own and stay memorable permanently.

[Doug Garson]

Hilarious, don't remember seeing that episode back then but certainly remember the show.

[Frederick Skelly]

Very funny! Thanks for sharing it.

[Scott Clausen]

I do remember that one. Thank You for posting. Another favorite was the "dancing ducks" promotion. "How did you train the ducks to dance at a certain time?" "No training they are standing on a griddle so we just turn it on"

[Edward Weber]

Thanks, been a while since I saw that

[Bill Dufour]

Today at the end they would have to put in a disclaimer that no turkeys were injured in the filming of this show.
Bill D

[Sam Force]

That's a classic, and some great character actors

[Andrew Seemann]

43 years later, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly" is still considered one of the classic lines in TV history. The best part is how all the action takes place off screen and the viewer "sees" the action through the body language and emotions of "your on location reporter" Les along with the crew in the DJ studio. It even has "Oh the humanity", a reference to the Hindenburg disaster.

[Mike Henderson]

I grew up on a poultry farm and we raised turkeys for Thanksgiving. Domestic turkeys can fly, for example, to fly up into a tree. I have no idea if they could fly to the ground after being dropped from a helicopter. Obviously, we never did that.

Younger turkeys can fly fairly well, after they have their mature feathers and before they put on too much weight. We would cut the feathers on one wing to keep them from flying.

Mike

[glenn bradley]

Definitely one of my favorites.


They’re hitting the ground like wet sacks of cement.


Classic.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I am sorry to be “that guy,” but I never thought it was funny, and never understood why it became so iconic. First of all, turkeys can fly! They can’t fly long distances, but they can certainly fly, much like chickens; yes, they also fly. That tidbit kind of ruins the whole thing, but even overlooking that, I always thought it was stretching a dumb joke way too far to make it a whole show. There- I said it.

What I would have done is have the guy say, “Oh, I thought you meant FROZEN turkeys!” There would be a mad scramble to stop the event before they dropped the frozen turkeys out of the helicopter. The reporter could report on the people being injured en masse from 20 pound frozen turkeys falling from the helicopter. Now that would be… well… never mind… that would be kinda taking it too far. Perhaps just “Oh, you meant LIVE turkeys?…” and have them dropping dead ones, but not frozen- just dead. Lessen the injuries maybe 30%. “Here we go, the first turkeys are being dropped, and… oh my… seems that one landed on a sunroof. That’s a mess. Here comes another- oh! Looks like Miss Johnson the librarian wasn’t as prepared as she thought she was for that catch.”

If any TV producers are out there, my services are available.

[Arthur Fleming]

In my 61 years on this planet, I have never laughed harder at network TV, than when I watched that episode.

[Mike Null]

Being from southwest Ohio and the hometown of "Big Guy", Gordon Jump, I never missed a show. Definitely one of the all-time great comedy shows. The turkey drop was hilarious to me.

[John Lifer]

One of the BEST TV shows ever made. Truly funny and this was probably the best show.

[Keith Outten]

FWIW there is a long list of WKRP episodes on YouTube so you can watch the shows at your leisure :)
Way more entertaining than most of the shows available these days IMO.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Apparently Santa thinks they can fly.

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