Casting
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 actually 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, and later played an ex-hippie DJ in a series of three episodes of That 70s Show.
Read more about this topic: Dr. Johnny Fever
Famous quotes containing the word casting:
“All we know
Is that we are a little early, that
Today has that special, lapidary
Todayness that the sunlight reproduces
Faithfully in casting twig-shadows on blithe
Sidewalks. No previous day would have been like this.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgement shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision.”
—Charlotte Brontë (18161855)
“This I do know and can say to you: Our country is in more danger now than at any time since the Declaration of Independence. We dont dare follow the Lindberghs, Wheelers and Nyes, casting suspicion, sowing discord around the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt. We dont want revolution among ourselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)