WKRP's Turkey Drop, short attention span theater edition

Condensed for your abbreviated pleasure, WKRP in Cincinnati's classic turkey drop episode, shrunk down to a brisk 30 seconds. AS GOD IS MY WITNESS I SWEAR I THOUGHT TURKEYS COULD FLY.

WKRP Turkey Drop in 30 Seconds (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

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Hubert Cumberdale

Thank you! Never gets old.
EH

Ah, another Chrome crash.
solstice2005

Thanks for that post! I had forgotten the show but it can never get old
spiderking

Yellville, Arkansas was the inspiration for this episode, I guess.
- Wild Rumpus
  
  http://radio.about.com/od/thanksgivingradio/qt/WKRP-Turkey-Drop-Video-Audio.htm
  
  “Oddly enough, this famous WKRP episode was loosely based on a real event! Back in 1946 (some sources say 1945), Yellville, Arkansas inaugurated the “Turkey Trot Festival” which included a wild turkey calling contest, a turkey target shoot, a Miss Drumsticks Pageant and oh yeah: a live turkey release from the roof of the courthouse.
  
  After a few years, someone thought it might be fun to actually toss the poor gobblers out of a low-flying airplane for the event. This repeated for a number of years until 1989 when a national animal-rights protest cast the event in a bad light and the “National Enquirer” splashed a photo of the event across the nation forcing promoters to abandon the turkey drop.”
http://twitter.com/jes5199 jesse wolfe

If you’ve got about 50x the time, you can watch the original here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/322/wkrp-in-cincinnati-turkeys-away
- Halloween_Jack
  
  Saw it when originally broadcast, but thanks for the link. The build-up is really key, I think.
jimh

Oh, the HUMANITY!
James B

I remember seeing that broadcast. I think Loni Anderson was dating Burt Reynolds about that time.
Wild Rumpus

Ha ha! I watched this on it’s first airing too and I think the meme that developed from it is well deserved. That line never gets old.
hassenpfeffer

Best. Thanksgiving. TV. Ever.
http://twitter.com/Skyhawk1 skyhawk1

It just isn’t Thanksgiving without referring to that classic. Thanks.
russingram

I lived near Yellville at the time – the the year after the PETA flap, the town decided to drop frozen turkeys with parachutes. Several chutes failed to open! If I recall correctly, the only damage was a dent in the hood of a car. For the next several years, an “anonymous” plane with blacked-out tail numbers performed the drop. I moved away around that time, not sure what happened after that.
- Halloween_Jack
  
  Uh… PETA was founded in 1980. Some other animal rights group, surely–the Humane Society or ASPCA, perhaps?
http://repeaterband.com skeletoncityrepeater

Short Attention Span Theater? Where’s Jon Stewart?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7DVEAI2OY6E3RWOO6G5PE3DTJQ Rhodeguy

On a related note, this reminds of me of the Married With Children episode of the “Santa Drop” which had a much more twisted result.
Theodosia

Too shortened — the real beauty of the episode is how it builds, and the exquisite reaction shots as events off-camera are described, and Les Nessman’s “Oh, the humanity!”