Actor Howard Hesseman has passed.
If you've never seen WKRP in Cincinnati or it's been a long time, I would encourage you to go back and check it out for a number of reasons. I think Dr. Johnny Fever is kind of remembered as a kind-of-out-of-it drive-time DJ on the show, but returning to it - yes, he's that. But Hesseman brought a level to the character that I think you were likely to miss when you were a kid, seeing everything as cartoons. Johnny Fever is a guy with a lot of disappointments who has seen a lot, and winding up a DJ at a low-rated radio station in the midwest is all just part of the journey. But under that, Hesseman brought intelligence and heart to the character - same as he would every time he showed up on screen after.
And that's what I associate most with Hesseman, was really the extra layer he always seemed to have in mind when bringing a character to life - that no character would just be a single thing, and they'd have depths that were there once you got past introductions.
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