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Q: I loved "WKRP in Cincinnati." Is there anywhere to watch all the episodes?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

After decades of challenges with making the show available, there are, thankfully, now multiple ways to watch "WKRP in Cincinnati."

It depends where you are, of course. In the U.S., you can get it digitally from services including Amazon Prime, iTunes and Vudu. In Canada, your only digital option is iTunes.

There's also the DVD option. Individual seasons and a complete-series box set with (most of) the original music are now available for sale from most DVD retailers.

The original-music question was a big sticking point in this show's drawn-out journey from broadcast to home video. A workplace comedy that happened to be set at a pop music station, it aired from 1978 to 1982, a long time before home video was a consideration for producers.

That meant, unfortunately, the deals they made to use actual, cutting-edge pop music on the soundtrack didn't include video rights.

That fact led to 32 years of legal wrangling, during which attempts were made to release heavily edited episodes with different music in the background. For long periods, it just wasn't available at all.

But in 2014, Shout Factory released DVDs with most of the music restored. The show's struggles had become big news in the entertainment business, and so this release was greeted with a fair bit of glee.

Entertainment Weekly was particularly excited about the release, saying, "Somewhere in sitcom heaven Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap are exchanging cool '70s-hipster handshakes."

 

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