Les Nessman
This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. (May 2024) |
Les Nessman | |
---|---|
WKRP in Cincinnati character | |
Portrayed by | Richard Sanders |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | radio news anchor/reporter |
Family | Harvey Moorhouse (father) Lester Nessman Sr. (adoptive father) |
Spouse | Demi (divorced) |
Relatives | Eureka Nessman (adoptive great-aunt) |
Nationality | American |
Lester "Les" Nessman Jr. is a fictional character on the television
Background and appearance
Les was raised in Dayton by his mother and stepfather (who he thought was his biological father). He has been employed by WKRP since 1954,[citation needed] beginning as an office boy and cub reporter. In the episode "Secrets of Dayton Heights", he fails a security check for a press conference because his biological father had belonged to the Communist party. He is shocked, inasmuch as he himself is virulently anti-Communist, an attitude instilled in him by his embittered mother (also played by Sanders). He goes to visit Harvey Moorehouse, his biological father, working as a barber, and finds that he isn't such a bad guy, and that Moorehouse likely gave up his son to spare him the shame of his alleged Communist activities.[1] Les decides to continue to go to Moorehouse's barber shop in an effort to get to know his father, but chooses not to reveal his identity to Moorehouse.
The slight, balding, bespectacled man always wears a bow tie (though he wore a standard necktie in the pilot episode) and always has a bandage somewhere on his person, a running gag that began with the actor's first appearance (when he actually needed a bandage due to a backstage injury).[1] Lines explaining the injury were written and then cut, and thereafter Les simply appeared each week with a new bandage and new unexplained injury.[2] The producers explained that the gag was overlooked by audience members, who didn't remember that Les has a large dog named Phil at his home, and Les often lives in fear of being attacked or bitten, thus the need for the bandages.[1]
Les at WKRP
Les is the ludicrously incompetent news director of WKRP and has been with the station since 1954. Of the station's numerous cast members, Nessman's constant bungling, baseless pride and insistence on keeping his
Les's area of greatest expertise is agriculture; he is a five-time winner of the fictitious Ohio radio news trophy, the "Buckeye Newshawk Award" (given to the best news story specifically about, or related to, tap root vegetable production in "the tri-state area"), and has won the award an additional three times by the time of The New WKRP in Cincinnati. He has also won the coveted "Silver Sow Award" (for excellence in farm news, particularly hog reports), and the "Copper Cob Award" (also for farm broadcasting). Sanders explained that the Silver Sow award was invented as a plot device to give Les a reason to ask Jennifer on a date. The award subsequently "tickled the fancy of hog producers across the country."[3] He also has an unusual amount of psychological expertise, correctly diagnosing Johnny Fever with a "schizoid disorder" when he begins treating his television alter-ego Rip Tide as a separate individual he feels is subsuming his own personality (Les recognized the symptoms from the movies The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil). Several episodes of the series also imply that Les was formerly promiscuous in his youth and unexpectedly accomplished in seducing women, with Les sincerely telling his coworkers that he "got tired" of one-night-stands. The episode "Les' Groupie" explores the consequences of one such encounter evolving into a one-sided relationship, with Les expertly role-playing a faux lovers' spat with Jennifer. In "Daydreams", Jennifer is shown to have a sexual fantasy featuring Les.
Les is one of the station's oldest employees and frequently used to lampoon or draw attention to outdated stereotypes and prejudices, often acting as a minor antagonist to the other characters (albeit one who frequently sees the error of his ways). He insistently refers to black DJ Venus Flytrap as "a negro" and expresses surprise and confusion when he fails to embody the stereotypes with which Les was raised. Les also initially attempts to sabotage junior reporter Bailey Quarters' career due to his belief that only men should work in the field; although he eventually becomes supportive of Bailey becoming a fully-fledged member of WKRP's news team, he still occasionally bristles at her higher level of competence, and on one occasion plagiarizes a story she had been working on. Les also maintains a 50s-era McCarthyist worldview in which Communists have infiltrated all walks of American life and are a persistent threat to the nation; several of his news broadcasts devolve into rants advocating America to bomb its enemies "off the map."
The episode "Les on a Ledge" features a distraught Les standing outside one of the station's windows in an apparent suicide attempt after he is accused of being homosexual and therefore banned from the Riverfront Stadium locker room (the episode does not specify whether it was from the Reds or Bengals). The rest of the characters try to figure the situation out and talk him off the ledge, with Bruce, the player who made the original comment, eventually calling Les to apologize.
Les is prominently featured in WKRP's most famous episode, "
Les longs to "move up" to a higher-paying job as a TV newsman, and in one episode he shows a
Les works in the WKRP
Cultural references
Les' initial chauvinistic resistance to Bailey working in the "man's world" of journalism, and his eventual acceptance of her as an equal was an important story arc that has been repeatedly noted as a significant reflection of changing gender roles during this time.[6][7]
Les Nessman has made numerous "real life" appearances around the country. During WKRP's run, these included appearances at many pork producer association events โ Nessman having become the darling of the industry, where he received real-life versions of the fictional "Silver Sow Award"
Eminem references Les Nessman in the song "As the World Turns".
Another rap-reference nod to Les Nessman is by the rap group Atmosphere from Minnesota on the song "Millennium Dodo".
In an episode of
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87972-584-6.
- ^ a b c d Rahner, Mark "Woodinville's Richard Sanders talks about 'WKRP in Cincinnati'", Seattle Post-Intelligencer (April 27,2007)
- ^ a b Buck, Jerry (August 3, 1981), "Les Nessman lives in every town, WKRP star says", Miami News, AP, p. 5C.
- ^ Turkey drop (MP3), Little shop of voice.
- ^ Hazlett, Terry (November 23, 2009), "A Thanksgiving classic: 'As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly'", Observer-Reporter, Washington PA[permanent dead link].
- ISBN 978-0-7914-6569-1. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
- .
- ^ "WKRP: Les hams it up as a pork lover", Beaver County (PA) Times, UPI, p. B5, July 25, 1980.
- ^ Montgomery, Nancy (May 27, 1985), "Les Nessman: Nerdy newsman to sub for local DJ", Anchorage Daily News, p. D7.
- ^ "Les dropping in for parade", Weekender, Lexington Herald-Leader, p. 9, December 5, 1997.