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- A co-worker and I were discussing TV stars that smoked on the air. Somebody mentioned Johnny Fever, and both of us seemed to remember scenes where he had an unlit cigarette in his mouth, as if to create the impression that his character smoked, but nobody remembered him actually smoking on the air. Which may have been that the actor who played him didn’t really smoke, and didn’t want to do it just for the show. Anyway, did Johnny smoke? - MC
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Big WKRP fan here and I can’t recall ever seeing Johnny smoke. He may have had an innocent toothpick hanging out of his mouth, but never a butt (not even an unlit one). There were, however, veiled references to some of his <ahem> recreational indulgences.
“My hovercraft is full of eels.”
Ed Asner smoked on TV.
Howard Hesseman (sp?) did indeed smoke IRL, and maybe still does–but I don’t ever recall seeing him do it on “WKRP”–almost certainly on some other program, but not that one.
He always seemed to play a “Johnny Fever” type character, sorta out “on the edge,” so it’s possible you saw him in a similar role.
That’s still not to say that it never happened on “WKRP.” I just don’t remember it.
(In interviews, Frank “Herb” Bonner in describing the other cast members said that Howard Hesseman is “Johnny Fever,” and Richard Sanders is “Les Nessman.”)
BTW, I was a big WKRP fan, too. I really liked “Bailey.” 
Yes, Bailey over Jennifer any day (or night).
Smoking Nazis? Don’t you mean the Phone Cops?
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. That’s my name too.
Wait, no it isn’t.
When TV got SC (Smoker Correct) didn’t Telly Savalas go from a cigarette to a Tootsie Pop?
Telly Savalas had his Toosie Pop at least 10 years prior to any SC tendencies on TV. There was still a lot of smoking through the 1970’s. The Tootsie Pop deal was part of the character definition from the beginning of the series.
Tom~
I don’t recall any Nazis on WKRP. The closest they ever came was that episode with the Jerry Falwell-type who wanted to censor everything.
Robert Blake was seen on many talk shows with an unlit cigarette. It was his way of dealing with quiting.
Sounds like it didin’t work to calm his nerves too well… 
Johnny Carson used to puff quite a bit., as did a few of his guests. Most often it was back in the days of B&W TVs.
David Letterman still does (he’s usually putting down the cigar when break is over) but you still see the smoke rising from the ashtray. IMO he does this on purpose as it is late at night and it’s a great way to get on the executives nerves.
On “The David Suskind Show” the interviews used to take place in the midst of great clouds of cigarette smoke.
I know (having seen the TVLand series re-runs) that Jim Rockford (James Garner) definitely smoked on Rockford Files, even quite late in the series (up to 1978/1979, I believe - it ended early 1980).
I believe there was an episode where Fever had a cigarette in hand, if not in mouth.
It seems like it was the episode where Bailey and he went to get the pictures some sleazeball had conned Jennifer into modeling for…
Anyway, I have a few tapes of old episodes, I’ll check it out.
WKRP is my favorite show of all time!
IIRC, the back story on this was that the character had quit smoking and was using this as a replacement therapy.
I seem to recall Maxwell Smart lighting up fairly often on “Get Smart”.
I thought Letterman quit smoking after his bypass operation a few years ago. I could easily be wrong about that; or perhaps he only quit for a while.
That’s one of the greatest things about “TV Land,” which I don’t get in my area but have seen before. On the older game shows, the celebrity panels are always seen smoking cigarettes as they played. That would certainly not go over well these days.