# Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever) passed away **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [January 30, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657 "2022-01-30T18:22:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/41 "2022-01-31T04:19:03Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Come to think of it, he was also in an episode of “House, M.D.” One of the few episodes of “House” that I ever watched; when I saw him, I said, “holy crap, that’s Johnny Fever!” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/42 "2022-01-31T04:28:13Z")
He had a bit part as Duke Fame, who was booked to play that night at the Enormodome. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/43 "2022-01-31T08:09:32Z")
Another surprising ( in hindsight ) role was when I fairly recently watched a re-run of ‘Dragnet’ in which he was on the panel of a live TV Q&A show which was to ( ostensibly ) skewer the LAPD. He and another, clearly on the left, shot barbs at the ubiquitously stiff ‘Friday’ and slightly less stiff ‘Gannon’. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/44 "2022-01-31T13:57:47Z")
There are some nice subtle moments in that clip. His feeling that he’s too old to work at a rock station anymore (evident by the fear in his voice, as well as the dialogue), his moment of hesitation before he assumes the Johnny Fever persona. Little moments that a lesser actor might have let pass by. I remember him from _One Day at a Time_. He came in during the final season as Bonnie Franklin’s new love interest. He also showed up in a couple of episodes of _The Andy Griffith Show_, credited under his early stage name “Don Sturdy.” I also remember him as a lawyer on _Soap_ (appearing alongside Gordon Jump, a few years before _WKRP_). I think the last time I saw him was an episode of, of all things, _Mike and Molly_. He had a long career, which suggests that people found him reliable and good to work with. Johnny Fever was only a small part of what he could do. It’s been awhile since I’ve thought about Howard Hesseman, but I’ll miss him. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/45 "2022-01-31T15:10:05Z")
Something I was totally unaware until coming across this article in wake of his passing: > **[That Gay Episode: ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ Shows Straight People How to Stand...](https://decider.com/2019/06/05/that-gay-episode-the-bob-newhart-show/amp/)** > > Dr. Bob Hartley may not always make the best decisions for his patients, but he does in this episode. Howard Hesseman played one of the earliest openly gay characters on an American sitcom, and possibly the first established character who then came out of the closet. To be fair, he was only a recurring character and only appeared in a handful of episodes. But the above article argues that it really was a ground-breaking role. Not mentioned, but for a character actor still trying to break into leading roles, even in the 1970s, I think it took a bit of genuine moral courage to take a role as an openly gay man. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/46 "2022-01-31T15:12:43Z")
I loved Howard Hessman as Dr. Johnny Fever and enjoyed him as the teacher in Head of the Class. One other key role that he played was a recurring part as one of Dr. Hartley’s patients. It’s a pretty strong episode and Matt Baume explains why in his [video here](https://youtu.be/GEj7nz3EXM0). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/47 "2022-01-31T15:19:17Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I heard that Hesseman was an impeccable dresser IRL and never liked wearing the somewhat sloppy clothes Johnny Fever wore. Well, I sure did. And wore that “shirt over t-shirt” look almost every day… when I walked into my classroom with a quip or a random fact just like he did in _Head Of The Class._ I’m not saying I’m so easily influenced as to become a teacher because…oh, okay, I’ll admit it! And I wanted to hitchhike on the back of a truck to work too! ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/48 "2022-01-31T17:45:37Z")
Since everybody has relayed the usual WKRP anecdotes (“Booger!” and the “Turkeys”) I’m going to lay this one out: A punk group called The Scum of The Earth (and they pretty much are, despite the fact that they are snappy dressers) is booked for a WKRP promotional gig. At the eleventh hour, the Scum decide they’re not going through with the gig. Andy and Venus are prepared to duke it out with the Scum to get them onstage. Fever, after a shot him lying on the couch, stiffly gets up, faces the Scum and menacingly mutters, “Rock and roll…” Shows that the laid-back Fever can be a badass. RIP Mr. H. So glad to have known your work. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/49 "2022-01-31T18:00:49Z")
I don’t think it was “menacing” so much as it was “resigned.” Just the way he folds his sunglasses shows he knows the drill. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/50 "2022-01-31T18:02:33Z")
You may be right. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/51 "2022-01-31T18:09:43Z")
There’s also Johnny’s “been-there-done-that” attitude toward Scum of the Earth in the first place. As he’s babysitting them in their dressing room before the concert, he clearly finds their antics to be childish and absurd, and tells them he thinks they’re boring. They respond by doing some destructive thing, knocking something over, or deliberately spilling water, or something like that–I don’t remember exactly what, but it was something equally childish and attention-seeking. Johnny deadpans, “I take it back. You’re fascinating.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/52 "2022-01-31T18:50:55Z")
Here’s a cool pic from 2014. [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/01/30/obituaries/30xp-hesseman-03/30xp-hesseman-03-superJumbo.jpg) ](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/01/30/obituaries/30xp-hesseman-03/30xp-hesseman-03-superJumbo.jpg) Michael Tran/FilmMagic, via Getty Images ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/53 "2022-01-31T19:36:39Z")
When I lived in L.A., I worked for a small ecommerce site that had its offices just off the elevator lobby of a cool deco building in Midwilshire. Just down a back hallway was a casting office. So I was treated constantly to actors getting off the elevator, sticking their head into my office and looking around, and I’d direct them to where they were supposed to go. I’d often chat with them after their appointment as they were waiting for the elevator, and there were a few times I found myself riding up the elevator after lunch with the likes of Tim Thomerson, Michael Ironside or Bill Paxton (RIP). (somehow I suspect, at the rate of celebrity deaths we’re witnessing these days, I could wind up recycling that opening paragraph many times in Cafe Society threads, but anyhow…) Hesseman was one of those encounters. I got to tell him how much I loved WKRP growing up, and how the episode about the Who concert tragedy had just been rerun and it still held up. He was charming and disarming, as friendly a guy as you could hope to meet. Head of the Class was another huge show for me back in the day; it premiered in my freshman year of high school and it wrapped as I was graduating (HS in Ontario at the time was typically five years long), so it nicely aligned with my own secondary school experience. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/54 "2022-01-31T20:41:11Z")
_alongside Gordon Jump, a few years before WKRP_ The Piece of Cholif? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/55 "2022-01-31T20:46:59Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > The Piece of Cholif? My niece’s name is Chloe; when she was a little girl, one of the family’s nicknames for her was Chill-Low (a mispronunciation of her name), which quickly mutated into calling her the Piece of Chileef, because her mother and grandparents were all fans of _Soap_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/56 "2022-01-31T21:09:52Z")
Dog of Scum of the Earth was played by Michael Des Barres, who became one of the new dj’s in the _New WKRP in Cincinnati_. Howard Hesseman not only appeared in the later series, he directed two episodes of it, as well as one in the original. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/57 "2022-01-31T21:29:58Z")
I believe he was the TV writer and patient of Bob Newhart who came with the kids’ show called The Nazi Hour. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/58 "2022-02-02T00:49:18Z")
Yeah, a hilarious show with a perfect cast. This sad news has caused me to get out my WKRP box set and watch the show again. “I live like a college student. I own two pairs of socks and I eat over the sink. A year ago, I was living in a van, in Florida. It wasn’t my van. I didn’t care!” RIP Johnny. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/59 "2022-02-02T04:01:52Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > He had a bit part as Duke Fame, who was booked to play that night at the Enormodome. Nitpick, he played Terry Ladd, Duke Fame’s agent. > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Ah yeah, Hesseman was in “Spinal Tap.” I remembered him as a G-man at the end of “Clue,” which also had McKean. I pointed it out because he and McKean had crossed paths more tha once, hence the tweet. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657/60 "2022-02-03T01:35:27Z")
MeTV is showing some Johnny Fever episodes this Sunday. > **[MeTV remembers Howard Hesseman with a WKRP in Cincinnati two-parter](https://www.metv.com/stories/metv-remembers-howard-hesseman-with-a-wkrp-in-cincinnati-two-parter)** > > Dr. Johnny Fever battles with an alter-ego in this special two-part episode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-hesseman-dr-johnny-fever-passed-away/958657.md?page=4)