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Tim Reid
Tim Reid
19 December 1944
Norfolk, Virginia
The series was a bittersweet experience for [Tim] Reid. Although his work as the fast-living DJ Venus Flytrap brought him to the attention of the public, the critics and the network, he complains that WKRP was treated as the 'stepchild' of MTM, that the show is never mentioned when MTM officials list their successes ('The Mary Tyler Moore Show,' 'Hill Street Blues'), and that CBS didn't treat it much better. "In four years, we were moved sixteen times on the schedule [sic]," he said. "MTM thought we were poking fun at a sacred industry. And CBS never understood what we were all about."
-- NEWSDAY, 1987
TIM REID, the Emmy-nominated actor, director and producer, has been a mainstay in the entertainment industry for the last three decades. He starred as "Venus Flytrap," on the popular CBS television series "WKRP in Cincinnati" from 1978 - 1982. Twice he has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award for "Best Actor in a Comedy" for his popular characters. Reid has had many starring roles over the years in several television series, including "The Richard Pryor Show," "Simon & Simon," "Frank's Place," "Snoops," "Save Our Streets," and the hit WB series "Sister, Sister."
"One problem when you get energy and want to go with it is that with so large a cast of talented people, you have to wait three or four shows for some 'meat.'"
-- Tim Reid, 1981
"What helped me get the part was that I turned it down. When I read the script, Venus was just a black guy who came in wearing a big coat and a hat and making jive talk. I'd been up for so many of those! I'd had enough of caricatures, what white writers conceive blacks to be. I told the producer I wasn't interested in doing anything like that for three or four years. He said that it was just a pilot, that Venus would be given a human dimension and would be quiet off-the-air. I wanted that input. I thought that side was as important as the comic side. For 'WKRP,' too much of either would be bad."
-- Tim Reid, 1981
In the scene in the bar, Tim Reid originally wanted Venus to punch out the racist trucker by himself. In "America's Radio Station," Reid claims that CBS was reluctant to approve a scene with a black man punching a white man, and that he found an acceptable compromise by having Andy throw a punch at the same time as Venus. However, in the same book, a CBS operative (who read the scripts before they were passed on to the top) claims that the script always specified that Venus and Andy would do the punching together, and that if any change was made to the script it must have been self-censorship, rather than censorship by CBS.
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The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel - which crossing Chesapeake near its mouth, at Norfolk, Virginia - uses a combination of bridge spans and tunnels. Manmade islands allow the roadway to enter the tunnels beneath the Bay's shipping channels.
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