Andy Travis is a fictional character on the television situation comedy

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 WKRP in Cincinnati

WKRP in Cincinnati

WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...

(1978-82). He was played by Gary Sandy

Gary Sandy

Gary Sandy is an American actor, who starred as program director Andy Travis on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati....

.

Travis was originally intended to be the lead character, the more-or-less normal person who would anchor the series and provide the focus for most of the stories. He is the subject of the theme song, and one critic went so far as to describe Sandy as "Gary Tyler Moore." However, as the first season went on, it became apparent that Sandy did not resonate enough with the audience enough to be the "star", and WKRP shifted to being more of an ensemble comedy, where any one of the eight regulars could carry an episode. Despite this change, Sandy retained top billing for all four seasons.

Program director

In the pilot episode, Andy arrives in Cincinnati to take over as WKRP's program director. He previously worked the same job at a radio station in his native Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

; he also ran a station in Albuquerque. He is young, handsome and friendly, and though he is viewed with suspicion by the old guard at the low-rated station -- station manager Arthur Carlson

Arthur Carlson

Arthur Carlson, aka "The Big Guy" is a fictional character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati , the general manager of the low-rated Cincinnati radio station WKRP. The character was also a regular on the "revival" series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, still working as general...

, sales director Herb Tarlek

Herb Tarlek

Herb Tarlek is a character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati . He was played by actor Frank Bonner...

, and news director Les Nessman

Les Nessman

Les Nessman is a fictional character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati played by Richard Sanders. He reprised his role in the sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati.-Background and Appearance:...

 -- he soon manages to win them over to his side. Mr. Carlson even defends Andy to his domineering mother, the station's owner, when she wants to fire Andy.

Convinced that he's not going to last at WKRP, Andy spends about the first month in his apartment without furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

, in the event he has to suddenly leave town. In a flashback episode, it's revealed that Andy got his overweight landlady drunk to charm her into letting him out of his lease, which he does successfully.

Described by Mr. Carlson as a "cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

," Andy frequently wears boots and a cowboy hat. He also wears very tight jeans to work, which makes Mr. Carlson uncomfortable. "With denim," Andy explains, "I feel comfortable and relaxed. I feel as though I can work better." He wears his hair in the late '70s "feathered" style, and many of the characters make fun of his ample hair: Bailey Quarters

Bailey Quarters

Bailey Quarters is a character on the television sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. She was played by actress Jan Smithers, and was based on creator Hugh Wilson's wife.- WKRP roles :...

, asking him to take part in a promotion, asks him to imagine "Your hair flowing in the wind -- now, that stuff will flow!" Though he is usually quiet and low-key, describing himself as "an easy-going guy with a natural ability to lead," he can sometimes lose his temper when his employees won't listen to him, which is more often than not. In response to Johnny Fever's refusal to play his playlist of top 40 hits, Andy jokingly threatens to shoot himself. In fact, a common joke in the series is that Andy often has to literally run to the broadcast booth to stop some unacceptable material being broadcast at that moment.

Andy's first act at WKRP is to change the format from "beautiful music

Beautiful music

Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...

" to top 40 rock n' roll. He has, in his own words, "lived and breathed radio ever since I was a little boy," and his ambition is to turn WKRP around and make it a top-rated station. But he is unable to do what it really takes to improve the station: fire Herb and Les. He has come to feel affection for them, and he also knows a real house-cleaning at the station would entail getting rid of the most incompetent employee of all: Mr. Carlson. Of course, Andy does not have the authority to fire Mr. Carlson, who is technically his boss -- and the owner's son.

After his first year on the job, when WKRP only rises from 16th to 14th in an 18-station market, and while the rest of the staff is elated, Andy, though outwardly happy, is furious, and considers it a personal failure. After a conversation with his friend, nighttime disc jockey

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 Gordon "Venus Flytrap

Venus Flytrap (WKRP in Cincinnati)

Venus Flytrap is a character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati , played by Tim Reid. He is the evening and early night-time disc jockey at WKRP, and during the course of the series he also becomes the assistant program director.-Development:Concerning the paucity of black actors...

" Sims, Andy realizes that he cannot leave WKRP, or fire anybody, whether they are detrimental to the station's success or not. He likes the people too much, and has made friends here, something that did not happen at the other stations where he worked. Andy decides to abandon his ambition of becoming a hugely successful program director, or as Venus puts it, "You gave up a chance to be Boy Wonder of American radio to be the head guard of a nut farm."

As the series goes on, Andy turns his attention to fighting against the increasingly bland, corporate world of modern radio. In one episode, he meets Norris Breeze (played by thirtysomething co-star David Clennon

David Clennon

David Clennon is an American actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Miles Drentel in the ABC series Thirtysomething, a role he reprised on Once and Again....

), a former colleague of his from New Mexico who is now a successful programming consultant. Breeze is appalled by Andy's decision to let the DJs pick the music they like instead of just playing the same songs over and over, like most radio stations. "Nobody is programming their own music," Breeze says. "We are, and that's the way it's going to stay," Andy replies.

A story arc from the final season of WKRP has Andy working behind the scenes to get Mama Carlson to put more money into the station, so that he can improve the place and give the employees raises. When the staff considers unionizing, he strikes a deal with her: he will keep the union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 out of the station if she will pay higher salaries and allow him to renovate the station's lobby. The others never find out what Andy did.

Also in the final season, Andy takes Mama Carlson out to dinner and the opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, hoping to get her to invest still more money (this time to buy a new transmitter). He begins to wonder if she expects him to sleep with her in exchange for the money. In the end, it turns out that she only wanted to go out with a personable young man on her arm, though she enjoys allowing him to believe that she has greater expectations.

In the final episode, Andy is given his walking papers when Mrs. Carlson announces her plans to change the station's format from Top 40 to all news, despite the station's most recent finish in sixth place in the Cincinnati radio ratings, with the morning show at number one. She reverses her decision after Johnny, who has learned her ulterior motive of changing the format to doom the station to failure like she wants (in order to keep the station as a tax write-off for her other business ventures), threatens to divulge her motives to her son. Just as Mrs. Carlson tells Arthur that she's reconsidered changing the format, a drunken Andy and Venus burst into her home with the intent of telling her off "Mrs. Carlson...I'm tired of your crud!" Both collapse on her floor.

Personal life

In the first season episode "Love Returns", Travis is very tempted to leave WKRP. An old flame, now a very successful country and western singer (played by It's a Living star Barrie Youngfellow), shows up and rekindles old feelings. She offers him a job with her entourage, but he reluctantly turns it down. During the remainder of the show's run, Andy occasionally refers to having girlfriends and dates, and even uses Mr. Carlson's office to impress an attractive coat-check girl during a business party, but otherwise he is not actually seen actively pursuing a love interest.

Andy is not immune to the charms of his female co-workers. After Andy is knocked unconscious during a tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

, Jennifer Marlowe

Jennifer Marlowe

Jennifer Elizabeth Marlowe is a character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati . She was played by actress Loni Anderson, who received two Emmy nominations for playing the character.-Fictional character biography:...

 begins giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which a delirious Andy soon attempts to turn into a passionate kiss. Similarly, when reprimanding Bailey Quarters

Bailey Quarters

Bailey Quarters is a character on the television sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. She was played by actress Jan Smithers, and was based on creator Hugh Wilson's wife.- WKRP roles :...

 for crafting a fake news story that was subsequently read on-air, he informs her that should it ever happen again, she will be "the best-looking woman on the unemployment line" (Bailey's response in turn is non-verbal, but does indicate that she is extremely flattered by the compliment). In the episode "Filthy Pictures", Bailey uses Andy's obvious discomfort at being asked to pose in a bathing suit (for a charity photoshoot) to gently mock male chauvinist attitudes, greeting him with "Hey, baby" and calling him "beefcake". Andy does get his own back, however, when Bailey dresses stylishly in purple and pretends to be a former nude pinup model (in order to get nude photos of Jennifer back from a sleazy photographer); when she returns to the station after the successful ruse, Andy greets her by saying "Hey baby...purple's my favorite color" before chasing her around the station.

Casting

Hugh Wilson, the creator and showrunner of WKRP, originally wanted to offer the part of Andy to David Letterman

David Letterman

David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...

. However, MTM decided to cast Letterman in another show, Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...

's comedy-variety show Mary

Mary (variety)

Mary is an American variety show that aired on CBS as part of its 1978-79 fall lineup. The series was hosted by and stars Mary Tyler Moore.-Synopsis:...

(which was canceled after only three weeks). Several other actors were considered for the part, but CBS executives decided that Sandy was the best choice.