Les Nessman 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) played by Richard Sanders. He reprised his role in the sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati

The New WKRP in Cincinnati

The New WKRP in Cincinnati is a sequel/spin-off of the original CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. It was made for the syndication market from 1991 to 1993....

.

Background and Appearance

Les was raised by his mother and stepfather (who he thought was his biological father) in Dayton. He has been employed by WKRP since 1954, 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 real 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 Communist activities.

The slight, balding, bespectacled man always wears a bow tie

Bow tie

The bow tie is a type of men's necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. Ready-tied bow ties are available, in which the distinctive bow is sewn into shape and the band around the neck incorporates a clip....

 (though he wore a standard necktie in the pilot episode) and always has a bandage somewhere on his person, a running gag

Running gag

A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....

 that began with the actor's first appearance (when he actually needed it due to a backstage injury). Lines explaining the injury were written and then cut, and thereafter Les simply appeared each week with a new bandage and new unexplained injury. 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 requiring the use of the band-aids.

Les at WKRP

Les is the ludicrously incompetent news director of WKRP and has been with the station since 1954. Knowing next to nothing about sports, he makes several glaring errors, for example mispronouncing golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez's name as "Chy Chy Rod-ri-gweeze" and calling a swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 event "breast stroking."

Les is a five-time winner of the fictitious Ohio radio news trophy, the "Buckeye Newshawk Award," 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."

Les is featured in WKRP's most famous episode, "Turkeys Away", where he reports on a disastrous station promotion using many of the same phrases as Herbert Morrison

Herbert Morrison (announcer)

Herbert Morrison was an American radio reporter best known for his dramatic report of the Hindenburg disaster, a catastrophic fire that destroyed the LZ 129 Hindenburg zeppelin on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people.-Hindenburg disaster:...

 describing the 1937 Hindenburg disaster

Hindenburg disaster

The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey...

. This scene from "Turkeys Away"http://www.littleshopofvoices.com/turkeydrop.mp3 is widely acknowledged to be one of the funniest moments in television history.

Les longs to "move up" to a higher-paying job as a TV newsman, and in one episode he shows a video tape to his station friends of himself reporting the news; unfortunately for Les, the tape is so cheaply and badly made, that Nessman runs out quite embarrassed. In another episode, Les shows 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...

 how he has been dyeing his skin black — a parody of John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin was an American journalist and author much of whose writing was about racial equality. He is best known for darkening his skin and journeying through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to experience segregation in the Deep South in 1959...

's Black Like Me

Black Like Me

Black Like Me is a non-fiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Mansfield, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama...

. When 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 :...

 is promoted as a reporter, Les is jealous enough to attempt to upstage her by plagiarizing an initial draft of one of her news stories, unaware that it is partially fictional and thus puts the station's broadcast license

Broadcast license

A broadcast license or broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum license that grants the licensee the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses are generally straddled with additional restrictions that...

 in jeopardy.

Les works in the WKRP bullpen

Bullpen

In baseball, the bullpen is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory along the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. Also, a team's roster of relief pitchers is metonymically referred to as "the bullpen"...

, a big room with desks for several of the employees. Les believes that as the news director, he should have his own private office, so he puts masking tape on the floor around his desk indicating where walls would be if he had his own office. He insists that anyone who approaches his desk must knock at an imaginary door and wait for permission to come in. He mimes opening and closing a door whenever he sits down at or leaves his desk; once he even took out a set of keys to lock the nonexistent door. All of his colleagues respect his insistence on maintaining his own private space, and play along with his "walls" charade. Mr. Carlson even "knocks" by clicking his heels together, although Jennifer was permitted to ignore the imaginary walls.

Cultural references

Les's initial sexist 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.

Les Nessman has made numerous "real life" appearances around the country. During WKRP's run, these included appearances at many pork producer association events, Nessman having become the darling of the industry, where he received real life versions of the fictional "Silver Sow Award" singing rock and roll music at nightclubs., In 1985, Sanders guest-hosted the morning drive slot on Anchorage, Alaska's radio station KENI

KENI

KENI is a radio station broadcasting a News/Talk format. Licensed to Anchorage, Alaska, USA, the station serves the Southcentral Alaska area...

 in character as Les Nessman, the first "real-life" appearance of Les since cancellation of WKRP. While Sanders simply flew into Anchorage to make the appearance, Les took the wrong bus, wound up in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, hitchhiked from there to North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

 and then to Great Slave Lake

Great Slave Lake

Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada , the deepest lake in North America at , and the ninth-largest lake in the world. It is long and wide. It covers an area of in the southern part of the territory. Its given volume ranges from to and up to ...

, rode with a bush pilot to Whitehorse

Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse is Yukon's capital and largest city . It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1476 on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in...

, bought a motorscooter, was sighted near Tok

Tok

tok may mean:*Tok, Alaska*Tok Pisin, a language*T.O.K., a Jamaican reggae dancehall band*Theory of Knowledge , an epistemology course taken by International Baccalaureate students...

, was arrested for a minor traffic infraction, and then was bailed out jail by the station. Subsequent appearances by Sanders as Les included the 1997 Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

 Christmas parade, during which he simulated a re-enactment of the famous "Turkeys Away" episode.

A reference to Les Nessman is made by Eminem

Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...

 in the song "As the World Turns":

Class clown freshman
Dressed like Les Nessman
Fuck the next lesson
I'll pass that test guessin

Another reference to Les Nessman was made in an episode of The CW

The CW Television Network

The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...

 series Reaper

Reaper (TV series)

Reaper is an American television series that focuses on Sam Oliver, a "reaper" who works for the Devil by retrieving souls that have escaped from Hell.The series originally ran on the CW from September 25, 2007 to May 26, 2009....

, where he was used as a fictitious employee the character 'Sock' made up in order to double his wages and receive other benefits, although WKRP in Cincinnati itself was unmentioned in the episode.