Once upon a time there was a brilliant television series named Remember WENN. It ran for four seasons, fifty-six episodes, and was supposed to run for a fifth, if shorter season, when it was abruptly canceled by AMC, who didn't even have the decency to tell the show's creator, Rupert Holmes, up front that his series was canceled. They waited until he was on the road with a play and then announced the cancellation, and it was the fans—one of whom was me—who broke the news to him.

Remember WENN took place at radio station WENN in Pittsburgh, PA, from September 1939 to December 1941, and, had it continued, would have followed the cast into World War II. It was literate, used clever wordplay evocative of the radio comedies of the same era, never devolved into the boob jokes and sniggery sex comedy that was common in network comedies at the time. The series was filmed in Astoria in New York City, and the cast was more familiar to stage audiences than television fans, except for character actor John Bedford Lloyd, although several of the actors made appearances on that other New York-filmed series, Law & Order.

Since the series aired on AMC, there were really no ratings for it, but the series was the darling of several reviewers, and it garnered pretty much mostly good reviews everywhere. In the fourth season especially, several celebrity guest stars, like Daniel Benzali, Jason Alexander, and Greg Germann were added to the mix. Alas, the new regime, which wanted a "younger, hipper" image than AMC's old movie classics, wanted the series out, too. (They replaced it with a series about the movies, The Lot, which was, frankly, a mess.)

The other thing Remember WENN garnered was a large crowd of loyal fans. Since the series was set in the 1940s and about old time radio, you might have thought the fans would be older. Surprisingly, though some of them were, a large number were young. The founder of the WENN chat group was twelve years old. Many of the fans were in junior- and high school, a number of others were college-age and watched the series in their dorm rooms. The rest of us ranged from 30s through 50s (I was 41 at the time the series premiered), and our oldest fan was also the father of the series' creator, Leonard Goldstein, Rupert Holmes' dad, who was a fixture on the chat for several years.

AMC for years tried to disavow the series. They proclaimed Mad Men as their very first "original series." For years they ignored fans' pleas for a DVD set. But today AMC now has a streaming service which they need to fill with programming, so, besides all their new original programming (most of which seems to be four million iterations of their zombie show, The Walking Dead) they needed fill time. And so, Remember WENN has been revived on AMC+.

In the meantime an outfit called "Stars in the House," a video podcast hosted by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley to benefit the theaters shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic, put together a Remember WENN reunion on February 23. It was broadcast via YouTube with a chat function enabled on the side.

Well, to our absolute delight, not only did most of the cast manage to show up "live" (only Hugh O'Gorman and C.J. Byrnes couldn't make it, and they sent recorded messages), including Melinda Mullins, who now lives in France and logged in at two in the morning, but creator Rupert Holmes was there as well, and the cast was able to spring a surprise that some of the fans knew about as well: a birthday greeting, as Rupert's 75th birthday was the next day, February 24. This was sheer pleasure; you hear so many stories about how some television cast members don't get along (apparently Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic of Castle hated each other), but the WENN cast apparently adored each other and they were delighted to reunite. At one point John Bedford Lloyd asked if Teressa (Rupert's super-special assistant) could collect everyone's e-mail addresses so that the cast could communicate with each other. It was two hours of wonderful memories and laughter.

The really special thing was that of the crowd on chat, over half of the people were either original members of the original WENN chat group (myself, Rodney, Alena, Biz, Brett, Katie, Julia, John, Mallory—who was thirteen when she joined the group!—and more), plus a bunch more of the later denizens like Rita, Erin, Meggan, etc. So while we were watching and listening to the cast have their reunion, we were having a reunion at the same time. These were people we talked to for years, even after the series ended; we were still having chat ten years after the show was canceled, albeit less often, but still up until midnight, one o'clock on Saturday nights. Heck, I put chat programs on my later phones and tables so I could do chat as well as attend conventions. We were like one big family and on February 23 it was the biggest, bonniest family reunion ever.

There was even a happy ending to this story: Biz created a WENN chat room on Discord, which appears to be a kind of chat room that's open all the time, and now we have a place to meet again.

If you were a Remember WENN fan, you may enjoy this replay of the reunion, and you can see all of us having fun on the chat as well.

And if that's not enough Remember WENN for you, Rodney Walker, who used to be known for his in-depth "Walk Throughs" of the episodes, has done a bravura "Walk Through" of the reunion:

Remember WENN Reunion Walk-Through

Labels: friends, Remember WENN, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:26:00 PM

Comments:

Facebook seems able to read my mind for this morning I had two Remember WENN posts: about the Reunion and the streaming service. I thought 'Linda will probably have something to say about this' and I was right. I tend to be a few decades behind the rest of the U.S. and only bought a VCR just as Remember WENN was ending and – since I didn't know it was ending – I never bothered taping episodes because I assumed it would continue airing on AMC forever. For years the only episodes I had were from the one video tape marketed, that contains On the Air, Sight Unseen & Hilary Booth Registered Nurse. Later on I went to eBay and found a For Your Consideration: In All Acting Categories for a Comedy Series tape apparently sent to folks connected with the Emmy Awards. That tape contains The Diva That Wouldn't Die, The Emperor Smith & Christmas in the Airwaves.
Even now I have no way of obtaining streaming services (if that involves paying money) but I'm glad that many people will be able to watch all episodes of Remember WENN, a series which has special meaning to me since I live within a hundred miles of Pittsburgh, so it's an (almost) neighborhood show. I live in a tiny apartment that started life as a motel room, and a few years ago the landlord started providing WiFi. And since I own a Kindle I have access to YouTube, so I'll need to check out the Reunion. Life is good.

# posted by  Karen : 10:40:00 AM

 

I just found out I have to donate to a cause I'm unfamiliar with before I can watch the Remember WENN reunion. Oh, well, I'm glad that others were able to watch it.

# posted by  Karen : 8:04:00 PM

 

Karen, there's no need to donate anything. Just press play. A donation wasn't required even when you watched live. The fund is for actors unemployed due to COVID-19 because the Broadway theaters were closed.

There is a streaming service that doesn't require money called Plex that is playing the first two seasons of REMEMBER WENN under the list "Comedy Gold."

# posted by  Linda : 11:55:00 PM

 

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