Jennifer Marlowe
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Jennifer Marlowe is a character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82). She was played by actress Loni Anderson, who received two Emmy nominations for playing the character.
Jennifer is the receptionist at the AM radio station WKRP. She sits at a desk in the station's lobby, answering the few phone calls the station gets and taking messages. Jennifer is very clear about what her job does and does not entail: she does not take dictation, type letters, or make or get coffee. As she explains in one episode, "I am a receptionist. Receptionists receive. They offer comfort, provide support, answer a few telephone calls. But they do not type, unless it's for a very good cause."
Her primary job at the station is providing support and comfort for the station's general manager, Arthur Carlson, a befuddled, childlike man who depends on Jennifer to shield him from people and situations he can't handle. Jennifer uses various tactics to protect Mr. Carlson from having to talk to people, including telling them that he's dead. Though Mr. Carlson pays Jennifer an extremely large salary -- she is the highest-paid employee at the station -- there is never any suggestion of impropriety between the two, and Jennifer's relationship to her boss is similar to that of a mother towards a child.
For the bulk of the show's run, Jennifer is pursued endlessly by Herb Tarlek, the station's sales manager, who even goes as far as to convince outside parties that he and Jennifer are a couple. Jennifer effortlessly rebuffs Herb's clumsy attempts at flirtation, before finally deciding to call his bluff (in the episode "Put Up or Shut Up") and accepting his offer of a date. Herb is so overwhelmed at even the remotest hint of his fantasies coming true that he begins to hyperventilate during their date, and the two end the night by agreeing to be friends. Dr. Johnny Fever also often flirted with Jennifer, but in a somewhat more playful fashion; in return, during the episode "Goodbye Johnny", Jennifer emulates Marilyn Monroe's highly sensual "Happy Birthday" performance (for President John F. Kennedy) in a song for Johnny, which leaves the normally unflappable DJ awestruck. Jennifer also had some semi-flirtatious encounters with Andy Travis, and once accompanied Les Nessman as his date to an awards banquet.
Her back-story is never fully explained, but can be pieced together from various throwaway references on the show. She comes from a town called Rock Throw, West Virginia; when speaking to her mother on the phone, she slips back into her native Southern accent. She has been on her own since the age of seventeen, and there are hints in one or two episodes that she might have been supporting herself through prostitution. She left West Virginia and moved to Cincinnati, where she stumbled into WKRP and got the job as the new receptionist. She soon attracted the attention of various wealthy older men. She rarely dates younger men, claiming "I like older men better. They're so mature and kind, and they tire easily." Her dates, most of whom are never seen, shower her with expensive gifts, allowing her to live in a huge penthouse apartment with a piano and a doorbell that plays the song "Fly Me to the Moon." Also through her wealthy boyfriends, she has made friends with a number of wealthy high-society people, including Ronald Reagan; she implies in one episode that President Reagan offered her the job of Secretary of the Treasury, but she turned it down. Her most frequently-mentioned boyfriend is someone referred to only as "The Admiral," who in one episode flies her to Bethlehem for Christmas. The episode "Jennifer and the Will" introduces another sugar daddy, Colonel Buchanan (Pat O'Brien), who dies and makes Jennifer executrix of his will. Though the papers portray Jennifer as a gold-digging floozy, it turns out that Jennifer has asked the Colonel not to leave her any money; he accedes to her request, leaving her only the first dollar he ever made.
Despite her apparent wealth and high-society connections, Jennifer remains at WKRP, unwilling to leave her friends and especially Mr. Carlson, who is almost totally dependent on her; in an episode where she takes the day off and leaves Carlson in charge of the phones, he goes completely to pieces by the end. With her calm, unflappable demeanor and ability to keep her cool in most situations, Jennifer also helps maintain morale among the station's employees; in the episode "Most Improved Station," when the other staff members are bickering uncontrollably, Jennifer brings them back together by explaining the family dynamic at the station and reminding them not to take each other for granted.
Jennifer was famous for being the opposite of the "dumb blonde" stereotype that pervaded television in the late '70s; she is extremely smart and shrewd, and somewhat resentful of the fact that people assume she is dumb based solely on the way she looks. Her strength and self-possession make her seem almost superhumanly competent, and sometimes her lack of real empathy for other people is portrayed as a character flaw. In the episode "Ask Jennifer," she takes over as the host of a call-in advice show, using her intelligence and knowledge to give easy, offhand answers to all her callers' questions, but she doesn't think much about the potential consequences of the advice she gives, and when a woman is beaten up by her husband as a result of taking Jennifer's advice, a distraught and guilt-ridden Jennifer quits the show.
Another episode that reveals some cracks in Jennifer's "perfect" facade is the episode "Jennifer Falls in Love," where Jennifer falls for her first non-elderly boyfriend in years: Steel Hawthorne, a handsome blond repairman. When Steel asks Jennifer for a loan, and then makes a pass at her friend Bailey Quarters, Jennifer realizes that Steel is simply a gold-digger after her money, and she starts to question her own tendency to accept gifts from wealthy men. However, Mr. Carlson convinces her that she is a better person than Steel after all.
However, Jennifer's relationships with the other female characters on the show display the amount of respect they had for her. Mr. Carlson's wife is very friendly towards Jennifer (with no hint of jealousy or concern over her husband's close platonic relationship with Jennifer), while Jennifer's relationship with Bailey is often that of two sisters (with Jennifer the older, more experienced one often watching out for Bailey, the younger and more naive one). And although it is never spoken outright, it is clear that Mama Carlson views Jennifer as the only person who is her equal (and thus, the only one deserving of her respect) at the station.
Other memorable episodes focusing on Jennifer include "I Do... I Do... For Now," where Jennifer's old boyfriend from West Virginia, T.J. (played by Hoyt Axton) comes back to claim her hand in marriage; "Filthy Pictures," where a sleazy photographer secretly takes nude pictures of Jennifer and intends to make his fortune by selling them to a girlie magazine (partly a reference to the famous nude photos of Marilyn Monroe), and "Jennifer Moves," where Jennifer moves into a suburban neighborhood and discovers how unpleasant the suburbs can be.
