Character Arc
Les Nessman is WKRP's earnest and eccentric news director, a self-important but deeply insecure broadcaster who takes his coverage of farm reports, weather, and hog prices with absolute seriousness. Bespectacled and often sporting a bandage from some minor mishap, Les fancies himself a serious journalist and prizes the various awards he claims to have won, even as the rest of the staff regards him with a mix of affection and exasperation.
A recurring gag has Les marking the boundaries of his nonexistent private office with tape on the floor, insisting that coworkers knock before stepping over the imaginary walls and door. His fussy devotion to decorum and his tangled relationships with authority make him a constant source of comedy, yet the show treats him with genuine warmth, allowing flashes of courage and decency beneath his anxious exterior.
Les is at the heart of several of the show's most celebrated moments, most notably his frantic eyewitness narration during the Turkeys Away catastrophe, which he reports as though covering a disaster of historic proportions. Richard Sanders, who co-wrote some episodes of the series, made Les Nessman one of television's classic comic characters and earned an Emmy nomination for the role.