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| - Jennifer is the receptionist at the AM radio station WKRP. She sits at a desk in the 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." When asked if she belongs to a union, she says she is a member of the exclusive "Sisterhood of Blond Receptionists", adding "If you saw our minimum salary, you'd have a heart attack and die."
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| abstract
| - Jennifer is the receptionist at the AM radio station WKRP. She sits at a desk in the 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." When asked if she belongs to a union, she says she is a member of the exclusive "Sisterhood of Blond Receptionists", adding "If you saw our minimum salary, you'd have a heart attack and die." Her primary job at the station is providing support and comfort for the station's general manager, Arthur Carlson, a befuddled man who depends on Jennifer to shield him from people and situations he wants to avoid. Jennifer uses various tactics, including telling people that he's dead. In the first-season episode "Mama's Review", it is revealed that Jennifer is the highest-paid station employee, with a salary of $24,000 per year (over $80,000 in modern dollars). However, there is never any suggestion of impropriety between the two. In fact one of the running gags of the show is Mr. Carlson's almost child like reliance on Jennifer as a maternal nurturing figure, perhaps due to the fact that Carlson's own mother was anything but nurturing. Mr. Carlson treats Jennifer with great respect and deference and Mr. Carlson's wife Carmen is also shown to be on very friendly terms with her. And although it is never spoken, it is evident that Mrs. Carlson (Mr. Carlson's mother and the owner of the station) considers Jennifer as somewhat of an equal. 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. (That is played to humorous effect when Andy convinces the station to fool a "program doctor" by acting 180 degrees of their true personality.) Her strength and self-possession make her seem almost superhumanly competent. Almost, but not quite. 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 enough about the potential consequences of the advice she gives, and when a woman is beaten up by her controlling husband as a result of taking her advice to stand up to him, a distraught and guilt-ridden Jennifer quits the show.
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