Hugh Wilson, ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ Creator and ‘Police Academy’ Director, Dies at 74

Hugh Wilson, creator of the acclaimed sitcom WKRP in Cincinatti and director, co-writer of the first Police Academy movie that launched a franchise, has died at 74.

An Emmy winner and seven-time nominee, Wilson died over the holiday weekend at his home in Albemarle County, Virginia, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His death was announced by the CBS station in Charlottesville, Virginia. No other details were immediately available.

WKRP in Cincinnati, set at a rock radio station in the Ohio city, ran for four seasons on CBS from 1978-82. The series starred Howard Hesseman and Tim Reid as deejays Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap, respectively; Gary Sandy and Gordon Jump as station execs; Richard Sanders as the mousey newsman Les Nessman; and Anderson as WKRP’s comely receptionist.

WKRP had trouble finding a sizable network audience. However, it became a huge hit in first-run syndication after its original airing and spawned The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which aired another two years on local stations.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that Wilson was asked to rewrite a screenplay for a movie about a group of misfits in training to join the police force in 1983.

“I got this script, and it was such a lousy piece of junk,” he recalled in a 2015 interview for the Archive of American Television. “I told my agent that I was in no way interested. He came back to me and said, ‘This is The Ladd Co., it’s an important company, part of Warner Bros., a lot of important people are attached — and they’re saying that if you do a rewrite, they’ll let you direct it.’ I said, ‘That’s a whole different story.’ “

Police Academy (1984), starring Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, George Gaynes and Michael Winslow, was made for $3.8 million, according to Wilson, and grossed about $100 worldwide, one of most financially successful movies released that year. Six sequels, none involving Wilson, followed.

“He was a writer first,” Winslow, the comic famous for making sound effects, said Tuesday in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “He taught me that if the script is funny, don’t force it to be funny. Let it play, let it play.”

Wilson also directed The First Wives Club (1996), starring Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton as women seeking revenge on their ex-husbands, and co-wrote and helmed Guarding Tess (1994), featuring Shirley MacLaine as a first lady and Nicolas Cage as a Secret Service agent trying to protect her.

He wrote and directed two 1999 films starring Brendan Fraser, Blast From the Past and Dudley Do-Right, and penned the screenplay for Hal Needham’s Stroker Ace (1983), starring Burt Reynolds and his future wife Loni Anderson.

Wilson was born Aug. 21, 1943, in Miami.

Twitter users turned to the social media platform to express their grief on the news of Wilson’s passing.