An event in Hamilton on Wednesday evening paid tribute to an iconic episode from "WKRP in Cincinnati" called "Turkeys Away."

 

An event in Hamilton on Wednesday evening paid tribute to an iconic episode from "WKRP in Cincinnati" called "Turkeys Away."

Hamilton businesses, the Hamilton Fire Department and fans of the old show got together in a clever tribute to the episode, dropping 120 rubber ducks dressed as turkeys from a fire truck, to simulate them falling out of the helicopter like in the TV show.

The American sitcom aired from 1978 through 1982, featuring the misadventures of a Cincinnati radio station. And the "turkey drop" episode is by far the most iconic, first airing on Oct. 30, 1978.

Forty live turkeys were dropped from a helicopter onto an unsuspecting Cincinnati shopping mall below. In what was supposed to be a Thanksgiving giveaway promotion, the station's hapless manager — Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson — decided to drop live turkeys from a helicopter.

Les Nessman, the station's newsman, provided the play-by-play as the carnage unfolded.

"One just went through the windshield of a parked car. This is terrible. Oh, the humanity!" Nessman recapped.

The rubber ducks were $10 each, with half of the money raised supporting the Butler County Veterans Memorial Wall. The other half went to the person whose duck came closest to the target upon landing.

The event was held at the Casual Pint Hamilton parking lot at Riverfront Plaza.

The fiasco ends as Carlson, covered with feathers, returns to the station and mutters the iconic line, "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."