"Dave, I don't know if you've noticed but most of the stuff I do is weirder than hell." - Jimmy James
Jimmy James (portrayed by
Stephen Root) is the multimillionaie owner and CEO of Jimmy James, Inc., a company that owns a number of production and media outlets on TV's
NewsRadio. The crown jewel of his empire is a small AM radio station broadcasting in
New York,
WNYX 980 AM. James grew up in
Ocala, Florida, fought the Hippies during the
Vietnam War era, and eventually became a self-made millionaire through a series of investments and gambling. Most notably he's attempted and/or carried out the following unusual or eccentric schemes and actions:
- Orders new news director Dave Nelson to fire his predecessor. ("Pilot")
- Has emergency fire sprinklers glued to ceiling without being hooked up to a water source. ("Smoking")
- Offers to buy WNYX's way out of a No Smoking Ordinance at the city, state, and federal levels. ("Smoking")
- Brings his golfing buddy to the station to watch how the staff handles a breaking news situation. ("The Crisis")
- Orders Dave to hand out the yearly staff bonuses, including a "bonus" of $0 called The Shaft. ("Big Day")
- Uses WNYX budget to fund fuel to the station's helicopter to fly him to his home everyday at lunch so he could feed his dogs. ("Luncheon At The Waldorf")
- Invites business visionary Tom P. Baxter to speak on the air, not realizing the man's business vision consists of "Computers are amazing! You can do spreadsheets on them!". ("Sweeps Week")
- Introduces Goofy Ball to the WNYX office. ("Goofy Ball")
- Woos a potential wife through a business negotiation; in the end proposes in the form of a deal. The two are unable to come to an agreement as the dealbreaker is over the location of a vacation spot. He wanted Hawaii, she wanted the Vineyard. ("Negotiation")
- Wants Paul Simon to endorse his new line of snow tires in an advertising campaign entitled "A Lighter Shade Of Whitewalls". ("The Cane")
- Gives cheap hats from other Jimmy James Inc. properties as Christmas gifts to the staff. Makes up for this by giving the staff new cars, with the exception of Matthew Brock who gets the rights to an old-time radio show. ("Xmas Story")
- Tries to sell WNYX in an attempt to woo an investor's heart. ("Station Sale")
- Celebrates April Fools Day in February, dumping green slime on people (ala You Can't Do That On Television) and other various pranks. ("The Song Remains The Same")
- Teaches Beth his unique style of business negotiation. ("Zozo")
- Makes a list of all his potential wife candidates and begins wooing each of them. ("Led Zeppelin")
- Bets station equipment and staff at a poker game with other station owners. He bets Bill McNeal against a DBX Console... and loses. ("Prescence")
- Runs for President in an effort to meet women. Campaign theme song: "Life's Been Good To Me So Far". ("President")
- Claims to be Watergate tipster Deep Throat. ("President")
- Writes negative review about WNYX in a magazine under an alias. ("Review")
- Gets hooked on Stargate Defender arcade game. ("Arcade")
- Throws lavish Halloween costume party, featuring his super-special-spooky version of the hokey pokey.
- Teaches Beth how to play the stock market. ("Stocks")
- Relies on Matthew to pick Christmas gifts for his wealthy mogul friends. ("Christmas")
- Needs coaching for dinner with then-president Bill Clinton. ("The Trainer")
- Relies on Catherine Duke to teach him how to beat the system at three card monte. In the end he steals the scammers' wallets. ("Led Zepplin Boxed Set")
- Goes on vacation, but uses a large speaker box to remain in contact with what's going on at WNYX. ("Complaint Box")
- Buys a box of worthless junk, believing it's all priceless movie memorabillia (examples: the sword from "The Sound Of Music", the sled from "Citizen Kane" labeled 'Rose Bowl', the skull of George "Goober" Lindsay, the Clark Bar from "Looking For Mr. Clarkbar", a stuffed beaver from "Basic Instinct", two disproportionate stone tablets from "The Ten Commandments"). ("Rose Bowl")
- Allows a class of youngsters to take a field trip to WNYX in an attempt to get closer to the teacher. ("Kids")
- Sells off WNYX furniture and replaces it with card tables, boards on cinder blocks, and other cheap alternatives in an effort to cut the budget. ("Twins")
- Wants Beth to randomly interview people on streets of Manhattan; is oblivious to the fact that she takes the allocated budget and goes shopping, gets a massage, etc. ("Our Fiftieth Episode")
- Suffers a heart attack; his lawyer shows the WNYX staff a pre-recorded tape of him saying "If you're watching this, then I've had to flee the country over some confusion with the IRS...". ("Sleeping")
- Sends former suicidal employee Mike Johnson to Siberia in a plan to get rid of him. ("Jumper")
- Hires an efficiency expert to trim the fat at WNYX. ("Planbee")
- Stars in a made-for-TV-movie about his life. It turns out that he's horribly wooden on camera. ("The Public Domain")
- Has his poorly selling autobiography, Jimmy James: Capitalist Lion Tamer, translated in Japanese. The book becomes a hit overseas. He then has the Japanese version translated back into English, resulting in Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler. ("Super Karate Monkey Death Car")
- Builds giagantic house "like Xanadu, but with not such a dorky name." He decides to call it Fort Awesome. ("The Secret of Management")
- Reveals the Secret of Management to Lisa Miller. There are over 600 secrets. Examples: "Measure twice, cut once.", "I'm with stupid.", "Where's the beef?". ("The Secret of Management")
- Buys Beth a temporary dutchesshood so she can bid for him at a celebrity auction and look impressive while doing it. ("Look Who's Talking")
- Trashes the breakroom in an attempt to end the maintenance strike, knowing electrician Joe Garelli can't stand to see WNYX fall apart. ("Who's The Boss? (Part 1)")
- Flips a coin to decide who will be the news director. The coin never comes down. ("Who's The Boss (Part 2)")
- Holds an election (and debate) so that the staff can vote on whether Dave or Lisa should be news director.
- Pays off security door repair team to tell a very paranoid Dave that the new glass security door shattered due to poor installation. In reality somebody must have rigged the door in an attempt to make Dave look foolish. ("Security Door")
- Changes his home phone number every week in an attempt to avoid his family. ("Big Brother")
- Buys Matthew a childrens' motorized car. ("Beep Beep")
- Theorizes that WNYX's profits are tied to Dave and Lisa being a couple and therefore orders them to begin dating again for the good of the company.
- Plans to circle the globe in a hot air balloon. In reality he's faking the entire event on a soundstage with the help of Joe. ("Balloon")
- Wants to hire an intern, but instead of calling the new hire an "intern" he prefers to call him a Rocking Ranger of the Junior Jimmy Brigade. ("Monster Rancher")
- Enlists Joe and Matthew to fight each other for a charity boxing match. ("4:20")
- Begins a wild-west-style tour of WNYX, turning it into a western radio station. ("Jackass Junior High")
- While monitoring Lisa working undercover at Lucky Burger for an expose piece, he spends the entire day eating fast food that he knows to be spoiled. ("Lucky Burger")
- Gets hooked on white noise. ("Noise")
- Goes to jail as suspected thief D.B. Cooper. ("Jail")
- Breaks out of jail and hides out at Dave's parents' house. ("The Lam")
- Outwits Johnny Johnson and regains control of his empire. ("Clash of the Titans")
- Hires a security consultant to help keep him from being kidnapped despite the fact there is no threat against him. ("Stinkbutt")
- Holds a vote via WNYX's website to determine who - Dave, Lisa, or Max - will get his recommendation for a new apartment. ("Apartment")
- Plans to build two giant towers in the shape of his initials: JJ. The towers are so tall that they will block out sunlight all over Central Park. ("Towers")
- Uses hypnotism to face his fear of hippies. ("Hair")
- Remodels and converts the WNYX men's restroom into a men's lounge, complete with velvet chairs, hardwood floors, and other finer things in life. ("Assistant")
- Attempts to banish Mothers Day from the calendar by staging a Million Mommas March. ("Padded Suit")
- Allows Matthew to run his corporate empire for a day. ("Freaky Friday")
- Sells WNYX and retires to New Hampsire, taking all of the staff (except Dave and Matthew) with him. ("Retirement"/"New Hampshire")
References:
The Newsradio Station website: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/8183/