Wilson garnered his first major success when he created "WKRP in Cincinnati" (CBS, 1978-82), a highly enjoyable assemblage of endearingly eccentric types who work at a radio station. Although never a ratings smash, it carved out a niche with critics and audiences alike and proved popular in syndication, inspiring Wilson to revive the show in syndication in the early 1990s with some of the original cast as "The New WKRP in Cincinnati". Wilson's "Easy Street" (NBC, 1986-87, reteaming him with Loni Anderson from "WKRP") and "The Famous Teddy Z" (CBS, 1989-90) were formulaic sitcoms dealing with the repercussions brought on by sudden money or success and both petered out in a season. His most ambitious series "Frank's Place" (CBS, 1987-88, starring "WKRP" regular Tim Reid) attempted to eschew, at least in part, the easy laughs generated by routine sitcom antics in favor of comic-dramatic episodes emphasizing the complexity of black and Southern cultures. Although the program had enough showmanship in its fish-out-of-water premise--a black professor from New England inheriting and running a New Orleans restaurant--and featured an engaging gallery of oddballs, the acclaimed show was just unconventional enough to puzzle network schedulers and did not get renewed.

Feature films have largely given Wilson a vent to express a zanier and raunchier style of humor than is possible on network TV. After he and fellow adman Hal Needham penned a routine vehicle for Burt Reynolds' good ol' boy antics, "Stroker Ace" (1983), Wilson directed and co-wrote his first feature, "Police Academy" (1984), a deliberately inane but fast-paced succession of sight gags which cost little to make and grossed a bundle. Wilson was smart enough not to get involved with the film's half-dozen sequels, but he found neither critical nor popular approval for his silly Western spoof, "Rustler's Rhapsody" (1985) and his unappealing Whoopi Goldberg vehicle "Burglar" (1987). The extremely satisfying (but underappreciated) comedy-drama "Guarding Tess" (1994), about a former First Lady (Shirley MacLaine) and her bodyguard (Nicolas Cage), more closely approximated the tone of his generally better TV work and generated the best box office for the writer-director since "Police Academy", but he was back in low-brow "misfits-make-good" territory for "Down Periscope" (1996), starring Kelsey Grammer.

Wilson had his biggest hit yet at the helm of the screen version of Olivia Goldsmith's best-selling "The First Wives Club" (also 1996), scripted by Robert Harling. The rather mild comedy not only provided juicy roles for Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn but also struck a post-feminist nerve, with Wilson's light and airy direction helping the film become one of the year's top grossers. He next co-wrote, produced and directed "Blast from the Past" (1999), which cast Brendan Fraser in the all-too-familiar role of an innocent raised in isolation away from the world as we know it, enabling him to see it through uncorrupted fresh eyes. Emerging from the time-capsule of his parents' bomb shelter, Fraser's aptly named Adam finds his Eve (Alicia Silverstone), but despite some wonderful gags and superb comic turns by Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as his parents, the pic did not fully capitalize on its promising premise. Wilson also put Fraser through his paces that year as Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman "Dudley Do-Right", based on the animated characters created by Jay Ward. His own occasional forays into acting have included bit parts in "Frank's Place" and "Burglar", as well as voicing the President's role in "Guarding Tess."