# Prairie Home Companion: Last Show.



## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

This weekend will be Garrison Keillor's last show for The Prairie Home Companion radio show that he created and has hosted for the last 42 years. It will be taped on 7/1, rather than broadcast live and aired on 7/2. At the age of 73, and after a minor stroke a year or two ago, he plans to be a writer full time, rather than the peripatetic vagabond that takes his live show all over the country to appear in what historic theaters remain. The show will continue with a new host in the fall. (But I fear, not for long, the show and the man are one.)

Having known of this show for at least 30 years, it's only over the last 8 or 10 that I've listened when I've been able to this brew of cornball, but sly humor, down-home music from Nashville to Staten Island and more wisdom than is often good for 'ya.

I can't help but be filled with a sense of loss and regret out of all proportion to its place in my life, and the feeling that something unique and valuable will now be gone forever from a world sorely in need of it.

https://www.oregonlive.com/tv/2016/06/when_to_hear_garrison_keillors.html


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

*Thanks for the reminder*

I share your affection for Prairie Home Companion, and I think I first listened to it at least 30 years ago. I particularly enjoyed hearing the school lunch menus read, and the riff about getting one's tongue frozen to a pump handle. After several years, however, the program failed to hold my interest, although an occasional listen is still pleasant.

I still occasionally think about the inhabitants of Lake Woebegone, and can conjure up their voices and some memorable lines.

The TV series Northern Exposure holds a similar appeal for me that PHC does for you. But, again, I drifted away from regularly tuning in about halfway through the show's run.

Regards,
Gurdon


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## cellochris (Dec 14, 2015)

I heard about this, thanks for sharing. My favorites are Guy Noir and the news from Lake Woebgone. He will be missed.


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## culverwood (Feb 13, 2006)

Even this side of the ocean he was appreciated his Lake Wobegon Days I bought on cassette, I wonder if I can still find the player.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

I can hardly contain my glee. There are certain weekend hours where I tune to NPR, as most of their weekend programming is superb, and I hear the droll smug Keilor voice. And then I have to go listen to vitamin commercials on another station instead. 
I'll admit that every blue moon one would get a mild chuckle somewhere through one of the prolonged sketches, but as someone that has heard Hearty White's "Miracle Nutrition" I just have no patience for the needle in a haystack when there is so much gold elsewhere.
The one good thing I ever heard about him was that he was such a sluggish talker that people listened to him to learn English, similar to VOA's Special English.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Gurdon said:


> I share your affection for Prairie Home Companion, and I think I first listened to it at least 30 years ago. I particularly enjoyed hearing the school lunch menus read, and the riff about getting one's tongue frozen to a pump handle. After several years, however, the program failed to hold my interest, although an occasional listen is still pleasant.
> 
> I still occasionally think about the inhabitants of Lake Woebegone, and can conjure up their voices and some memorable lines.
> 
> ...


I most often found myself listening on the car radio, where I listen to most of the radio I enjoy. While rarely catching the entire show, (Much of Country and Western isn't my cup-of-tea.) it very often would accompany my wife and I home in the twilight from an early weekend dinner. And I can remember a six hour return drive from holiday when alternating public radio stations aired different episodes sequentially. Literally like an old friend to accompany us through the night.

And I also share your enthusiasm for Northern Exposure, a parody of archetypes, lampooning profundity while being sneakily profound.



culverwood said:


> Even this side of the ocean he was appreciated his Lake Wobegon Days I bought on cassette, I wonder if I can still find the player.


I'm a bit surprised and find it interesting that this form of very American corn-ball humor would find much of an audience in the UK, but some aspects are no doubt universal.



Tempest said:


> I can hardly contain my glee. There are certain weekend hours where I tune to NPR, as most of their weekend programming is superb, and I hear the droll smug Keilor voice. And then I have to go listen to vitamin commercials on another station instead.
> I'll admit that every blue moon one would get a mild chuckle somewhere through one of the prolonged sketches, but as someone that has heard Hearty White's "Miracle Nutrition" I just have no patience for the needle in a haystack when there is so much gold elsewhere.
> The one good thing I ever heard about him was that he was such a sluggish talker that people listened to him to learn English, similar to VOA's Special English.


Stick around for a while. See what happens. 

WNYC is the radio station on which I listen to PHC. And as someone who shared a residence between Manhattan and St. Paul, Keillor also occasionally did a very brief spot on WNYC where he would read a bit of poetry and explain its circumstances. And so he did for John Gillespie Magee, the Canadian aviator and poet who wrote _High Flight_, and I found myself literally moved to tears.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee,_Jr.

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

I have sat through his stuff. As I said, once in a blue moon it would provide a giggle or a bit of charm. But way, way too often I'd give up after ten or fifteen minutes of rambling that may as well have been read out of a phone book. It is the opposite of pith, and like live classical music performances, it's almost like they are deliberately slowing it down further each time in some self-aware nod to plodding haughtiness. _Green Acres_ was rural and folksy, but they moved and spoke at a human pace. Mind you, public radio in general is filled with leisurely, breathy, navel-gazing, so for PHC to stand out so annoyingly in that field is really quite an accomplishment.


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Hailing from The Lutheran North, as I do, I always found the show wonderfully entertaining (though like most here, I seem to have found it about 30 years ago - that must have been when it went into wide syndication).

My understanding is that the show will persist, only with a new narrator, though it's such a One Man Show that I hardly see how this is possible.

DH


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## culverwood (Feb 13, 2006)

> I'm a bit surprised and find it interesting that this form of very American corn-ball humour would find much of an audience in the UK, but some aspects are no doubt universal.


In a similar vein Alastair Cooke's "Letter from America" was required listening at home and can still be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f6hbp in the UK (I do not know if it works elsewhere).

"The first American Letter was broadcast on 24 March 1946; the series was initially commissioned for only 13 instalments. The series came to an end 58 years (2,869 instalments) later, in March 2004. Along the way, it picked up a new name (changing from American Letter to Letter from America in 1950) and an enormous audience, being broadcast not only in Britain and in many other Commonwealth countries, but throughout the world by the BBC World Service."


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

I'll tune in every now and then but my patience with his droning on last for but a few minutes at best. 

Over the years when it has suited him, and it often does, his politics pervades the broadcast. I realize in some corners he'll be celebrated as a national treasure but I doubt I'll miss him as I wasn't even aware of his retirement until clicking on this thread. 

He's a liberal elitist. In a 60 minutes interview he indicated that he feels more at home in NYC than anywhere else. His folksy stories are riddled are generalizations and characterization of rural people for an audience that likes its country folk simple, plain and not too introspective.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

Dhaller said:


> My understanding is that the show will persist, only with a new narrator...


Oh. Honestly, the female voice is better, whoever she is. She has human range and personality, unlike Keillor. 


SG_67 said:


> Over the years when it has suited him, and it often does, his politics pervades the broadcast.


I hesitated to bring this up, but the heavy-handed lefty propagandizing really was the final straw for an already grating and dry broadcast.


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## Brio1 (May 13, 2010)

He is a silly mediocrity and rather boring. Good riddance.

https://www.slate.com/articles/news...words/2006/02/garrison_keillor_vulgarian.html


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

Dangit, I still heard the Keillor voice while flipping through stations today. I was most displeased. When will he be totally purged from the airwaves?


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^^But, but......
Garrison Keillor, his voice, his imagination, The Prairie Home Companion...an institution in 'down home entertainment'... We can't just have him fade away, without a few curtain calls!


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## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

I've never been a fan of Prairie Home Companion, or of Garrison Keillor. I don't hate them, they just never "spoke" to me.

Occasionally, I'd be mildly irked when tuning into my local public radio station on the weekend, and realizing that it's PHC time. And no point trying the public radio station in the next closest city, since PHC would be on it, too.

But for the past few years, I've made good use of the TuneIn app on my phone, which gives me access to around 100,000 radio stations and a couple of million podcasts, so the fact that PHC took up a big block of air time on my favorite local radio stations every Sunday has really mostly stopped bothering me. These days, I can always find some station somewhere airing something of interest to me, or some podcast worth a listen.

But this having been said, I do understand that lots of people do feel a connection with Prairie Home Companion and with Garrison Keillor, and I can respect their feelings. I know how upsetting it can be when a beloved radio or tv series is brought to a close, or when a broadcast personality with whom we feel a deep connection - even if we've never met - retires. (I never made fun of the people who wept because "Downton Abbey" came to an end.) I felt genuine sorrow when I learned that one of my favorite authors, Iain Banks, had died - never mind that I'd never met the man, and if we'd shared an elevator I wouldn't have recognized him.

I suspect lots of people who didn't necessarily love PHC, or even Garrison Keillor, are upset about Keillor leaving the show, because Prairie Home Companion and Garrison Keillor gave some tradition and continuity to their lives. The show, and the man, were part of their memories of years past. You don't have to love something for it to bring to mind memories of times and places and people whom you do love.

So like I say, I won't miss Garrison Keillor, and I won't miss PHC once it's off the air - which I could see happening within a year or two of Keillor leaving. But I respect other people's sense of loss over this. Their feelings are genuine, whether I share them or not.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

12345Michael54321 said:


> ................
> 
> But this having been said, I do understand that lots of people do feel a connection with Prairie Home Companion and with Garrison Keillor, and I can respect their feelings. I know how upsetting it can be when a beloved radio or tv series is brought to a close, or when a broadcast personality with whom we feel a deep connection - even if we've never met - retires. (I never made fun of the people who wept because "Downton Abbey" came to an end.) I felt genuine sorrow when I learned that one of my favorite authors, Iain Banks, had died - never mind that I'd never met the man, and if we'd shared an elevator I wouldn't have recognized him.
> 
> ........


Indeed, your comment regarding the loss of favored authors hits home with me. I'm still mourning the loss of Tom Clancy. Pat Conroy is a literary icon more recently lost. Having read virtually every novel each man wrote, in my grief over their passing, I found myself going back and rereading several of their works to assuage my grief. Good lawd, if Stephen King ever passes, I don't know what I'm going to do! LOL.  None the less, do do make a very valid point. :thumbs-up:


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

Trust me, there's no shortage of self indulgent and self absorbed baby boomers on NPR. 

The void will not last long.


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## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

SG_67 said:


> Trust me, there's no shortage of self indulgent and self absorbed baby boomers on NPR.


Editing note: The period at the end of that sentence should be moved up a couple of words. Sticking it directly after the word "boomers" would be an improvement.

Editing note: After moving the punctuation, changing the word "boomers" for "people," would arguably improve the overall validity of the statement.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

I'll concede that anything that is broadcast for decades does become an iconic hallmark and a comfort item to many. I habitually would listen to "Car Talk" which, similarly, was more unique and homey than actually entertaining or informative, but I mourn only that it was replaced by another derivative SWPL stylized audio version of the newspaper People section.


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## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

I listen to the BBC. I find it comforting. Especially for two reasons, involving long-running jokes:

1. Lots of time devoted to reports of a non-existent sport called "kricket" or "crickit," or somesuch. Where the recap of a typical game will talk about how everything was tied until the final pitch, at which point one "squad" won by a score of 165-to-"nil."

2. Regular reports about doings in places which don't exist, involving ethnic groups which don't exist. (The tip off is that the names are so over-the-top, you know they're made up. Also, if these places and groups were real, why is it that you could watch the CBS news for 20 years without ever hearing about them?) For example, "Tandjile and Gorane seek greater economic opportunity in Chari-Baguirimi." (Yeah, and Lrrr of Omicron Persei VIII is confused and irritated by the concept of wuv.)


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

Regarding #2, absolutely correct.




I do apologize for using Fox cartoon clips twice in the same thread.


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## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

Tempest said:


> _Green Acres_ was rural and folksy, but they moved and spoke at a human pace.


_Green Acres_ is a terribly underappreciated show. Sure, it was in many ways rural and folksy, but it could also be wonderfully surreal and self-reflexive, and utterly blow away the "fourth wall."

Among my favorite examples of this are those episodes where the characters see the show's opening credits floating in the air before them and ask each other what those names are? Or when the episode opens with the character of Lisa making hotcakes, and the opening credits appear on the hotcakes (and on a piece of toast), to her considerable confusion.

Or the episode when Oliver and Lisa star in a charity production of _The Beverly Hillbillies_, even though _Green Acres_ was itself something of a sister show to _The Beverly Hillbillies_, to the extent that the two series actually shared some characters.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

You've actually got me mourning PHC merely because I vaguely sense it as a minor version of the early 70s rural purge of CBS programming. I feel this led to a lack of connection to agrarianism. I should go over to over to the book thread and mention a book I read recently about "********" and how rural, relatively impoverished Americans are cast in an undeserved light as stupid, brutal, and morally questionable.
I guess one could argue that PHC is as original and non-formulaic as the old CBS shows. I'm not familiar enough to comment.


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## Adventure Wolf (Feb 26, 2014)

I grew up on this radio show, and I don't know how to process this.


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

The Sunday NY Times for June 19 had an insightful article about Keillor and PHC. 

Gurdon


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

Resurrecting an old thread, I know. 

But in light the current news I thought it worthwhile. 

While disgusting and piggish behavior knows no politics, there is something rich about Mr. Keillor being wrapped up in all of this. 

After decades of lecturing me and others like me and going on about just how enlightened he and his kind are, it’s interesting to see that deep down he’s really nothing more than an ugly guy who wouldn’t really have done well with women, trading on his fame to get his jollies.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

SG_67 said:


> Resurrecting an old thread, I know.
> 
> But in light the current news I thought it worthwhile.
> 
> ...


You forgot _*old*_ among his other personal failings.

His personal history with women is long and varied, but not doing well with them appears not to have been among his issues, despite being "an ugly guy." If his well-deserved humorous skewering of politicians offends, it little changes whether they're apt.

By all accounts he is a difficult man, and an acknowledged sufferer on the Autism Spectrum, which no doubt makes interpersonal relationships difficult for both him and his intimate partners.

But lumping his behavior, at least as it is now understood, in with that of some other individuals of various political leanings is intellectually dishonest. Speeding is a legal infraction, so is running people over with your vehicle, therefore speeding and vehicular homicide are the same?

There are the small issues of nature and degree.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

His journey on the autism spectrum, if that’s even valid in his case, isn’t an excuse. Did he grope men or strangers. He obviously was functional enough yet took liberty in certain situations. 

I don’t know what he did exactly and to what level it arose, but I’m glad it was him as over the years he’s been so incredibly smug and arrogant yet in the end, he’s just a dirty old man. Nothing more than a pervert.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

SG_67 said:


> His journey on the autism spectrum, if that's even valid in his case, isn't an excuse. Did he grope men or strangers. He obviously was functional enough yet took liberty in certain situations.
> 
> I don't know what he did exactly and to what level it arose, but I'm glad it was him as over the years he's been so incredibly smug and arrogant yet in the end, he's just a dirty old man. Nothing more than a pervert.


Ah, you didn't know.

I wouldn't adjudge him a perverted dirty old man so quickly without additional information. His explanation is -

" I put my hand on a woman's bare back. I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called."

Even if self-serving and minimizing, which we have no way of knowing, based upon what is known now it places him in very different circumstances from Matt Lauer and a number of other recent high-profile media firings that happened, including their being subsequent to large settlements being paid for the most egregious behavior.

A dirty old man he may be, but this is scant evidence of same.


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## Mr. B. Scott Robinson (Jan 16, 2017)

He had a serious drinking issue for some time which he spoke openly about. Often drinking and boorish behavior go hand in hand.

He was at a dinner party at my sister's house a few years ago. There was no obvious purvy vibe, but your mileage may vary.

His smugness, particularly in his recent WAPO opinion pieces, I found cloying. I assume WAPO has dropped him as well. I wish he had hung up his spurs and ridden off into the sunset after leaving PHC. 

Cheers,

BSR


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Jeez Louise, in this country we seem to have evolved to a point in our social maturation at which it has become chic to disinter foolish immature and offensive actions/choices/assumed offenses supposedly committed early in ones life and use such information to disembowel any credit accorded to the entire body of the schmucks life work. Pondering this I am reminded of the book of John 8:7 which advises "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

eagle2250 said:


> Jeez Louise, in this country we seem to have evolved to a point in our social maturation at which it has become chic to disinter foolish immature and offensive actions/choices/assumed offenses supposedly committed early in ones life and use such information to disembowel any credit accorded to the entire body of the schmucks life work. Pondering this I am reminded of the book of John 8:7 which advises "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."


I *despise* the victimization and exploitation of anyone, sexual or otherwise, but things are getting out of hand. Our local news channel reported that some businesses' Christmas parties are now featuring, a two drink max sans mistletoe, and *chaperones!*

Holy over-reaction, Batman!

What's next, chastity belts!


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

To be safe businesses and corporations will have to have parties two different nights. One for men, another night for women. That way the businesses and corporations won't be in court being sued. And, because of women, equal rights will be history.

And then everyone will know that the equal rights experiment didn't work.


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## David J. Cooper (Apr 26, 2010)

On a much lighter note I think fellow Barolo lover Chris Tile's show is doing very well as a de facto replacement for PHC.

I find the sexual harassment discussion to be one that I prefer to stay on the sidelines for. It's like driving after drinking.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

David J. Cooper said:


> On a much lighter note I think fellow Barolo lover Chris Tile's show is doing very well as a de facto replacement for PHC.


While anyone is certainly free to enjoy, or not enjoy, Chris Thiel's show on it's own merits, I don't find it a replacement for PHC. Love him, or hate him, Keillor and his unique quirky nature was PHC. Without him, it's an entirely different thing, and for me at least, no longer possesses a raison d'etre.


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## David J. Cooper (Apr 26, 2010)

I agree about GK. I think Thile was hired to replace him when he retired.


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