After the radio show was cancelled, NPR gave its Saturday night slot to a show called "From Here" or something like that. A very similar format hosted by a much younger host. It lasted maybe a year or two. I would tune in occasionally but they captured none of the magic that Keillor had.
Totally fair. I enjoyed both A Prairie Home Companion and Live From Here, but I’m probably in the minority of people who think that Live From Here was a slight improvement.
Amazing radio performer and player, at least so at the time i felt that way. And this was my biggest level of consumption in terms of hours a week listening to npr as well as then living in the best NPR listening area it turns out, that I'd have until today.
However, "Live From Here" is agreed to have hit not real note, no real vibe that I found compelling or interested in as it was done. Idk now, but then I had specific aspects I didn't care for. But I think it was a rebrand, a continuation in some way, but it just DiD nOt HiT rIgHt:(
But the biggest thorn was that it wasn't PHC, and I legit grieved for that aspect ending because I had just peaked as well in terms of PHC regular listener. Matter o' fact, that was the first NPR show I ever remember seeking access to, and then jumping the barrier that was seeking, playing and learning to manage listening... a podcast levied format lol.
Anyways, I also found a PHC book at Goodwill a super short amount of time after the scandal broke.
Live from Here was the continuation of APHC, but with Chris Thile (From Nickel Creek) as host. The Keillor-written bits went away and the show became much more music centric, but the production and ancillary personnel were largely the same.
Disagree with "largely the same". The Keillor written comedy bits was the main draw for the PHC. Keillor was a bad singer and the other music didn't carry the show over the finish line. Listened to "Live From Here" a couple times, but it seemed to be geared for the minority of PHC's audience that listened for the music
I miss listening to the Vinyl Cafe on the kitchen radio of a Sunday afternoon. It was a good decade for me, cooking Sunday dinner in the kitchen with the little kids and wife bopping around just happy as could be. Important to recognize when you’re living in the good old days.
There is a podcast called Backstage At the Vinyl Cafe available now. It’s his producer going through recordings of the show. It’s how I was introduced to it.
Thile may be a nice guy IRL, I don't know, but he always comes off really smarmy and arrogant. Of course, being a child prodigy probably didn't help with the arrogance.
Of all the people in that movie you pick Tommy Lee Jones? Meryl Steep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Herrelson, John c. Riley, Lindsay Lohan. And directed by Robert Altman. That movie is packed with talent and I also saw it in theaters
I can't actually remember a single detail about the movie. My brother and I were hanging one night and went to see it because our parents would listen to it when we were kids.
Trivia nugget - Altman was in really poor health at the time (he'd pass away soon) and Paul Thomas Anderson actually did most of the "directing" of the movie
So did I. Not just Tommy Lee Jones, either. Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Lindsay Lohan. Of all of them, only Lindsay Lohan still surprises me.
I think he probably “retired” from having to do the weekly show on NPR, but still does live shows of the format. Doing the live shows in diff cities likely means he doesn’t need to be generating as much new material - he can re-use more bits from show to show
"Well, sir, it has been an uneventful week in Badger Falls where the women are robust, the men are pink-cheeked and the children are pink-cheeked and robust."
"At the Apple Biscuit Cafe where the smiles are free, don't you know? Sven Inqvist studied the menu. Finally, he ordered the same thing he has every day."
I knew a guy that wasn't. He works a junk yard that his dad owns and stands to inherit it. He's actually a really nice laid back guy. The rest of us were odd as all get out, so maybe he was only not odd in comparison? He still strikes me as a normie though.
Well, and telling one of his students that he was intensely attracted to her, and bullying another woman until he replaced her with a younger woman, and constantly telling female staff that they made him sexually aroused, composing limericks about how female colleagues made his dick feel, pressuring women to take payouts, etc. (It was also expected that he would make comments to young female performers, and Keillor as a light sex pest was just the price of exposure. I’ve known a lot of people who performed on PHC.)
I’m a fan of his work and grew up listening to him, but him making young women uncomfortable and defining their value in relation to his penis was an open secret for decades. He was notoriously unreceptive to basic empathy or care that his actions affected others. Any attempt to explain to him that he made someone feel uncomfortable was met with him reframing himself as the real victim.
That was the real problem: He was never going to understand that, as someone in a position of authority, his colleagues and subordinates don’t need to be told how they make his dick feel. “Hey could you stop doing this, they don’t like it” wasn’t working because he consistently interpreted any criticism as an unacceptable attack on his genius. You can see this mindset in a non-sexual context in his earliest radio days. He was a pain in the ass to deal with.
Sounds like he could be temperamental and hard to work for, for some. It was a creative endeavor creating a weekly entertainment show. One woman didn't get a bigger role and pay when she wanted it. Another got an email confessing attraction (a bad move regardless). Some (women and men) report nothing happened. Others report he could be gruff. A few think he was outright inappropriate. Reads like your typical environment in an entertainment field.
It smells mostly of the time when #metoo was viral.
A pattern of misogyny (discrepancies in pay, promotion and treatment towards women in workplaces he managed), inappropriate behavior (leaving a poem about his boner on a public whiteboard), and questionable romantic relationships with women who reported to him in the workplace.
NAL but I haven't read anything that would rise to a criminal offense. But definitely creepy and inappropriate workplace behavior which he certainly knew better than to do.
GK seems like he was a HR frequent flyer and his employer decided his talents weren't worth the liability.
Yeah, it’s a shame. I still love News From Lake Wobegon and I think he’s a great writer. But by all accounts he would seem to be very much guilty as charged here.
When I was small, like 30 years ago, My family would play those specifically during road trips. I have a lot of good memories listening to them with my family.
Waiting for someone to say this. The “gather round” immersive storytelling was one of the few things that could captivate us as a family during the doldrums of interstate travel
Yeah, the rest of the show is, I assume, enjoyable for some people. Mostly just banter and live music, which is fine, but literally the one and only thing of any substance in the whole program was Tales From Lake Wobegon, and you had to wait a full hour for it.
I'm glad for a long while it just was not available. PBS pulled all the archived episodes...it was a real shame for all of killers collaborators which were legion
My dad made me listen to a LOT of NPR and Garrison Keillor was never funny. People at like Prairie Home Companion was some comedic tour de force but it was fucking torture to hear. Not ever a single laugh from any of the other bits or acts they did. Just dreadful. I'm glad some people enjoyed it.
FWIW I've quite enjoyed Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.
It certainly was supposed to be funny. That's why all those "folksy" people listened and laughed. Just not my type of humor. Or most everyone else's type of humor either.
It was not cancelled due to a scandal. Harrison Keillor recorded his final regular episode in July of 2016, with a special Minnesota episode that September and the allegations surfaced in November of 2017. The show was renamed to Live From Here and cancelled in 2020.
It was such a treasure, a wonderful way for me at least to discover new musical acts I'd never heard of, in addition to all the other neat stuff they did. Their Joni Mitchell tribute set is still something I listen to occasionally: https://youtu.be/FDqorM26hPc?si=14Y41T0S-rtomODc
To expound, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek fame took over when Garrison Keillor retired from the show. It was changed to "Live From Here" after the scandal, and cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic. Check out Energy Curfew Music Hour if you want to hear a similar show with Chris Thile and Punch Brothers.
My grand parents lived in the area for many years. When I first heard this on the radio - took a minute to understand it was a show. I honestly know/knew people talking like this..
Every time I happened to catch it, I'd listen for like 10 minutes waiting for a punchline that never came. Took me a few times before I realized it's just like 2 hours of "folksy shit"
Keillor had retired from PHC by the time his sexual harassment scandal broke. He did lose his Writer's Almanac show, and it accelerated PHC's rebrand to Live From Here.
Unfortunately COVID killed Live From Here right when it was starting to hit its stride. It was like a minature form of MPR's The Current.
I saw a live broadcast a couple days after the story broke about Dick Cheney shooting his hunting companion in the face. Keillor opened the show with “well, it’s been a good week for comedy …”
I looked forward to it every weekend. I listened before and after the change in the late 80s. I would talk to coworkers about it too. I was disappointed that it ended. I thought it might be overblown as Keillor said until other accusations began to emerge. Too bad, it ruined a broadcast fixture at a really critical moment in radio history.
I used to listen every Saturday for years. This is one of the things I truly miss. The only show I got to see was in Cleveland in 2015. It was the 1,442nd show.
It was also after the terrorist attacks in Paris. Before the broadcast started Garrison came out and talked to the crowd and lead everyone singing The National Anthem, God Bless America, America the Beautiful, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The broadcast started with the French National Anthem and a statement by Garrison that was translated in French.
It was all incredibly moving and made me incredibly proud to be an American.
Guy was a great storyteller, no doubt about it. I saw him when he was on tour near the end of his run. I was disappointed he spent most of the appearance crooning and making goo goo eyes at the young blonde he sang duets with. Pretty cringy stuff.
Prairie Home Companion was an institution in my house growing up. On Sunday afternoon my dad would turn on all the radios in the house so he could walk from room to room and not miss anything. It was a show that perfectly matched a slow Sunday afternoon working on the house or changing the oil on the car.
I discovered this show back in 2002. Became a fan and listened to it every Saturday evening. Loved all the recurring bits, like Guy Noire, News from Lake Wobegun, Bebop ‘a’ Rebop Rhubarb Pie, and so on. Collected several of Keillor’s books. I remember when Chris Thile took over and they reworked the show as Live From Here. I liked Thile’s version, too.
Our local NPR outlet dropped the Car Talk reruns about a year after Keillor retired and I drifted away from the station. They had some decent programming around those two shows but the newer stuff wasn’t good enough imo to headline the weekend schedules. As a fan of vintage radio drama, PHC was a nice throwback.
I enjoyed listening to the show, one of the things I remember when it all happened was a reporter saying that he touched her back and she was wearing an open back shirt, I think they were taking a photo together. Also it was said that he was autistic.
I am not saying he isn't guilty or anything just when it happened I was shocked because he seemed like a good person. I guess that goes for a lot of celebrities too, you never know.
As a teen in the late 80’s I would listen every weekend to PHC and I was introduced to many great musicians via the show: Leo Kottke, Jean Redpath, Vern Sutton, Chet Atkins. (Apparently I was a 50 year old teenager.). I had many of the shows and stories on cassette tape, and for several years had no luck finding them on CD or streaming but of late I have. Garrison K was recently in my town, touring as “An Old Man and His Niece” but I’m a bit icked out by him now.
I saw him on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 in a performance of A Prairie Home Companion in Cary, NC. During what should have been the intermission, he said that the date had him thinking about this country, and instead of taking a break, he felt like singing patriotic music.
And that's what he did. He actually walked off the stage singing patriotic songs, and walked into the audience shaking hands and leading people in song. It was a moment frozen in time for me. I knew this was something special that I would never experience again.
And when he finished, he thanked everyone for indulging him. He walked back up onto the stage, and the show continued.
Oh man, i was lucky enough to see a recording of this live at the Fitzgerald Theater when I happened to be out that way for a conference. Iris Dement was the musical guest. It truly was special.
I used to love the show but in time Keillor's act wore thin for me. The news from Lake Woebegone segments were always strong, but those formulaic cowboy and detective sketches were painful.
Always great musicians on the show, both the house band and the booked acts. That was enough to keep me listening. I was very happy when Thile replaced Keillor - he did a decent job and they focused on music more.
I lost touch with all of it a while back though. Is there anything like it now on as wide a scale as NPR was then?
the last of the older style radio variety shows to exist. I loved everything about it, it helped me feel connected to a previous generation and way of life that nothing else did.
Also, Live From Here had some of the best music performances and colaborations I've ever heard... Discovered several of my favorite artists through PHC and LFH. I understand why it didn't last, it never could have with the musicians who made up the house bands... but man, I looked forward to it every week as much as I did PHC.
For the fans who aren't aware, most of the musical performances from the last few years of PHC and everything from LFH have video on the youtube channel Radio Heartland. There are just some stunning performances that I watch regularly.
and while you are there check out the best radio station in the US 89.3 The Current out of Minneapolis-St Paul. (radio heartland is a Folk/Country/Americana station from the Current)
My dad and I would listen to the broadcast Sunday nights working on cars, Dusty and Lefty, Guy noir, tales of lake wobegon, some great stories and memories! Got to see it live at the Ryman years ago.
I have fond memories of listening to this show in the kitchen with my parents. We all enjoyed it together. We frequently made references to powder milk biscuits. Later on, I think the material got really stale. I got annoyed when Garrison insisted on signing along with the musical guests. It was probably past time for the show to be retired.
fucking hell...this is now in the nostalgia subreddit
I remember listening to this quite a bit on long Saturday drives during the evening before I would be forced to chauffer around my irresponsible ex-girlfriend lol
I listened to it for the last few years of it. I liked the ads that sounded more like ads for Prozac but they were selling ketchup.
For those that don’t know about it, you may also want to try The Vinyl Cafe which started as summer filler here in Canada in the 1990s on the CBC then became a travelling roadshow, written and hosted by the late great Stuart McLean.
Not even that. He was caught up in allegations at the height of "Me Too", and NPR / Minnesota Public Radio - instead of a thorough independent 3rd party investigation - just punted Keillor and the show died.
NPR didn’t produce this show. American Public Media did. NPR and APM are competitors in the world of public radio distribution.
At the time Garrison wasn’t an employee of Minnesota Public Radio/APM. He was retired but still did his Writers Almanac Shorts. After the allegations, APM stopped distributing them.
Garrison had left Prairie Home Companion a year earlier and named Chris Thile his successor. Since Garrison owned the trademark, they changed the name after APM cut ties with him altogether.
It was practically erased. Removed hundreds of episodes from availability. Lots of people's work just deep sixed in response to a single person's scandal. That show was an ensemble cast production every week.
I'm not defending garrison at all but this was an over reaction and likely contributed at least somewhat to the backlash to cancel culture we now see
He managed to get the rights back to PHC, still maintains a website where you can listen to old shows. But yes for about a year the old PHC did not exist. They only changed the name to Live from Here after Garrison was accused of improper behavior, which he denied and the back peddled. Happened very early in the Me Too era
Oh man... Laying on the couch at my dad's house on Sunday evenings, everyone listening to this while he and my stepmom made dinner... Or listening to my dad's Garrison Keillor cassette tapes on road trips. We probably heard each tape 200 times. Honestly some of my happiest memories...
My parents had all his books as well, and my dad would read them out loud to us (skipping the "inappropriate" parts) and then they ended up being some of the first chapter books I ever read.
I learned about Garrison Keillor and APHC from a High School Civics teacher that insisted on playing his tapes for us every week. I always thought it was some real bullshit.
Here we go a'waffling lives rent free in my head around Christmas time. My family and I always listened to this on Saturday nights when we had our weekly pizza parties.
They made a movie about it with Tommy Lee Jones, I actually saw it in theaters
Garrison Keillor: "I didn't grope them dames!"
Tommy Lee Jones: "I don't care!"
Keillor jumps over waterfall
Keillor always claimed the groper was a one-armed man
Should not have laughed as hard at this as I did. Well done.
I didn’t grope em. It was the one armed man!!
I caught it too. Weird how (the radio show) it just rolled up and packed away forever. No proper send off.
After the radio show was cancelled, NPR gave its Saturday night slot to a show called "From Here" or something like that. A very similar format hosted by a much younger host. It lasted maybe a year or two. I would tune in occasionally but they captured none of the magic that Keillor had.
“Live From Here”, the host was Chris Thile.
He plays a mean mandolin, but the show was an acquired taste; but, I guess, so was A Prairie Home Companion
Totally fair. I enjoyed both A Prairie Home Companion and Live From Here, but I’m probably in the minority of people who think that Live From Here was a slight improvement.
Wholeheartedly agree. Miss thile and live from here.
Wits felt like it could have been a more modern fill in for a while. I miss all of my late 90's through 2010's Saturday npr listens.
It was so good, I miss it.
Amazing radio performer and player, at least so at the time i felt that way. And this was my biggest level of consumption in terms of hours a week listening to npr as well as then living in the best NPR listening area it turns out, that I'd have until today.
However, "Live From Here" is agreed to have hit not real note, no real vibe that I found compelling or interested in as it was done. Idk now, but then I had specific aspects I didn't care for. But I think it was a rebrand, a continuation in some way, but it just DiD nOt HiT rIgHt:(
But the biggest thorn was that it wasn't PHC, and I legit grieved for that aspect ending because I had just peaked as well in terms of PHC regular listener. Matter o' fact, that was the first NPR show I ever remember seeking access to, and then jumping the barrier that was seeking, playing and learning to manage listening... a podcast levied format lol.
Anyways, I also found a PHC book at Goodwill a super short amount of time after the scandal broke.
Live from Here was the continuation of APHC, but with Chris Thile (From Nickel Creek) as host. The Keillor-written bits went away and the show became much more music centric, but the production and ancillary personnel were largely the same.
Disagree with "largely the same". The Keillor written comedy bits was the main draw for the PHC. Keillor was a bad singer and the other music didn't carry the show over the finish line. Listened to "Live From Here" a couple times, but it seemed to be geared for the minority of PHC's audience that listened for the music
If you'd like to hear a Canadian take, look up The Vinyl Cafe. It's never too late after Christmas to hear Dave Cooks The Turkey.
Sadly, that show no longer exists, but that's because the host/writer, Stuart McLean, died of cancer in 2017. He left behind a hell of a legacy.
I miss listening to the Vinyl Cafe on the kitchen radio of a Sunday afternoon. It was a good decade for me, cooking Sunday dinner in the kitchen with the little kids and wife bopping around just happy as could be. Important to recognize when you’re living in the good old days.
McLean's voice was so unique. Vinyl Cafe was a great listen on a Sunday afternoon.
There is a podcast called Backstage At the Vinyl Cafe available now. It’s his producer going through recordings of the show. It’s how I was introduced to it.
Thile may be a nice guy IRL, I don't know, but he always comes off really smarmy and arrogant. Of course, being a child prodigy probably didn't help with the arrogance.
Nicest kid, most humble child prodigy I’ve ever met.
Didn't they try to carry on the show with a different host for a while?
yep. chris thille. i enjoyed it. i saw it live with him and it was terrific.
Chris Thile is an amazing musician. He is in at least two bands and does solo work, and his stuff is outstanding. Punch Brothers are my favorite.
i love his music. he’s so talented.
Now he does Energy Curfew Music Hour which is also quite good. Caught one in NYC a couple years ago. Would definitely go again.
Robert Altman's last movie, too.
Of all the people in that movie you pick Tommy Lee Jones? Meryl Steep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Herrelson, John c. Riley, Lindsay Lohan. And directed by Robert Altman. That movie is packed with talent and I also saw it in theaters
I can't actually remember a single detail about the movie. My brother and I were hanging one night and went to see it because our parents would listen to it when we were kids.
I only remember the bad jokes song skit with Woody Harrelson. I kept half the jokes for my dad-a-base.
I'm gonna watch it tonight. Forgot all about it until your comment. So thanks!
I think I’ll do the same, after all it’s been 20 years since I’ve seen it
We’re forgetting Kevin Kline as Guy Noir!
Maya Rudolph and Virginia Madsen too.
Trivia nugget - Altman was in really poor health at the time (he'd pass away soon) and Paul Thomas Anderson actually did most of the "directing" of the movie
My understanding is that with older directors the insurance company requires a younger auteur to be on hand in case the director dies.
IIRC Guillermo Del Toro had this role for The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and Celine Song recently took this role for Ella MacCay.
If you ask the younger directors in this position they’ll usually say that they’re taking a hands off role, and trying to learn from an old master.
So did I. Not just Tommy Lee Jones, either. Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Lindsay Lohan. Of all of them, only Lindsay Lohan still surprises me.
And a very pregnant Maya Rudolph.
It was also directed by Robert Altman.
What was the movie?
A Prairie Home Companion, 2006
And Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Lindsay Lohan, Lilly Tomlinson, and Kevin Kline. Final Altman film
In fairness, he retired from the show in 2016 - it wasn’t cancelled under him. He had a final broadcast from The Hollywood Bowl.
Jumping on this thread to point out that PHC is not vaudeville-inspired. It was inspired by the Grand Ole Opry and old time radio.
But… Keillor just hosted A Prairie Home Companion at the Ryman in Nashville like two weeks ago…
He hasn't retired though. He's still performing.
I only said he retired from A Prairie Home Companion
But he's still performing as "A Prairie Home Companion"
Ah, interesting. I know when he wrapped up in 2016 they billed it as a retirement from the show, I didn’t know he was still doing it in any format.
I think he probably “retired” from having to do the weekly show on NPR, but still does live shows of the format. Doing the live shows in diff cities likely means he doesn’t need to be generating as much new material - he can re-use more bits from show to show
"Well, sir, it has been an uneventful week in Badger Falls where the women are robust, the men are pink-cheeked and the children are pink-cheeked and robust."
"At the Apple Biscuit Cafe where the smiles are free, don't you know? Sven Inqvist studied the menu. Finally, he ordered the same thing he has every day."
What the hell is everyone laughing at???
"Stupid TV. BE MORE FUNNY!"
stupid tv! be more funny!
“What’s the hell’s so damn funny!?”
“All the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”
"Well I think it is time to turn this pledge drive over to Troy McClure....."
I can't keep up this pace forever. (inhale) (sigh)
Soooo, what was the scandal?
If I recall correctly he made a move, unwanted sexual touching, on a woman. I think there may have been other incidents over a few years also.
My mom went to highschool with him and said he was an odd guy.
I actually bought all of his CDs a few years ago and listen to them on road trips.
His best story is called a mid summer night where he talks about his cousin.
"My mom went to highschool with him and said he was an odd guy."
Wow totally surprising /s
Was anyone not odd in high school?
I knew a guy that wasn't. He works a junk yard that his dad owns and stands to inherit it. He's actually a really nice laid back guy. The rest of us were odd as all get out, so maybe he was only not odd in comparison? He still strikes me as a normie though.
And the unwanted 'sexual' touching was....putting his arm around a woman.
Well, and telling one of his students that he was intensely attracted to her, and bullying another woman until he replaced her with a younger woman, and constantly telling female staff that they made him sexually aroused, composing limericks about how female colleagues made his dick feel, pressuring women to take payouts, etc. (It was also expected that he would make comments to young female performers, and Keillor as a light sex pest was just the price of exposure. I’ve known a lot of people who performed on PHC.)
I’m a fan of his work and grew up listening to him, but him making young women uncomfortable and defining their value in relation to his penis was an open secret for decades. He was notoriously unreceptive to basic empathy or care that his actions affected others. Any attempt to explain to him that he made someone feel uncomfortable was met with him reframing himself as the real victim.
That was the real problem: He was never going to understand that, as someone in a position of authority, his colleagues and subordinates don’t need to be told how they make his dick feel. “Hey could you stop doing this, they don’t like it” wasn’t working because he consistently interpreted any criticism as an unacceptable attack on his genius. You can see this mindset in a non-sexual context in his earliest radio days. He was a pain in the ass to deal with.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/01/23/keillor-workplace
yup guy was a creep
That's an impressively balanced article.
Sounds like he could be temperamental and hard to work for, for some. It was a creative endeavor creating a weekly entertainment show. One woman didn't get a bigger role and pay when she wanted it. Another got an email confessing attraction (a bad move regardless). Some (women and men) report nothing happened. Others report he could be gruff. A few think he was outright inappropriate. Reads like your typical environment in an entertainment field.
It smells mostly of the time when #metoo was viral.
Me too. The auto mod threatened me for mentioning it in the OP
Thank you. :-)
A pattern of misogyny (discrepancies in pay, promotion and treatment towards women in workplaces he managed), inappropriate behavior (leaving a poem about his boner on a public whiteboard), and questionable romantic relationships with women who reported to him in the workplace.
NAL but I haven't read anything that would rise to a criminal offense. But definitely creepy and inappropriate workplace behavior which he certainly knew better than to do.
GK seems like he was a HR frequent flyer and his employer decided his talents weren't worth the liability.
So... pretty much like Lake Woebegon in real life?
Yeah, it’s a shame. I still love News From Lake Wobegon and I think he’s a great writer. But by all accounts he would seem to be very much guilty as charged here.
He toed the line just enough to make everything damp and uncomfortable. And I believe that, rather than the sexual harassment, was his goal.
It was about power. He's a nasty man offstage.
He touched a woman's back under her shirt which was considered by her to be sexual harassment. He denied it. Got cancelled either way
I thought it was an open backed dress and they were posing for a picture and he put his arm around her lower back and that was the touch…
I thought it was when he accidentally looked up her skirt when his chair collapsed.
I though it was a little pimp
I though a little porn at work should be ok.
And Stella Liebeck should have paid more attention to her coffee.
Why carry water for Keillor?
To put in family friendly terms casting couch
A face for radio, I think they say.
https://www.prairiehome.org/index.html
Pretty much all the shows are available to listen to. You can thank me later
Is there a place with only the Lake Wobegon stories Collected (My favorite, and frankly the only part of the show I liked)
He used to do a podcast with just the lake part but don’t know if its still available
Lake Wobegon was the best.
When I was small, like 30 years ago, My family would play those specifically during road trips. I have a lot of good memories listening to them with my family.
Waiting for someone to say this. The “gather round” immersive storytelling was one of the few things that could captivate us as a family during the doldrums of interstate travel
It was a staple of road trips! We had so many on tape..I would laugh and laugh.
Yeah, the rest of the show is, I assume, enjoyable for some people. Mostly just banter and live music, which is fine, but literally the one and only thing of any substance in the whole program was Tales From Lake Wobegon, and you had to wait a full hour for it.
There were CDs available of Lake Wobegone stories. This was quite a while ago but I'll bet they are out there.
“Where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.”
“Where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”
You wrecked the joke!
I thought there was something more to it!
u/Seven22am didn't wreck the joke
The ones that I remember being on cassette tapes are on Spotify, but weirdly they are categorized as audiobooks
Some of it is on Spotify. Also https://www.wnyc.org/articles/wobegon
Thanks!
I listen to them free on the hoopla app, you just need a library card
I'm glad for a long while it just was not available. PBS pulled all the archived episodes...it was a real shame for all of killers collaborators which were legion
Wow, thank you so much!
Wish it was still on the radio. Loved listening to it as a kid and would enjoy sharing it live with my children now.
I got to see the show live when I was a kid, about five years old. This was 35 years ago, when we tied an onion to our belt.
That was the style at the time. You ever grab a warsh tub to catch silver dollars JD Rockefeller was dropping from a zeppelin?
Sure did! And then I'd ask my dad for 20 bees to change out my dollars.
It was nice of him to help raise money for PBS.
stupid tv! be more funny!
"be more funny" -lisa
Edited to fix misquote
I'm with Homer.
My dad made me listen to a LOT of NPR and Garrison Keillor was never funny. People at like Prairie Home Companion was some comedic tour de force but it was fucking torture to hear. Not ever a single laugh from any of the other bits or acts they did. Just dreadful. I'm glad some people enjoyed it.
FWIW I've quite enjoyed Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.
I sure miss Car Talk. Yeah I know it's online, but not the same of course.
Amen. That shit was SUPER boring without the rose-tint of nostalgia. Unlistenable slop.
Wasn’t supposed to be funny. Just kinda folksy and comforting to listen to on a fall evening if you’re driving through the mountains etc.
It certainly was supposed to be funny. That's why all those "folksy" people listened and laughed. Just not my type of humor. Or most everyone else's type of humor either.
It was not cancelled due to a scandal. Harrison Keillor recorded his final regular episode in July of 2016, with a special Minnesota episode that September and the allegations surfaced in November of 2017. The show was renamed to Live From Here and cancelled in 2020.
I was disappointed when they cancelled Live from Here. Chris Thile made that show his own and I enjoyed the music.
It was such a treasure, a wonderful way for me at least to discover new musical acts I'd never heard of, in addition to all the other neat stuff they did. Their Joni Mitchell tribute set is still something I listen to occasionally: https://youtu.be/FDqorM26hPc?si=14Y41T0S-rtomODc
To expound, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek fame took over when Garrison Keillor retired from the show. It was changed to "Live From Here" after the scandal, and cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic. Check out Energy Curfew Music Hour if you want to hear a similar show with Chris Thile and Punch Brothers.
My grand parents lived in the area for many years. When I first heard this on the radio - took a minute to understand it was a show. I honestly know/knew people talking like this..
Every time I happened to catch it, I'd listen for like 10 minutes waiting for a punchline that never came. Took me a few times before I realized it's just like 2 hours of "folksy shit"
Yeah, it's the most boring shit ever. You can't convince me that it wasn't a psyop to put people to sleep while driving their cars.
Sounds like you need more ketchup in your diet.
Keillor had retired from PHC by the time his sexual harassment scandal broke. He did lose his Writer's Almanac show, and it accelerated PHC's rebrand to Live From Here.
Unfortunately COVID killed Live From Here right when it was starting to hit its stride. It was like a minature form of MPR's The Current.
I saw a live broadcast a couple days after the story broke about Dick Cheney shooting his hunting companion in the face. Keillor opened the show with “well, it’s been a good week for comedy …”
I looked forward to it every weekend. I listened before and after the change in the late 80s. I would talk to coworkers about it too. I was disappointed that it ended. I thought it might be overblown as Keillor said until other accusations began to emerge. Too bad, it ruined a broadcast fixture at a really critical moment in radio history.
I used to listen every Saturday for years. This is one of the things I truly miss. The only show I got to see was in Cleveland in 2015. It was the 1,442nd show.
It was also after the terrorist attacks in Paris. Before the broadcast started Garrison came out and talked to the crowd and lead everyone singing The National Anthem, God Bless America, America the Beautiful, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The broadcast started with the French National Anthem and a statement by Garrison that was translated in French.
It was all incredibly moving and made me incredibly proud to be an American.
He literally performed "A Prairie Home Companion Christmas" live in Nashville 2 weeks ago.
Guy was a great storyteller, no doubt about it. I saw him when he was on tour near the end of his run. I was disappointed he spent most of the appearance crooning and making goo goo eyes at the young blonde he sang duets with. Pretty cringy stuff.
Still on tour. Will be doing a show near here soon
Loved this program! Listened with my family every Saturday.
Love the TM at the end of the title.
Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb Pie!
Prairie Home Companion was an institution in my house growing up. On Sunday afternoon my dad would turn on all the radios in the house so he could walk from room to room and not miss anything. It was a show that perfectly matched a slow Sunday afternoon working on the house or changing the oil on the car.
It's departure left a 2 hour gap in my Saturdays.
I loved this show. Many smiles.
Miss it every Saturday.
Robert Altman's last film was about this, oddly enough.
I discovered this show back in 2002. Became a fan and listened to it every Saturday evening. Loved all the recurring bits, like Guy Noire, News from Lake Wobegun, Bebop ‘a’ Rebop Rhubarb Pie, and so on. Collected several of Keillor’s books. I remember when Chris Thile took over and they reworked the show as Live From Here. I liked Thile’s version, too.
Our local NPR outlet dropped the Car Talk reruns about a year after Keillor retired and I drifted away from the station. They had some decent programming around those two shows but the newer stuff wasn’t good enough imo to headline the weekend schedules. As a fan of vintage radio drama, PHC was a nice throwback.
I enjoyed listening to the show, one of the things I remember when it all happened was a reporter saying that he touched her back and she was wearing an open back shirt, I think they were taking a photo together. Also it was said that he was autistic.
I am not saying he isn't guilty or anything just when it happened I was shocked because he seemed like a good person. I guess that goes for a lot of celebrities too, you never know.
As a teen in the late 80’s I would listen every weekend to PHC and I was introduced to many great musicians via the show: Leo Kottke, Jean Redpath, Vern Sutton, Chet Atkins. (Apparently I was a 50 year old teenager.). I had many of the shows and stories on cassette tape, and for several years had no luck finding them on CD or streaming but of late I have. Garrison K was recently in my town, touring as “An Old Man and His Niece” but I’m a bit icked out by him now.
I saw him on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 in a performance of A Prairie Home Companion in Cary, NC. During what should have been the intermission, he said that the date had him thinking about this country, and instead of taking a break, he felt like singing patriotic music.
And that's what he did. He actually walked off the stage singing patriotic songs, and walked into the audience shaking hands and leading people in song. It was a moment frozen in time for me. I knew this was something special that I would never experience again.
And when he finished, he thanked everyone for indulging him. He walked back up onto the stage, and the show continued.
Oh man, i was lucky enough to see a recording of this live at the Fitzgerald Theater when I happened to be out that way for a conference. Iris Dement was the musical guest. It truly was special.
I used to love the show but in time Keillor's act wore thin for me. The news from Lake Woebegone segments were always strong, but those formulaic cowboy and detective sketches were painful.
Always great musicians on the show, both the house band and the booked acts. That was enough to keep me listening. I was very happy when Thile replaced Keillor - he did a decent job and they focused on music more.
I lost touch with all of it a while back though. Is there anything like it now on as wide a scale as NPR was then?
I miss this too and the morning poetry they used to play on NPR
the last of the older style radio variety shows to exist. I loved everything about it, it helped me feel connected to a previous generation and way of life that nothing else did.
Also, Live From Here had some of the best music performances and colaborations I've ever heard... Discovered several of my favorite artists through PHC and LFH. I understand why it didn't last, it never could have with the musicians who made up the house bands... but man, I looked forward to it every week as much as I did PHC.
For the fans who aren't aware, most of the musical performances from the last few years of PHC and everything from LFH have video on the youtube channel Radio Heartland. There are just some stunning performances that I watch regularly.
and while you are there check out the best radio station in the US 89.3 The Current out of Minneapolis-St Paul. (radio heartland is a Folk/Country/Americana station from the Current)
I always felt too immigrant to “get” PHC. It always seemed very white and midwestern.
If ever there was a guy who looked exactly like I thought he would after years of listening, it’s Garrison Keillor.
He has the perfect face for radio.
This show was amazing
It ran for like 5 years afterward with Chris Thile
Oh that Garrison. I can still hear his nostrils whistling over the airwaves from St. Paul
My dad and I would listen to the broadcast Sunday nights working on cars, Dusty and Lefty, Guy noir, tales of lake wobegon, some great stories and memories! Got to see it live at the Ryman years ago.
I have fond memories of listening to this show in the kitchen with my parents. We all enjoyed it together. We frequently made references to powder milk biscuits. Later on, I think the material got really stale. I got annoyed when Garrison insisted on signing along with the musical guests. It was probably past time for the show to be retired.
fucking hell...this is now in the nostalgia subreddit
I remember listening to this quite a bit on long Saturday drives during the evening before I would be forced to chauffer around my irresponsible ex-girlfriend lol
He insisted upon himself.
I listened to it for the last few years of it. I liked the ads that sounded more like ads for Prozac but they were selling ketchup.
For those that don’t know about it, you may also want to try The Vinyl Cafe which started as summer filler here in Canada in the 1990s on the CBC then became a travelling roadshow, written and hosted by the late great Stuart McLean.
It was not inspired by vaudeville. Keillor was inspired by the grand ole opry and old time radio.
My parents used to listen to this almost religiously. I didn't "get" it, so it made me cringe.
And I didn't care for Garrison Keillor's voice.
He has several novels and short story collections. Not quite the same as radio, I know.
“Lake Wobegon - where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”
I enjoyed it in the early years, but it went on well past its expiration date.
The guy was in love with himself and it showed. I couldn’t stand his smug tone and forced folksiness. Good riddance.
In Canada we had Don Messer's Jubilee.
One of my favorite memes is a picture of this show with the caption “Hee Haw for Liberals”
The joke shows, y'all.
So these two penguins are standing on an iceberg.
Why is scandal trade marked ?
The auto mod discouraged me from using "me too" I thought the ™ might be a clue.
The last good thing to come from NPR was Joe Frank.
Who’s with me?
I will die on this hill.
Nobody chronicles small-town life like Garrison Keillor. He’s a treasure who deserves the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Sheeet is boring as all hellll.
Regardless of what he did or didn't do, he's a freaking angel compared to DT
Not even that. He was caught up in allegations at the height of "Me Too", and NPR / Minnesota Public Radio - instead of a thorough independent 3rd party investigation - just punted Keillor and the show died.
NPR didn’t produce this show. American Public Media did. NPR and APM are competitors in the world of public radio distribution.
At the time Garrison wasn’t an employee of Minnesota Public Radio/APM. He was retired but still did his Writers Almanac Shorts. After the allegations, APM stopped distributing them.
Garrison had left Prairie Home Companion a year earlier and named Chris Thile his successor. Since Garrison owned the trademark, they changed the name after APM cut ties with him altogether.
Who knew Garrison Keillor was a fuckboy? Lake Wobegon.
Where all the women run, the men chase and all the children are above frightened.
It was practically erased. Removed hundreds of episodes from availability. Lots of people's work just deep sixed in response to a single person's scandal. That show was an ensemble cast production every week.
I'm not defending garrison at all but this was an over reaction and likely contributed at least somewhat to the backlash to cancel culture we now see
He managed to get the rights back to PHC, still maintains a website where you can listen to old shows. But yes for about a year the old PHC did not exist. They only changed the name to Live from Here after Garrison was accused of improper behavior, which he denied and the back peddled. Happened very early in the Me Too era
Aren’t they making this again with him but just not distributing it on NPR or did that also end again?
I used to listen weekly. One of the best radio shows in recent memory.
Looked forward to it every week. Went to a live show at Tanglewood.
with the current Walz scandal, i think GK famous phrase should be modified. Here’s the exact quote
“…all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average".
i didn't know that. I used to love NPR. I used to listen every Sunday after 12 pm
LOVED that show and listened on public radio regularly. It was sad that Keillor went down the way that he did.
Saw it live three times here in Los Angeles. Also saw a one man show he did in 2013. The books still make me laugh.
Would love to find an archive of the comedy bits from this show. The Al Franken appearance on Guy Noir was hilarious.
While not a Weinstein, he's definitely the kind of boss who stands too close to you in an elevator and always wants to "help".
The "Handling" of Keillor was an absolute farce. They kept trying to step around the problem, when HE WAS THE PROBLEM.
And yes "I miss this, bring it back" was a HUGE factor in the "scandal".
It was pretty hokey but my Mom absolutely loved it.
I LOVED PHC. It was such a relaxing nostalgia infused show. I’m always trying to find podcasts similar and have yet to.
Anyone know of an archive of old episodes?
I listened all the time, but felt too young to get it. 🤷
I still miss it
Oh man... Laying on the couch at my dad's house on Sunday evenings, everyone listening to this while he and my stepmom made dinner... Or listening to my dad's Garrison Keillor cassette tapes on road trips. We probably heard each tape 200 times. Honestly some of my happiest memories...
My parents had all his books as well, and my dad would read them out loud to us (skipping the "inappropriate" parts) and then they ended up being some of the first chapter books I ever read.
The show took you back to an earlier era. It was like visiting an old lake resort, frozen in time.
I don't miss it
I learned about Garrison Keillor and APHC from a High School Civics teacher that insisted on playing his tapes for us every week. I always thought it was some real bullshit.
Dude looks like he lives in a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER
Here we go a'waffling lives rent free in my head around Christmas time. My family and I always listened to this on Saturday nights when we had our weekly pizza parties.
Wait what? He was in a scandal?? What was it?
I always thought Keillor was goofy. Also, of all the MeToo cancellations, this one was the most absurd.
He also hosted “the writers almanac” for a long time, I still listen to his recording of The Bull Moose a few times a year.