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Prairie Home Companion Returns

T

TheBigA

Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor is reviving his longtime public radio show as a traveling theatrical program. It's something he also did when the show was still on the air. He's playing a lot of historic theaters, with special guests at certain stops. Of course Garrison can also do his one-man show in places where no guests are scheduled:

www.garrisonkeillor.com

Schedule - Garrison Keillor

Garrison’s upcoming appearances, including A Prairie Home Companion broadcasts, solo performances, and book tour events. For booking inquiries, please contact Kate Gustafson ([email protected])
www.garrisonkeillor.com www.garrisonkeillor.com
 
Not sure that many of APHC's most avid fans are still around. The show's peak was in the '80s and '90s and it was more popular with boomers' parents than boomers themselves. I saw a live performance in Iowa City, Iowa, with friends in the late '80s, when we were in our 30s, and most of the audience was significantly older.
 
CTListener said:
Not sure that many of APHC's most avid fans are still around.
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Perhaps why he's not playing arenas or stadiums. The historic theaters tend to seat about 1500 to 2500 people. The radio show was still very popular when Garrison got dropped from APM just 5 years ago. I agree that the early fans from the 80s are probably too old (or dead), but more recent fans might want to relive the experience. In its prime, Garrison could do two nights in the same town. This tour is limited to one night per theater.
 
TheBigA said:
The radio show was still very popular when Garrison got dropped from APM just 5 years ago.
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Garrison Keillor retired from APHC in 2016 and was replaced by Chris Thile. His last show was on July 1st, 2016.

It was over a year later, in November 2017, when he got fired from Minnesota Public Radio due to sexual misconduct allegations. They stopped playing reruns of any of his shows and renamed the show to "Live From Here", because Garrison still owns the trademark to "A Prairie Home Companion".

"Live From Here" did away with the comedy sketches and focused on musical performances. It was cancelled in June 2020 due to the pandemic.
 
TheBigA said:
It was also a terrible show. I notice that Chris isn't included among the special guests on any of Garrison's shows.
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It wasn't terrible, just didn't include music that connected with a broad audience, not even of public radio fans. If you liked the musicians, you liked the show. Same goes for "Mountain Stage," which generally features artists far from the mainstream. Often, the only familiar music on the program is heard when host Kathy Mattea contributes a song or two from her catalog.
 
CTListener said:
It wasn't terrible, just didn't include music that connected with a broad audience, not even of public radio fans.
Click to expand...

Which is why I say it was terrible. It was not really a replacement for PHC, but a completely different show. Stations who expected a PHC replacement were disappointed. When LFH went away, stations apparently switched to Mountain Stage.

current.org

Programmers are filling holes left by ‘Live From Here' — and some want more choices - Current

As stations turn to local music shows and national talk and entertainment offerings, "everyone's looking for a hit."
current.org current.org
 
MRBIboredop said:
I guess his "me too" moment has passed and he can work again... albeit at close to 80 years old.
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He could work again at any point. He wasn't convicted of anything. The problem was the pandemic made theaters difficult places to work in. So now apparently we're past the worst of it.
 
TheBigA said:
He could work again at any point. He wasn't convicted of anything.
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But he was, and still is, a non-person in the eyes of MPR, and apparently by all other broadcasters, right? Or has some broadcaster actually invited him back only to be turned down by Keillor?
 
MRBIboredop said:
He was convicted in the court of public opinion
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Guilty until proven innocent. That's the system. My point is that there was nothing else preventing him from doing this. And no one is forcing anyone to buy tickets to see this show.

CTListener said:
But he was, and still is, a non-person in the eyes of MPR, and apparently by all other broadcasters, right? Or has some broadcaster actually invited him back only to be turned down by Keillor?
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That's the great thing about being a live performer. You can bypass the gatekeepers and go straight to your fans. That's what Morgan Wallen did.
 
TheBigA said:
Which is why I say it was terrible. It was not really a replacement for PHC, but a completely different show. Stations who expected a PHC replacement were disappointed. When LFH went away, stations apparently switched to Mountain Stage.
Click to expand...
IMO it may have been better if there had been a proper end to Prarie Home Companion and then a launch of Live From Here as a new program the next season. Instead they announced that PHC was going to continue with a similar format, Chris Thiele was hand-picked by Garrison to host and it would more or less be the same show people had long known and loved (minus segments like Lake Wobegon and Guy Noir that Keillor wrote and recited/performed). That may have been true at the beginning, but long-time fans of PCH then tuned in to hear changes happen over time and the show they once appreciated transformed, though it was still called PHC. Over the course of time (not necessarily in chronological order) members of the long-time acting company and effects artists were released. The long-time music director was let go. The show became much more music-centric. Then they relocated the show to New York and sold off the Fitzgerald theater, leaving little connection to Minnesota and the midwest. Once the accusations were made against Keillor and MPR decided to distance from him, the show's name was finally changed to Live From here.

Throughout the course of all those changes and ultimately the show's name change, many NPR stations saw their Saturday evening ratings plummet. My NPR station replaced it fairly quickly after it became LFH with a few game/quiz shows.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Throughout the course of all those changes and ultimately the show's name change, many NPR stations saw their Saturday evening ratings plummet. My NPR station replaced it fairly quickly after it became LFH with a few game/quiz shows.
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I heard a lot of the same thing from other stations around the country. There's a quote from one station in the link I posted above. They were disappointed in the show and the transition from what they had. Some felt that they weren't properly prepared for the change by APM. But we saw lots of similar things in the last few years, including the replacement for Rush Limbaugh.
 
Mikey Radio said:
IMO it may have been better if there had been a proper end to Prarie Home Companion and then a launch of Live From Here as a new program the next season. Instead they announced that PHC was going to continue with a similar format, Chris Thiele was hand-picked by Garrison to host and it would more or less be the same show people had long known and loved (minus segments like Lake Wobegon and Guy Noir that Keillor wrote and recited/performed). That may have been true at the beginning, but long-time fans of PCH then tuned in to hear changes happen over time and the show they once appreciated transformed, though it was still called PHC. Over the course of time (not necessarily in chronological order) members of the long-time acting company and effects artists were released. The long-time music director was let go. The show became much more music-centric. Then they relocated the show to New York and sold off the Fitzgerald theater, leaving little connection to Minnesota and the midwest. Once the accusations were made against Keillor and MPR decided to distance from him, the show's name was finally changed to Live From here.

Throughout the course of all those changes and ultimately the show's name change, many NPR stations saw their Saturday evening ratings plummet. My NPR station replaced it fairly quickly after it became LFH with a few game/quiz shows.
Click to expand...
All I wanted to hear was Lake Wobegon, Guy Noir and Lives of the Cowboys. Some of the music was good too. Not true after Chris Thile took over.
 
CBS Sunday Morning interviewed Keillor about his return to PHC, and about the "me too" allegations:

www.cbsnews.com

Garrison Keillor talks about #MeToo and a return to Lake Wobegon

Best known for the wildly-popular "A Prairie Home Companion," the author was accused of sexual misconduct, causing Minnesota Public Radio to sever ties. But he has never stopped writing, and is back on the road entertaining his audience.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

Garrison will turn 80 this summer.
 
TheBigA said:
CBS Sunday Morning interviewed Keillor about his return to PHC, and about the "me too" allegations:

www.cbsnews.com

Garrison Keillor talks about #MeToo and a return to Lake Wobegon

Best known for the wildly-popular "A Prairie Home Companion," the author was accused of sexual misconduct, causing Minnesota Public Radio to sever ties. But he has never stopped writing, and is back on the road entertaining his audience.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

Garrison will turn 80 this summer.
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He's in complete denial yet willingly admits to all sorts of stuff that goes far beyond "mutual flirting" in an office, and the only lesson he's learned is never to talk to a female work colleague. He's just made sure he'll never be on public radio again, even if he does have a Wobegon narrative worth continuing.
 
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