Garrison Keillor Wraps Up ‘Prairie Home’ After Several False Endings
Garrison Keillor has talked about wrapping up his Prairie Home Companion several different times but this time the show has truly met its end. At the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night, the show gave its final performance after its 42-year run. The host of the long-running radio program used the opening of this final performance to explain why it has lasted so long.
Garrison Keillor talked about the fact that he believed in friendship, and that was a running theme for the Prairie Home Companion. 18,000 people showed up to see the last conversation between Keillor and his friends, both on the air and those listening. The 73-year-old went into detail as to why he feels as though he kept it going so long according to USA Today.
“That was the whole reason for starting a radio show — it was to get to meet people if you had no social skills. And people would walk up to you and say, ‘I heard you on the radio.’ This was the beginning of a conversation that would lead in all sorts of interesting directions.”
Garrison Keillor said to open the final Prairie Home. The program is normally performed live, but this final show was taped because Keillor said the California summer sun does not allow a matinee. The program, which the host dubbed the first ever last show, was light on sentimentality but heavy on strong performances from duets with five favorite singing partners that included Christine DiGiallonardo, Sarah Jarosz, Heather Masse, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins.
Moments from #GarrisonKeillor's final farewell, #lastnight at the @HollywoodBowl https://t.co/Qi0rJcoN4F pic.twitter.com/5zpPt4cb4X
— LAist 89.3 (@KPCC) July 2, 2016
Garrison Keillor started the Prairie Home Companion back in 1974. As NPR points out, there seems to be some poetic justice that the final episode would be heard just days before the country celebrates Independence Day. The idea of the show was one that seemed odd even back in the 1970’s, but it certainly found an audience.
Keillor was able to find the perfect combination of long stories, songs, jokes, and conversations. All of those Prarie Home stories were set in a Minnesota town that doesn’t exist. Keillor made sure his listeners believed such a town existed, if only for a couple of hours.
“Thank goodness Minnesota Public Radio was too poor to afford good advice. We only did it because we knew it would be fun to do. It was a dumb idea. I wish I knew how to be that dumb again.”
Garrison Keillor once said about his now four-decades-old program. This isn’t the first time the radio host has claimed he was going to shut the Prairie Home Companion down. It was about this time last year Keillor started talking about doing the final show.
He’s mentioned bringing the program to an end before even 2015, and the number of times Keillor has talked about it indicates he knew the run was just about over for quite a while. On Friday night, he finally pulled the trigger.
The good news, for people who have been listening to the show for decades, is there are massive numbers of recordings. These have been packaged and sold for quite a while, and they can be used by fans to walk down memory lane.
Final @prairie_home in the park on the radio with friends. Damn fine#PrairieHomeCompanion #garrisonkeillor pic.twitter.com/PTZr1VVCWQ
— Clay Goodpasture (@ClayGoodpasture) July 2, 2016
It’s a safe bet public radio isn’t going to allow the show to fade into obscurity. There’s always the opportunity to replay episodes much the way Car Talk continued despite the end of new episodes quite a while ago. Syndication in television is something people expect; they’re often happily surprised when they can listen to a show like Prairie Home Companion long after it’s taped it’s the last recording.
Prairie Home Companion will live on in some capacity for years to come. Garrison Keillor can rest easy knowing his legacy will last even longer than his live program did.
[Photo by Jim Mone/AP Images]
