A Prairie Home Companion is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016.

Also, while Keillor sang and delivered a regular monologue on American Radio Company, Lake Wobegon was initially downplayed, as he felt it was "cruel" to talk to a Brooklyn audience about life in a small town.

[10] In September 2011, Keillor told The Tuscaloosa News that his last broadcast would be recorded in "early July 2013", and that instead of a permanent replacement host, there would be "a whole group of people.

[citation needed] On February 7 and 14, 2015, mandolinist Chris Thile hosted the show (like Sara Watkins, a member of Nickel Creek).

[15] Keillor recorded his final regular episode as host live at the Hollywood Bowl before an audience of 18,000, on July 1, 2016; it was aired on the following day.

[16] The episode was titled "Sumus Quod Sumus" (Latin for 'We are what we are'),[17] and was a vocal duet show of "time-honored American ballads, British Invasion romps, country-western weepers, and Broadway classics," guest-starring Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan, Heather Masse, and Christine DiGiallonardo, alongside the "Royal Academy of Radio Actors," Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman, and the APHC band, with music director and pianist Rich Dworsky and Bernie Dresel (drums), Larry Kohut (bass), Richard Kriehn (mandolin and fiddle), and Chris Siebold (guitar).

[29] When it was announced in 2019 that Live from Here was going to be based in and broadcast out of New York City, many Minnesotan fans publicly complained that the radio show was losing its Midwestern style.

[31] On April 13, 2018, Minnesota Public Radio posted a message stating its intent to reinstate the free online archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac.

[33] After 1987, each show has opened with Spencer Williams' composition "Tishomingo Blues" as the theme song, with lyrics by Garrison Keillor[34] that were written especially for A Prairie Home Companion.

The country musician and former record company executive Chet Atkins appeared on the show many times, as did singer-songwriters Mark Knopfler (lead guitarist and frontman of the bands Dire Straits and the Notting Hillbillies) and Jeff Lang.

Folk/gospel duo Robin and Linda Williams had been regular guests since 1976, and often join Keillor and another female performer, often Jearlyn Steele, to form "The Hopeful Gospel Quartet".

The Wailin' Jennys and Andra Suchy were also recurring guests, and when the show travelled, Keillor generally featured local musicians and acts.

Greetings from members of the audience to friends and family at home (frequently humorous) were read each week by Keillor just after the show's intermission, at the top of the second hour.

Guy Noir's popularity was such that the first few notes of the theme or the first lines of the announcer's introduction ("A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets ...") often drew applause and cheers from the audience.

The opening words of the monologue usually did not change: "Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out on the edge of the prairie."

Keillor often poked fun at central Minnesota's large Scandinavian-American and German-American communities, and many of his fictional characters have names that reflect this.

The components of this made-up word are portions of Native American place names in the New England region of the United States, most of them in Maine (i.e.: Piscataqua, Passamaquoddy, and Androscoggin).

Humorists such as Paula Poundstone and Roy Blount Jr. often made guest appearances on those shows, and listeners and audience members were encouraged to submit jokes for use on the air.

[39] The jingle is usually sung after a bombastic, sound-effect-enhanced tale of woe, and is immediately followed by Keillor asking, "Wouldn't this be a great time for a piece of rhubarb pie?

"[39][better source needed] Another prominent "sponsor" is Bertha's Kitty Boutique, whose locations in the fictional "Dales" shopping centers ("Roy 'n' Dale, Airedale, Teasdale, Clydesdale, Chippendale, Mondale, and all the other fine shopping centers") allude to various real people and things, while also parodying Minnesota's similarly named real-life malls (Southdale, Brookdale, Rosedale, and Ridgedale).

Mark Benninghofer joined the cast as a substitute actor for a brief time after Russell broke his ankle in February 2009, forcing him to take a month of medical leave.

He retired doing his weekday morning radio show in 2008, but continued performing on Prairie Home broadcasts from the Fitzgerald Theater and other regional locations.

The film depicts the titular radio program's behind-the-scenes activities, and the relational dynamics within the cast over its anticipated, imminent cancellation.

[56] As described in a 2005 on-set piece by David Carr for The New York Times, the film set's atmosphere had a kind of Spanky and Our Gang let's-put-on-a-show quality, with crew, marquee talent and "Prairie Home" acolytes and extras mixing freely.

The dailies, the traditional day's-end look at finished footage, usually include[d] about 75 people, a vivid reminder of Mr. Altman's penchant for collaborative filmmaking.

And because music is such an important part of the movie and the radio show, the set always seem[ed] to be lifted by the pluck of a mandolin or a three-part harmony rehearsal.