"Prarie Home" is real; we make it that. JD Nordell speaks to all of it. That Streep and Tomlin and Kline would be those characters we imagine affirm the reality of the show. We seldom miss it, it's good theatre, every week, and radio is still an exercise in imagination. Thanks.

Sandy

I occasionally listened to the show, until a few years back when a fried shared tickets to his travelling show. When Keillor did a sketch about a camp director in red shorts parasailing over a group of camp attendees when the shorts fell short... I laughed so hard my stomach literally hurt. I've listened more since then. This man is a national treasure. His heart and his humor combine to create a magic that can't be found anywhere else.

The healine grabbed, but I failed to find anything worth knowing by reading this article. I found myself reading the article faster and faster, finely just skiming, searching for some reason it was taking up so much space, only to reach the end non the wiser. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Keillor's show and his occassional column, but this article was one gaint yawn-fest.

This was a lovely piece. Thanks to the author for sharing his/her experiences with us. I smiled all the way throught it.

I have to admit that I'm not sure if I'll see the movie. I generally enjoy Altman's work but I love listening to Prairie Home Companion & I'm a little unsure of having someone else's visual replace the ones in my head.

I devoured it.

Hmmmm... I’d assume the “point” was to convey the sights, sounds and emotions of the writer’s behind-the-scenes experiences in relation to having worked with both the radio and film version of PHC. In such, the piece was a success, for me anyway.

I found it well-written and entertaining, further piquing my interest for the movie. The you-are-there excitement was contagious. Don’t know what you were looking for, but it’s sad you found the writer’s happy reveries pointless.

Hmmmm... I’d assume the “point” was to convey the sights, sounds and emotions of the writer’s behind-the-scenes experiences in relation to having worked with both the radio and film version of PHC. In such, the piece was a success, for me anyway.

I found it well-written and entertaining, further piquing my interest for the movie. The you-are-there excitement was contagious. Don’t know what you were looking for, but it’s sad you found the writer’s happy reveries pointless.

- David Opdyke

... isn't Garrison Keillor one of the people who talks of radio as the theater of the mind? Depicting Dusty, Lefty, et al. flies in the face of that.

Having attended several broadcasts, I was looking forward to seeing the movie, thinking it would be a kind of behind-the-scenes look, like a documentary.

Given that Altman is not a documentarian, I don't know what I was thinking. The more I hear about it, the less I want to see it.

I love NPR, love old radio, am a fan of smart comedy but hate, hate, *HATE* PHC with a passion. I can think of only one thing worse than its usual radio production, and that's its filmic entity. I fear I'll be forced to watch it on a transatlantic flight.

The article was more of the sappy, self-indulgent, faux-folksy crap that blights NPR stations for a few hours every weekend. Make it stop.

JD Nordell's piece on the new Praire Home Companion movie is a wonderful tribute to a show I love so much. The duality of being at once an insider and an outsider is beautifully rendered. It's like that feeling you get every time you go back to your home town or your old neighborhood and things are familiar, but not at all the same. JD perfectly captures the awkwardness of old-world-meets-new...in fact, captures the golden and romantic glow of radio--and that part of Prairie Home Companion that has always been a love letter to a time gone past. I'm really looking forward to the movie and share JD's curiosity about how a show that relies on audio alone will translate to the screen. I trust it can be done, and I imagine that Robert Altman is just the person who can do it justice.

I don't see a link to write JD directly, so I'll go public with my fan mail:

Having spent time on movie sets (long time ago by now), I thought you captured your experience perfectly, as well as the "how weird is this?" twist. Wonderful writing, and what fun to laugh out loud at 4 in the morning.

I thought the article was wonderful...and told entertainingly by a gifted writer from an interesting viewpoint. Nice job!