From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things...
PHC's "Later on most of these Public Radio Stations" bits were very freeing. It was a real chance to jump out of the context of the show and do anything. I got to do it on my first time out, Abbott & Othello. Around this time, I was working on a pilot series, "Where's the Party?" a talk show, where the premise was a swinging party at a rich guy's penthouse; Playboy After Dark meets Fernwood Tonight. And at one point we were struggling with a way to do actual sketch-sketches and not just "party bits." Someone mentioned a TV set. A party goer could be in a corner watching TV and we could do anything on that TV; a news parody (which I did), sit-coms, sports, anything. It was our launching pad out of the single set. And could be filmed and presented as such (ala Monty Python) verses the taped party scenes.
Anyway, this sketch was a re-working of some jokes that I had kicking around that I never quite found the right set-up for. Maybe this wasn't it either, but it appealed to my contradian side. Also, I think the idea of parodying those Sunday morning news shows as they devolved into these bizarre attempts at "gotcha" attitudes and odd "what-if" scenarios questions. I think it just never jelled enough for PHC's purposes and they neglected to use it.
Anyway, this sketch was a re-working of some jokes that I had kicking around that I never quite found the right set-up for. Maybe this wasn't it either, but it appealed to my contradian side. Also, I think the idea of parodying those Sunday morning news shows as they devolved into these bizarre attempts at "gotcha" attitudes and odd "what-if" scenarios questions. I think it just never jelled enough for PHC's purposes and they neglected to use it.
