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...
So, this was going to be the last show of the 2003-04 season and as I started to re-read this piece after 20-odd years, I thought it was going to be a goof on Keillor and his show, since I was featuring his fictional writer, Sarah Bellum. Back in the early days of TV, when a show went on summer hiatus, they would often replace it with a "summer series." It could be a variety show, a British import, or some left-over program that didn't make the cut. It starts with that as the premise. Maybe I'll come up with some wacky-sounding replacement radio shows with punny names. But that premise gets hijacked by a missing paranoid programing director. Then this sketch really takes an sudden turn. Evil dictator Suddam Hussein had been captured and as summer approached, they were setting up his trial for war crimes and general evil-ness. So, that was in the news and my little PHC parody became a Hussein sketch. No goofy radio shows. No (major) digs at PHC. No sly in-jokes about my stuff never getting selected. No summer cliff-hangers. Disappointingly, it didn't get selected. So, prepare to witness...
