A Prairie Home Companion

References

A Prairie Home Companion

film by Altman [2006]

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 17, 2026

Quick Summary

A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 film directed by Robert Altman. The movie is based on Garrison Keillor's popular public radio show of the same name, which focused on the fictional town of Lake Wobegon. Altman, known for his unconventional style that emphasizes character and atmosphere, directed this film in his later career. The movie itself explores the lives of performers at the fictional "World Famous Fitzgerald Theater" as the venue faces closure.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

3 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Robert Altman
Final years
Altman’s final film was A Prairie Home Companion (2006), based on Garrison Keillor’s popular radio series.
Read More
Altman’s final film was A Prairie Home Companion (2006), based on Garrison Keillor’s popular radio series.
Read More

Woody Harrelson
>A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (2007). He later gave an Oscar-nominated performance as an army officer tasked with delivering the news of the deaths of soldiers to their families in The Messenger (2009). He costarred…
Read More
>A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (2007). He later gave an Oscar-nominated performance as an army officer tasked with delivering the news of the deaths of soldiers to their families in The Messenger (2009). He costarred…
Read More

Garrison Keillor
…appeared in, Robert Altman’s film A Prairie Home Companion (2006). He edited several volumes of poetry, including Good Poems (2002), Good Poems for Hard Times (2005), and Good Poems, American Places (2011), and published a collection of his own, O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound (2013).
Read More
…appeared in, Robert Altman’s film A Prairie Home Companion (2006). He edited several volumes of poetry, including Good Poems (2002), Good Poems for Hard Times (2005), and Good Poems, American Places (2011), and published a collection of his own, O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound (2013).
Read More

Lindsay Lohan
Mean Girls and celebrity
…joined the ensemble casts of A Prairie Home Companion and the Robert F. Kennedy biopic Bobby.
Read More
…joined the ensemble casts of A Prairie Home Companion and the Robert F. Kennedy biopic Bobby.
Read More

Lily Tomlin
…played an existential detective; and A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Altman’s adaptation of Garrison Keillor’s radio series. In Grandma (2015) Tomlin deployed her trademark acidity as the supportive but no-nonsense grandmother of a pregnant teenager.
Read More
…played an existential detective; and A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Altman’s adaptation of Garrison Keillor’s radio series. In Grandma (2015) Tomlin deployed her trademark acidity as the supportive but no-nonsense grandmother of a pregnant teenager.
Read More