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A Prairie Dawn Companion – Some Final Thoughts, For Now · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

0:04
Well, it's been 8 weeks of talking about Sesame Street, 8
0:08
weeks since I first asked why it took until Abby Cadabby's debut
0:13
in 2637, years after the show's debut, for a female Muppet to
0:20
truly be as important as the boys.
0:24
And you knew I was going to say this, but 8 episodes later, I'm
0:29
not sure if I'm any more confident in my answer.
0:32
We've had some clues along the way, but as we've discussed,
0:36
this is not exactly a question with a simple answer, and every
0:40
question leads to 30 more. At the very least, it is a good
0:44
excuse to talk about some characters who don't usually get
0:47
fan attention. So there's that.
0:50
You know, this episode marks the end of my first season in which
0:55
we covered most of the recurring female Muppet characters
0:59
introduced on Sesame Street prior to 1980.
1:04
These characters were, of course, Betty Lou Roosevelt,
1:07
Franklin's mother, Granny Fanny, Nestle Rd., Prairie Dawn, Franny
1:13
Smart, Tina, Susetta Something, Tina Twiddlebug, Tessie
1:18
Twiddlebug, and Rodeo Rosie. That's not everybody introduced
1:23
in the 1970s, as I know some of my listeners are thinking.
1:28
Early in this series, when it was time to plan everything, I
1:32
made myself a chronological list of every recurring female Sesame
1:36
Street Muppet, so I know exactly who I skipped.
1:41
First of all, I know I skipped family members.
1:45
During this period, Granny Bird appeared once in Season 1,
1:50
Grover's Mommy once in season 3, Snuffy's mom, Sally
1:55
Snuffleupagus in one episode in season 4.
2:00
Cookie Monster's cousin, Cousin Monster, not really the most
2:04
creative name, appeared twice. Oscar's niece Irvine, who was
2:10
called Irving in the 70s, appeared a handful of times, but
2:15
more often in later decades. The Count's steady girlfriend,
2:19
Countess Natasha von Numeral, is probably the one of these who
2:24
appeared the most on the show, but she definitely fits into
2:28
this category too. Dear, please say you will marry
2:33
me and become my Countess. Oh Count, you are very romantic,
2:39
but I cannot marry you. Oh.
2:42
That's one. One time I've asked you to marry
2:45
me and you've said no, no. We will be talking about these
2:50
characters in future seasons, but I'm going to have to tackle
2:53
most of those family members a little differently.
2:57
In some ways, many of these characters are more like
3:00
accessories to the male cast than distinct people, which
3:05
makes their roles a little different to discuss.
3:08
So we'll get there, just not this season.
3:12
I also skipped Gladys the Cow, and let me assure you that is
3:16
not because Gladys the Cow is unimportant.
3:21
Well, why don't you take over? Could I?
3:24
Oh well, I thank you so much. Where you going?
3:28
Well, I've got to join my my friends, my backup group.
3:31
Yes. Hey, fellas, we've got a gig.
3:33
Excuse me? Gladys is basically my second
3:39
favorite Sesame Street character after Prairie Dawn.
3:43
She's going to need a special in depth episode and I'm going to
3:47
need some time to plan that. And then the 1980s begin with
3:52
Grungeta, so we'll be talking about her next season 2.
3:56
And wait, hang on a second. My notes say 1976 introduces a
4:04
character named Winnie Wiggins. Who is Winnie Wiggins?
4:10
Will, hi there. Hi, Will.
4:12
Why? My name is Winnie Wiggins.
4:14
Nice to meet. You.
4:15
My name's Maria. That's an M word.
4:17
Did you know that M? Maria.
4:19
That's the first M word I heard today.
4:22
That's a really nice M word. I like the way it starts off
4:25
Your name Maria. Yeah, that's terrific.
4:28
Yeah. Who?
4:30
Boy? All right, I guess we're not
4:32
done here. We've got work to do this week,
4:34
after all. Plus we'll catch up on some
4:37
things we missed regarding Granny Fanny, Nestle Rd.
4:40
Betty Lou, and Prairie Dawn. I'm B for Becca Petunia, and
4:45
you're listening to the Season 1 finale of P for Prairie Dawn
4:50
Companion. Ladies and gentlemen, the
4:53
Starlight Hotel takes great pride in presenting the world's
4:57
favorite 6 year old entertainer, Miss Prairie Dawn, come on,
5:03
girls. Girls, girls, let's go do girl
5:07
stuff. Can you play a song with a
5:14
beats? OK, so Winnie Wiggins.
5:28
The thing about Winnie Wiggins is that I've never been more
5:32
certain that a character stopped appearing because people didn't
5:36
enjoy her. I mean, I guess I can't say that
5:40
for a fact. No one said it in any reliable
5:43
sources. And her performer Richard Hunt
5:47
sadly passed in 1992. But Winnie Wiggins only appeared
5:52
4 times on Sesame Street, plus one background cameo and one
5:58
single book appearance. That means the only character
6:03
we've discussed all season long with fewer appearances is
6:08
Franny. The only reason a character
6:11
would appear that infrequently is if nobody involved with her
6:16
wanted to keep her around, especially since, unlike many
6:22
characters, you can't say that Winnie Wiggins was pointless or
6:26
nonsensical. So who was she and what did she
6:30
do? Well, Winnie was a lavender Live
6:34
Hand anything Muppet, just like Granny Fanny, Nestle Road, and
6:38
Rodeo Rosie. She had Gray hair and a baggy
6:42
cardigan, like a stereotypical eccentric elderly woman, like
6:47
Granny Fanny Nestle Rd. but a different, almost identical
6:52
eccentric elderly woman. And as I said earlier, Winnie
6:56
Wiggins had a very specific role on the show.
6:59
Missus Wiggins was the Superintendent of 123 Sesame
7:04
Street. Missus Wiggins, I was just
7:06
wondering whether or not you began to put the hot water
7:09
heater in yet. Hot.
7:11
Water heater hot Well, no, not yet.
7:14
But Speaking of hot water heaters, hot heater 2 each
7:18
words, two very nice. Each words come very handy when
7:22
you need hot water, you know? Yes.
7:23
Mrs. Wiggins, But maybe I should tell you where it goes.
7:27
Goes. Goes there is AG word you can
7:32
follow anywhere G go it goes. Mrs. Wiggins, It goes right over
7:37
there in the basement. OK.
7:39
Basement, right? Basement.
7:41
Do you hear that way the way the way that B just falls right into
7:44
that word basement? More specifically, Winnie is the
7:49
kindly, bumbling, neat freak Superintendent of 123 Sesame,
7:55
Oscar's trash can, and apparently several other
7:59
buildings on Sesame Street. There are so many storylines
8:03
they could have built out of that, and we did see some of
8:07
them. Winnie makes the hot water
8:09
heater too hot. Winnie helps Maria clean her
8:13
apartment. Winnie and Oscar clash over
8:17
whether things should be neat. You can probably imagine other
8:22
Winnie scenarios that could have had real narrative, educational,
8:26
and comedic value. But I'll tell you they
8:29
definitely aren't comedic because of Winnie's other
8:34
gimmick that you heard a little bit of in that earlier clip.
8:38
Winnie Wiggins is basically Count von Count except for
8:42
letters instead of numbers. Even down to the fact that she's
8:46
got the same anything Muppet base as the count.
8:51
But instead, I think perhaps I will have some duck.
8:55
Yeah, there's a nice D word duck, roasted duck, that is.
8:58
And over there maybe, perhaps some dates.
9:01
There's a good dependable D word dates and dill pickle.
9:05
D for dill, D for dill, dill pickle, maybe.
9:08
And oh, I don't know, for dessert, maybe some Danish and
9:11
doughnuts. D for Danish and D for doughnuts
9:14
too. Which is like, OK, The Count's
9:18
gimmick of obsessing over counting is funny because of
9:25
Jerry Nelson's performance. On its own, it's annoying.
9:30
I mean, it's kind of supposed to be annoying, right?
9:34
We see adults and other Muppets constantly get tired of him, but
9:39
it's an entertaining performance because Jerry goes all in with
9:44
it, with that hilarious accent and that extremely maniacally
9:50
unhinged diversions that happen when the count gets stuck
9:54
counting. That is 278 incredible colossal
10:04
credits. I love motion pictures.
10:20
Winnie Wiggins is, you know, I'm, I'm hesitant to use this
10:26
word, but Winnie Wiggins is subtler.
10:29
She's not subtle, but she's more natural in that she's just an
10:34
old woman who kind of rambles. It's not the Count, it's a worse
10:40
version of Granny Fanny Nestle Rd. who likes the alphabet,
10:46
which is also something that Granny Fanny Nestle Rd. liked.
10:50
It's so weird to me that there's a Richard Hunt character who
10:55
isn't funny because his stuff is always among my favorites.
11:01
I mean, I already said Gladys the Cow is my second favorite
11:05
Sesame Muppet, but Winnie Wiggins just isn't funny.
11:12
Anyway. In the Sesame Street cookbook
11:14
from the 70s, she makes some kind of alphabet cereal
11:17
casserole. I'll make it one day.
11:21
And that's all I could ever say about Winnie Wiggins, which
11:25
explains really everything about her.
11:29
OK, so let's check in on some of those other characters.
11:33
Firstly, Tough Pigs reader David HAKA Splurge deserves a radish
11:40
for finding some scans from the From Here to There coloring
11:45
book. The 1978 coloring book that
11:48
featured Granny on a unicycle on the cover.
11:52
Now, I can conclusively tell you that a lot of this coloring book
11:57
is about Granny Fanny Nestle Rd. The Sesame Gang are competing in
12:03
a race the from here to their race, and we see Granny on her
12:09
unicycle several times in the book.
12:12
She's got fans cheering her on and she's knitting to help her
12:16
keep pace, saying Knit 1, Pearl 2, Knit 1, Pearl 2.
12:22
She wins the race and reveals that what she's been knitting
12:26
was a scarf that says Granny is a winner.
12:31
That's that's a lot for a character.
12:34
I guarantee 99.99% of kids we're not excited to see for a second.
12:43
OK, is that enough Granny Fanny for you?
12:45
Let's shift gears to two characters we're never going to
12:49
be done with Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou.
12:53
I've been saying this is the 1970s season of my show, but if
12:57
you've been listening, you know that I frequently go beyond that
13:00
window. For instance, last week Rachel,
13:04
Garrett Steele and I discussed rodeo rosy book appearances from
13:08
as late as 1992. That's because for characters
13:13
with only a few appearances, it makes sense to knock them all
13:17
out in one episode. But Prairie and Betty stick
13:22
around for decades and decades and appear in so many sketches,
13:26
so I was never going to be able to get through every single one
13:30
of their important appearances in a single episode, nor would I
13:34
want to. But at the risk of falling
13:37
behind on them, I want to take some time this episode to
13:41
address some other notable things they did in the 70s.
13:46
Again, when it comes to those two, I'll never cover
13:49
everything, but I'd be remiss if I ignored them completely.
13:54
So when Staff Scheer was here in episode 2, we talked about how
13:59
Betty Lou wasn't much of A character at all.
14:03
While there are a lot of additional Betty Lou sketches I
14:07
could discuss from the 60s and 70s, there isn't much to say
14:12
about any of them. She once wanted to read a book.
14:17
Oh. Look at that.
14:18
A great big book that's. The thing about Betty Lou, she's
14:25
not usually much, but she's always around.
14:29
Stephanie Dabruzzo couldn't remember whether she had a
14:32
consistent performer in this era.
14:35
And folks, Stephanie Dabruzzo remembers everything.
14:41
But in episode 2, Steph and I settled on a brief period of
14:45
consistency, where Betty Lou was defined by her unexpected love
14:50
of the grotesque before she simply became a girl who's nice,
14:57
if she showed up at all. As the 70s went on, her lack of
15:01
appearances become even more noticeable.
15:04
As far as I can tell, she has two starring roles in books for
15:09
the rest of the 70s, and they're merely starring roles in short
15:14
stories that make up larger anthologies.
15:18
In 1978, in the Sesame Street Bedtime Story book, she appears.
15:23
In the story Betty Lou Lends a Hand, written by Emily Pearl
15:28
Kingsley with art by Tom Cook. This is definitely what I knew
15:34
Betty Lou from as a little kid. And you may remember this is
15:38
also how I knew Rodeo Rosie. In this story, Bert wants to
15:44
show his friends an envelope he just got in the mail, but it
15:47
blows behind a fence. Each Muppet tries to use their
15:51
signature talent to get the letter to no avail.
15:56
For instance, Hairy Monster who's the Strongest tries to
16:00
lift the fence, and Sherlock Hemlock, who's the smartest,
16:04
tries to look for clues. This is when Rodeo Rosie tries
16:09
to use her loudness to yell at the envelope.
16:12
Remember that, Rodeo Rosie? She sure made a lot of sense.
16:19
Anyway, eventually Bert asks Betty Lou to try, and she
16:23
succeeds in grabbing the envelope through a crack in the
16:27
fence. Because she's the smallest.
16:31
The end. That's Betty Lou's starring
16:34
role. She saves the day not because of
16:37
any notable personality trait or attribute she's worked on, but
16:43
because she is small. This is nothing it it's
16:49
actually. It's actually less than nothing
16:52
because Betty Lou isn't even the smallest one in this story.
16:58
Prairie Dawn is also in this story, and in an extremely
17:02
literal way, she is the exact same size as Betty Lou.
17:08
Truly, this is the most boring way to make Betty Lou a main
17:14
character. In the same year was a better
17:18
attempt. In the classic Super Grover
17:21
comic anthology, The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover, also
17:27
by Kingsley with art by Joe Matthew, Betty Lou appears as
17:32
the star of a one page advertisement parody.
17:37
That's right, it's an old comic book so there needs to be a
17:41
parody of a Charles Atlas ad. And who's a better wimp than the
17:46
so-called 98 oz weakling Betty Lou?
17:51
In this ad, Betty Lou is bullied at the beach, just like Mac was
17:56
in the original Charles Atlas ads.
18:00
And as in those original ads, she dreams about getting swole
18:05
to take her revenge. Things sort of diverge from the
18:09
original ads when Betty Lou realizes very quickly that
18:15
getting revenge like that seems pretty boring.
18:19
Gee, I'd rather play football, Betty Lou yells.
18:23
The comic ends with Betty realizing the best way to solve
18:26
her problem is to tell the bully that he isn't being nice, and
18:31
the bully apologizes. There's some fun stuff in here.
18:36
It's building off of the same thing as that last story we
18:40
discussed, that Betty Lou is the smallest but throws in that fun
18:45
twist of her being full of contradictions.
18:48
You know that Staff and I were talking about by having her love
18:52
football. It also has some fun stuff with
18:56
Betty getting extremely angry, vengeful, and then assertive.
19:01
All things we don't usually associate with little girl
19:05
characters. I love this comic so much it it
19:09
could have been a really fun angle for Betty Lou as we move
19:13
into the 1980s. But spoilers for next season.
19:18
It wasn't. Or at least it wasn't
19:20
consistently. But if anyone was getting more
19:23
consistently angry, passionate and assertive, it was Prairie
19:28
Dawn. Looking at these late 1970s
19:32
books and records, you can see just how well defined her
19:36
character was becoming. Prairie's role was to be more
19:41
competent than everyone else, very aware of herself worth, and
19:46
impatient with other characters silliness.
19:50
Sometimes in the Muppet fan community we say that Prairie
19:53
Dawn didn't really develop a strong character until the
19:56
1990s, but I'd argue it's all right here, albeit mostly in
20:02
transmedia material. All right here in the late
20:06
1970s. Here are some highlights.
20:11
As I told my pal Rachel, when discussing Tales of Sesame Gulch
20:15
by Ruth Anna Long with art from Tom Cook, Prairie Dawn shows up
20:20
in this alternate universe as the main character of the short
20:24
story Prairie Dawn of the Pony Express.
20:27
Here, during a male run, Prairie is kidnapped by a group of
20:32
anything Muppet bandits. But Prairie isn't scared.
20:37
Instead, she's frustrated at how terrible these bandits are.
20:43
And if I can do my best, my best Southern accent, which I guess
20:47
is my best Rachel Garrett Steele impression, if this ain't the
20:52
sorriest looking gang of owl hoots I ever did see, says
20:58
Sesame Gulch. Prairie Dawn.
21:00
Turns out the bandits kidnapped her because they wish she'd
21:04
deliver mail to them, and Prairie thinks this is
21:08
ridiculous. She's frustrated, but then she
21:12
teaches the bandits that they have to send mail to get mail.
21:18
It's really good Prairie material.
21:20
She's a teacher who wants what's best for her students, but a
21:24
teacher who absolutely also gets frustrated with her class.
21:30
We see that again in 1977 on the Sesame Street Fairy Tale album,
21:36
where Prairie teaches Grover that fairy tales don't have to
21:41
end with marriage after being frustrated by his simplistic,
21:46
trope filled storytelling. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
21:51
That's ridiculous, Grover. Why should she marry the Prince
21:54
when she never even met him? What if she didn't like him?
21:58
Why couldn't you just go back to her castle and ride her horse or
22:02
open a lemonade stand or learn to read instead of getting
22:06
married? But.
22:07
Prairie Dawn fairy tales always end like that, with everybody
22:11
getting married and living happily ever after.
22:14
Oh. No, Grover, there are lots of
22:16
fairy tales that don't end like that.
22:19
Really of. Course.
22:21
Would you like to hear one? Certainly I am most curious all.
22:25
Right. It's Prairie Dawn as a feminist,
22:29
and let's remember that character seed, because it's
22:33
going to show up again in 1978 on the album Fair is Fair.
22:39
Prairie Dawn sings I'm a Person, a song about how she has
22:44
feelings and interests that go beyond her just being small, the
22:49
direct opposite of the lesson of Betty Lou lends a hand I'm a.
22:55
Person. Son, even though I am very
23:03
small. This year we also see Prairie in
23:09
the same two books as Betty Lou, The Exciting Adventures of Super
23:14
Grover, and the Sesame Street Bedtime Story Book.
23:18
And folks, it really seems like Emily Pearl Kingsley loved
23:23
writing for Prairie. You know, I should really reach
23:28
out to her producer Joe, let's let's reach out to Emily Pearl
23:32
Kingsley at some point. Can you write that down for me?
23:36
Anyway, in the Super Grover book, Prairie is starring in the
23:39
school play of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Grover is
23:44
starring in his occasional role of ruining Prairie's life.
23:49
Apparently unaware what plays are, Grover is convinced that
23:53
Bert, Harry Monster and Ernie a real bears menacing Prairie dawn
23:59
and flies in to save the day by taking them to the zoo.
24:03
Prairie is obviously furious with Grover's hijinks.
24:08
It's that Fran and Frank dynamic played out on paper rather than
24:12
in fleece. It's exactly the dynamic we want
24:16
for these two characters, and it's beautiful.
24:20
And the best part is, there's no doubt of Prairie's passions and
24:24
priorities when she grumbles. Now I'll never get to be a star
24:30
in response to Grover destroying everything.
24:34
Her friends being in the zoo? That's secondary.
24:37
Prairie looks out for number 1, and I adore that.
24:42
And of course, if you've been on the Tough Pig's Discord, you
24:45
know that one of my favorite emojis to use is Frustrated
24:50
Prairie, a kind of blank office style.
24:54
Look into the camera of Prairie Dawn in her pajamas, and that
25:00
comes from the Sesame Bedtime Story book.
25:03
Here, Prairie is once again tortured by Grover's naivete, as
25:09
her friend doesn't understand how bedtime stories work.
25:14
In other words, there's a character here in basically all
25:19
her starring appearances, we know exactly who Prairie is.
25:24
She's strong, she's funny, she's often relatable, and yet there
25:30
isn't much of her. As we've said, she's barely on
25:35
the show in the late 70s save for some re aired pageants.
25:40
Prairie Dawn is an important character in the 70s.
25:44
Just to reiterate my initial point on this show, maybe not as
25:50
important as The Boys. And, you know, as we're here at
25:54
the ending of Season 1, I think that's so important to address.
25:59
Again, what was Sesame teaching girls in the 1970s when so many
26:06
of these characters were basically non existent and the
26:10
one who did exist was largely appearing in books, not on the
26:15
show itself? You know, Stephanie Debruzzo
26:19
talked about how she was told again and again that boys won't
26:24
watch shows about girls. And I've seen the data, too, you
26:29
know, My favorite book, Hearth and Holm, discusses the same
26:33
thing. But I'm still struggling with
26:36
that. Because despite what Rodeo Rosie
26:40
might believe, Sesame Street isn't Gunsmoke.
26:45
Sesame didn't exist simply to sell products during commercial
26:50
breaks. It's supposed to be teaching
26:53
kids, and shouldn't boys learn that girls have strong
26:59
personalities too? That girls can be fun, and don't
27:04
girls deserve to learn that too? Obviously, I think Sesame does a
27:11
better and better job of this as time goes on.
27:15
We mentioned this, you know, I mentioned Abby and Zoe and
27:19
Rosita and Gabrielle and Ji Young and Neve.
27:23
Well, maybe not Neve because as far as I'm concerned, Neve is
27:27
non binary, but we'll get to that in like 5 years or so.
27:32
But anyway, the 1970's, the 1970s are just leaving me
27:37
feeling cold. You know, there's one important
27:41
thing Prairie Dawn did on the show in the 1970s that I didn't
27:46
talk about. It's a street scene that never
27:50
re aired and one that's so hard to find that we only seem to
27:55
have footage of it in black and white.
27:58
In episode 4, O1 from Sesame Street's third season in 1972,
28:04
Prairie Dawn is excited about her carpentry kit and thinks
28:08
that maybe she wants to be a Carpenter when she grows up.
28:12
This is obviously not a job we typically associate with women.
28:18
It's not considered a feminine job.
28:21
But Molly, the human mail carrier with a short tenure on
28:26
the show and a loud singing voice, tells Prairie Dawn that
28:30
she shouldn't let that get her down.
28:33
And she belts out a song that will become one of the main
28:38
Sesame Street standards. You.
28:41
Know I think I want to be a Carpenter when I grow up.
28:44
Do you think I can? She would like to.
28:49
Oh, you can be what you want to be.
28:53
See what you want to see. Believe in yourself.
28:57
Just believe in yourself. Oh.
28:59
You can go. Where you want to go, Do what
29:03
you want to do. Believe in yourself.
29:06
Just believe in yourself. Folks may say you're different,
29:12
that you've gone and lost your senses, but the world is yours
29:17
to walk in. Go ahead and leap the fences and
29:21
you'll see. Believe in yourself and the
29:25
world belongs to you and me. It's a feminist anthem folks.
29:32
The you and me is women and girls.
29:36
Believe in Yourself will be used in other contexts later on, but
29:41
in its first appearance on May 8th, 1972, it's about this.
29:51
And I hope kids of all genders watching the show understood
29:56
what Molly meant and what Prairie needed to hear.
30:01
Girls matter just as much as boys.
30:04
Girls can do anything, no matter what other folks say.
30:10
And you know, this season, I hope you all learned that.
30:15
I mean, I hope you already knew that, to be honest.
30:20
But as you might have noticed, this season, all of my guests
30:24
were women, all different kinds of women with all different jobs
30:30
and passions and interests. Puppeteers, obviously we talked
30:35
to a couple puppeteers, but also writers, composers, artists,
30:40
clowns, actresses, human rights advocates, young and old,
30:46
transgender and cisgender. But we're all women and we're
30:51
all important. And you know what?
30:55
I'd like to think, regardless of your gender, you all found us
31:00
worth listening to. And I don't know, I guess in my
31:04
heart, I hope that the viewers of Sesame Street could feel the
31:10
same way about women. I like imagining a world where
31:14
women can do what they want to do, so long as we believe in
31:19
ourselves. I hope that when I come back
31:22
next season and look at Sesame Street in the 1980s, we see a
31:28
world where the Muppet characters better reflect that.
31:32
I know that Sesame kept trying, and I know one day the show will
31:37
succeed in this. Now if only the real world could
31:42
succeed in this too. Thank you for listening to
31:47
season 1 of A Prairie Dawn Companion.
31:51
I want to thank you all for taking the time to join me on
31:55
this journey. This project has really been a
31:59
dream of mine for years and it's been so wonderful to finally
32:04
bring it to life. So I want to take a second to
32:07
thank everyone that I usually thank in the end credits.
32:12
So first of all, thank you to my executive producer Joe Hennis.
32:17
Without you, this show really couldn't exist.
32:21
I want to thank the Muppet Wiki team, especially Scott Hanson,
32:25
Tony Whitaker, and Shane Keating.
32:28
You guys really helped me with the immense amount of research
32:31
this show required. I especially want to thank Tony
32:35
and Shane, who helped me find so many of the rare clips required,
32:41
often at a moment's notice. Every girl needs a squad who'll
32:46
find Winnie Wiggins clips for her at the drop of a hat when
32:50
she realizes that she'd forgotten to talk about her
32:52
until the last episode of her podcast's first season.
32:59
I want to thank Michael Davis for his irreplaceable book St.
33:03
Gang, which really helped me get a picture of the early days of
33:07
the show, even if Michael Davis and I have distinctly different
33:12
opinions about Zoe. I want to thank my crack team of
33:18
beta readers Michael Richardson, Katie Lynn Miller, and Eli Lee.
33:23
These folks were especially useful on the early episodes
33:28
when the premise really needed to be hammered out, and it was
33:31
so good to ask three of the most talented writers I know if I was
33:36
making any sense at all. Shout out to Michal for
33:41
suggesting the title A Prairie Dawn Companion in the first
33:45
place. And of course, an extra special
33:49
thanks to Eli Lee, who repeatedly put up with me
33:53
needing to ignore them so I could read 16 picture books
33:57
about a cowgirl with teeth. Thanks to all my friends who
34:02
appeared as guests, Staff Scheer, Christie O, Drake, Lucas
34:11
and Rachel Garrett Steele. You gals are so special to me
34:16
and I'm so glad you could share your passions and knowledge with
34:20
the world. And of course, thanks to Fran
34:23
Brill and Stephanie Debruzzo, not only for appearing on my
34:27
show, but also for bringing Prairie Dawn and everyone else
34:31
to life. And while I'm at it, thanks to
34:34
the entire team at Sesame Workshop for creating a special
34:38
show and letting me create my own project about it.
34:44
Thanks to my family at Tough Pigs.
34:46
Thanks for making a space where shows like this can exist.
34:51
And thank you at home for listening.
34:54
Please, if this show was interesting or fun or taught you
34:58
something, please rate and review it on your pod catcher.
35:03
But more importantly, tell a friend.
35:06
Also, I guess I can say that you can find me on the Tough Pigs
35:10
Discord or on Blue Sky at Tall Girl Petunia.
35:14
Say hi. And in conclusion, I want to
35:18
remind all the women and girls of the world that you can be
35:23
anything, because you really are quite remarkable.