The Ernie Pyle Experiment!

We hope you have enjoyed this season of 'The Ernie Pyle Experiment!' Please join us now for a behind the scenes interview with producers, Russell Mcgee and Michael Brainard, along with actor Greta Lind and Pyle professor emeritus Owen V. Johnson. Thank you for listening, and tell a friend.

It is three weeks since Ernie dropped Jerry off back at their home in Washington DC. Jerry has been in the care of doctors and she has sobered up, and hasn't had a drink since. When a caregiver comes by to check on her, and her state of mind, Jerry circles the wagons. The “good-advice' and “wise council' is coming, and she might have something to say about that.

Jerry, happy to be back on the road, celebrates a little bit too much. It is all Ernie can do to stabilize her so he can make it to Albany by sundown. But, Jerry has her own agenda. She forces Ernie into her state of mind, and Ernie see's that the near future is going to be problematic if Jerry is to stay by his side.

Ernie pays a visit to the home office for a meeting with his editor, Lee Miller. Miller, an old friend, knows about Jerry and her struggle with sobriety. He wants to make sure his investment, and friend, Ernie is not being affected by his wife's problems. Ernie, feeling backed into a corner, looks for a way out.

Though seldom out of ideas for the column, Ernie would write about anything, even if there were better reasons to write something else. Stories about himself always seem to make it into the column, here and there. And, bolstering himself up as a bumbling fool is one of his favorite pastimes. So, when Ernie buys a new pair of pants with zipper that does not work, he uses the event to craft an all-time favorite column.

Ernie's first writing job was as an aviation columnist in The Washington Daily News. Amelia Earhart once said, “Not to know Ernie Pyle is to admit that you yourself are unknown in aviation”. Still believing Ernie is the one to go to for breaking news in the aviation world, Amelia drops in with some friends to await the facts of a pilot, and dear friend, reported down in the Rocky Mountains.

Ernie and Jerry make their way to Washington DC, where they are headquartered, and where they keep a home. But, before they make their way home, they stop in a city park for lunch. Forgetting how much a celebrity his column has made him, Ernie gets uncomfortable when people start to recognize him. He escapes on foot, leaving Jerry with the car, and a thermos filled with rum. What could go wrong?

Finally back on the road, Ernie and Jerry stop into a favorite haunt for the night. However, it is in Ohio. Ohio is home to five newspapers in the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, Ernie's employer, and whenever he sets foot in Ohio they harass him for stories about their cities. It is all Ernie and Jerry can do to stay incognito until they get out of Ohio. A drink and a room, that's all they ask!

In his quest to round out ‘the Dana series' of columns, Ernie targets his favorite Aunt Mary. In so doing, he seeks out Jerry's help. However, Jerry may not be in the best state of mind as she has been holed up in his childhood bedroom contemplating the depths of a bourbon bottle. Not understanding how many sheets-to-the-wind Jerry has on her laundry line, Ernie insists she open the recorder on Aunt Mary.

Ernie discovers that his father drove his car through the front plate-glass window of the Dana dry-goods store. In a quest to get to the bottom of it, he realizes he must ask the most difficult question of his father, and himself: who is going to care for his folks in their twilight years?

After putting some very fine stories through his typewriter during his visit home in Dana. Jerry prompts Ernie to turn them into a series about his hometown. She convinces him to use the recording device to see if he can muster up some stories about what the neighbors think about his mother. Sure, he knows more about his mother than all of them put together, but what could it hurt?

Ernie's parents are enjoying Ernie and Jerry's visit home, but his mother just can't seem to accept what her son has become; a city-living work-a-holic. She understands he must make his own way in the world, but she would much rather he do it closer to her, in Dana, Indiana. And she is beginning to think she may be ultimately responsible for how her young boy turned out.

A quick trip to Ernie's hometown of Dana, Indiana, to visit his folks, results in a disgruntled Jerry. She has grown accustomed to living a certain way on the road that may invite judgment from an in-law, or two. In the balance is Ernie. He likes the road life too, but the pull homeward proves as mysterious as a Midwest wind storm.

As pressure mounts from the home office, Ernie is forced to use a voice recorder for his work in interviewing the people of America. Though he resists the boss's ideas, he and his wife Jerry find a different use for it; recording themselves.