The Ernie Pyle Experiment‪!‬ Indiana Public Media

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.