This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

This project is funded by Putnam County with support from a grant provided by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

In the heart of Tennessee, there's a little slice of heaven you've just got to see.

[♪♪] Oh, man.

Wish you were here.

Hello, adventurers, and welcome to a very special episode of Wish You Were Here.

Adventures in Tennessee's Upper Cumberland.

Now, today is not your ordinary day as we are here in beautiful downtown Cookeville at the Cookeville Depot Museum.

But that's not part of our journey today.

We are celebrating four seasons of Wish You Were Here Adventures in Tennessee's Upper Cumberland, and we want to show you the best of our adventures and maybe a few bloopers.

And here to help us experience all the great things that season four had to offer.

And the first three seasons.

One of my favorite field correspondents, Rafferty.

Cleary, we're so glad you're here.

Thanks for having me.

It's good to be back.

Listen, we have missed you, friend.

Now, you've been a part of the journey since the beginning.

Seasons one, two and three.

You took a little hiatus for season four.

You had a lot of things going on.

You got married, you worked on your master's degree and succeeded.

You've got a lot of success.

But man, we really missed you in the middle.

Gray hair too.

That's popped up in the middle of all that.

But it is so good to be back.

One of the my favorite things that I've done in my short time in the Upper Cumberland is being a part of this program on WCTE.

So it is good to be back.

Now.

Rafferty, I feel like our viewers at home are curious about your origin story.

You know, when you first got the call, hey, we got this new show.

We'd like you to be a field correspondent.

And that was.

This is really your first foray into television, right?

It was outside of some small stuff in college.

My background is in radio and television, but I didn't really know what to think.

I'm a WCTE supporter, so most of the time when they ask me to do something, I'm going to do it.

But it was a lot of unknowns.

But once I dove in, it was really neat.

So some opportunities.

Yes.

Question mark.

So let's let's back up a little bit because I know my favorite moment that you filmed.

I know the favorite moment that I filmed.

- I think I know what you're going to say.

What was your favorite most memorable moment?

I would have to say day one.

The very first episode that I filmed was at the Fish Hatchery in Dale Hollow.

That's also my favorite Rafferty moment.

It's a classic.

So there was a scene where I was supposed to, you know, they gave me a big net and we dipped it in one of the hatcheries, and I'm supposed to go in there and grab a trout out of the out of the net.

Well, the hard part about that was I had rubber gloves on.

Trout, one of the most slippery fishes in the water.

Yeah.

So I'm trying to get this fish out of the net and it's not happening.

And eventually I get one and it flops out, falls back into the hatcheries.

But that was a hilarious scene.

Yeah.

Epic.

Hello everybody.

I'm Rafferty Cleary and today we're at the Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery.

And I'm trying to catch.

A rainbow trout.

And it's not easy.

This is a rainbow trout stocking size.

One of the funniest things that I experienced was we were at the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport, one of the festivals they do, but we were going to fly in a hot air balloon on this episode.

So the videographer, Craig, myself, and we got put with former Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton at the time.

I've never been in a hot air balloon, so the the flight was a thrill, but it was the hard landing.

We had a hard landing and the basket, it flipped over and I'm on top of Ricky Shelton and Craig's hanging on for a ride.

And I'm laughing so hard.

I don't think you can understand anything I'm saying.

That was one of my favorite blooper reels that we put together.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

Ready?

Ready to rumble.

That's it.

That's a skitter.

Oh!

Whoa!

This is.

This is weird.

Now you see why we don't like a whole lot of wind.

Cummins falls was neat diving in the water.

Horseback riding.

You did some rappelling.

Rock climbing.

I mean, you've done it all.

And we call this adventure hosting.

And we want you to be part of the journey.

So there may be some moments that you've never seen before.

And you can go back and check out previous episodes, but let's just take a look at the best and possibly funniest of seasons one, two, three, and four.

[♪♪] Hi I'm Katelyn Steakely.

Welcome to Wish You Were Here.

Adventures in Tennessee's upper Cumberland.

[♪♪] Hello and welcome to Wish You Were Here.

I'm Matt Beal here at the beautiful Appalachian Center for craft.

[♪♪] Hi everyone.

We are here today on this glorious day at the Quarry restaurant on Weir Mountain.

In Celina, Tennessee.

Okay, everybody.

Boy, do we have a special treat for you.

And I'm feeling all the nostalgia vibes as we're back in Pall Mall, Tennessee.

[♪♪] Today.

We're traveling to the historic Wilderness Lodge at Cherry Creek.

[♪♪] I'm Mirlie Larose your newest correspondent for Wish You Were Here.

[♪♪] Hi everyone.

Shaun Scantland here, and I'm excited to bring you along on my visit.

The Chestnut Oaks Farm Store and Kitchen.

[♪♪] Hey guys, I'm in Spencer, Tennessee at Fall Creek Falls State Park.

[♪♪] So as much as we love all of these wonderful episode clips and seeing our success and our accomplishment in these beautiful locations, you and I both agree that the blooper reel is really where we love the most.

Everyone loves making fun of themselves a little bit.

You know?

Maybe not everyone, but we do.

The thing about it is, like what we've seen, blooper wise not even half of what's out there that can be put together in a blooper reel.

But crazy times on Wish You Were Here, no doubt.

Yeah, I'm going to say my biggest blooper was probably the snake at Rock Island.

Yeah.

Oh, how humiliating, but so very funny.

Now put the other arm out, just like that, See when her head comes around.

It's like, no, no, I won't be fine.

I don't know, I'm not worried about.

I'm worried about the snake.

This isn't happening.

It isn't happening.

I'm not doing it.

Oh my word.

Oh my gosh.

No no no no no no no no.

I think we've probably talked about mine but and I don't even know if it was a true blooper because it was a natural.

But the hot air balloon thing was hilarious.

I mean, nothing like having your face near the bottom of the former mayor of Cookeville.

That was a little awkward, but it happened.

At the time, you know, you were an avid sportsman.

Fisherman, and when you cast the real and forgot to let go of the line, I forgot about that too.

I just love to watch Rafferty in his natural element, doing the thing he's really good at.

And then you flub it.

I mean, we just die laughing.

I am a big fisherman, so my fishing buddies have seen that and they're like, are you really?

Though?

I forgot about that one.

Yeah.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Hey, everybody.

Rafferty Cleary here, coming to you from Salina, Tennessee, on the beautiful Dale Hollow Lake at Cedar Hill Marina.

Today we're doing some crappie fishing.

190 00:10:57,323 --> 00:10:59,358 I have more bloopers than anyone else on the show.

I'm just saying.

[♪♪] Ready?

Ready on.

Ready.

On set.

Hi, I'm Katelyn Steakley.

Okay, here we go.

Do I have to clap again?

Wish you were here!

Did you get it right?

I don't know.

Did I?

I don't even know what I'm saying anymore.

I hope so.

Hey, Craig.

Bet you wish you were here.

Did I make that sound, like, weirdly romantic or something?

Slow down, you crazy child.

[inaudible] National tournament in Overton County.

Dang it!

Ahhhh!

That was as hard as I made it look.

Kramer's in my space.

Welcome to the Isha Institute of the Inner Sciences.

Oh, God, y'all, it got too fast, and I don't even.

I just guess what it said at the end, like.

It was simple.

No, I ain't not playing.

You're good.

Be sure that you tune in and join us.

Here's a blooper for you.

It's not very exciting, but I finally stepped over a word.

[♪♪] I can hold it all day.

Okay.

I'm not not waiting for the heater to go off.

We really are waiting for this 75th times a charm.

[inaudible] I can't not give you blooper content.

Crossville shooting.

Sports park.

Crossville shooting.

Sports park.

Crossville shooting.

Sports park.

Okay.

Greetings.

Fellow explorers.

Sorry, I wasn't ready.

I was totally in la la land.

[laughter] Just shaking it all out.

Shaking it all out.

The fourth annual Smithfield Artwalk.

The fourth annual Smithfield Artwalk.

When I open my mouth, I freeze.

Is it hot in here or is it just.

Just me?

I think I said Jim, Jim.

Like it's a southern Jim.

Jim, my south.

My Deep South came out on that.

I was like, this is on PBS so we can learn about shapes.

Today we're going to learn about squares.

So you're located less than a mile from Burgess Falls State Park.

Wonderful park.

Yes, yes.

Enjoy that blooper.

It's two sentences.

How could you forget the second one on the way there?

I'm hearing it in my head as Hulk Hogan when he would, like, fire up and he'd go, YOU!

Yeah.

So.

So that's why I'm like, Sunday!

I am with the lovely Vicki Pela... Marty.

Pelamarty.

Marty.

Correct.

Okay.

I should just be confident then.

Pelamarty.

Five magical waterfalls, four great friends.

and a wonderful, blahh.

Jason, you're killing me.

It's like I'm standing next to a mime.

We do start in a cemetery and we end in a cemetery.

Don't we all?

And we do.

Yes we do.

And then we.

We [laughter] Sorry.

Sorry.

Hey, hey.

Sorry.

There's not a back row that I'm yelling at.

So I'm doing TV, not theater.

Don't you wish you were here?

[bell sound] Now the holidays are a beautiful time for Wish You Were Here.

It is not only beautiful across the entire Upper Cumberland, but there is so much to do.

You can't even cram it into one episode.

So.

But we try.

[♪♪festive music♪♪] [♪Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker♪] Now, when it comes to personal favorites as a field correspondent, that's my first journey before becoming host.

I would say, I don't know, this one's going to be really, really tough because I visited a yak ranch, right?

I get the animal gigs a lot.

Rafferty and Animals seem to love me.

I have visited a farm with llamas and goats at Harmony Lane.

I mean, we've had a lot of great things.

And then I guess my most nostalgic moment was the very first episode at the Alvin C York black powder shoot, where I shot a gun that almost weighed as much as I do.

[♪♪] Now you're going to help me today.

I want to see the whole experience.

So for people that maybe don't understand the sport of using black powder in these authentic guns, can you show me?

Basically you're consistent.

You have to do the things the consistent way.

Powder patch ball.

Or it won't shoot at all.

As a rule, unregistered visitors are not allowed to shoot a long rifle, both because safety concerns and because this is a competition.

However, in our enthusiastic Shan's case, the organizers kindly made an unheard of exception.

Yep.

Get comfortable here.

All right.

Get comfortable.

And then you're going to touch that one okay.

And then you're going to just pull it.

All right.

You ready?

How close can my face be to the gun.

Yeah.

Wow.

Wow.

I just did that.

How did it feel?

It felt so powerful, I feel masculine.

It's so great.

It's so great.

Okay, I'm a fan.

I'm a fan.

I'm coming back.

[♪♪] Okay, Rafferty, we've seen my favorite moments, and you've had time to think about yours.

What you got?

I would have to say one of the fishing episodes that we did, Which is always my favorite Rafferty moments.

Kind of crazy because we were out there for, like, an hour and a half, didn't catch a thing, and it was like, literally we said, last cast.

Yes.

Well, we we cast it out, and it was a fish of a lifetime for me.

[♪♪] So you see how the planer boards playing out away from the boat?

Right.

Stripers have better eyesight than humans do.

And they can see.

So we got to get them out away from the boat because they see the boat as a big predator.

They don't like that.

We practice 100% catch and release here.

And some of these big fish that we catch, I'm sure I've caught over and over and over over the years.

Because if you took all the big fish out there, this wouldn't be any left.

It takes them 15, 20, 25 years to get this big.

In my personal opinion, once the striper gets above 15, 20 pounds.

Yeah, the meats just not as good.

That one out there is getting a bit frisky.

You'll see them start to move around when something's looking at them.

Sometimes they may not be big enough to eat them, but when you're using two and 3 pound bait.

Yeah.

You know, our smallest fish dailies generally 25 to 30 pounds.

Great big fish.

Holy smokes.

This is like walking my dog.

Just like ten times worse.

I thought Wilkerson was bad, man.

Oh, yeah.

That's a good 50, 55 pound fish.

Look at that.

All right.

What do you think about that, son?

Yeah, right.

That worth the price of admission or what?

Oh my gosh.

[♪♪] My legs are shaking.

My hands are shaking.

My body is like.

I almost have a nervous feeling, you know, because I've never felt something so powerful.

If you had to guess the weight.

What do you think?

That fish was 52, 53 pounds.

I'm about 4 pounds off the company record.

Congratulations on your championship, fish.

I'm addicted right now.

Can we do one more before we leave?

[♪♪] Well, thank you so much for coming along on this journey.

Rafferty, thank you for spending your day with us and us being able to look through all our past memories and all the fun we've had together.

Well, thank you for having me.

It's been a great time.

Made good friends.

Met a lot of good people.

Did a lot of fun things.

And we appreciate you spending your time with us.

And we hope that you plan your next visit to the Upper Cumberland.

And until we see you again.

Wish you were here.

[♪♪] I was I was going to I'm going to cut him off.

I had it, I had it.

Griz, Griz has trust issues.

You just got to let it go.

Gotta let go, Craig.

I could I could feel him controlling the movement from behind the camera.

Stop talking.

This project is funded by Putnam County with support from a grant provided by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.