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Al Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American satirist, comedian, bestselling author, and radio host with a predominantly liberal point of view. Franken was half of the comedy duo "Franken & Davis" which wrote for and performed for NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He is currently the host of Air America Radio's flagship program, The Al Franken Show.
Personal life
Franken was born in New York City into a Jewish family, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. He graduated from The Blake School in 1969, where he was on the school wrestling team (a skill he would use years later in tackling a heckler ), and Harvard University in 1973.
He and his wife, Franni Franken, have a son, Joe, and daughter, Thomasin. Joe attends Princeton University and Thomasin is a public school teacher in New York City. Al and Franni currently reside in New York City but they are in the process of moving to downtown Minneapolis.
Al Franken is a distant cousin of CNN's Bob Franken.
Career
Writer and performer
Franken's writing and performing career began at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis where he worked with Tom Davis (the comedian, not the politician). He and Davis then found themselves in "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles."Template:Fn
Franken and Davis were then recruited as two of the original writers on Saturday Night Live (1975-1980, 1985-1995). Franken was awarded three Emmy Awards and seven Emmy nominations for his television writing and production. He created characters such as self-help guru Stuart Smalley and schticks such as proclaiming the 1980s to be the "Al Franken Decade"Template:Fn. Franken was associated with SNL for more than 15 years and in 2002 interviewed former Vice President Al Gore while in character as Smalley. Franken and Davis wrote the script to the 1986 comedy film One More Saturday Night and they both had roles as rock singers in a band called "Bad Mouth."
Franken's most notorious SNL sketch may have been "A Limo for the Lamo," a commentary delivered by Franken near the end of the 1979–80 season. Franken mocked the controversial president of NBC, Fred Silverman, describing him as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs. According to some associates of the show, Silverman's anger over the sketch prompted him to abandon negotiations with the show's creator Lorne Michaels and seek a different producer for the sixth season of SNL.
Besides having written numerous books (including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations), Franken co-wrote (with his former partner Tom Davis) the screenplay for The Coneheads TV show. He also wrote the original screenplay and starred in the theatrical flop, Stuart Saves His Family. He also co-wrote the hit film When A Man Loves A Woman. He co-created and starred in the NBC sitcom LateLine, but low ratings led to its cancellation halfway through the second season, with only twelve of the nineteen episodes airing.
In 2003, Franken served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. He also headlined two tours for the USO, entertaining troops stationed in Iraq.
Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
His new book The Truth (with jokes) will be released on October 25, 2005
Conflict with the Fox News Network
In August 2003, Penguin Books published Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Fox News sued, claiming that Franken infringed its registered trademark rights in the phrase, "Fair and Balanced." Fox was unsuccessful, with a federal judge finding the lawsuit to be "wholly without merit." The lawsuit focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken's book and greatly enhanced its sales. Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air on September 3, 2003, Franken said that Fox's case against him was "literally laughed out of court."
See also: Great Liberal Backlash of 2003.
Radio show
On January 13, 2004, it was announced that Franken would enter the radio business. He signed a one-year contract to become a talk show host for Air America Radio's flagship program, The O'Franken Factor with co-host Katherine Lanpher. The inaugural broadcast kicked off the network's launch at 12 Noon EST on March 31, 2004. Franken stated that the reason why he chose the "O'Franken" name was "to annoy and to bait" Bill O'Reilly to sue him again, to bring publicity to the show. O'Reilly never did, so on July 12, 2004, the program was renamed The Al Franken Show.
Franken said that one of his goals was to "get Bush unelected" and that he might end the show if Bush lost the 2004 election. He decided in 2005, after Bush won reelection, that he would keep doing the show for at least two more years.
Gloria Wise/Air America Loan Controversy
Franken show is broadcast on the Air American Network. In July, 2005 the Bronx News issued a report alleging that $480,000 was loaned to Air America Radio by the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club of Co-op City in the Bronx. Since the club is heavily funded by the City of New York, such a transfer would in all likelihood be illegal. At the time the funds were said to have been transferred, Evan Cohen, former chairman of now-defunct Progress Media, the original owners of Air America, was also Director of Development for Gloria Wise. Franken assisted in the negotiation and was a signatory to the agreement that settled the matter, at least temporarily.
Franken has claimed that he did not know anything about the loan or the terms of the loan. But that claimed has been proven to be false. His signature is on the loan documents.
In response to this report, Air America Radio's current owners, Piquant LLC, issued a press release characterizing the alleged corruption on the part of Gloria Wise and Progress Media as "absolutely disgraceful." In addition, Piquant stated that though they were not obliged to pay back the debts of Progress Media, they had previously arranged to fully compensate Gloria Wise in order to clear AAR's name. However, that claim has been shown to not be entirely true. Piquant has agreed in writing to pay back the loan.
On August 2, 2005, the New York Sun reported that the Gloria Wise executive committee estimated a total of $875,000 was transfered from the club to Air America Radio as well as directly to Evan Cohen.
On August 6, 2005, the New York Post reported that the office of the New York Attorney General was joining the New York City Department of Investigation in the inquiry into the behavior of the Gloria Wise executive board.
USO Tour
In January, 2005, Al Franken became the first nationally syndicated radio talk show host to visit Iraq. Franken has done five USO tours to date.
One of his more famous jokes goes: "Hey Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh have never been to Iraq or done a USO tour", to which he would respond, "Oh honey, thats not fair; they have no talent."
Political aspirations
Franken had been a strong supporter of Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, who was killed shortly before the 2002 election in a plane crash.
Franken announced in November 2003 that he was considering moving back to Minnesota, his home state, in order to run for the Senate seat held by Wellstone's successor Coleman in the 2008 election. He has also said that he'd take lessons from Democratic New York Senator Hillary Clinton on how to sucessfully run for U.S. Senate. On April 28, 2005, Salon.com reported that Franken, who had previously promised that if he was to run for office would move to Minnesota and broadcast from the Twin Cities, was doing just that. "I can tell you honestly, I don't know if I'm going to run, but I'm doing the stuff I need to do, in order to do it," Franken said. He has said that he would run as a Democrat since "Democrats care so much more for the poor than Republicans do".
Books
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Dutton Books, 2003) ISBN 0525947647
- Oh, the Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness (Plume Books, 2003) ISBN 0452284503
- Why Not Me? (Delacorte Press, 1999) a parody-journal of the fictional “Franken campaign” for President ISBN 038531809X
- Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (Delacorte Press, 1996) ISBN 0385314744
- I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough and Doggone It, People Like Me: Daily Affirmations By Stuart Smalley by Al Franken, Stuart Smalley (Dell, 1992) ISBN 0440504708
References
- Template:Fnb Hill, Doug and Weingrad, Jeff, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live (Vintage Books, 1987) ISBN 0394750535
- Template:Fnb Weekend Update with Jane Curtin & Bill Murray. Air date 1979-12-08. Retrieved 2005-02-06.
External links
- Al Franken's Official Website
- Website criticising Franken's Book, "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
- Al Franken's Fanpage
- Al Franken's Radio Show
- Al Franken's Blog
- Unofficial Al Franken Fan Page
- Franken's Letters to John Ashcroft
- MoveLeft Media articles on Al Franken
- National Public Radio September 3, 2003 Fresh Air - Interview with Franken
- "Senator Franken?" - interview with David Paul Kuhn, Salon.com, April 28, 2005
- Al Franken at IMDb
- Independent Air America Radio IRC Chat channel (chat room) on Undernet