Al Franken

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**Al Franken**

Born:	May 21, 1951 (age 55) New York City
Occupation:	comedian, actor, author, screenwriter, political commentator, politician and radio host

Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an Emmy Award–winning American comedian, actor, author, screenwriter, political commentator, radio host and, recently, politician. He is noted for his work on Saturday Night Live and his liberal socio-political views. On February 14, 2007, Franken announced that he will run for the United States Senate seat from Minnesota currently held by the Republican Norm Coleman.

1 Personal life
2 Writer and performer
- 2.1 Controversy
3 Radio show
4 Political Action
- 4.1 2008 U.S. Senate campaign
  - 4.1.1 Issues
5 Bibliography
6 Books about Al Franken
7 CDs and compilations
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Personal life

Franken was born in New York City into a Jewish family, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in suburban Minneapolis. He attended Saint Louis Park High School until the tenth grade. He graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team. He attended Harvard University and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in general studies.^[1]

Franken met his wife, Franni, in his first year at college at a Harvard-Simmons mixer, and they have been together ever since. They have a daughter, Thomasin, and a son, Joe (both attended New York City's prestigious Dalton School). Joe attends Princeton University and Thomasin is a public school teacher in New York City, with a degree in sociology from Harvard University. The Frankens reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Franken is a Grateful Dead fan. He used their songs as bumper music to commercials on his radio show.

Franken is a distant cousin of CNN's Bob Franken.^[2] His older brother, Owen Franken, is a photojournalist.

[edit] Writer and performer

Al Franken entertaining at Ramstein Air Base, December 2000.

Franken's performing career began in high school, where he and longtime writing partner Tom Davis were known as class clowns. Franken honed his writing and performing skills at Minneapolis's Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop theater specializing in political satire. He and Davis soon found themselves in "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles."^[3]

Franken and Davis were recruited as two of the original writers on Saturday Night Live (1975-1980 and 1985-1995), albeit in the first season as "apprentice writers" splitting a paycheck of $350 a week. 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." Franken was associated with SNL for over 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, appearing in it as rock singers in a band called "Bad Mouth." They also had cameos together in The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash as John Belushi's henchmen and in the Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd film Trading Places as "Baggage Handlers #1 & #2."

Franken's most notorious SNL sketch may have been "A Limo for the Lame-O", a commentary delivered by Franken near the end of the 1979–80 season. Franken mocked controversial NBC president Fred Silverman as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs. Franken proclaimed that Silverman did not deserve a limo, unlike Franken, a comedian on a popular NBC program. According to associates of the show, Silverman's anger over the sketch helped prompt him to abandon negotiations with SNL creator Lorne Michaels and seek a different executive producer for SNL's sixth season.

Besides having written five New York Times bestselling books, three of which reached #1^[4] (including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations), Franken wrote the original screenplay and starred in the film Stuart Saves His Family. He also co-wrote the film When A Man Loves A Woman. He co-created and starred in the NBC sitcom LateLine until it was cancelled in its second season.

In August 2003, when Penguin Books published Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, Fox News attempted to sue, claiming infringement of its registered trademark phrase, "Fair and Balanced." Fox was unsuccessful, with the federal judge finding the lawsuit to be "wholly without merit." The debacle with Fox focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken's book, and is credited with enhancing its sales. Reflecting back 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," and added that the judge's comment that the case was "wholly without merit" was a good characterization of Fox News itself.

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. Several years later, he became the first nationally syndicated radio talk show host to visit Iraq,^{[citation needed]} where he headlined two USO shows while traveling with Russell Burnham, the U.S. Army Soldier of the Year. Franken has done seven USO tours to date, his most recent being in mid-December 2006.

Since May 2005, Franken has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Franken's most recent book, The Truth (with jokes), was released on October 25, 2005.

[edit] Controversy

In June 2003, Franken wrote a satirical letter to then Attorney General John Ashcroft in which he asked Ashcroft to be a role model for the youth of America by sharing "a moment when you were tempted to have sex, but were able to overcome your urges through willpower and strength of character."^[5] Franken proposed including the contribution in a book he claimed to be writing called Savin' It!. The following month Franken explained that the subject matter of his book and the purpose of his abstinence letter to the Attorney General were in fact satirical, and apologized for "any discomfort" caused to conservative leaders, stating that they would receive a letter of apology.

During the 2004 presidential election, Franken was at a support rally for governor Howard Dean in his bid for the Democratic Party nomination. A protestor attempted to shout down the governor, who was taking questions from the audience. Two members of Dean’s security team immediately moved toward the man, who shoved and elbowed them. According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, at that point Franken emerged from the crowd and was elbowed in the face by the heckler. Franken, a former highschool wrestler, used a takedown move to attempt to immobilize the man, who eventually left the premises after theater manager Peter Ramsey threatened to call police.^[6] Franken said his tackle had nothing to do with Dean specifically, but that he was upholding the right to free speech, and that he "would have done it if [the heckler] was a Dean supporter at a Kerry rally."

[edit] Radio show

Main article: The Al Franken Show

Al Franken at the 2006 Time 100, as covered on the blog Rocketboom.

Franken signed a one-year contract in early 2004, to become a talk show host for Air America Radio's flagship program with co-host Katherine Lanpher (who remained with the show until October, 2005.) The inaugural broadcast kicked off the network's launch at noon EST on March 31, 2004. The show was originally named The O'Franken Factor, but was renamed The Al Franken Show on July 12, 2004.

Air America declared bankruptcy in 2006,^[7] and announced in early 2007 that it would sell the network to SLG Radio LLC.

Franken's last radio show on Air America Radio was aired on February 14, 2007. In the last segment of the show, Franken announced his candidacy for the United States Senate.

[edit] Political Action

Franken speaking in New York City

On SNL's Weekend Update segment in the late 1970s, Al Franken spoofed his ideas with a familiar line: "Vote for me, Al Franken. You'll be glad you did!"^[8] In 1999, Franken released a parody book, Why Not Me?, detailing his election to the Presidency in 2000. He had been a strong supporter of longtime Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone. Wellstone's death in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 Senate election had an effect on Franken. After the funeral, Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing talk radio hosts criticized the remembrance ceremony and its participants for overt displays of left-wing political sentiment; columnists Peggy Noonan and Chris Caldwell asserted 20,000 people booed Trent Lott. Franken, who was in attendance, strongly denied there was wide-spread jeering, and stated: "Along with everyone else, I cried, I laughed, I cheered. It was, to my mind, a beautiful four-hour memorial. I didn't boo. Neither did 22,800 of the some 23,000 people there."^[9]

Franken's move to radio was politically motivated. He said he learned that 21% of Americans received most of their news from talk radio, an overwhelmingly right-wing medium at the time. Said Franken, "I didn't want to sit on the sidelines, and I believed Air America could make a difference."^[10] In November 2003, Franken publicly considered moving back to his home state of Minnesota to run for the Senate. The seat once held by Wellstone, now occupied by Republican Norm Coleman, was to be contested in the 2008 election. In 2005, Franken took the first step, announcing his move to Minnesota: "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."^[11] He said that he would run as a Democrat, stating that "Democrats care so much more for the poor than Republicans do".

Franken's books express strong support for abortion rights, gun control laws, same-sex marriage, environmental protections and a revamped, more progressive income tax system. In the postscript of The Truth (with jokes), Franken joked that if elected to the Senate, in the two week window between the Senate's swearing in and Bush's leaving office, he would push for a "quickie impeachment".^{[citation needed]}

In late 2005, Franken started his own political action committee called Midwest Values PAC. By early 2007, the PAC had raised more than $1 million.^[12]

Franken was the subject of a 2006 documentary film entitled Al Franken: God Spoke,^[13] which premiered in April of 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and was released nationally on September 13 of the same year.

[edit] 2008 U.S. Senate campaign

Main article: Minnesota United States Senate election, 2008

On January 29, 2007, Al Franken announced his departure from Air America Radio.^[14] On the day of his final show, February 14th, Franken formally announced that he would run for the United States Senate for Minnesota in 2008.^[15] He is expected to be challenged by several other Democrats, including wealthy trial attorney Mike Ciresi.^[16]

[edit] Issues

Franken supported the 2002 congressional resolution that authorized force, but has since objected to the handling of the war. He believes in universal healthcare reform and that pensions should be protected.^[17] He wants to cut tax breaks for oil companies, increase money available for college students and cut interest rates on student loans.^[18]

[edit] Bibliography

The Truth (with jokes) (Dutton Books, 2005) ISBN 0-525-94906-2
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Dutton Books, 2003) ISBN 0-525-94764-7
Oh, the Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness (Plume Books, 2003) ISBN 0-452-28450-3
Why Not Me? (Delacorte Press, 1999) a parody-journal of the fictional “Franken campaign” for President ISBN 0-385-31809-X
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (Delacorte Press, 1996) ISBN 0-385-31474-4
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 0-440-50470-8

[edit] Books about Al Franken

100 People who are Screwing Up America by Bernard Goldberg highlights Franken as #37 in his list of polarizing political and entertainment figures. (Harper Collins, 2005) ISBN 0-06-076128-8
Pants On Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives by Alan Skorski (WND Books, 2005) ISBN 1581824807.

[edit] CDs and compilations

The Al Franken Show Party Album
The O'Franken Factor Factor - The Best of the O'Franken Factor
Best democracy money can buy: the truth about corporate cons, globalization, and high-finance fraudsters, with Greg Palast (2004)