Stuart Smalley’s Alter Ego Takes A Senate Floor Bow

By:  Kevin Trainor//Managing Editor

In the inner thoughts of Senator Al Franken (D-MN) he may feel he ought be held to a different standard.  After all, the 66 year-old junior senator from Minnesota came of age, career-wise, in the drug fueled halls of studio 8A in the then RCA Building; the home of “NBC’s Saturday Night” as it was called in 1975.  Teaming with fellow new writer hire Tom Davis they wrote edge-pushing sketches, and had their own slot on many episodes called “The Franken and Davis Show.” It was their own bent take on the pop culture scene.  Almost all ending in a gross-out culmination.  It was funny.  A very different time.  Later Franken would leave, and come back to the show two different times.  Among his other character defining appearances were his stints on “Weekend Update,” discussing the oncoming ‘80’s as the “Al Franken Decade,” and, of course, “Stuart Smalley,” a confidence-challenged man making sense of himself in self-therapy. A movie spin-off would follow.  It was all in fun, the joking, carousing, all applauded, and no condemnation.

He married a fellow writer in 1975, of whom he is still married to.  Being wedded in 1975, the year of the long running comedy franchise's debut, Franni Bryson was no stranger to the life.  She got it.  She saw her husband’s greater interest in political satire morph into political reality.  Late in the 2000-2001 “Saturday Night Live” season Al Gore hosted, and he insisted on coming back and writing the whole show from start to finish himself, and producer Lorne Michaels was too happy to hand over the reins.  Many saw Franken as Michael’s successor if he chose to step aside.  The political awakening of Al Franken started during the low-key, no press, Renaissance Week held in that down time between Christmas and New Year’s.  Taking place in Hilton Head, South Carolina, it was a gathering of mostly, not exclusively, center-left members of the arts, media, government, and celebrity spheres.  It still happens.  A week of symposiums, seminars, group talks, along with introspective walks along the broad, flat beach that makes the resort famous.  The many fine golf courses in the area led many accomplished in their respective spheres to cross-over, and interact with each other.  In 1990, say, you might find a still young governor of Arkansas hanging out with Arsenio Hall.  Maybe Tom Wolfe mingling with Geraldine Ferraro.  Al Franken would say, jokingly, “why am I here.”  Such encounters gave him the idea for his first book, “Why Not Me?”  A hilarious take on an unlikely candidate, him, running for an office seemingly above him, with no experience, and ultimately successfully.  Ten years later it turned out to be a blueprint.  

In 2008, Franken ran against the semi-popular Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Coleman came across as a little too slick by half for many Minnesota voters, but his views were more or less agreeable.  Out of hundreds of thousands votes cast Franken won by 372 ballots.  Franken ran as a Democrat, of course, but in the Prairie State the party is known by a unique, regional label, the Democratic Farmers/Laborers Party. Goes back before the Depression.  The Franken Family had moved to Minnesota when Al was 4.  From New York City where the future senator was born in 1951.  Already a miscast to many, a Jewish, Gotham native born, comedy writer wanted to be their next junior U.S. Senator.  He figured a candidate in a state where the late Paul Wellstone had been elected from, a former St. Olaf College political science professor, with wacky campaign commercials, he saw, polled, and determined he stood a shot.  He more than did.  He spent his first term hunkered down in the details, and proved himself an able, if not sharp tongued, legislator.  He won a second term easily enough.

In the quiet of the senate corridors, in the hush of yet another cocktail reception, in closed door offices of Democratic National Committee Headquarters, you could hear it.  In a leaderless party, with a show business background, with a quick, biting wit; Al Franken in 2020?  It has been heard.  Until three weeks ago. Then the voices in his party turned, perhaps hypocritically, and have called for Senator Franken’s resignation.  On the senate floor he made that come to pass.  Is he a serial harasser of women?  Are his actions taken out of context?  Should his type of background, paired with his progressive stance on issues, such as being a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood, be a reason to view his conduct in a different context?  That quiet debate is happening.  It can be imagined that a few old school feminists believe their progeny has gone too far.  Like with a shattered Al Gore in 2001 it his likely his friend Lorne Michaels will throw him a lifeline.  It is not inconceivable that Al Franken will return to those studio 8A hallways in preparation for a spring guest hosting gig live from New York.  That will be must see TV.