Al Franken Reminisces About Eating Ribs With The Grateful Dead, Imitating Mick Jagger, And ‘Stuart Saves His Family’

Just because Al Franken isn’t currently a United States Senator doesn’t mean he’s not still knee-deep in politics, as anyone who’s discovered his podcast – the appropriately-titled The Al Franken Podcast – is already well aware, but once in awhile Franken does successfully manage to step away from the fray and just sit back and watch TV…and, yes, sometimes he actually watches things that aren’t pandemic-related. Decider was fortunate enough to hop on the phone with Franken and find out what he’s been watching while staying at home, but we also quizzed him about a few of the less-familiar projects from his back catalog that we found deep in the bowels of YouTube.

DECIDER: Since we’ve all been in the same boat lately, in terms of having to stay at home, what have you been watching – or binging – during the course of this pandemic?

AL FRANKEN: Well, unfortunately for me, it’s been news about the pandemic. [Laughs.] And I’ve been reading a lot about it, of course. But I watched a lot of those White House press conferences, and it was appalling…and yet fascinating. I would literally get angry and sad and depressed watching them, but I couldn’t stop watching them!

I definitely empathize.

Because it’s just fascinating to me to watch someone who is mentally ill – and displaying it constantly! – and showing no empathy whatsoever. [Sighs.] You know, there’s so many telling moments from that, like being asked by the NBC reporter what he had to say to people who are afraid. Any decent politician or leader would have tried to calm people and inspire them, but instead he just attacked the guy for the question, which was very odd because it was sort of a lob. But there’s so many of those moments. There was one moment in particular that struck me that I’m sure no one else caught, but… You know how he’ll read prepared things, but then he’ll just throw in a Trumpian aside for no reason?

Oh, yeah.

So at one point he was reading, and he said, “The test…” And then he just says, “The famous test.” And I just laughed because…it was so weird! And at that moment, he clearly looked at someone in one of the front rows – I can’t remember the guy’s name – but Trump says [Sternly.] “There’s nothing funny about that, Roger.” [Laughs.] Obviously, there was a reporter there who had the exact same reaction as I did, and he just had to say, “There’s nothing funny about that.” Which… Yeah, there is! “The famous test” is just a weird frigging thing to say! 

And there was one where Trump was asked, “Why are you ending the period that people can sign up for the ACA?” And it was right on top of the first new unemployment numbers, which were huge. So there’s obviously no good answer to that, because it’s amazingly awful to do that. And stupid. And the only reason is that he hates anything Obama did. [Laughs.] I mean, that’s the answer! But instead of saying that, he had Pence come up, and then Pence did five and a half minutes, saying…nothing. Nothing in five and a half minutes. It was astounding. It was really something. It was very bad. In fact, this is how bad it was: Trump stopped it. It was, like, “Stop the fight! This guy’s gonna die if you don’t stop the fight!” And he came in, and he said, “That’s one of the greatest answers I’ve ever heard: Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question!”

And if Trump is saying that… 

Yeah, if even he’s astonished…  [Laughs.] But to get back to your question, I have been watching some comedy.  Schitt’s Creek is something I enjoy a lot. I love Eugene [Levy] and Catherine [O’Hara]. They’re just always fabulous. And Chris Elliott. Everybody’s great in that. It’s just great to watch. And speaking of something great to watch, I’m sheltering in place, but my wife and I are two blocks away from two of our grandchildren, who are six and three, and early on we discovered Shaun the Sheep. Do you know what that is?

I do, yeah.

We kind of all watched it, but they just binged it. I don’t know how many seasons there are, but they binged it, and my grandson and granddaughter laughed so hard. My granddaughter’s three, and I’m not sure to what extent she was just copying her brother, but her brother would laugh so hard that, after we watched just a few of them, when he started laughing, he’d get up off the couch and stand up because he had fallen off the couch a few times. [Laughs.] But they’re unbelievably great, inventive, fun to watch, and funny. And it was nice that we could all be laughing at the same thing. But hearing them laugh like that was just amazing. It was great. And if I had to take a call or something and walked downstairs to their basement, I could still hear them laughing! It was just the best.

Oh, and Bojack Horseman. I’ve been watching that, and that’s really fun to watch. But, you know, I get lazy, and I just go over to HBO and I watch parts of movies all the time. And it’s usually when I go, “I can’t watch this news anymore!” [Laughs.] So I flip around, and… Well, like, I watched Bridesmaids twice all the way through, and then parts of it again and again. Because it’s a brilliantly done movie. I really just love it. 

And then there’ll be some movies that I didn’t love when I saw them the first time, but then I’d watch it again… Well, like, Bohemian Rhapsody, the first time I saw it, I went, “Eh, it’s good. It’s okay.” But now whenever I go to the HBO channels and I see Bohemian Rhapsody, I go to it, and…I have some favorite parts. And if it gets to a part I don’t like, then I go to something else. And I should say that, with that film, it’s not that I don’t like it because it’s a part that not well done. I don’t like it because it’s kind of sad and frustrating to watch. Okay, it’s the period where he’s away from the band. [Laughs.] It’s not that that part of the movie isn’t done as well as the rest of it. It’s just that I don’t want to see that again.

I’ve been watching a lot of screeners. I’m a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild, so I’ve got a lot of screeners that I hadn’t gotten to. So I watched Parasite, and I watched 1917 and Ford vs. Ferrari and The Irishman. I had seen Jojo Rabbit before, but I watched it again with Frannie. That’s a great movie. And I think Parasite, 1917, and Ford vs. Ferrari – and maybe Jojo Rabbit – each could’ve won Best Picture in another year. It’s a great crop of movies. 

So I started going through your back catalog to see what items from your back catalog were available for viewing online if anyone wanted to add them to their to-stream list, and I thought I’d run through a few of the lesser-known things to see if you might have any recollections that you could share. The first one is a 1979 special called Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda.

Oh, God, you saw that?

I did!

Where is that?

I found it on YouTube. I don’t think it’s available anywhere for purchase. 

Oh, okay, sure. Well, it’s funny, I’m writing something with someone right now – we’re doing it by phone – and I said, “You’ve got to start listening to Bob & Ray.” They’re my heroes. And this was during the first five years [of Saturday Night Live], obviously, because it’s Jane [Curtin], Laraine [Newman], and Gilda [Radner]. I can’t remember which season it was. Maybe the fourth? But what was interesting – and I don’t know how many people remember this, because it was so long ago – was that we used to do the show three weeks in a row and then have a week off, and during the week off they’d put on wrestling…and very often wrestling outrated us! [Laughs.] Which I couldn’t believe! I mean, we were a hit in the beginning, but the wrestling was very popular. But a certain point we decided, “Well, let’s do some other stuff that we want to do.” And that special was one of them. Tom Davis and I were both huge Bob & Ray fans, and they were tremendously influential on us, so being able to work with them on that… That was a dream come true. 

You’re only it in very briefly, but you and Tom also have a small part in The Rutles.

Yeah! [Laughs.] I love The Rutles, but we’re, like, somebody’s henchmen or something like that. And what I remember about that – and I remember this very, very distinctly, and you’ll understand why – is that they gave me a pair of boots that were, like, a size and a half or two sizes too small, and I was in so much pain while we were shooting it that, well, that’s all I remember about it! 

I’ve not been able to find the entire Franken & Davis at Stockton State performance, but there’s at least one clip that’s all over the internet, and that’s your performance of “Under My Thumb.” 

Ah, yes. Well, that was, like, a “who knew?” [Laughs.] But somehow I could do a really good Jagger.

What did Jagger himself think about it? 

I never heard heard from him about it. And I didn’t go up to him and go, “Hey, Mick, what did you think of my you?” But Tom, by the way, was a very good guitarist. And that was live. So, yeah, I’d recommend that clip to everyone. [Laughs.] 

Another thing on YouTube that we’re in… It’s from Halloween 1980: the Grateful Dead’s simulcast from Radio City [Music Hall], and it’s the intro to that, where Tom and I are backstage. This was in theaters, but it was simulcast to 15 theaters around the country, which was a very Grateful Dead thing. [Laughs.] But they did three sets. They did an acoustic set and two electric sets, and Tom and I had the job of sort of filling the intermissions. So we did this thing where the conceit was that we were doing a fundraiser to help “Jerry’s Kids.” And, you know, “Jerry’s Kids” were, like, the guy who fell out of the second deck of the Spectrum, or a guy who went to Egypt to attend their show but couldn’t get in. 

But we opened the show by talking to the camera – and this was going out to the crowd at Radio City – and saying, “We’re backstage because we’re a lot more important than you are,” and we showed them our backstage passes. And then we go to all their dressing rooms, and we ask Jerry [Garcia] and Bobby [Weir], and then the drummers [Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart], to introduce us, because the idea is that we’re going out there to do some comedy, but they all turn us down for one reason or another. And then we get Brent [Mydland] to do it, and Brent had been [playing keyboards] with them for a few months or something. And he introduces us by saying, “I don’t think these guys are very funny, but…welcome Frank and Dave!” [Laughs.] 

And then we come out, and…they’ve already seen us on the screen basically fucking up with their heroes. I mean, I was eating a rib – I was important enough to be eating the band’s food! – and then I go into Jerry’s dressing room and hand him the rib, and then I pick up his guitar and drop it. So we’re just jerks the whole way through. And then Brent introduces us and we go out, and they’re already booing us! [Laughs.] So we just say, “We’re Franken and Davis, and we’re gonna do an hour of comedy!” And then they really started booing us. And finally we start saying, “Hey, if you don’t quiet down, we’re just gonna get off and bring the band on!” And, of course, that’s what we do. 

I don’t even remember how many minutes long it is, but  it’s something I’m very proud of. So if you’re talking about YouTube stuff, I have a big place in my heart for that. 

I sent your assistant a list of some of these topics beforehand, but there’s one I discovered after the fact: a segment you and Tom did for a special called Wrap Around the World.

Wow. [Hesitates.] Wow. I even forgot doing that!

Yeah, you guys book-ended David Bowie’s performance of “Look Back in Anger” with the dance group La La La Human Steps.  What surprised and impressed me most was that I instantly recognized your sketch as a parody of This Island Earth.

I barely remember that at all. [Laughs.] I haven’t seen it since we did it! But Tom was a big fan of that movie, and… Gosh, that’s amazing. I did not remember that! I mean, now that you bring it up, I remember it, but…wow.

Thanks to YouTube, I was also able to revisit One More Saturday Night.

Oh, okay! Well, you know, that was…a try. [Laughs.] What was interesting about that was that when we wrote it, we wrote it as taking place during a blizzard in Minnesota. It was set in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and we wanted everyone to do a Minnesota accent. And this was pre-Fargo. Tom and I just loved Minnesota accents. Somebody had to do it eventually, and the Coen brothers did it a lot better than we would’ve done it. I mean, Fargo is one of my favorites. Anytime that’s on, I just watch that. 

Oh, here’s another thing I watched on HBO: The Plot Against America. That was chilling. I don’t know if you saw that, but it was great. And it really is chilling in terms of where we are right now, but when I was started out, my first four years were very near Paterson, New Jersey, and those were kind of the people I grew up with in those first four years. Which I barely remember, of course. But that’s where my people were from. Before Europe, I mean! 

I have to ask at least briefly about Stuart Saves His Family, which I’m proud to say that I own on DVD. 

Well, that’s an interesting one. I’m very proud of that movie, and every once in awhile someone comes up to me and says, “That’s my favorite movie!” You know, usually they’ll say that either because they grew up in an alcoholic family or they’re a counselor. [Laughs.] But I think there were a lot of mistakes in the promotion of that movie, because Paramount just didn’t know what to do with it. They did a trailer like it was a Saturday Night Live movie, as opposed to what it was. I don’t think they knew how to market it. Like, with Mr. Holland’s Opus, that was a movie where the first thing they did was show it to music teachers. They had screenings for music teachers! 

So I didn’t like the trailer, and in retrospect, I wish I had been a little more sophisticated and said about the marketing, “No, no, no, let’s do it differently!” Because somebody wrote a review saying something like, “Watching Stuart Saves His Family come into the movie theaters of American is like watching a rookie soldier walking into an ambush: the people who’d like this movie aren’t going to see it, and the people who go see it aren’t going to like it.” [Laughs.] And I understood where that review was coming from. It was very frustrating. We got two thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert, but instead airing it the week we came out, Siskel and Ebert had a special that week! So it was a week late getting there, and…it was just very, very frustrating. But it’s nice that every once in awhile someone comes up to me. And it’s also taught in rehabs, especially in family programs. They show it there. So there’s that.

Before we go, I just wanted to ask about a small role you had in a non-comedic project, one which I’d forgotten about until it finally made its way back to HBO a little while ago. How did you end up in From the Earth to the Moon?

Oh, my God, there’s a funny story. Well, first of all, Tom Hanks was producing that, so he asked me to do it. I played Jerome Weisner, and I think I was in the first scene of the first episode. It’s at a conference table either in the White House or somewhere in DC, and Weisner was the science advisor for Kennedy, so they’re talking about sending a man to the moon. And Weisner, he was against, and he was saying, like, “This is ridiculous. Just send a probe there and have it scoop up some rocks and dirt and come back. You don’t need to send a man.” But I’m this scene with all these really, really great serious actors! So it comes out, the first episode airs, and Tom Shales writes, “Watching Al Franken in the scene took me completely out of the movie and ruined the whole thing for me.” [Laughs.] And I’m sitting there going, “I understand completely!” 

So then… I dunno, maybe a couple of years later or something, Tom Shales and this other guy are writing a book on SNL [Live from New York], so they ask if they can talk to me. So I say, “Sure, have coffee with me.” So they show up at a coffee place in my neighborhood on the Upper West Side, and I say, “Look, before we start, I have a copy of Tom’s review…” [Laughs.] “And I have to tell you that my brother went to M.I.T., and Jerome Weisner at the time was president of M.I.T. And I knew Jerome Weisner. And I got a letter from his widow after she saw this, and she thanked me for capturing her husband so well.” 

And Shales is going, like, “Jesus Christ… You’ve got every right to be mad at me…” So I go, “Okay, that’s not true.” [Laughs.] And he’s kind of relieved. And I said, “You know, actually, my kids agreed with you.” And then we went on. But they didn’t tell us it was an oral history. They were going to write a book, but they got too over their heads and had to turn it in, so at a certain point they bailed on writing a book and just did an oral history. Which is fine, but you should really tell people beforehand that it’s an oral history! But, you know, big deal. Anyway, that’s that story.

That’s a great story.

Isn’t it? [Laughs.] I mean, I had him!

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)

Where to stream Stuart Saves His Family