Al Franken looks back on early SNL days, closes the door on return to Minnesota politics

Saturday Night Live alumni and celebrities will gather in New York City for “SNL50: The Anniversary Special,” airing Sunday on NBC and at least one Minnesotan will be there.

For five decades, SNL has propelled comedians to careers in TV, film and even the politics — like Al Franken. Franken was a writer for the show when it debuted in 1975, and was elected as Minnesota’s Senator in 2008 until he resigned in 2018 after being accused of sexual misconduct.

This weekend, he’ll be attending the anniversary special as a special guest.

He sat down with MPR News host Tom Crann to reflect on his time on the show, his writing partner Tom Davis, his Minnesota roots and the current political climate.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for style and clarity. Click on the audio player to hear the radio conversation, and find the video version on YouTube.

Franken: If someone asked me what my favorite memory of Saturday Night Live was, it would be like 2 o’clock on Wednesday morning, in the middle of the night, falling on the floor, laughing at some something somebody said. Either a cast member or a another writer. And when it worked, there’s nothing better. When it doesn’t work, it is awful. That’s why you have more than one writer. When we started the show, we had like 11 writers and seven cast members.

Crann: Just look at the whole totality of 50 years of Saturday Night Live. How do you reflect on it? What role does it play in American life?

Franken: Well, we were, you know, fortunate to be the only live sketch show on TV — it carries some responsibility. I wrote a lot of topical stuff. I wrote a lot of the political stuff, as you might guess, with other people. We had a place where we could do a political satire, and we tried not to really take sides. What we tried to do was reward people who knew stuff about politics, but not punish them for not knowing.

Crann: Your favorite creation or a favorite moment?

Franken: I’ll go with Julia Child bleeding to death. What happened is, Tom Davis and I were watching the Today Show, and Julia Child was on and she cut herself. And I went, “That’s the sketch.”

It’s one of the few sketches that was held over for another week because the the blood spurting wasn’t working well enough. When we did actually do the show, on air and live, Danny Aykroyd was perfect, and Tom was under the kitchen counter. There was an insecticide sprayer that had the blood in it, and Tom and Danny worked together perfectly to time the spurts.

And I mean, it was very intricate, but it it worked like gangbusters. So that is my favorite thing, because the degree of difficulty was amazing. And you know, Tom, who had been a cast member at Dudley Riggs’s The Brave New Workshop, thought of the last beat.

The last beat was: Julia Child goes to the phone to call 911, and she picks up the phone and goes, “It’s the prop phone.”

When you’re at Dudley’s or any other improv theater like that, you look for objects a lot. Because you can invent everything in improv. So I just wanted to put a shout out to The Brave New Workshop.

Following the news that Sen. Tina Smith will not seek reelection, Franken was asked by MPR News if he would consider running for his old U.S. Senate seat.

Franken: No. Basically because I’ve been living in New York. I spend more time in New York than I spend in Minnesota, so I have to vote in New York, right? So I don’t think I’d win.

For the full interview, watch the conversation with MPR News host Tom Crann and Franken below.