Interview: Al Franken at the closing of the Winterland Ballroom 1978

[bathroommonkey76]

Since I am new to this site I thought I would offer up (to the political junkies and gods) this video from an old VHS tape that I found a few weeks ago. This interview is interesting b/c Franken pretends like he is on the Democratic Convention floor in 1968. It's hard to say if he is high or not. Near the end it sounds like he says "acid". And when the video cuts to the floor at the end, you can hear him apologizing to Norm and Glenn.

A little more background about this video:

Winterland Ballroom was the site of many great concerts. This happened to be its last show. The Grateful Dead performed the final show on this night. Their opening act were The Blues Brothers.

Thanks DU for such a cool site. I plan on feeding my political obsession with this site and its users.

Thanks,

David

[IamK]

1. is it me or is he a totally wasted azzclown in this interview,,,,,

[riverwalker]

2. welcome David

Cute video, Franken looks...what...8 years old.

[bathroommonkey76]

3. Thanks riverwalker.

I think his 70s afro gives him that youthful appeal.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Thanks for posting this and welcome aboard!

Never saw this video, although there is Youtube stuff up with Al hanging with the Dead. Al was a writer for SNL at that point, so I guess he was pretty well connected with that whole scene. The good old days...

[bathroommonkey76]

5. Thanks for the welcome.

I recently found a couple of Al's Dead related videos on youtube. Personally I wouldn't have thought of him to be a Deadhead.

There are a few more vids I have on my page from this night. One with Bill Murray and Paul Schaffer and the other is an interview with rock promoter Bill Graham.

I'm sure Al was connected through his SNL cast members. It's interesting to see his interest in politics is alive and well at this point in his life. That's what made SNL special in the early days. Franken's writing also helped to keep the show afloat through the 80s and early 90s.

[Old and In the Way]

7. SNL was special in those days...really, nothing else compared.

Hard to explain it to a 20 something, even watching the original reruns...you'd have to have lived in the society at the time to appreciate how "out there" it really was.

In '75, I was done in NYC with some friends and stayed down on the Lower West side for a couple of weeks. We scored tickets to the National Lampoon Radio Show at the New Palladium. Basically, it was a shakedown cruise for the entire cast of SNL who were debuting on NBC that fall....after the show, I remember thinking "no way is this ever going on the tube, but if it does, this is going to be TV worth watching". Man, was it ever....

[Cooley Hurd]

6. That is an awesome video!

And I would venture to guess that Al was indeed tripping!

[mucifer]

8. Wow a '70s Franken on drugs reverts to babbling about politics.

That's pretty funny. (Ok no actual proof he was on drugs).
BTW on Al's radio show he ALWAYS had the Dead as his bumpers when he went to and came back from commercials.