Why do freepers think Franken almost got SNL cancelled?

[anti_shrub]

I keep seeing that repeated in the Al vs Fox threads at Freeperville. I've been watching SNL since the mid 80s and I don't remember any such thing.

[cherryperry]

1. It's called 'the big lie'! n/t

[anti_shrub]

3. As I recall

Al left in 1995, and SNL had some lean years *after* he left before they turned back around with their political skits.

[roughsatori]

2. Are you allowed to ask them for a link to this?

You could lie and say your nutty liberal co-worker does not believe you and could they help and provide a link to this "fact."

[Rick Myers]

4. For their information

Al Franken is THE longest running member of the SNL team. He even outstrips Loren Michaels, who took several years off. Noone has been an SNL alumni longer than Al...

[blm]

5. That's my area...

Completely untrue. I have ties to SNL and its originators. Ask the freepers when that supposedly happened, then bring it back here for debunking.

[mitchum]

6. "I don't write for felt"

I just came across that one yesterday. God, he was good.

[blm]

7. heheh....

you should have read his journals. He kept books with phrases or sentences he'd make up. SOOO funny. SOOO bizarre.

Franken said one incident that he'll never forget is when he first started at SNL and he showed MO'D his paycheck and O'D sniffed, "I pay more than that to get my cat's paws rotated."

[Newsjock]

8. "Limo for the Lamo" speech

I suspect that's the source, from 1978. I'm looking at my well-worn paperback copy of "Saturday Night" by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad (1986).

"You know who gets complete door-to-door limousine service from NBC? Fred Silverman. Now, here's a guy who is a total, unequivocal failure. ..."

It was decided that Franken should write Silverman an apology. The tone of the first letter he wrote was so aggressive -- those who saw it say its basic message was, "If you can't take a joke, fuck you" -- that Lorne said it would be better to send nothing at all. So Franken wrote a second letter ...

... After Lorne convinced Franken to delete a postscript mentioning that Brandon Tartikoff had found "Limo for the Lamo" hysterically funny, the letter was dispatched to Silverman's office.

Fred didn't respond. By then he'd already told Tartikoff he wanted nothing else to do with Lorne Michaels.

[blm]

9. There was always trouble with Silverman...

They had one sketch censored - The Last Night in Silverman's Bunker. Ol' Fred hit the roof. It was way too bawdy and revealed too much of Silverman's real persona..

[Newsjock]

10. That one's a hoot!

Oh, I wish it had been produced: "How many pilots have we lost this week?"

Traitors! Cowards! You have betrayed me! Disloyalty has undermined our resistance. But I promise you, from the ruins of our schedule will arise a new network, a network of hit shows like ... Hollywood Sex Clinic!

[blm]

11. ah...a man who knows...

;)))))))))))))))

Even many years later, Michael would chuckle to himself over that one.