Al Franken Based His Popular SNL Character Stuart Smoley On Folks He Met In Al Anon

Interview with Al Franken

Transcript

00:00 Stuart was. For SNL, I will say a very three dimensional character,

00:07 Stuart was someone in recovery and in specifically his, I think,

00:15 group of choice was

00:18 Al-Anon, which is for family members and friends of alcoholics,

00:22 but he also go to O.A. and Coda Codependence Anonymous.

00:27 He went to a number of 12 step programs

00:30 and had found a lot of wisdom and knowledge and comfort in the programs.

00:37 And I had gone to Al-Anon meetings, again, for family members

00:41 and friends of alcoholics and had, you know, there be someone.

00:45 Sharing in a meeting, and I I hear them say, oh, you know,

00:50 I know the higher power put an apartment in my life

00:55 because I was at a meeting and this, you know, and I went, oh, boy.

00:59 And then but the next week at the same meeting, that guy would say something

01:03 that just would hit me very profoundly.

01:05 And I go, oh, I see you can learn stuff from.

01:09 From anybody and from other just from other people and don't judge people.

01:14 And that helped me.

01:17 And so I kind of design Stuart after.

01:23 A couple of people in the program and it really resonated with people.

01:28 Now, some people thought.

01:29 I don't think totally understood that I wasn't making fun of him,

01:34 that I was trying to show someone with a lot of vulnerability

01:39 who was actually working through stuff in a almost in a courageous way,

01:45 if sometimes a little confused.

01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]