Franken Developing New Sitcom
Andrea Estes, Boston Globe, Dec 2, 2001
It's sort of a cross between "The West Wing" and "The Sunshine Boys." Or a gerontological version of "Friends."
Four guys on the Hill, who may be just about over the hill, living in a crash pad a few blocks from work. "Ben Affleck could play me," suggested Quincy Congressman William Delahunt, whose living arrangement with three other members of Congress is being made into a pilot for CBS by a graduate of "Saturday Night Live." "Homegrown guy," that movie star Affleck, Delahunt said. "I always try to serve the state."
Al Franken, a political satirist and former "SNL" writer and performer, pitched the idea for a sitcom loosely based on the DC rowhouse shared by Delahunt and three fellow Democrats - Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and Charles Schumer of New York, and Representative George Miller of California, who owns the ramshackle two-bedroom, two-bathroom house next to a Tex-Mex joint.
"I thought it was adorable," said Franken, who was given the go-ahead by network executives to write a script.
"In my research for 'Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot,' I found that most people, when asked what dinner at their congressman's house would be like, thought they'd be served by liveried servants in white gloves and be served food they'd never heard of.
"In fact, most have anything but a lavish lifestyle. For those who decided their main residence would be back in the district and work 18 hour days in Washington, there is very little motivation to spend a lot of money on where they live."
Or how.
Delahunt, who pays $500 a month, shares the living room with Schumer, an unabashed slob.
"He never makes his bed," said Delahunt.
"I'm told they cleaned" before his visit a few weeks ago, Franken said. "Decorating they definitely did not do."
Unlike the four real politicians, who range from 50 to 60 years old, the characters in Franken's pilot will not be middle age.
"They'll be a little mix of ages," he said.
And he'll throw in a Republican, for comic contrast, and give the house only one bathroom.
"I'm going to invent the characters, take some license. I'm not doing the George Miller, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer show," he said.
Besides, according to Delahunt, a show drawn directly from their lives would never sell.
"Four guys sitting around in their boxers watching TV and eating fast food," he said. "The wild lifestyle of the rich and famous."