Nominated for 31 Emmys (and winning five), Alan Alda was also nominated for an Academy Award in 2005. For 11 years he played Hawkeye Pierce on the hit TV series M*A*S*H, hosted PBS’s Scientific American Frontiers for another 11 and also starred in the TV series West Wing. Besides that, Alda also writes and directs.

His second book, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself (Random House 2007; also available through Random House Audio read by the author and will be released this September in paperback), is a follow up to his autobiography, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. And yes, his eccentric family did have the family dog (who died from eating bad Chinese food when Alda was seven) stuffed and placed in their living room. Alda talked about all of that and more to RED.

You personify normal, but your childhood was anything but. Your mother was diagnosed as schizophrenic and tried to stab your father, actor Robert Alda. And you spent part of your childhood hanging around strippers while your parents performed onstage. You also had polio. How did you become so stable?

When Carl Reiner read my book, he told me I had a right to be a lot crazier than I am. But I credit my wife, Arlene, whom I’ve been married to for 51 years.

What made you decide to write?

When I was recuperating from surgery, I just had the overwhelming obsession to write. And as I’d walk around my apartment in New York, I would scribble down thoughts on little pieces of paper and stick them in my bathrobe pockets. Listening to yourself is hooking into the little modules that are working on things. Listening to these things and getting to the point where you trust yourself brings them to the surface.

You seem to find humor in almost everything, including the emergency operation you had in La Serena, Chile several years ago.

That’s how my mind works. I remember when Dr. Zepeda explained what he was going to do before the operation. He told me that the blood supply to some of my small intestine had been choked off, and it was dying. He was going to go in and take out the bad part and then sew the good parts back together. And I said, oh, you’re going to do an end-to-end anastomosis. He asked me how I knew that and I told I did many of them on M*A*S*H.

Friends and family mean a lot to Alda. He and Arlene have three children and numerous grandchildren. The family frequently vacations together but that doesn’t mean Alda has slowed down his work schedule. He’s in two films this year, Flash of Genius with Greg Kinnear and Dermot Mulroney and Diminished Capacity, and he also has another in post-production, Nothing But the Truth with Kate Beckinsale and David Schwimmer. Alda talks to RED about family time.

So tell us about your annual family vacations.

We’ve been going to St. John Island at Christmas time for the last 30 years. First, it was us and our children and then us and our children and their families and that kept growing and growing and growing, so we have a big bunch of people that go with since we have grandchildren now. We get everybody together, we lug presents down there to open and then we lug them back. It’s a good thing we love presents.

You must really like the island, why did you choose it?

know St. John, which is in the American Virgin Islands, very well. I’ve been all over the Virgin Islands in both a speedboat and a helicopter when I shot the movie The Four Seasons down there. I scouted all around there to find locations for the movie and looked all over the place. We were trying to find the perfect place and I wound up back there because that was the most beautiful I could find. So it just seemed right for all those reasons.

So are you a beach bum when you’re down there?

I don’t go to the Caribbean for the beaches. The sun is too hot and salt makes you sticky. I can do without it. Not liking the beach but loving the Virgin Islands is probably one of the many things that made Peter Jennings (who was a trustee for the British Virgin Islands) and me good friends. What he did for the British Virgin Islands was so terrific. I felt very badly when he died, it happened so fast. I think he thought he would be able to be back on the air but it just didn’t happen. He was very heroic, too. I never saw anybody face death the way he did.

Well, do you do water sports?

I never liked snorkeling much, which did not come in handy when I was hosting PBS’s Scientific America Frontiers, which I did for 11 years. I also don’t like boats and I don’t like the ocean. It’s hard to believe, but I don’t go to the Caribbean to go in the ocean, to go snorkeling or to sit on the beach. Usually I go in the ocean once or twice on our whole trip. The ocean scares me. The thing I don’t like about the ocean is it’s so unpredictable. It’s a big, heavy thing and it’s got a lot of force. I’m not a brave person and yet was constantly in dangerous situations when filming down there, so I must be stupid because I don’t really want to be on a boat and a lot of the filming was on the boat or around the boat. In an emergency, I do fine. I don’t quiver and shake—I just take care of business, but I don’t like the sound of things that could be emergencies on boats or on or near the ocean.

So what do you do in the Caribbean if you don’t go in the ocean and don’t hang out on the beach?

I play tennis a lot and they have great tennis down there. But, because of the heat, you can only play in the morning or late in the afternoon. What I do like about the Caribbean is the weather and the beauty of the islands and the people and the food and the culture. It is all wonderful and amazing. It’s also a great place for our family to be together. It’s a perfect place for our family—all of them—and our presents.

–Interview by Jane Ammeson, RED Editorial Staff
–Photos courtesy of Random House

In the perfect green world, according to Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, the energy emitted from a light bulb would heat up a house at a cost of about $10 a month. A Ford Explorer could get 35 miles per gallon and not leave a trail of dirty emissions. And creating green jobs would stem the deluge of manufacturing jobs leaving the United States.

The technology for all of this to happen already exists. It just needs to be put in place. So why hasn’t it? Red talked to Pope about that as well as other questions about the environment.

Why aren’t all these energy savings initiatives already in place if we have the technology for them?

We have not modernized the energy industry because energy companies have prevented modernization to keep us dependent. A lot of money has been spent to convince us we don’t need to change. Rush Limbaugh has spent a lot of time trashing environmentalists for the last 20 years. People need to start paying attention to how we use the stuff we have and how we can make it more efficient.

Do you see the U.S. as making gains in going green?

From the era of Teddy Roosevelt, every president since except for Warren Harding has left behind stronger environmental laws than his predecessor. That is until this current administration. Not only have we not made gains, but we’ve gone back. 10% of the landmass in this country has been opened up to unrestrained exploitation. Places that were designated as critical habitation have had their status changed. In Appalachia, once the government said that all upland streams weren’t part of the waters of the U.S., that opened them up to mining. If you can’t get a boat up it, their reasoning is, then it’s not a waterway.

Many say that going green costs too much and cuts jobs. Is that true?

No. Take the auto industry for an example. The only way to save those jobs is to green and modernize American manufacturing. The jobs of the future don’t belong to countries that have 50-year-old equipment. They belong to high performance technology. The American auto industry never got to high performance technology, but the Germans and the Japanese did.

Who are your environmental heroes?

Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, who was on the Sierra Club’s board of directors for decades, is one. Ray Anderson, owner and CEO of Interface Carpet because of the steps he’s taken to reduce his company’s waste and also conserve energy. My real environmental heroes are the people who do what I do but in places like Mexico, Liberia and China,” he says. “They do them at the risk of their own lives. I don’t have to worry about getting hit on the head or jailed for what I do. They do. But they still do it.

Even though the scope of what needs to be done to go green seems overwhelming, all of us can help. Pope discusses the everyday – and often painless – steps we can take to help out and his take on the both the current administration and the candidates for president.

The Sierra Club did a study about whether the media was reporting the candidates’ stances on the environment, what did you find out?

This was at a time when gasoline was headed to four dollars a gallon and there were more stories about haircuts then about that.

Who do you think might be best equipped to handle the environmental issues we’re facing once they become president?

Whoever gets the presidency will be better than Bush. I think the Democrats have done quite a good job in this election addressing the issues but the media has gone a bad job of letting people know that. As for McCain, he wasn’t opposed to mandatory controls on automobile emissions but now says that he is. At the moment, John McCain has not broken with the George Bush legacy wing of the Republican part in terms of the environment.

What can we as concerned consumers do to help the environment and save energy?

We need to pay attention to how we use our stuff. Buying high performance appliances, cars and light bulbs make a difference. If you buy something that’s energy efficient, you’re making a difference. Often we all like not to pay attention, we think to be careless is to be free, but it’s important to pay attention.

You’ve talked in the past about people becoming social entrepreneurs. Can you explain what you mean by that?

Those are people who combine a new idea, something innovative that also contributes in a positive way. Social entrepreneurs can range from developing alternative types of energy and thus creating green jobs to something simpler like organizing a recycling program.

What are some other steps we can take?

People need to do things in their neighborhoods and if they are, they should be rewarded with praise. Talking to your neighbors is another way to implement change. Or to the people in your social networks. If you go to church, start educating people there. You can help solve environmental issues as a community that way. We are a very innovative country and can easily figure out how to do things that will improve the environment. Look at all the innovative technology we’ve come up with. Look at my laptop and my cell phone. Those are very innovative. Look at light bulbs – in those we’re not as innovative.

There has been a barrage of advertising that depicts things like coal as a “clean technology.” What do you think of ads like that?

I wish all those ads were required to have 10 seconds of truth in them. Like a mom saying, “No Johnny, you can’t have tuna because of the mercury, and that’s caused by the emissions from coal plants.” Or show a kid who can’t breath because of asthma that’s caused by what’s in the air. Those are the truths we should be seeing.

–Interview by Jane Ammeson, RED Editorial Staff.
–Photos courtesy of Kira Stackhouse

Wispy and beautiful, Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow, better know as Mia Farrow, was born into a show business family (her father was famed film director John Farrow and her mother was actress Maureen O’Sullivan) and first started appearing in movies in her early teens.

While Farrow has been noted for many things–her breakout hit in “Rosemary’s Baby” that has led to a career spanning decades, her marriages to Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn and long term relationship with Woody Allen as well as her large brood of children, many with special needs who come from different countries, for the last decade her activism in working as a UNICEF Good Will Ambassador has taken center stage. Farrow talked to Red about her trips to Darfur and what she has experienced there.

You have been to Darfur region of Sudan numerous times. Can you tell us about that?

Darfur is an absolute catastrophe. The entire region has six million people. Of those, four million are actually being sustained by the World Food Program as they have no way to feed themselves at this point. They couldn’t plant their crops. They had been driven from their homes and villages. There are more than two million, mostly women and children, in refugee camps. Terrified people run from their burning villages to refugee camps. Camps are invaded and then they run across the border and then they are attacked and they run back into Darfur. There is no protection and no feeling of safety. Women are branded, burned, mutilated. Countless women their tendons had been sliced so that they hobble as a sign that they are raped.

It sounds like you’ve gotten to know many of the people very well.

Yes and they are the most courageous and kind people. They who have nothing will give you what they have, their limited rations of food, which by the way, their food rations have been cut to below what is deemed necessary for human survival. This is because of the vast deficit in the World Food Program. They don’t have enough money. It had been cut to 50%.

You see so many villains there, do you see heroes too?

Yes. In one camp, there was one doctor serving 40,000 people. They have no ambulance, no operating rooms, no windows, no doors, but he was there for whatever he could do. These are volunteer doctors. These are the heroes and they are deserving of our full support. UNICEF, yes, but others, too, like Save the Children USA and Doctors Without Borders.

What drives you to keep going back and keep working against such odds?

There’s a woman who I met, Halima, who told me the story of when her baby was torn from her back and she fought so hard to hold it. She wept when she told me, but she said that they took it from my arms and they killed him with bayonets and she said that they killed three of my five children and stuffed them in the well and my husband and she lost everything–her cattle, her crops, everything and she held my hand and she said, tell people what is happening here, tell them to come help us and I promised her that I would. So, whenever anybody will listen, I will tell. I will speak for Halima and the millions like her.

In the second part of her interview, Mia Farrow, who plays Miss Falewicz in the recently released “Be Kind Rewind” with Jack Black and Danny Glover and has two more movies coming up where she reprises her role as Granny in the French films about an animated character named Arthur, continues to focus on her work for Darfur.

Mia Farrow now has a Website, www.miafarrow.org, dedicated to Darfur with updates on the situation there and showing how people can help.

What can be done about such an overwhelming crisis?

We have the obligation to protect them. Yet, we do nothing. People there are being kept alive by aid workers, perhaps only to be slaughtered or die of hunger in defeat. They are desperate and they are never for one moment of the day or night without terror. And they have been in a state of sustained trauma and terror. There is no one in those camps who has not come from a home that has been burned. There is no one there who hasn’t seen relatives and family members slaughtered.

Do you recommend any particular organizations?

Yes, and people shouldn’t feel bad if they can’t contribute much money, even one dollar goes a long way. I’ve seen that, so people can support UNICEF and SaveDarfur.org or Save the Children USA. Most of the time UNICEF has only 20% of what it needs to continue its job there. Other organizations have withdrawn because of the security. It’s just too dangerous and because they are financially out of money. I figure if the aid workers can put their lives on the line to do this and they have no more safety than the people in the camps then the least we can do a half of world away is care and support them in their work there. We should also contact our congress and our senators and ask them what they are going to do to help and their local papers and ask them to do a story.

It sounds like you feel a strong sense of responsibility to help.

It’s for me to do what I can and to fight for the people who I now have met and I have witnessed what is happening and for me to speak where they can’t speak. With the knowledge we have, comes responsibility and we as a human family are responsible when one member of the family is suffering, we all feel it and if we don’t, then there is something wrong with us and when our brothers and sisters in Darfur are in this predicament, then we all need to address it and the international community has failed to provide the protection that the people of Darfur are crying for. If that isn’t enough to galvanize people, then there should be an interest because it is a matter of international insecurity. If Darfur collapses, if the humanitarian agencies run out of money or things become so unsafe for them, which is daily growing, we’ll have a Somalia-like situation, which will be out of control. We would leave ourselves open to another area of anarchy and extremism, every kind of extremist group.

What is it like coming back to glitzy, wonderful New York City after Darfur?

Well, I haven’t entirely left as you probably hear in my voice. It changes you and you are not the same person for knowing what I know and having witnessed what I’ve witnessed. I’m very privileged to have gone there and honored to bring back the story of Halima and the fact that her story is the same as countless, countless thousands of women. You know, this is just absolutely something we must all try to address this. I don’t care if I’m a Democrat or a Republican, I’m a human being and Halima is a human being and she loved her children as I love my children and all the women there are examples to me while I’ve seen the very worst of human nature on display, true evil in the government of Sudan, true evil acts. I’ve also seen the very best of human nature and the courage of the women in the camps, the courage and dedication of the aid workers there working every day to keep Halima and others alive and that surely we are not keeping them alive just so that they will be all slaughtered.

–Jane Ammeson, RED Editorial Staff
–Photos courtesy of UNICEF

Academy award winner Morgan Freeman’s first career choice was to be a pilot. When that got put on hold he turned to acting but didn’t hit his stride—and the big time—until he turned 50. But since then, the versatile actor who has played about every type of role conceivable has been very busy.

He’s using his celebrity to help the less fortunate, such as being the impetus for “Morgan Freeman & Friends: Caribbean Cooking for a Cause” by Wendy Wilkinson and Donna Lee (Rodale 2006). His profits from sales go to help hurricane victims. But Freeman is still making movies including the new Batman film, “Dark Knight”, as well as three others scheduled for release this year.

In the “Dark Knight” you reprise your role as Lucius Fox. Tell us about that.

I love the Batman franchise. Lucius is part of Batman’s design team that puts all his cool stuff together like Batman’s utility belts with all those cables and coils and his bulletproof suit. It was great being part of this. I read the comic books when I was young and we really have such fun making these movies. I think everyone associated with that film, and with “Wanted” which comes out this year, will be really proud of the work we did.

You’ve starred in several Clint Eastwood movies including “Million Dollar Baby” for which you won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Next year, you play Nelson Mandela in “The Human Factor,” which he directed. What’s it like working with him?

If Clint hires you, he hires you because he feels like you know what to do. And he’s very, very largely out of the way. He directs the picture; you do the acting. I love that, and I think that most of the people that he works with love that. I think that’s why he gets what he gets.

Looking at your resume, you seem to average at least three movies a year and this year, there are four scheduled to be released. Do you ever relax? And how do you keep fit with that grueling pace?

It does seem that I’m always working. But keeping healthy is not really hard. You just watch what you eat and don’t stress. I don’t stress. I have a philosophy, stuff happens. And, you know, I’m at an age where, I have all my toys and things and if I get really stressed out, I go to the boat, go horseback riding, pilot my plane.

You own a 120-acre farm in Mississippi. Tell us about what you do there?

I raise quarter horses, they’re not racing horses, they are pets. They’re for trail riding. Besides the 120 acres of land I own, I have thousands of acres of trails right across the road from me.

Your wife often accompanies you when you fly your plane down to the Caribbean. Does that mean she’s brave?

Some people ask her how she gets the courage to do that, but it doesn’t take too much courage to fly with me.

In part two of our interview with Morgan Freeman, the celebrated actor discusses the healing power of food, as well as the philosophy that drives his philanthropic efforts.

Morgan Freeman, his wife, children and grandchildren frequently sail in the Caribbean. And having spent so much time in the islands, Freeman has developed relationships with many people down there. That’s why he stepped forward to help when a devastating hurricane ravaged the Grenadas several years ago.

That disaster was the impetus for his cookbook which features recipes and recollections of the Caribbean from such friends as Terrence Howard, Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks and Alfre Woodard as well as Freeman’s own favorites.

Why a cook book? Is there something holistic about food and healing/recovery from a natural disaster?

For sure, there’s something very healing about food - in the islands, and universally; it comforts the soul and heart. Food in honor of someone or, in this case, an island nation, we hope expresses to Grenada that we are behind them in their quest to regain full strength. Because, with global warming and other natural issues, we think that this will a prevalent issue for islands and coastal regions in years to come, we’ll need to think of ways to get to the healing and comfort stage of things quicker and quicker.

What is it about Caribbean cuisine that is so appealing? Do you think it deserves wider exposure in the States? If you could teach the world to eat, what would your lesson be?

All food - worldwide - needs to be explored by all cultures. It helps us to know one another better. Caribbean food is hearty food usually- you can put in a good day’s worth of sailing after you’ve had a meal in the islands and manage it just fine.

Your new philanthropic endeavor, Plan!t Now is an outgrowth of the Grenada Relief Fund which you helped start. Tell us the philosophy of the organization.

Grenada is a model for how to recover from a hurricane. The island, like many islands and small countries, may have its own complaints about its political scene or the government, but I’ll tell you, almost every home on that island that was destroyed or damaged, three years later, has been repaired and a family is in it. We want more people to thrive after a severe storm or hurricane, in this country and others. Other storms beside Katrina have hit our coasts and the islands and done severe damage that still remains. People are baffled anew each time a storm comes because preparation is deficient.

How can people get involved?

Go to our Website, www.planitnow.org

Do you still sail your boat?

I love to sail – especially in the Caribbean but I haven’t had any time for it lately with all of the work I’ve been doing. We’ve got some exciting things coming up with Plan!t Now that we hope will help folks with preparation. Kenny Chesney just joined our board – he’s just great and he’s got great ideas. He’s from the Southeast and so he knows what happens when hurricanes hit. But I’ve been pretty busy. No time for sailing.

–Interview by Jane Ammeson, RED Editorial Staff
–Photos Courtesy of Morgan Freeman

Always intensely focused and calm even after long nights and a crazy election cycle, Wolf Blitzer appears the epitome of aplomb. But it wasn’t always that way. An American history major who never studied journalism, Blitzer somehow ended up in Tel Aviv in 1972 working for Reuters News Agency and surrounded by hardened British journalists who had seen it all. It wasn’t pretty, recounts Blitzer who not for the first (or last) time thought he might be in the wrong business.

But times change and Blitzer is the host of CNN’s “Situation Room,” a three-hour political news show that runs five days a week. Blitzer also anchors “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,” the only Sunday talk show seen in more than 200 countries and territories. Taking time out from his hectic schedule, Blitzer talks to Red from his office at CNN’s Washington headquarters.

You’ve been reporting news for over 30 years now, 18 of that with CNN. Do you ever get burned out?

When you love what you do, it keeps being interesting. I wake up every morning knowing that I am going to learn something interesting that day. And I would have been a political junkie even if I had gone into my dad’s home building business. I feel blessed in that I’ve been able to combine my personal interest with my livelihood—literally having a front row seat to history, traveling all over the world, interviewing world leaders and statesmen, you can’t beat that.

You’ve said before that your first experiences as a reporter in Tel Aviv weren’t easy. Can you expound on that?

I was only 24 years old and it was almost like going through a fraternity hazing. I remember once going out across the Sinai to the Suez Canal, driving all that way from Tele Aviv—it was like a 12-hour drive.

The Israelis were transferring bodies of Egyptians who were killed on the other side of the Sinai. It was a long, complicated story but I wrote what I thought was a pretty good color story when I got back. One thousand words of drama.

I handed it to one of the editors. He looked at the hard copy and started xing out paragraphs. Finally, he took the first paragraph and re-wrote it dramatically. He took a one thousand word story and made it into a little one paragraph brief that he moved on the wire and just zipped it out, no by-line.

That was all my work that I had spent a day and a half working on, writing, anguishing and trying to get a good solid first person eye witness account and it ended up being they transferred a bunch of bodies across the Sinai.

When did you know you were going to be a success?

When I became a punch line on Johnny Carson and then a guest.

I think many people are amazed at how you can keep going, particularly on those long days during the primary. How do you do that?

I try to keep a balanced life. I try to get seven hours of sleep a night but if I get five or six I’m doing great. I run on the treadmill every morning for five miles. If I don’t, by six or seven at night I’m dragging. And it helps that I’m very interested in what I’m doing.

In part two of our interview with Wolf Blitzer, the noted CNN anchorman talks about the 2008 election, his political blog and life as a White House correspondent during the Bill Clinton presidency (hint: it was a wild ride).

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer has moderated five of the primary presidential debates this political season, including the January 31st Democratic primary debate that garnered the highest audience of any of them so far. Red talks to him about his take on the 2008 election.

There have been so many twists and turns this election cycle. What most caught you off guard?

Last summer John McCain was toast and it was mostly assumed that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee.

Many of us are confused by what the term “superdelegate” means. Do you have an easy answer for that?

Superdelegates include elected Democratic officials, like governors, Democratic National Committee officials and activists from organizations like labor unions. They are the ones who can vote whichever way they want.

CNN is now number one for people following the election. How is this election different from others that you have covered?

People are fascinated and excited about what’s going on in this election. Normally we get the news junkies, but now we’ve been expanding. They start by watching a little, and then they want more. And a lot of people are starting to watch for the first time.

A lot has been made about polling. And yet CNN is often able to predict the winner of a state primary as soon as the polls close. How does that work?

The exit polls are very good. The polls going in even one day to two before the election have not been as good. But with exit polls you talk to someone as they’re leaving the voting place. They have no reason to lie, so it’s a very accurate reflection of how they voted.

You are now a blogger, with your own blog on the CNN Website. Are you enjoying that?

I am. I respect our viewers and the people who post on the blog. They are highly intelligent and committed viewers. There are so many entertainment options out there, they could be watching sitcoms or sports but they’re watching CNN. I like the blog because I’m dialoguing with our viewers. These are people who have a lot of knowledge about the political process. Our staff goes through all the posts and then they bring the best to me. If someone takes the time to write to us, we’ll read it. People will be watching TV but also going online. If we push viewers to go to CNN.com, they’re not leaving CNN; they’re going to go to both for their information. It’s a great synergy that I love.

You covered the Clinton White House for seven years. What was that like?

It was like seven dog years because Bill Clinton packed a lot into a year. It was the equivalent to like 45 years of so called regular presidents.

I remember one trip leaving Washington on a Friday in the morning on Air Force One. Clinton wanted to show his support for the troops in Trebinje, Bosnia. But it was just before the election, so he couldn’t just go to Trebinje; we flew to Nashville, Tennessee first for a luncheon.

Clinton did the luncheon then we flew from Nashville to the Aviano Air Base in Italy to change to a C-5 Galaxy, a military transport plane. Then we flew into Bosnia but it was foggy and we couldn’t get in so we had to go to Hungary, then we flew back to Trebinje, then to Zagreb in Croatia and from there back to Andrew’s Air Force base in D.C., landing there late Saturday night.

It was like a day trip to Bosnia and that was typical of Clinton. Clinton tried to pack as much as he could in a relatively small period of time so we were always on the move.

–Interview by Jane Ammeson, RED Editorial Staff.
–Photos courtesy of Wolf Blitzer.

Al Franken made us laugh when the cum laude Harvard graduate started as one of the original writers for the TV show, “Saturday Night Live.” But comedy wasn’t the first choice for Franken who realized he had a gift for satire when he made the second grade girls at his elementary school cry with his scathing parody of “I’m a Little Teapot.”

“I had thought I’d have a career in one of the sciences,” says Franken who was raised in a suburb of Minneapolis. “Like being a physicist.”

Comedy won out and during Franken’s 15-year tenure at SNL, he earned four Emmys for writing and another for producing. Besides that, Franken created the character of the new age cable TV host Stuart Smalley and would later both write and star in the movie “Stuart Saves His Family” which was given “two thumbs up” by movie critics Siskel & Ebert. He also hosted a radio show and has written several books.

That might make some wonder why Franken, who was living in New York City until a few years ago, would give it all up to return to Minnesota to run for the U.S. Senate on the Democratic ticket against first term senator, Norm Coleman.

Yet, reaching into Franken’s past, it becomes apparent that not only comedy but also politics were an important aspect of his childhood. He and his father, Joseph, spent hours watching comedy shows; but they paid fond attention to world events as well.

“We watched the news each night and discussed it,” says Franken. “Starting with the Kennedy election in ’60.”

Franken describes his father as both a Republican and card carrying member of the NAACP. The older Franken was turned off by Republican candidate Barry Goldwater’s stance on race during the 1964 presidential election and changed his party affiliation.

“Ultimately my dad campaigned for Paul Wellstone,” says Franken about his close friend, the U.S. Senator from Minnesota who died in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 Senate race. Coleman, a Republican, won Wellstone’s seat after defeating former U.S. Senator and vice president Walter Mondale.

“It actually took me a couple of years to make the final decision, but all during that period people had been growing more and more unhappy with the direction this country’s going in,” says Franken on his decision to run. “People are yearning for a new political culture and for leaders who will stand up to special interests and stand up for working families, for leaders who will fight for what they believe and be a voice for those who don’t feel they have a voice in Washington.”

(Interview continued in part 2.)