Meshing Beltway Humor With Sitcom Parody

That messy and inordinately grave constitutional brouhaha was unraveling in Washington in the fall, and Al Franken, one of the country’s most visible political satirists, was in production on “Lateline,” a sitcom/parody about politics and current events set in a network newsroom in the nation’s capital.

“It actually was kind of a nightmare,” said Franken, the star, creator and executive producer of the NBC sitcom that began its second season as a midseason replacement last week. At the time, the show wasn’t on the air, and Franken had no idea if the Lewinsky/impeachment fuss would still be current when the network finally got around to rescheduling it.

“It was kind of frustrating,” Franken said. “But on the other hand, it kept us more honest about what a sitcom is. For us to succeed . . . people will have to enjoy the characters.”

Still, part of “Lateline’s” gimmick is to include appearances by actual politicians every week. Upcoming episodes this year feature Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former Sens. Paul Simon and Alan Simpson, and political commentator Daniel Shorr, among others. They’re shooting for cameos by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and anyone in the White House. And if there is a next season for the show, Franken has an episode already mapped out for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“But obviously we will have to wait,” said Franken. “This wasn’t the best year for her to do a sitcom.”

That is the question for most of the beltway insiders that Franken sets his sights on: Is it a good year--when there’s little in Washington to laugh about--for a politician to turn up on a sitcom?

“These are dignified, important people, and so naturally they are a bit trepidatious about coming on,” said John Marcus, who co-created and co-executive produces the series with Franken. “But we seem to have luck with people who have a sense of humor about themselves.”

That approach persuaded Sen. Kerry, who will appear in some goofy scenes with Franken in an upcoming episode. “I have no reservations about being on the show,” Kerry said from Washington last week. “It’s important to show people that we can laugh at ourselves.”

Sen. Kerry is one of a handful of public figures seriously mulling a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, and when asked if an appearance on a prime-time sitcom might help boost his name recognition, he answered: “I’ll tell you in 2000.”

Mostly, the show has relied on Franken’s personal contacts to snag these high-profile guests, since, according to Kerry, booking an appearance on the show is no badge of honor yet.

“I’m not the envy of anyone as far as I can tell,” he offered. “If anything, most of the people around here are probably happy to see us commit [political] suicide.”

Simpson believes that, unfortunately, an appearance on “Lateline” or any comedy carries the potential for that kind of career damage. Nevertheless, he agreed to do the show when Franken called.

“[Politicians] might want to do it, but their staffs will force them to decline in fear that their opponent will get a hold of it and it will end up as a 30-second spot in the next campaign,” said Simpson. “And that’s too bad because it robs the political system of the oil that makes it run, which is humor.”

G. Gordon Liddy, the former Watergate operative turned radio talk-show host, has taped three “Lateline” episodes, and is clearly not fearful of any possible backlash.

“The show is satire,” said Liddy. “If someone’s opinion of them is going to be affected adversely because that individual is participating in a spoof, well then they should lose that supporter because that supporter is not worth having.”

Eventually, Marcus hopes the show will emulate the fortunes of HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show,” which relied on celebrity guests who often spoofed their own image. By the end of its run, Garry Shandling, the show’s star and head honcho, had long lists of celebrities begging to get on, said Marcus, who worked on that series for a season.

At the moment, though, “Lateline” still struggles to get many Washington bigwigs in front of the camera.

“We do absolutely try to make some fun out of their personas,” said Franken, who wrote and appeared on “Saturday Night Live” for 15 seasons, “but not in any malicious way. . . . The one way to get the people you want is to make them look good.”

“Lateline,” however, appears saddled with a tough path for achieving the sort of cachet that would attract such luminaries. After failing to grab much of an audience in its first incarnation last spring, NBC kept it off the fall schedule. Now, with several holes to fill as the network shuffles its lineup, it has stuck the neophyte comedy against heavyweight ABC champ “The Drew Carey Show.” And if that isn’t bleak enough, CBS’ much-ballyhooed “60 Minutes II” premieres tonight in that same Wednesday 9 p.m. slot.

“We weren’t jumping up and down about the time slot,” Franken said. “In a way, if you cross ‘Drew Carey’ with ’60 Minutes,’ you get our show, and so people who like both will have to turn to us. But obviously with that kind of competition the expectations are lower, and if the name of the game is exceeding expectations, then we might have a great time slot.”

Though Marcus would not have predicted it, NBC’s decision to keep the show off the air in the fall has ended up working in their favor in an unexpected way.

“Our bones are office comedy,” he said. “And had we been on the air [then], the pressure to put on Monica-something everyday would have been great and distracting to what the show is really about.”

In this new batch of 13 episodes, Franken & Co. do include a few crude Monica jokes, and Bob Bennett, President Clinton’s attorney in the Paula Jones case, makes a cameo appearance in tonight’s episode. Mostly, however, the show tries to find comedy in more evergreen issues like pollution, gun control, the religious right and the ethics and antics of the news media.

Creatively, little has changed between the first and second seasons, said Marcus, except the producers’ effort to highlight the show’s core characters. In addition to Franken, who plays political reporter Al Freundlich, the ensemble comedy features Robert Foxworth as “Lateline” anchor, Pearce McKenzie; Megyn Price as Freundlich’s producer; and Miguel Ferrer as the show’s tightly wound top executive.

One thing that the comedy, which must draw a broad audience to survive, will not be is pedantic, Franken contended, though his own liberal democratic views have been expressed in some of his other work, including the bestselling book, “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.” His new book, “Why Not Me?,” in which Franken himself is elected president on a platform of eliminating ATM fees, will be published this month.

“It’s not proper for a sitcom to have a political agenda, even though I have one myself,” he added.

In one upcoming episode that features Liddy, who describes himself politically as Franken’s polar opposite, Marcus said the show bent over backward to neutralize any perception of bias, adding: “We want liberals and conservatives in equal numbers.”

* “Lateline” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).