Two comics look at Nader, seriously

“An Unreasonable Man,” a documentary opening Friday at the Nuart in West Los Angeles, chronicles the life and accomplishments of public advocate Ralph Nader.

The crux of the film, though, is how Nader went from being an admired attorney responsible for the passage of historic safety and health laws to a pariah when he ran for president in 2000. Many still blame him for the Democratic loss because he refused to exit the race, siphoning votes that otherwise might have gone to Al Gore.

Amazingly, “An Unreasonable Man” started off as a possible sitcom.

The film’s directors, Steve Skrovan and Henriette Mantel, were stand-up comics in New York in the 1980s. Skrovan wrote for nine seasons on “Everybody Loves Raymond” and now works on the Fox sitcom “ ‘Til Death.” Mantel played Alice in film spoofs of “The Brady Bunch” and wrote and directed the MTV reality series “The Osbornes.”

Before turning to comedy, however, Mantel worked as a manager in Nader’s office in 1978 and 1979.

“When we were stand-up comedians,” she says, “Steve was very interested in listening to Ralph stories.”

“I said to her, ‘That would be a good setting for a show -- a public-interest office,’ ” Skrovan recalls.

After “Raymond” ended two years ago, Skrovan ran into Mantel, whom he hadn’t seen in several years. He asked, “Have you done anything with your Ralph experience?” She hadn’t. “She started telling me stories, and I started taking notes on funny characters,” he says.

But as Mantel kept introducing him to former colleagues from her Nader world and he read more about Nader’s accomplishments, Skrovan became intrigued that so many people were now angry with him. He wrote an outline for the pilot but abandoned it.

Skrovan and Mantel agreed that Nader’s own story needed to be told. “So we thought, ‘Let’s do a documentary,’ ” Mantel says.

Nader, who was interviewed for the film, has been participating in Q&A; sessions with the directors and will be on hand at 4:30 and 7:20 p.m. Friday at the Nuart. (The directors will be there without him at 4:30 and 7:20 p.m. Saturday.)

“It’s been interesting to do questions and answers with him,” Mantel says. “He doesn’t say much about the movie. It’s all about issues and politics.”