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Dallas Videofest to bestow award on comedian and ex-Senator Al Franken

Al Franken

Photo courtesy of Al Franken

For 2022, Dallas VideoFest will present its coveted comedy award to comedian and former US Senator Al Franken, of Saturday Night Live fame.

Franken will receive the Ernie Kovacs Award on Thursday September 22 at 7:30 pm, at Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff at 231 W. Jefferson Blvd.

The Ernie Kovacs Award recognizes television's greatest visionaries, and has been a key component of the Dallas VideoFest since the Festival began in 1987. With the festival currently retired, The Ernie Kovacs Award is now the primary component.

Franken will attend to receive the award from Dallas VideoFest founder Bart Weiss; Joshua Mills, son of Edie Adams and keeper of the Kovacs flame, will also attend.

Immediately following the award presentation, DVF will show the 2006 documentary, Al Franken: God Spoke. There'll also be a VIP meet-and-greet reception with Franken at Oak Cliff Cultural Center. Tickets can be purchases at VideoFest.org.

Al Franken the man the genius
Throughout the 15 years Franken was associated with Saturday Night Live, starting with the very first show in 1975, he wrote, performed in, and produced hundreds of sketches, including the well-known and often recited "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley." Franken won five Emmys for writing and producing during his 15 seasons with SNL.

Franken was also author of four No. 1 New York Times bestsellers, including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and Al Franken, Giant of the Senate.

Franken served Minnesota in the Senate from 2009-2018, "clobbering" his first opponent, incumbent Senator Norm Coleman, by 312 votes. But he won his second election by well over 200,000 votes. Franken served on the Judiciary, Energy, Indian Affairs, and HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committees where he routinely embarrassed badly prepared witnesses and was a fierce opponent of media concentration, mandatory arbitration, and Betsy DeVos.

His career was on a fast track until he was forced to resign by fellow Democratic Senators following accusations of sexual misconduct during photo opps. Half were made anonymously and he denied them but never got a chance to settle in court. The New Yorker did a good story running down the facts.

He's since founded "The Al Franken Podcast," one of the top politically-themed podcasts with guests like Malcolm Nance, Sarah Silverman, Paul Krugman, and Chris Rock. His political action committee, Midwest Values PAC, supports progressive Democrats and voting rights.

The first Ernie Kovacs Award was handed out in 1997. Recipients have included comedian Joel Hodgson, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Robert Smigel, Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens, Martin Mull, Mike Judge, George Schlatter (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In creator) Harry Shearer, Michael Nesmith, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall), and Amy Sedaris, the first woman to receive the Ernie Kovacs Award in 2018.

Franken says in a statement that he feels honored to receive the award.

"Ernie Kovacs' influence on comedians of my generation is not often told these days," Franken says. "I was maybe 10 years old when I first watched The Ernie Kovacs Show. Like many young avid fans of comedy, I was immediately struck by his wholehearted and brilliant embrace of absurdity."

Weiss traces the connection between Dallas VideoFest and Ernie Kovacs thusly:

"The very first program of our festival in 1987 was Edie Adams showing the work of Ernie Kovacs," Weiss says. "Ernie's innovative spirit has been with us these 35 years. The Kovacs Award became the perfect way to honor those whose comedy change the way we look at TV/Video much like Kovacs did."

Joshua Mills, Edie Adams’s son and keeper of Ernie Kovacs Estate, traces the connection between Ernie Kovacs and Al Franken thusly:

"Al Franken's humor, his dry wit and his irreverent characters are part of a long comedy continuum that connects everyone and everything from Ernie Kovacs to Monty Python to David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and others who helped shaped modern comedy," Mills says. "From Stuart Smalley to Medieval Barber Theodoric of York, it’s about time we usher in the Al Franken Decade in 2022 with The Ernie Kovacs Award."

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer is an unappreciated mom in Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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