As of September, Al Franken's radio show will be televised on the Sundance Channel.

Here's the press release:

Sundance Channel to Launch Television Version of Air America Radio's 'Al Franken Show' in September

One Hour Version of Best-Selling Political Humorist's Daily Radio Program to Air Through November 2004

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 -- Sundance Channel will air "The Al Franken Show," a one-hour television edition of the political humorist's weekday program on Air America Radio. The announcement was made today by Sundance Channel President and C.E.O. Larry Aidem and Air America Radio C.E.O. Doug Kreeger. "The Al Franken Show" premieres Tuesday September 7th and will air weeknights (Monday-Friday) at 11:30pm, with a replay at 2:30am that night and 7:00am the next morning. The series is slated to run into November 2004.

"Although this whole TV medium is new to me, I am thrilled that 'The Al Franken Show' will now be seen on Sundance Channel, even though it means I will have to wear clothing during the program," said Al Franken. "Besides, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was one of my favorite movies."

"Sundance Channel prides itself on presenting the work of filmmakers and artists with distinctive voices and perspectives that might not easily find a place on commercial TV," said Aidem. "The opportunity to present the legendary Al Franken's unique and highly entertaining voice in the premium TV environment was simply too good to pass up."

"We are extremely excited about this new venture with Sundance," said Kreeger. "This now puts a face to our voice."

Sundance Channel's version of "The Al Franken Show" will be taped at the Air America New York City studios during that day's broadcast. Hosted by Grammy and Emmy Award-winning humorist and best-selling author Al Franken, the program delivers fearlessly irreverent commentary on the political events of the day, as well as interviews and comedy segments. Franken's co-host is veteran radio and print journalist Katherine Lanpher. Guests on Franken's radio program have included Bill Clinton, John Kerry, John McCain and Michael Moore.

Al Franken is an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer, best-selling author and Grammy Award-winning comedian. He has written five New York Times best-sellers including: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right; Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: and Other Observations; and I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! Franken was one of the creators of the groundbreaking late-night television show "Saturday Night Live," and was a writer and performer on the series from 1975-1980 and 1985-1995. He received three Emmy Awards for his writing on "SNL," and a fourth for producing. Franken's popular "SNL" character Stuart Smalley formed the basis of the 1995 comedy Stuart Saves His Family, which he wrote and starred in. Franken's recording of his book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: and Other Observations garnered him the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, and this year he won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, for his recording of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

Katherine Lanpher, the co-host of "The Al Franken Show," was the host of Minnesota Public Radio's "Midmorning" for nearly six years, and transformed the show into a statewide phenomenon. Her print journalism has been featured in publications ranging from the Saint Paul Pioneer-Press to the New York Times.

In its first three months on the air, "The Al Franken Show" has become the second most listened to talk radio show in the number one market in the country, New York City, where it is heard on WLIB.

The television version of "Al Franken Show" will be executive produced by Adam Pincus for Sundance Channel and Billy Kimball for "The Al Franken Show."

Under the creative direction of Robert Redford, Sundance Channel brings television viewers daring and engaging feature films, shorts, documentaries, world cinema and animation, shown uncut and with no commercials. Through its original programs, Sundance Channel connects viewers with filmmakers, the creative process, and the world of independent film. Launched in 1996, Sundance Channel is a venture between NBC Universal, Robert Redford, and Showtime Networks Inc. Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the overall Sundance mission of supporting independent artists and providing them with wider opportunities to present their work to audiences.

Maybe I'll watch it in the morning getting ready for work if I missed the radio show the previous day. No way am I giving up prime talk show time to a rebroadcast of a radio show.

I hope Al thanks Howard Stern for the idea of syndicating a radio show on TV. I believe he was the first one to do that, and now we have Imus, Mike & the Mad Dog, and probably others as well.

The bad news of course is that Franken is being picked up by a cable channel that most subscribers can't even pay to get.

Not a great way to increase one's visibility.

Yay! Finally, something I can watch after The Daily Show!

Great, now I'll have to cancel the Sundance Channel!!!!!!!!!!!

At first I was going to lobby for this show to go in the NEWS thread, but then I figured he really DOES have a lot of guests on that he interviews...but then so does Bill O'Reilly...but then so does Bill Mahar....ah whatever.

I wonder if this is the final nail in the coffin of his co-host becasue she doesn't even have the charisma for radio.

You think so, Gorey? I don't mind her all that much...but then again, I don't listen everyday. Whenever I tune in, it's more like she's the timekeeper, making sure everything stays on track (then again, Al didn't seem to have that much trouble on Friday when he was all by himself). Al seems to work better when he's in "conversation mode" rather than just all expositional.

YAY.

Aww, I love Katherine Lanpher. That may be because I'm from MN.

Oh, Al. Sucks that I don't get Sundance at my dorm.

I agree that Al works better when he is talking to some one which is why it makes since to have a co-host but MN roots aside, I live in St. Paul, I just think she lacks the presence the show needs. Heck guest barely acknowledge her.

...and she doesn't have it for TV. Just finished watching the show, and lord, though I hate to admit it, it is not good. The studio looks like the backstage of a high school auditorium, Lanpher is a snooze, and the sketch with the stripper and the Boston Globe reporter left me with tears in my eyes. For all the wrong reasons. I love Al and I love what he's trying to do with Air America. But good radio doesn't take a lot of money and glitz -- but sometimes good TV does.

ETA qualifier

Oh dear. I love Al. Love, Love, Love Al, but I don't think radio should be televised. The show has a lot of good points, but too much of the show is script reading. That's what bothers me most, watching him and everyone else read from their little yellow or blue peices of paper does not make for riveting television. Then again, the purpose is to inform rather than entertain. So I'll continue to watch for the factoids and the clips and the games, it could be worse, he could scare me like Imus.

Al Franken has a TV show?

Man, how did I miss this? I just opened (and Glark closed) a board for this show over in News. I did a search on "Franken" and everything! I'm dumb.

But I do have a crush on Katherine Lampher.

I gotta say that I do have a lot of respect for conservatives who come on the show. Hopefully Al gains a reputation for being smart and fair, even with those he opposes.

I agree the4 Stripper Sketch was a dud, but the interview with John Kerry's stepson was great, and Katherine seemed to have a bit of a crush on him.

Argh...I missed it (the TV show) Friday! I would have loved to have seen that girl who reviewed the Bill O'Reilly kids book! Thankfully I listened to it later (you can hear recordings of the show on this website). It has the full 3 hour show, not just the Sundance 1 hour recap. That little girl just SKEWERS Bill and it's a joy to see.
"The most boring book I've ever read." - Priceless!

that little girl. I think she said she was 12, was so mature. I loved her basically saying "bring him on" when Al told her that O'Reilly might come after her for giving his book a negative review.

I finally saw that clip from CSPAN from the book fair between Franken & O'Reilly. They showed it last night during the 60 Minutes profile of O'Reilly. And thanks to the unforgiving lighting on 60 Minutes, I could see all those splotches on O'Reilly, even thoguh they were covered up with makeup. Of course, he looked like a dreamboat next to Mike Wallace.

I keep meaning to tune in to the rerun of Franken's show in the morning, especially when I miss large chunks of the radio show the day before, but I haven't gotten into the habit yet.

I actually like Katherine Lampher, I think she works well as the straight man to Al's comedy. And she's rather quick to refute any bogus arguments some of the guests make on the show.

I don't have Sundance, so I'm only able to listen to it on airamericaradio.com

I think Franken's show makes for good background noise on Tivo when getting ready in the morning. I am so annoyed that his show is only on in the lunch hour and they got rid of his nightly reruns from 10PM-1AM

"It's the incompetency, stupid!"

I like Air America Radio's website's tagline this morning: "We're Here For You". Gave me a chuckle, God knows I'll be needing it from Al and The Daily Show so I don't succumb to depression.

I just watched Friday's show and Al said it was their last Sundance show. What is up with that? I had no idea this was a limited run. Did they only do this for the election?

I'm sad since I have no Air America affiliate here and I usually don't have time or forget to listen on the computer during the day. I liked Tivoing the Sundance show and listening to it while I did stuff near the TV.

How great was my TV (and Radio) Girlfriend Katherine Lanpher laughing over the "Leasel" audio. I will miss it on Sundance, too.

You can listen to Air America Radio on the Internet...that's what I do. Thank God for Al Gore and the Internet he invented. :-)

Guess who's baaaaaack?

Al starts up the ol' TV thing on Sundance again!!!

YAY!

Bumping this up in anticipation for June 6.

Say, how come this isn't in the News Forum? I'd say it's at least as newsy as that idiot Bill O'Reilly's show.

His reveal of O'Reilly's "editing" of Biden was great! Too bad Biden can't lay off Dean.

The new set looks great, except for when they do the "Oy Oy Oy Show" and there is crap in the background. You'd think they could move that stuff or put a sheet over it at least.

The Sundance sign fell down one day, at least it only fell onto that slight shelf of that wall otherwise it would have fallen right onto the floor.