Al Franken

Al Franken

Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, writer and liberal political commentator. He first became famous as a writer and a performer for the television show Saturday Night Live, then moved into writing (and appearing in) several films. He then became a political commentator, writer of several best-selling books, and host of a nationally syndicated radio show on Air America Radio.

On February 14, 2007, Franken announced his candidacy for the 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He was endorsed by that party on June 7, 2008, and won the nomination in its primary on September 9, 2008. On November 18, 2008, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board's certification of the pre-recount results of the election showed Franken trailing Senator Norm Coleman by 215 votes, or less than 0.0075 percent of the over 2.8 million votes cast. However, under Minnesota state law, an automatic recount was mandated, because the official margin was less than 0.5% percent of the total votes cast. The recount began November 19, 2008. By January 3, 2009, Franken had taken the lead by 225 votes. The canvassing board certified Franken's winning margin on January 5, 2009, officially completing the recount. Coleman's campaign filed an election contest on January 6, 2009.

Franken was born in New York City, the son of Phoebe G. Kunst, a homemaker and real estate agent, and Joseph P. Franken, a printing salesman. Franken had a Jewish upbringing and grew up in St. Louis Park, a suburb near Minneapolis. He is a cousin of MSNBC's Bob Franken, and his older brother, Owen Franken, is a photojournalist. Franken attended St. Louis Park High School until the tenth grade. He graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team. He attended Harvard College and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. At Harvard, Franken washed dishes as a participant in the work-study program with Richard Honaker, who was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2007 as one of three U.S. District Judges from Wyoming.

Franken met his wife, the former Franni Bryson, in his first year of college at a Harvard-Simmons mixer. They now reside in Minneapolis. They have a daughter, Thomasin, and a son, Joe. Thomasin graduated from Harvard College with a sociology degree and was a public school teacher in New York City, but has been volunteering full-time for her father's campaign. Joe graduated from Princeton University.

Franken and Davis were recruited as two of the original writers (and occasional performers) on Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980 and again from 1985 to 1995, although in the latter case, only Franken returned as a performer, while Davis usually stayed behind the camera.

In the first season, as apprentice writers, the two shared a salary of $350 per week. Franken received seven Emmy nominations and three Emmy Awards for his television writing and production. He created characters such as self-help guru Stuart Smalley and routines such as proclaiming the 1980s to be the "Al Franken Decade." Franken was associated with SNL for over 15 years and, in 2002, interviewed former Vice President Al Gore while in character as Smalley. Franken and Davis wrote the script to the 1986 comedy film One More Saturday Night, appearing in it as rock singers in a band called "Bad Mouth." They also appeared in cameo roles in The Rutles: All You Need is Cash as promoter Ron Decline's (John Belushi) henchmen, and in the Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd film Trading Places as the baggage handlers (with the gorilla) on the train.

Franken's most notorious SNL performance may have been "A Limo for the Lame-O," a commentary he delivered near the end of the 1979–80 season. Franken mocked controversial NBC president Fred Silverman as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs. Franken proclaimed that Silverman did not deserve a limousine. As a result of this sketch, Silverman nixed Lorne Michaels' request that Franken succeed him as SNL's head producer, prompting Franken to leave the show when Michaels did, at the end of the 1979-80 season. Franken later returned to the series in 1985, mostly as a writer, but also as an occasional performer best-known for the Stuart Smalley character. He acknowledged using cocaine while working for Saturday Night Live, but says that he no longer uses any illegal drugs. Franken left the show in 1995 in protest over losing the role of "Weekend Update" anchor to Norm MacDonald.

Franken has written five New York Times best-selling books, three of which reached #1, including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations. Franken wrote the original screenplay and starred in the film Stuart Saves His Family, which was panned by critics (receiving a rating of 29% on the website Rottentomatoes.com). He also cowrote the film When a Man Loves a Woman. He cocreated and starred in the NBC sitcom LateLine until it was canceled in its second season. He appeared in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate.

In 2003, Franken served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Since 2005, Franken has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. His most recent book, The Truth (with jokes), was released in 2005.

Franken has served as a volunteer with the United Service Organizations since he first visited Kosovo in 1999. Franken has conducted several overseas tours to both Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to participating in numerous celebrity handshake tours at military hospitals to visit wounded soldiers. On March 25, 2009, Franken was presented with the USO's Merit Award for his 10 years of service to the organization through visiting injured and deployed servicemembers.

Franken signed a one-year contract in early 2004 to become a talk show host for Air America Radio's flagship program with cohost Katherine Lanpher, who remained with the show until October 2005. The network was launched March 31, 2004. Originally named The O'Franken Factor but renamed The Al Franken Show on July 12, 2004, the show aired three hours a day, five days a week for three years. The show's apparent aim was to counter the dominance of conservative syndicated radio commentators that Franken believed strayed from the truth with impunity, and to affect the U.S. political atmosphere. "I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected," he told a New York Times reporter in 2004.

Franken is a Grateful Dead fan, and used their songs as bumper music on his radio show. Franken's last radio show on Air America Radio was on February 14, 2007. In the last segment of the show, Franken announced his candidacy for the United States Senate.

According to an article by Richard Corliss published in Time, "In a way, Franken has been running for office since the late '70s." Corliss also hinted at Franken's "possibly ironic role as a relentless self-promoter" in proclaiming the 1980s "the Al Franken Decade" and saying, "Vote for me, Al Franken. You'll be glad you did!" In 1999, Franken released a parody book, Why Not Me?, detailing his campaign for the Presidency in 2000. He had been a strong supporter of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and was strongly affected by the senator's death in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 Senate election. After the funeral, Rush Limbaugh, Jesse Ventura, and several other conservative commentators accused the organizers and participants of Wellstone's remembrance ceremony of using the tragedy for political purposes. Columnists Peggy Noonan and Chris Caldwell asserted that 20,000 people booed Trent Lott. Franken, who attended, denied there was widespread jeering: "Along with everyone else, I cried, I laughed, I cheered. It was, to my mind, a beautiful four-hour memorial. I didn't boo. Neither did 22,800 of the some 23,000 people there." In Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them, Franken wrote that Noonan and Caldwell had later told him that they had not personally been at the memorial service.

Franken said he learned that 21% of Americans received most of their news from talk radio, then an almost exclusively conservative medium. Said Franken, "I didn't want to sit on the sidelines, and I believed Air America could make a difference." In November 2003, Franken talked about moving to his home state of Minnesota to run for the Senate. The seat once held by Wellstone, now occupied by Republican Norm Coleman, was to be contested in the 2008 election. In 2005, Franken announced his move to Minnesota: "I can tell you honestly, I don't know if I'm going to run, but I'm doing the stuff I need to do in order to do it." He said that he would run as a Democrat.

In late 2005, Franken started his own political action committee, called Midwest Values PAC. By early 2007, the PAC had raised more than US$1-million.

Franken was the subject of the 2006 documentary film Al Franken: God Spoke, which premiered in April 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. It was released nationally on September 13 of that year.

On January 29, 2007, Al Franken announced his departure from Air America Radio. On the day of his final show, February 14, Franken formally announced that he would run for the United States Senate from Minnesota in 2008. Challenging him for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement was Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a professor, author, and activist. Other candidates were Mike Ciresi, a wealthy trial lawyer, and Jim Cohen, an attorney and human rights activist who had dropped out of the race earlier.

On April 13, 2007, Franken's campaign filed a campaign finance report. He raised US$1.35-million in the first quarter of 2007. The incumbent Senator, Norm Coleman, raised US$1.53-million. On July 8, 2007, the Franken campaign stated that it expected to announce that Franken had raised more money than Coleman during the second quarter of the year, taking in US$1.9-million to Coleman's US$1.6-million, although as of early July 2007, Coleman's US$3.8-million cash on hand exceeded Franken's US$2-million.

Preliminary reports on election night had Coleman ahead by over 700 votes; but by November 18, 2008, the official results had Coleman leading by only 215 votes. As the two candidates were separated by less than 0.5 percent, the Secretary of State for Minnesota, Mark Ritchie, authorized the automatic recount stipulated in Minnesota election law. In the recount, ballots and certifying materials were examined by hand, and candidates could file challenges to the legality of ballots or materials for inclusion or exclusion with regard to the recount. On January 5, 2009, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified the recounted vote totals, with Franken ahead by 225 votes. On January 6, 2009, Coleman's campaign filed an election contest. The official certification of the winner of the election by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Governor Tim Pawlenty will be delayed until that case is resolved.

Franken favors transitioning to a universal health care system, with the provision that every child in America should receive health care coverage immediately. He has spoken in favor of protecting private pensions and Social Security. He has also advocated cutting subsidies for oil companies, increasing money available for college students, and cutting interest rates on student loans.

In 2003, Penguin Books published Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, which included a cover photo of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly and a chapter accusing O'Reilly of lying. In August of that year, Fox News sued, claiming infringement of its registered trademark phrase "Fair and Balanced." A federal judge found the lawsuit to be "wholly without merit," and Fox then filed to dismiss it. The episode with Fox focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken's book and, according to Franken, greatly increased its sales. Reflecting on the lawsuit during a September 2003 interview on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air, Franken said that Fox's case against him was "literally laughed out of court" and added that the judge's comment that the case was "wholly without merit" was a good characterization of Fox News itself. After the lawsuit was dismissed, Franken and O'Reilly continued to feud.

New York state officials asserted that Al Franken Inc. had failed to carry required workers' compensation insurance for employees who assisted him with his comedy and public speaking from 2002 to 2005. Franken paid the $25,000 fine to the state of New York upon being advised his corporation was out of compliance with the state's workers' compensation laws.

The California Franchise Tax Board reported that the same corporation owed more than $4,743.40 in taxes, fines, and associated penalties in the state of California for 2003 through 2007 because the corporation did not file tax returns in the state for those years. A Franken representative said that it followed the advice of an accountant who believed when the corporation stopped doing business in California that no further filing was required. However, Republicans say that Franken made 32 public appearances from 2003 to 2007, including two on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno taped in Burbank, California, for which Franken would have been paid the standard union fee as a member of the Screen Actors Guild. On April 29, 2008, Franken released a statement noting that he will pay about $70,000 in back income taxes in 17 states dating to 2003. Most of the income at issue was from Franken's speeches and other paid appearances. Franken said he got bad advice from his accountant, who had told him to pay income tax only in his state of residence. He added that he will seek retroactive credit from the states where he paid income tax that should have been paid in these 17 states.

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The Al Franken Show

The Al Franken Show was the flagship talk show of Air America Radio. Hosted by Al Franken, it featured commentary and interviews arguing for progressive positions on the issues of the day, and comically poking fun at the George W. Bush Administration. The show began as The O'Franken Factor on March 31, 2004. Between January 3, 2006, and February 14, 2007, the show was recorded and broadcast from the 28th floor of the historic Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to that date it was based in New York City. The final show was broadcast on February 14, 2007.

Franken is a comedian, satirist and politician who is well known for his books, including the 2003 Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and his earlier role as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live, where he usually teamed with fellow writer/performer Tom Davis.

From the show's inception in March 2004 until October 7, 2005, the show was co-hosted by experienced journalist Katherine Lanpher. Lanpher left the show to write Leap Days, a memoir about her experiences moving to New York City. Lanpher did not rejoin the show because she did not wish to move again when Franken relocated to Minnesota. In November, Franken told an audience in Berkeley, California that he would not seek a replacement for Lanpher. Her departure did not reduce the primarily issue and current events commentary content of the show.

When the show began, Franken signed a one-year contract. "I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected. I'd be happy if the election of a Democrat ended the show", he said in an interview with The New York Times. Bush won a second term on November 2, 2004, but Franken stated that the show would continue whether a Democrat or a Republican was in office.

Beginning on September 7, 2004, Sundance Channel broadcast a one-hour televised version of the show on weekdays. The show aired its last episode in November 2004. The channel inked a new contract with Franken and aired a second season of the show from June 6, 2005 until early November 2005.

On November 15, 2006, Air America affiliate KQKE (The Quake) in San Francisco stated that Al Franken would leave Air America on December 10, as indicated by an audio clip posted on Whatamockery.com. After December 10, though Franken was at the time still on Air America, KQKE began airing the Thom Hartmann Program in place of the Al Franken show.

On his January 29, 2007 show, Franken announced that Valentine's Day 2007 would be his last show on Air America Radio. Affiliates who carried the Franken show carried Thom Hartmann after that date, while XM Satellite Radio now carries Ed Schultz in that timeslot. At the end of his final show, Franken announced his intention to run for the United States Senate from Minnesota.

Until July 12, 2004 the name of the show was The O'Franken Factor. That name was a jibe at Bill O'Reilly and his The O'Reilly Factor. O'Reilly is widely thought to have instigated Fox News Channel's lawsuit against Franken for using their trademarked phrase "fair and balanced", which was thrown out of court in summary judgment, but ended up giving publicity to Franken and his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Franken said that he chose the title to "annoy and bait" O'Reilly into suing him again, thus generating publicity. That lawsuit never came, and on July 12, 2004, the program was renamed The Al Franken Show.

The show's regular guests included respected progressive issues and current events analysts: Jonathan Alter, David Brock, Joe Conason, James Fallows, Howard Fineman, Christy Harvey, Paul Krugman, Thomas Oliphant, Norman Ornstein, George Packer, Melanie Sloan, David Sirota, and Lawrence O'Donnell Jr.

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Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura (born July 15, 1951 as James George Janos), also known as "The Body", "The Star", and "The Governing Body", is an American politician, retired professional wrestler, Navy UDT veteran, actor, and former radio and television talk show host. He is also a former co-holder of the AWA World tag team title with Adrian Adonis and is a 2-time AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion.

In the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running as an Independent and member of the Reform Party, he was elected the 38th Governor of Minnesota and served from January 4, 1999 to January 6, 2003 without seeking a second term.

Ventura was born James George Janos in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Bernice Martha (née Lenz) and George William Janos. His father's parents were from what is today Slovakia, and his mother had German ancestry. Ventura has described himself as Slovak. Ventura (then known by his legal name of Janos) attended the now-closed Cooper Elementary School, and graduated from Minneapolis's Roosevelt High School in 1969.

From September 11 1969 to September 10, 1975 he served in the United States Navy as a member of a Navy UDT and was on active duty January 5, 1970 through December 10, 1973 during the Vietnam era. Ventura served with Underwater Demolition Team 12 during his time on active duty. According to the United States Naval Special Warfare Command policy, Ventura is entitled to use the title "SEAL", due to both his service in the UDT and SEAL teams, and his successful graduation from UDT-R (now BUD/S) training. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal but was not in combat to qualify for the Combat Action Ribbon. In his autobiography, Ventura described SEAL training as the toughest experience of his life. "It's worse than anything you can imagine," he wrote, "You have to want it bad, very bad." Ventura always mentioned how much he respected his SEAL instructor Master Chief Petty Officer Terry "Mother" Moy. He asked Moy to stand by his side when he was sworn in as governor. He ended his inaugural address with the SEAL war cry "HOOYAH!" The website NavySEALS.com contains his bio, and he is considered one of the SEALs' most famous Alumni.

He returned to Minnesota and attended North Hennepin Community College in the mid-1970s at the same time he began weightlifting and wrestling. It was around this time that he briefly served as a bodyguard for The Rolling Stones.

He created the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura to go with the persona of a bully-ish beach body builder, picking the name "Ventura" from a map as part of his "bleach blond from California" gimmick. As a wrestler, Ventura performed as a villain and often used the motto "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!" Much of his flamboyant persona was copied from "Superstar" Billy Graham, a charismatic and popular performer during the 1970s and '80s. Years later, as a broadcaster, Ventura made a running joke out of claiming that Graham stole all of his ring attire ideas from him.

In 1975, Ventura made his debut in the Central States territory, before moving to the Pacific Northwest, where he wrestled for promoter Don Owen. During his stay in Portland, Oregon, he had notable feuds with Dutch Savage and Jimmy Snuka and won the Pacific Northwest Wrestling title twice (once from each wrestler), and the tag team title six times (twice each with Bull Ramos and "Playboy" Buddy Rose, and once each with Steve Strong and Jerry Oates). He later moved to his hometown promotion, the American Wrestling Association in Minnesota, teaming with Adrian Adonis as the "East-West Connection" in 1979. The duo won the AWA World Tag Team Championship on July 20, 1980 on a forfeit when Verne Gagne, one-half of the tag team champions along with Mad Dog Vachon, failed to show up for a title defense in Denver, Colorado. The duo held the belts for nearly a year, losing to "The High Flyers" (Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell).

Shortly after losing the belts, the duo moved on to the World Wrestling Federation, where they were managed by "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Although the duo was unable to capture the WWF Tag Team Championship, both Adonis and Ventura became title contenders, each earning several title shots at champion Bob Backlund.

He also did commentary for World Championship Wrestling from 1992–94. His professional wrestling commentary style was an extension of his wrestling persona, as he was partial to the villains, which was something new and different at the time, but would still occasionally give credit where it was due, praising the athleticism of Dynamite Kid and Randy Savage (who was championed by Ventura for years, even when he was a face). The lone exception to this rule was the WrestleMania VI match between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. Since they were both crowd favorites, Ventura took a neutral position in his commentary; even praising Hogan's display of sportsmanship at the end of the match when he handed over the WWF Championship to the Warrior after he lost the title. The praise of Hogan's action was unusual for Ventura because he regularly rooted against Hogan during his matches. Hogan and Ventura were, at one point, close friends. Ventura, however, abruptly ended the friendship after he discovered, during his lawsuit against Vince McMahon, that Hogan was the one who had told Vince about Ventura's attempt to form a labor union in 1984.

Ventura actually appeared on WWE television during his term as Governor of Minnesota in 1999. He took part in the main event at Summerslam held in Minneapolis. Ventura was the special guest referee in the Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship between the title holder Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and Mankind. The move was used to give Triple H heat with Austin and Ventura, but it was Mankind who emerged victorious, before losing the title to Triple H the next night on Raw.

In 1987, while negotiating his contract as a WWF commentator, Ventura waived his rights to royalties on videotape sales when he was falsely told that only feature performers received such royalties. In 1991, having discovered that other non-feature performers received royalties, Ventura brought an action for fraud, misappropriation of publicity rights, and unjust enrichment in Minnesota state court against Titan Sports. The case was removed to federal court, and Ventura won an $801,333.06 jury verdict on the last claim. The judgment was affirmed on appeal, and the case, 65 F.3d 725 (8th Cir.1995), is an important result in the law of restitution.

Now because of Ventura's victorious lawsuit, whenever the WWF/WWE wants to use his commentary for a mass marketed VHS/DVD, Ventura gets a percentage of the sales.

Ventura acted in the 1987 movie Predator, whose cast included future California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and future Kentucky Gubernatorial candidate Sonny Landham. He had a starring role in the 1991 sci-fi movie Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe, and supporting roles in The Running Man, Demolition Man, Repossessed, Ricochet, The Master of Disguise (in which he steals the Liberty Bell) and Batman & Robin - the first and last of these also starring Schwarzenegger. Ventura also made an appearance in Major League 2, being "White Lightning" in the movie that the character Willie Mayes Hayes starred in. He also appeared as a self help guru (voice only) in The Ringer trying to turn Johnny Knoxville into a more confident worker. Ventura also had a cameo in The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" as a Man in Black alongside fellow 'MiB' Alex Trebek. In 2008, Ventura filmed the independent comedy Woodshop starring as a high school shop teacher, Mr. Madson. The film is scheduled for 2009 release.

Following his departure from the WWF, Ventura took advice from a former high school teacher and ran for mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota in 1990. Ventura successfully beat the city's 18-year incumbent mayor and served from 1991 to 1995.

Ventura ran for Governor of Minnesota in 1998 as the nominee for the Reform Party of Minnesota (he later joined the Independence Party of Minnesota when it broke from its association with the Reform Party of the United States of America). His campaign consisted of a combination of aggressive grassroots events and original television spots, designed by quirky adman Bill Hillsman, using the phrase "Don't vote for politics as usual." He spent considerably less than his opponents (about $300,000) and is widely regarded as one of the first candidates to effectively use the Internet as a medium of reaching out to voters in a political campaign.

Ventura attracted the ire of critics when he chose not to stay at the governor's mansion during his tenure, choosing instead to shut it down and stay at his home in Maple Grove after the legislature refused to increase spending for security. Critics argued that it meant the loss of jobs for several working-class people at the mansion and re-opening the mansion after Ventura's departure would cost more than if Ventura had kept the mansion open.

During his tenure as Governor, Ventura experienced several controversies that drew a considerable amount of fire from the press in the Twin Cities, which has long prided itself on independence from and criticism of the state government. Shortly after Ventura's election as governor of Minnesota, author and humorist Garrison Keillor wrote a satirical book about the event, spoofing Ventura as "Jimmy (Big Boy) Valente," a self-aggrandizing former "Navy W.A.L.R.U.S. (Water Air Land Rising Up Suddenly)" turned professional wrestler turned politician. Initially, Ventura responded angrily to the satire. He became conciliatory afterward, however, and said that Keillor "makes Minnesota proud". During his term, Ventura made an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, in which he responded controversially to the question posed by Letterman, "So which is the better city of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis or St. Paul?". Ventura responded, "Minneapolis. Those streets in St. Paul must have been designed by drunken Irishmen". He later apologized for the remark, adding that it was not intended to be taken seriously.

After a trade mission to China in 2002, he announced that he would not run for a second term as governor of Minnesota. Ventura had a difficult relationship with the local media. He referred to them as "media jackals," a term that even appeared on the required press passes to enter the governor's press area. He accused the media of hounding him and his family for personal behaviors and beliefs while neglecting coverage of important policy issues. Later, Ventura told a reporter for The Boston Globe that he would have run for a second term if he had been single, referencing the media's effect on his family life.

Governor Ventura sparked media criticism when, nearing the end of his term, he suggested that he might resign from office early to allow his lieutenant governor, Mae Schunk, an opportunity to serve as governor. He further stated that he wanted her to be the state's first female governor and have her portrait painted and hung in the Capitol along with the other governors. Ventura quickly retreated from the comments, saying he was just floating an idea.

Ventura's main campaign promise was a tax refund to Minnesota residents. The state was running a budget surplus at the time, and Ventura believed that the money should be given back to the public. In political debates, he often admitted that he had not formed an opinion on certain policy questions. Sharing some views with libertarians, Ventura frequently described himself as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal." He selected teacher Mae Schunk as his running mate. His participation in the 1998 Minnesota Governor debates boosted his popularity as a candidate.

Later as governor, he came to support a unicameral (one-house) legislature, light rail public transport, property tax reform, gay rights, and abortion rights. While funding public school education generously, he opposed the teachers' union, and did not have a high regard for the public funding of higher-education institutions. Additionally, Ventura supported the use of medicinal marijuana, advocated a higher role for third parties in national politics, and favored the concept of instant-runoff voting.

Lacking a party base in the Minnesota House and Senate, Governor Ventura's vetoes were often overridden. Ventura was elected on a Reform party ticket, but he never received support from Ross Perot's Texas faction. When the Reform party was taken over by Pat Buchanan supporters before the presidential elections of 2000, Ventura left the party in February 2000, referring to it as 'hopelessly dysfunctional'. However, he maintained close ties to the Independence Party of Minnesota, which also broke from the Reform party around the same time.

During the first part of his administration, Ventura strongly advocated for land-use reform and substantial mass transit improvements, such as light rail. In his March 1999 State address, he proclaimed, "I want to ride a train by 2002," referring to a light rail line running between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America. He made the light rail project a priority, obtaining additional funding from the Minnesota state legislature to keep the project moving. The Hiawatha Line was completed in 2004.

During another trade mission to Cuba in the summer of 2002, he denounced the economic sanctions of the US against that country.

Ventura greatly disapproved of some of the actions that took place at the 2002 memorial for Senator Paul Wellstone, his family, and others who died in a plane crash on October 25, 2002. Ventura said, "I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that turned into a political rally". He left halfway through the controversial speech made by Wellstone's best friend, Rick Kahn. Because of the rally and other issues revolving around the exclusion of third-party candidates from the resulting election, he appointed Dean Barkley to represent Minnesota in the Senate until Wellstone's term expired in January 2003.

Governor Ventura's office accidentally proclaimed October 13–19, 2002 as "Christian Heritage Week" in Minnesota.

Ventura has publicly stated that prostitution should be legal, since it will exist in any case, and legal controls protecting the health of clients and workers are needed. He said "I voted in hopes to make prostitution legal once, and I'd do it again in a second".

Between 1995 and his run for governor in 1998, Ventura had radio call-in shows on (KFAN 1130) and (KSTP 1500) in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Ventura has been criticized for privately profiting from his heightened popularity. He was hired as a television analyst for the failed XFL football enterprise, served as a referee at a World Wrestling Federation match, and published several books during his tenure as governor. On his weekly radio show, he often criticized the media for focusing on these deals rather than on his policy proposals.

Ventura was succeeded in his office by Republican Tim Pawlenty. He began a cable television show in October 2003, on MSNBC called Jesse Ventura's America. The show was broadcast once a week, on Saturdays, unlike many MSNBC shows which are on five nights a week (this show was originally planned for five nights a week as well, but MSNBC executives changed their minds). At the time of its airing, Jesse Ventura's America was the only national television show filmed in Minnesota. Among his guests were Charles Barkley, Gray Davis, Arianna Huffington, Rob Kampia, and Kathy McKee.

In 2004, fellow Navy veteran and Harvard graduate student Christopher Mora promoted the idea that the academic establishment had failed to reach out to citizens experienced in public service, but who did not fit the traditional idea of a politician. He successfully lobbied for the selection of Ventura, who started teaching a study group at Harvard University for the Spring 2004 semester as a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics (IOP). His 90-minute study group focused on third party politics, campaign finance, the war on drugs, and other relevant political issues. Ventura scheduled multiple famous friends to appear for his seminars including Dean Barkley and Richard Marcinko. These presentations were among the highest attended in the history of the IOP.

On March 14, 2004, Ventura appeared as an honored guest at World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) WrestleMania XX as part of the "WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2004." Later in the evening he approached the ring to interview Donald Trump, who had a front row seat at the event. Trump affirmed that Ventura would receive his moral and financial support were he to ever reenter the world of politics. Alluding to the 2008 election, Ventura boldly announced that "In 2008, maybe we oughta put a wrestler in the White House".

On October 22, 2004, with Ventura by his side, former Maine Governor Angus King endorsed John Kerry for President at the Minnesota state capitol building. Ventura did not speak at the press conference. When prodded for a statement, Governor King responded, "He plans to vote for John Kerry, but he doesn't want to make a statement and subject himself to the tender mercies of the Minnesota press".

In November 2004, an advertisement began airing in California featuring Ventura. In it, Ventura voices his opposition to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's policies regarding Native American casinos. Like Hogan, Schwarzenegger at one point was also a close friend of Ventura as well, but since Schwarzenegger's victory in California, Ventura has not reportedly given him any praise; Schwarzenegger didn't even mention Ventura's name in an interview with Fox News in 2005, where reporter Chris Wallace asked him if he was "the next Jesse Ventura". Ventura is serving as an advisory board member for a new group called Operation Truth, a non-profit organization set up "to give voice to troops who served in Iraq." “The current use of the National Guard is wrong....These are men who did not sign up to go occupy foreign nations”.

In August 2005, Ventura became the spokesperson for BetUS, an online Sportsbook. In 2005, Ventura repeatedly discussed leaving the United States. In September 2005, Ventura announced on The Mike Malloy Show that he was leaving the U.S. and planned to "have an adventure". In late October 2005, he went on the The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and reiterated that he was leaving the U.S. due to, among other things, censorship. He has since moved to Baja California, Mexico.

In September 2006, Ventura endorsed and campaigned with independent Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, and Independence Party of Minnesota 's gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson and Team Minnesota. He revealed he now spends much of his time surfing near his home in Mexico.

However, in an interview on CNN's The Situation Room on April 7, Ventura hinted that he was considering entering the race for the United States Senate seat now held by Norm Coleman, his Republican opponent in the 1998 Gubernatorial race. A poll commissioned by Twin Cities station Fox 9 put him at 24 percent, behind Al Franken at 32 percent and Norm Coleman at 39 percent in a hypothetical three-way race. However, Ventura announced on Larry King Live on July 14, 2008 that he would not run.

TV Week is reporting that Ventura is in negotiations with Twentieth Television to host a half-hour court show that would debut in the fall of 2009.

In April and May 2008, Jesse Ventura, in several radio interviews for his new book, Don't Start the Revolution Without Me, expressed concerns about what he described as some of the unanswered questions of the September 11, 2001 attacks. His remarks about the possibility that the World Trade Center was demolished with explosives were also repeated in newspaper and television stories following some of the interviews.

He also expressed bewilderment at how the Twin Towers appeared pulverized to dust and how they fell at virtually free-fall speed, when no other massive steel-framed buildings had ever collapsed in this manner due to fire before.

In 1975, Ventura married his wife Terry. The couple have two grown children: a son, Tyrel (b. 1980), and a daughter, Jade (b. 1984).

During his wrestling days, Ventura was a user of anabolic steroids, used to increase his recovery. He admitted to this after retiring from competition, and went on to make public service announcements and appear in printed ads and on posters warning young people about the potential dangers and potential health risks of abusing steroids.

In 2002, Ventura suffered a severe blood clot in his lungs that left him hospitalized.

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NBC

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center. It is sometimes referred to as the Peacock Network due to its stylized peacock logo.

Formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), NBC was the first major broadcast network in the United States. In 1986, control of NBC passed to General Electric (GE), with GE's $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. After the acquisition, the chief executive of NBC was Bob Wright, until he retired, giving his job to Jeff Zucker. The network is currently part of the media company NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric (80%) and Vivendi (20%).

NBC is available in an estimated 112 million households, or 98.6% of the country. NBC has 10 owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates in the United States and its territories.

During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, the radio-making Radio Corporation of America (RCA) had acquired New York radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T). An RCA shareholder, Westinghouse, had a competing facility in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ (no relation to the current WJZ-TV), which also served as the flagship for a loosely-structured network. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, and moved to New York.

WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF had a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, and was an immediate success. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with the Outlet Company's WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island; and with AT&T's station in Washington, D.C., WCAP.

New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, and after getting a license for station WRC in Washington, D.C., in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference.

In 1925, AT&T decided WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with AT&T's primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission.

RCA spent $1 million to buy WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, and announced in late 1926 the creation of a new division known as The National Broadcasting Company. The new division was divided in ownership between RCA (fifty percent), General Electric (thirty percent), and Westinghouse (twenty percent). NBC launched officially on November 15, 1926.

WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927 NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the Red Network offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming; the Blue Network carried sustaining or non-sponsored broadcasts, especially news and cultural programs. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the push pins NBC engineers used to designate affiliates of WEAF (red) and WJZ (blue), or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils. A similar two-part/two-color strategy appeared in the recording industry, dividing the market between classical and popular offerings.

On April 5, 1927, NBC reached the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network, also known as The Pacific Coast Network. This was followed by the debut on October 18, 1931, of the NBC Gold Network, also known as The Pacific Gold Network. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network. Initially the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco, California. In 1936 the Orange Network name was dropped and affiliate stations became part of the Red Network. At the same time the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations in the 1930s called the NBC White Network.

RCA moved its corporate headquarters into the new Rockefeller Center in 1933, signing the leases in 1931. RCA was the lead tenant at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the RCA Building (now the GE Building). The building housed NBC studios, as well as theaters for RCA-owned RKO Pictures. Rockefeller Center's founder and financier John D. Rockefeller, Jr., arranged the deal with the chairman of GE, Owen D. Young, and the president of RCA, David Sarnoff.

The famous three-note NBC chimes came about after several years of development. The three note sequence G-E-C were heard first over Atlanta's WSB. The chimes outline what is known to musicians as a second inversion C Major triad. Someone at NBC in New York heard the WSB version of the notes during the networked broadcast of a Georgia Tech football game and asked permission to use it on the national network. NBC started to use the three notes in 1931, and it was the first audio trademark to be accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A variant sequence was also used that went G-E-C-G, known as "the fourth chime" and used during wartime (especially in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor), on D-Day, and disasters. The NBC chimes were mechanized in 1932 by Richard H. Ranger of the Rangertone company; their purpose was to send a low level signal of constant amplitude that would be heard by the various switching stations manned by NBC and AT&T engineers, and thus used as a system cue for switching different stations between the Red and Blue network feeds. Contrary to popular legend, the three musical notes, G-E-C, did not originally stand for NBC's current parent corporation, the General Electric Company; although GE's radio station in Schenectady, New York, WGY, was an early NBC affiliate, and GE was an early shareholder in NBC's founding parent RCA. General Electric did not own NBC outright until 1986. G-E-C is still used on NBC-TV. A variant with two preceding notes is used on the MSNBC cable television network. NBC's radio branch no longer exists.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had, since its creation in 1934, studied the monopolistic effects of network broadcasting. The FCC found that NBC's two networks and its owned-and-operated stations dominated audiences, affiliates and advertising in American radio. In 1939 the FCC ordered RCA to divest itself of one of the two networks. RCA fought the divestiture order, but in 1940 divided NBC into two companies in case an appeal was lost. The Blue Network became NBC Blue Network, Inc. (now ABC), and NBC Red became NBC Red Network, Inc. In January 1942, the two networks formally divorced operations, and the Blue Network was referred to on the air as either Blue or Blue Network, with official corporate name Blue Network Company, Inc. NBC Red, on the air, became known simply as NBC.

After losing its final appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1943, RCA sold Blue Network Company, Inc., for $8 million to Life Savers magnate Edward J. Noble, completing the sale in October 1943. Noble got the network name, leases on land-lines and the New York studios; two-and-a half stations (WJZ in Newark/New York; KGO in San Francisco, and WENR in Chicago, which shared a frequency with Prairie Farmer station WLS); and about 60 affiliates. Noble wanted a better name for the network and in 1944 acquired the rights to the name American Broadcasting Company from George Storer. The Blue Network became ABC officially on June 15, 1945, after the sale was completed.

In the golden days of network broadcasting, 1930 to 1950, NBC was at the pinnacle of American radio. NBC broadcast radio's earliest mass hit, Amos 'n' Andy, beginning in 1926–27 in its original fifteen-minute serial format. The show set a standard for nearly all serialized programming in the original radio era, both comedies and soap operas. The appeal of the two struggling title characters landed a broad audience, especially during the Great Depression.

NBC became home to many of the most popular performers and programs on the air. Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, and Burns and Allen called NBC home, as did Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra, which the network helped him create. Other programs were Vic and Sade, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve (arguably broadcasting's first spin-off program, from Fibber McGee), One Man's Family, Ma Perkins, and Death Valley Days. NBC stations were often the most powerful, and some occupied unique clear-channel national frequencies, reaching many hundreds or thousands of miles at night.

In the late 1940s, rival Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) gained ground by allowing radio stars to use their own production companies, which was a tax break. In early radio years, stars and programs commonly hopped between networks when their short-term contracts expired. In 1948–49, beginning with the nation's top radio star, Jack Benny, many NBC performers jumped to CBS.

In addition, NBC stars began moving toward television, including comedian Milton Berle, whose Texaco Star Theater on NBC became television's first major hit. Conductor Arturo Toscanini made ten television appearances on NBC between 1948 and 1952.

Aiming to keep classic radio alive as television matured, and to challenge CBS's Sunday night radio lineup, much of which had jumped from NBC with Jack Benny, NBC launched The Big Show in November 1950. This 90-minute variety show updated radio's earliest musical variety style with sophisticated comedy and dramatic presentations. Featuring stage legend Tallulah Bankhead as hostess, it lured prestigious entertainers, including Fred Allen, Groucho Marx, Lauritz Melchior, Ethel Barrymore, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Merman, Bob Hope, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Ella Fitzgerald. But The Big Show's initial success didn't last despite critical praise. The show endured two years, with NBC losing perhaps a million dollars on the project.

NBC's last major radio programming push, beginning June 12, 1955, was Monitor, a continuous all-weekend mixture of music, news, interviews and features, with a variety of hosts including well-known television personalities Dave Garroway, Hugh Downs, Ed McMahon, Joe Garagiola and Gene Rayburn. The potpourri show tried to keep vintage radio alive by featuring segments from Jim and Marian Jordan (in character as Fibber McGee and Molly); Peg Lynch's dialog comedy Ethel and Albert (with Alan Bunce); and iconoclastic satirist Henry Morgan. Monitor was a success for a number of years, but after the mid-1960s, local stations, especially in larger markets, were reluctant to break from their established formats to run non-conforming network programming. After Monitor went off the air January 26, 1975, little remained of NBC network radio beyond hourly newscasts and news features.

Beginning on June 18, 1975, NBC launched the NBC News and Information Service (NIS), which provided up to 55 minutes of news per hour around the clock to local stations that wanted to adopt an all-news format. NIS attracted several dozen subscribing stations, largely in smaller markets, but not enough for NBC to expect profitability, and NBC discontinued it May 29, 1977. In 1979, NBC started The Source, a modestly successful secondary network providing news and short features to FM rock stations.

The NBC Radio Network also pioneered personal advice call-in national talk radio with a satellite-distributed talk show in the evening entitled TalkNet, featuring Bruce Williams (personal financial advice) and Sally Jesse Raphael (personal / romantic advice). While never much of a ratings success, TalkNet nonetheless helped further the national talk radio format. For affiliates, many of them struggling AM stations, TalkNet helped fill the evenings with free programming, allowing the stations to sell local advertising in a dynamic format without the cost associated with producing local programming. Some in the industry feared this trend would lead to ever-more control of radio content by networks and syndicators.

GE acquired NBC in 1986, and it decided that radio did not fit its strategy; additionally, the radio division had not been profitable for many years. In the summer of 1987, GE sold NBC Radio's network operations to Westwood One, and sold off the NBC-owned stations to different buyers. In 1989 the NBC Radio Network as an independent programming service ceased to exist, becoming a brand name for content produced by Westwood One, and ultimately by CBS Radio. The Mutual Broadcasting System, which Westwood One had acquired two years earlier, met the same fate, and essentially merged with NBC Radio.

It should be noted that GE's divestiture of NBC's entire radio division was the first cannon shot of what would play out in the national broadcast media, as each of the Big 3 broadcast networks were soon acquired by other corporate entities. The NBC case was particularly noteworthy in that it was the first to be bought -- and was bought by a corporate behemoth outside the broadcast industry. Prior to the acquisition by GE, NBC operated its radio division partly out of tradition, and partly to meet its then-FCC-mandated requirement to distribute programming for the public good (the now-defunct "Fairness Doctrine"). Syndicators such as Westwood One were not subject to such rules as they owned no stations. Thus did GE's divestiture of NBC Radio -- "America's First Network" -- in many ways mark the "beginning of the end" of the old broadcasting era and the ushering in of the new, largely unregulated industry that we see today.

By the late 1990s, Westwood One was producing NBC Radio-branded newscasts, on weekday mornings only. In 1999, these were discontinued, and the few remaining NBC Radio Network affiliates began to receive CNN Radio-branded newscasts around the clock. But in 2003, Westwood One began distributing a new service called NBC News Radio, consisting of one-minute news updates read by television anchors and reporters from NBC News and MSNBC. The content, however, is written by employees of Westwood One - not NBC News.

For many years NBC was closely identified with David Sarnoff, who used it as a vehicle to sell consumer electronics. It was Sarnoff who ruthlessly stole innovative ideas from competitors, using RCA's muscle to prevail in the courts. RCA and Sarnoff had dictated the broadcasting standards put in place by the FCC in 1938, and stole the spotlight by introducing all-electronic television to the public at the 1939–40 New York World's Fair, simultaneously initiating a regular schedule of programs on the NBC-RCA television station in New York City. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appeared at the fair, before the NBC cameras, becoming the first U.S. president to appear on television on April 30, 1939. The David Sarnoff Library has available an actual, off-the-monitor photograph of the FDR telecast. The broadcast was transmitted by NBC's New York television station W2XBS Channel 1 (now WNBC-TV channel 4) and was seen by about 1,000 viewers within the station's roughly 40-mile (64 km) coverage area from their Empire State Building transmitter location.

The next day, May 1, four models of RCA television sets went on sale to the general public in various New York City department stores, promoted in a series of splashy newspaper ads. It is to be noted that DuMont (and others) actually offered the first home sets in 1938 in anticipation of NBC's announced April 1939 start-up. Later in 1939, NBC took its cameras to professional football and baseball games in the New York City area, establishing many "firsts" in the history of television.

Actual NBC "network" broadcasts (more than one station) began about this time with occasional special events — such as the British King and Queen's visit to the New York World's Fair — being seen in Philadelphia (over the station which would become WPTZ, now KYW) and in Schenectady (over the station which would become WRGB), two pioneer stations in their own right. The most ambitious NBC television "network" program of this pre-war era was the telecasting of the Republican National Convention in 1940 from Philadelphia, which was fed live to New York and Schenectady. However, despite major promotion by RCA, television set sales in New York in the 1939-1940 period were disappointing, primarily due to the high cost of the sets, and the lack of compelling regular programming. Most sets were sold to bars, hotels and other public places, where the general public viewed special sporting and news events.

Limited programming continued until the U.S. entered World War II. Telecasts were curtailed in the early years of the war, then expanded as NBC began to prepare for full service upon the war's end. On V-E Day, May 8, 1945, WNBT broadcast hours of news coverage, and remotes from around New York City. This event was pre-promoted by NBC with a direct-mail card sent to television set owners in the New York area. At one point, a WNBT camera placed atop the marquee of the Hotel Astor panned the crowd below celebrating the end of the war in Europe. The vivid coverage was a prelude to television's rapid growth after the war ended.

The NBC television network grew from its initial post-war lineup of four stations. The 1947 World Series featured two New York teams (Yankees and Dodgers), and local TV sales boomed, since the games were telecast in New York. More stations along the East Coast and in the Midwest were connected by coaxial cable through the late 1940s, and in September 1951 the first transcontinental telecasts took place.

The early 1950s brought success for NBC in the new medium. Television's first big star, Milton Berle, drew large audiences to NBC with his antics on the The Texaco Star Theater. Legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, who had been conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra on radio since 1937, conducted ten concerts on NBC television between 1948 and 1952. All of these concerts were simulcast on radio, a pioneering event at that time. The simulcasts included a two-part complete performance in concert of Verdi's opera Aida, starring Richard Tucker and Herva Nelli, and the first complete televised performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The network launched Today and The Tonight Show, which would bookend the broadcast day for over fifty years, and which still lead their competitors.

While rivals CBS and DuMont also offered color broadcasting plans, RCA convinced a waffling FCC to approve its color system in December 1953. NBC was ready with color programming within days of the FCC's decision. NBC began with some shows in 1954, and that summer broadcast its first program to air all episodes in color, The Marriage. In 1955, on the television anthology Producers' Showcase, NBC broadcast a live production in color of Peter Pan, a Broadway musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie's beloved play, with its entire original cast, the first such telecast of its kind. Mary Martin starred as Peter and Cyril Ritchard played the dual role of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. The broadcast drew the highest ratings for a television program up to then. It was so successful that NBC restaged it live a mere ten months later, and in 1960, long after after Producers' Showcase had ended its run, Peter Pan, with most of the 1955 cast, was restaged again, this time as a TV special on its own, and videotaped so that it would no longer have to be done live on television. In 1956 during a National Association meeting in Chicago, NBC announced that its Chicago TV station WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV) was the first color TV station in the nation (at least six hours of color broadcasts a day). The television edition of the Bell Telephone Hour premiered in color on NBC in 1959, and in September 1961, the Walt Disney anthology television series moved from ABC to NBC, where the show continued its very long run, this time in color. As many of the Disney programs shown in black-and-white on ABC had actually been filmed in color, they could easily be repeated on the NBC edition of the program. The 1962 Rose Bowl was the first color television broadcast of a college football game. By 1963, much of NBC's prime time schedule was in color, although some popular programs like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which premiered in late 1964, had their entire first season in black-and-white. Without television sets to sell, rival networks followed more slowly, finally committing to color in the 1965-66 season. Days of our Lives was the first soap opera to premiere in color.

In 1967, NBC acquired MGM's classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz after CBS, which had televised the film beginning in 1956, had been unwilling to meet MGM's increased price for more television showings. Oz had been, up to then, one of the few programs that CBS had telecast in color, but by 1967, color was the norm on TV, and the film became another in the list of color specials telecast by NBC. The network showed the film annually for eight years, beginning in 1968, after which CBS, realizing that they may have committed a colossal blunder by letting it go, now agreed to pay MGM more money so that the rights to show the film could revert back to them.

The 1970s started strongly for the network thanks to hits like Adam-12, Laugh-In, Emergency!, The Dean Martin Show, and The Flip Wilson Show, but this did not last. In spite of the success of such new shows as The NBC Mystery Movie, Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, Little House on the Prairie, The Rockford Files, and Quincy, M.E., as well as continued success from veterans like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Wonderful World of Disney, the network entered a slump in the middle of the decade. Disney, in particular, saw its ratings nosedive once CBS put 60 Minutes up against it in the 1975-1976 season. None of the new shows NBC introduced in the fall of 1975 earned a second season, all failing in the face of established competition.

In 1974 under new president Herb Schlosser, the network tried to go after younger viewers with a series of costly movies, miniseries and specials. This failed to attract the desirable 18-34 demographic, and alienated older viewers. NBC did launch the successful and influential Saturday Night Live, in a time slot previously held by reruns of The Tonight Show. In 1978 Schlosser was promoted to executive vice presidency at RCA, and a desperate NBC lured Fred Silverman away from number-one ABC to turn the network's fortunes around. With the notable exceptions of Diff'rent Strokes, Real People, The Facts of Life, and the mini-series Shogun, he couldn't find a hit. Failures accumulated rapidly under his watch (such as Hello, Larry, Supertrain, Pink Lady and Jeff, and The Waverly Wonders). Ironically many of them were beaten in the ratings by shows Silverman had greenlighted at CBS and ABC. A popular joke arose in the late 1970s on NBC is the "Nothing But Crap", "NoBody Cares" and "Nobody's Watching Network" to mock the network's slogan: "America's Watching Network".

Also during this time, NBC suffered the defections of several longtime affiliates in markets such as: Atlanta (WSB), Baltimore (WBAL), Charlotte (WSOC), Dayton (WDTN), Indianapolis (WRTV), Jacksonville (WTLV), Minneapolis-St. Paul (KSTP-TV), and San Diego (KGTV). Most were wooed away by ABC, which was the number-one network during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In markets such as San Diego, Charlotte, and Jacksonville, NBC was forced to replace the lost stations with new affiliates broadcasting on the UHF band. Other smaller television markets like Yuma, Arizona waited many years to get another local NBC affiliate (see TV stations KIVA and KYMA).

When U.S. President Jimmy Carter pulled the American team out of the 1980 Summer Olympics, NBC canceled a planned 150 hours of coverage (which had cost $87,000,000), and the network's future was in doubt. It had been counting on $170,000,000 in advertising revenues and on the broadcasts to help promote fall shows.

The press was merciless towards Silverman, but two of the most savage attacks on his leadership came from within. The company that composed NBC's on-air promo music created a spoof of the Proud as a Peacock ad campaign. Comedian Al Franken satirized Silverman in a Saturday Night Live sketch titled "Limo for a Lame-O." Silverman admitted he "never liked Al Franken to begin with", and the sketch may have hurt Franken's chance of succeeding Lorne Michaels as executive producer of SNL.

In the summer of 1981, Fred Silverman resigned. Grant Tinker became president of the network and Brandon Tartikoff became chief of programming. Tartikoff inherited a schedule full of aging dramas and very few sitcoms, but showed patience with promising programs. One such show was the critically acclaimed Hill Street Blues, which rated poorly in its first season. Instead of canceling it, he moved the Emmy-winning police drama to Thursday night where its ratings improved dramatically. He used the same tactic with St. Elsewhere. Shows like these were able to get the same ad revenue as their higher-rated, mass-audience competition because of their desirable demographics, upscale, 18-34 year-old viewers. While the network claimed moderate successes with Gimme a Break!, Silver Spoons, Knight Rider and Remington Steele, its biggest hit in this period was The A-Team, which, at tenth place, was the network's only top-20 rated show of the 1982–1983 season, and it reached third place the next year. These shows helped NBC through the disastrous 1983-84 season, in which none of its new shows gained a second year. It was the only time that a network's entire line of new series had failed to be renewed since the network's 1975 lineup.

In 1982 NBC canceled Tom Snyder's The Tomorrow Show and gave the time slot to 34-year-old comedian David Letterman. Though Letterman had had an unsuccessful daytime series in 1980, Late Night with David Letterman proved much more successful.

In 1984 the huge success of The Cosby Show led to a renewed interest in sitcoms, while Family Ties and Cheers, both of which premiered in 1982 to mediocre ratings, saw their viewership increase from having Cosby as a lead-in. The network moved from third place to second place that year. It reached first place in the Nielsen rankings in the 1985-86 season, with hits The Golden Girls, Miami Vice, 227, Night Court, Highway to Heaven, and Hunter. The network's upswing continued through the decade with ALF, Amen, Matlock, L.A. Law, The Hogan Family, A Different World, Empty Nest, and In the Heat of the Night. In the 1988-89 season, NBC won every week in the ratings for over a full year, an achievement not since duplicated.

In 1991, Tartikoff left NBC to take a position at Paramount Pictures. In one decade he had taken control of a network with no shows in the Nielsen Top 10 and left it with five. Warren Littlefield took his place. His start was shaky due to the end of most of the Tartikoff-era hits. Some blamed him for losing David Letterman to CBS after giving The Tonight Show to Jay Leno, following Johnny Carson's 1992 retirement. Things turned around with hit series Friends, Mad About You, Frasier, ER, and Will & Grace. One of Tartikoff's late acquisitions, Seinfeld, initially struggled, but became one of NBC's top-rated shows after it was moved into the timeslot following Cheers. The Must-See TV tag line was applied to Thursday night's strong lineup. After popular show Seinfeld ended its run in 1998, Friends became the most popular sitcom on NBC. It dominated the ratings, never leaving the top 5 watched shows of the year in its second through tenth season and landing on the number 1 spot in season eight (2001-2002 season). Frasier was also popular and, despite not being as highly rated as Friends, still landed in the top 40. Friends finished its run in 2004 along with Frasier and NBC's Must See TV declined. Friends spin-off Joey (despite a relatively good start) started to fail during its second season.

At the start of the 2000s, however, NBC's fortunes took a rapid turn for the worse. In 2001, CBS chose its hit reality series Survivor to anchor its Thursday night line-up. Its success was taken as a suggestion that NBC's nearly two decades of Thursday night dominance could be broken. With the loss of Friends and Frasier in 2004, NBC was left with several moderately rated shows and few true hits. Competing with CBS's popular CSI franchise, and various police procedural dramas like The Mentalist, FOX's American Idol and Family Guy, and ABC hits Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, NBC dropped to fourth in the ratings race. CBS led for most of the decade, followed by a resurgent ABC, and Fox (which would eventually become the most watched network for the 2007-08 season). Adding to its woes, all of the networks face shrinking audiences due to increased competition from cable, home video, and the internet.

With the 2004-05 season, NBC became the first major network to produce its programming in widescreen, hoping to attract new viewers. NBC saw only a slight boost.

In December 2005, NBC began its first week-long primetime game show event, Deal or No Deal, garnering high ratings, and returning multi-weekly in March 2006. On sustained success, Deal or No Deal returned in the fall of 2006. Otherwise, the 2005-06 season was one of the worst for NBC in three decades, with only one fall series, the sitcom My Name Is Earl, surviving for a second season. The 2006-07 season was a mixed bag, with Heroes becoming a surprise hit on Monday nights, while the highly touted Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, from the creator of NBC's hit drama The West Wing, lost a third of its premiere-night viewers by week six and was eventually canceled. Sunday Night NFL football returned to NBC after eight years, Deal or No Deal stayed strong, and its comedies The Office and 30 Rock won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for three consecutive years. However, NBC stayed in fourth place, and has remained there until early 2009, where it dropped to fifth place behind the The CW.

In March 2007, NBC announced that it will offer full-length prime-time television shows like The Office and Heroes on-demand to play on mobile phones. This will be a first for the United States, as the market shifts away from traditional television.

After years of declining ratings (consistently rating below Fox,) NBC's Jeff Zucker has said that NBC no longer believes that they can be #1 in Prime Time.

And, on the Wednesdays 3/18/09 and 3/25/09, NBC was beaten by The CW's America's Next Top Model in total viewers, 18-34 viewers and 18-49 viewers. Because of this NBC is now 5th place in primetime ratings.

NBC presently operates on an 87-hour regular network programming schedule. It provides 22 hours of prime time programming to affiliated stations: 8-11pm(ET/PT)/7:00-10:00 pm(CT,MT,AT)/6-9 pm (HT) Monday through Saturday and 7-11 pm on Sundays. Programming is also provided 7-11 am weekdays in the form of Today, which also has a two-hour Saturday and one-hour Sunday edition; the one-hour weekday drama Days of our Lives; nightly editions of NBC Nightly News; the Sunday political talk show Meet the Press; weekday early-morning news program Early Today; late night talk shows The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Last Call with Carson Daly; sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live; Late-late-night poker series Poker After Dark; weeknight rebroadcasts of The Tonight Show under the banner NBC All Night; and a three-hour Saturday morning animation block under the name qubo. In addition, sports programming is also provided weekend afternoons any time from 12-6 pm. ET, or tape-delayed PT.

Returning comedies are in red; new comedies are in pink; returning dramas are in green; new dramas are in blue; returning reality shows are in yellow; new reality shows are in gold; returning game shows are in orange; new game shows are in beige; news programming is in brown; sports programming is in purple.

All times are Eastern and Pacific (subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time), with the exception of Sunday (see below).

NBC is currently the home of only one daytime soap opera, Days of our Lives, which has been broadcast on the network since 1965.

Long-running NBC Daytime dramas of the past include The Doctors (1963–1982), Another World (1964-1999), Santa Barbara (1984–1993), and Passions (1999-2007). NBC also aired the final four and a half years of Search for Tomorrow (1982–1986) after that series was dropped by CBS, although many NBC affiliates did not air the show in its final years. NBC has also aired numerous short-lived soaps, including Generations (1989–1991), Sunset Beach (1997–1999), and the two Another World spin-offs, Somerset (1970–1976) and Texas (1980–1982).

Notable daytime game shows that once aired on NBC include The Price Is Right (1956-63), Concentration (1958-1973), The Match Game (1962-1969), Let's Make a Deal (1963-1968), Jeopardy! (1964-1975 and 1978-1979), The Hollywood Squares (1966-1980), Wheel of Fortune (1975-1989 and 1991), Password Plus/Super Password (1979-1982 and 1984-1989), Sale of the Century (1969-1973 and 1983-1989), Scrabble (1984-1990 and 1993) and Classic Concentration (1987-1991). The final game show to air on NBC's daytime schedule was the short-lived Caesars Challenge, which ended in January 1994.

Children's programming has played a part in NBC's programming since its initial roots in television. In 1947, NBC's first major children's series was Howdy Doody, one of the era's first breakthrough television shows. The series, which ran for 13 years, featured a frecklefaced marionette and a myriad of other characters and hosted by "Buffalo" Bob Smith. Howdy Doody spent most of its run on weekday afternoons.

In 1956, NBC abandoned the children's programming lineup on weekday afternoons, relegating the lineup to Saturdays only with Howdy Doody as their marquee franchise for the series' remaining four years. From the mid-1960s until 1992, the bulk of NBC's children's programming were derived from theatrical shorts like The Pink Panther Show and Looney Tunes, reruns of popular television series like The Flintstones and The Jetsons, foreign acquisitions like Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, original animated series (most notably The Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks in the 1980s), cartoon adaptations of Gary Coleman, Mr. T, Punky Brewster, ALF and Star Trek, and original live-action series including The Banana Splits, The Bugaloos, and H.R. Pufnstuf.

From 1984 to 1989, One to Grow On PSAs were shown after the end credits of every show or every other children's show.

In 1989, NBC premiered Saved by the Bell, which originated at The Disney Channel as Good Morning, Miss Bliss. Saved by the Bell, despite bad reviews from tv critics, would become one of the most popular teen series in television history as well as the number one series on Saturday mornings, dethroning The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show in its first season.

NBC abandoned the animated series in August 1992 in favor of a Saturday edition of Today and more live-action series under the name TNBC (Teen NBC). Most of the series on the TNBC lineup were series produced by Peter Engel such as City Guys, Hang Time, California Dreams, One World and the Saved by the Bell spinoff, Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Though there were exceptions, the short-lived Just Deal, one of only two series without a studio audience and/or laugh track and the only "filmed" series was co-created and executive produced by Thomas W. Lynch. NBA Inside Stuff was also a part of the TNBC lineup during the duration of the NBA season. In 2000, after eleven years NBC discontinued the TNBC Saturday morning block.

In 2002, NBC began a deal with Discovery Communications' Discovery Kids channel to air their original FCC-mandated educational programming under the banner Discovery Kids on NBC. The schedule originally consisted of only live-action series, including a kid-themed version of Trading Spaces and J. D. Roth's Emmy-nominated reality game show Endurace, but has expanded to include some animated series such as Kenny the Shark, Tutenstein, and Time Warp Trio. In 2006, Discovery Kids on NBC was discontinued.

In May 2006, in order to replace the Discovery Kids Saturday Morning block, NBC announced plans to launch a new children's block on Saturday mornings starting in September 2006 as part of the qubo endeavor teaming parent company NBC Universal with ION Media Networks, Scholastic Press, Corus Entertainment and Classic Media/Mike Young. qubo will include blocks to air on NBC, Telemundo (the Spanish-language network owned by NBC Universal), and ION Media Networks's ION Television, as well as a 24/7 digital broadcast kids channel, video on demand services and a branded website.

The "Discovery Kids on NBC" block aired for the final time on September 2, 2006. On Saturday, September 9, 2006, NBC started airing the following qubo programs: VeggieTales, Dragon, VeggieTales Presents: 3-2-1 Penguins!, Babar, Jane and the Dragon, and Jacob Two-Two.

In April 2000, NBCi purchased a company that specialized with search engines that learned from the users' searches for $32 million, called GlobalBrain.

In 2001–2002, NBC briefly changed its web address to "NBCi.com", in a heavily-advertised attempt to launch an Internet portal and start page. This move saw NBC teaming up with XOOM.com, e-mail.com, AllBusiness.com, and Snap.com (eventually acquiring all four of them), launching a multi-faceted internet portal with e-mail, webhosting, community, chat, personalization and news capabilities. This experiment lasted roughly one season, failed, and NBCi was folded back into NBC. The NBC-TV portion of the website reverted to NBC.com. However, the NBCi web site continued as a portal for NBC-branded content (NBCi.com redirected to NBCi.msnbc.com), using a co-branded version of InfoSpace to deliver minimal portal content. In mid 2007, NBCi.com began to mirror NBC.com.

NBC has used a number of logos throughout its history; early logos were similar to the logo of its then parent company, RCA, but later logos included stylized peacock images.

Many cities in Canada receive many United States NBC affiliates either over the air, and on cable television and satellite television providers. In places far from the border, cable and satellite are the only ways to pick up NBC signals clearly. Aside from Simultaneous substitution, the programming and broadcasting are the same as in the United States.

NBC Nightly News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien are shown on CNBC Europe. NBC is no longer shown outside the Americas on a channel in its own right. However, both NBC News and MSNBC are shown for a few hours a day on Orbit News in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. MSNBC is also shown occasionally on sister network CNBC Europe during breaking news. Border cities in the US-Mexican border can easily receive NBC on-the-air, as well cable and satellite subscribers across Mexico especially the Mexico City region.

In 1993, the Pan-European cable network Super Channel was taken over by General Electric, the parent of NBC, and became NBC Super Channel. In 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe, but was, from then on, almost always referred to as simply "NBC" on the air.

Most of NBC Europe's prime time programming was produced in Europe due to rights restriction associated with US primetime shows, but after 11PM Central European Time on weekday evenings, the channel aired The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Later, hence its slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night." Many NBC News programs were broadcast on NBC Europe, including Dateline NBC, Meet The Press and NBC Nightly News, which was aired live. The Today Show was also initially shown live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast the following morning instead, by which time it was more than half a day old.

In 1999, NBC Europe stopped broadcasting to most of Europe. At the same time the network was relaunched as a German language computer channel, targeting a young demographic. The main show on the new NBC Europe was called NBC GIGA. In 2005, the channel was relaunched once again, this time as a free-to-air movie channel under the name "Das Vierte". GIGA started an own digital channel then, which can be received via satellite and many cable networks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The Tonight Show, Late Night and NBC Nightly News continue to be broadcast on CNBC Europe.

In 1993, NBC began production of Canal de Noticias NBC. This service was beamed to Latin America from the NBC Newschannel headquarters located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Over 50 journalists were brought to produce, write, anchor and technically produce a 24 hour news service based on the popular "wheel" conceived at CNN. The service folded in 1997 as sales departments were not able to generate any revenue. After Mexican Noticias ECO, Canal de Noticias NBC holds the distinction of being the first 24 hour news service to be seen in Latin America. Telenoticias, at one point owned by CBS, came later followed by CNN en Español.

In the Caribbean, many cable television and satellite television providers air local NBC affiliates, or the main network feed from WNBC-TV New York City or WTVJ in Miami, though a few locally-owned NBC affiliates do exist (in the case of Puerto Rico). The island and the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands are the main receivers of NBC programs available in English and Spanish via the SAP option.

NBC's full program lineup is carried by local affiliate VSB-TV, received from the network's East Coast satellite feed.

In Aruba, the network programming is carried on station ATV 15.

KUAM-TV is an NBC affiliate in Guam and carries the full NBC program lineup via satellite.

In 1995, NBC launched a channel in Asia called NBC Asia available in Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Like NBC Europe, NBC Asia featured most of NBC's news programs as well as the Tonight Show and Late Night. Like its European counterpart, it couldn't broadcast US-produced primetime shows due to rights restrictions. It also had NBC Super Sports for the latest action in selected sporting events. During weekday evenings, NBC Asia had a regional evening news program. It occasionally simulcasted some programs from CNBC Asia and MSNBC. On 1 July 1998, NBC Asia was replaced by the National Geographic Channel. Like in the case of NBC Europe however, selected Tonight Show and Late Night episodes and Meet the Press can still be seen on CNBC Asia during weekends. CNBC Asia shows NFL games and also brands them as Sunday Night Football.

The Philippines with a primarily fluent English-speaking population can receive NBC network programming via satellite feed on NBC Asia service, principally in the Manila region in the island of Luzon.

Through regional partners, NBC-produced programs are seen in some countries in the region. In the Philippines, Solar Entertainment's ETC airs The Tonight Show, Late Night,"Will and Grace and Saturday Night Live while 2nd Avenue airs NBC News programs like Today Show,Early Today,Weekend Today and Dateline.

The Seven Network in Australia has close ties with NBC and has used many of its slogans (including Let's All Be There). Seven News has featured The Mission as its news theme since the mid 1980s. Local newscasts were named Seven Nightly News from the mid 80s until around 2000. Seven rebroadcasts some of NBC's news and current affairs programming it includes.

All are dubbed in the Spanish language.

Over the years, NBC has produced many shows in-house in addition to airing content from other producers, notably Revue Studios and its successor Universal Television.

Notable in-house productions of NBC included Get Smart, Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan. NBC sold the rights to their pre-1973 shows to National Telefilm Associates in 1973, and are today owned by CBS Paramount Television/CBS Studios.

NBC continues to own its post-1973 productions, through sister company NBC Universal Television (the successor to Universal TV), and as a result, NBC in a way now owns several other series aired on the network prior to 1973 (such as Wagon Train).

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Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is an American academic. He sought the endorsement of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party as a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008 but was defeated by Al Franken.

Jack was born as the youngest of four brothers to parents Wayne and Audrey Nelson in 1951. He was born and raised in Minnesota. He went to high school in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, and then went to St. Olaf College in Northfield. After graduating with a B.A. in political science, he attained his Masters of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in New York. He has written several books on war, hunger issues, theology, and foreign policy. For the past 15 years, he has been a professor at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is married to his wife of 25 years, Sara. They have three daughters: Hannah (20), Audrey (17) and Naomi (15).

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer announced his intention to challenge incumbent Democrat Martin Sabo for the Minnesota's 5th congressional district U.S House of Representatives seat in early 2006. Following the announcement of Sabo that he was retiring, several other democrats announced their intentions to run for the House seat. At the district convention in May, Keith Ellison won the endorsement after Nelson-Pallmeyer withdrew from the endorsement process and threw his support to Ellison, who went on to win the general election.

On October 10, 2007, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer announced his candidacy for the U.S Senate, for the seat held by Republican, Norm Coleman. He ran against Al Franken for the DFL Party nomination. Nelson-Pallmeyer established the Iraq war, education, universal single-payer health care, and global warming as some of his key issues. After a long fight for the party's nomination, culminating at the 2008 State DFL convention in Rochester, MN, Nelson-Pallmeyer lost the nomination to Al Franken.

Nelson-Pallmeyer believes that global warming is anthropogenic (caused by humans), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims, and has proposed a plan in which 80% of greenhouse gas emissions are cut in the United States by 2030. He argues that we need a renewable energy economy, which would bring jobs to the United States.

Nelson-Pallmeyer has been a strong critic of the war in Iraq since before the invasion occurred. The war in Iraq is, according to Nelson-Pallmeyer, a war about fear and oil. He calls for the U.S. to announce its commitment to end the war, and begin pulling out troops immediately with all U.S. troops removed in a time frame of six months. The money that has been devoted to fighting in Iraq should, in Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer's view, be used for social issues in the United States and to help reconstruct Iraq and provide assistance for our troops when they return to the U.S..

Nelson-Pallmeyer advocates a national, single-payer health care system. This would provide universal coverage for all Americans. It would reform the U.S. health care system.

All three of Jack’s daughters have attended or are currently attending public schools for their K-12 education. Nelson-Pallmeyer supports increased funding for public elementary, secondary, post-secondary and pre-kindergarten education. He opposes No Child Left Behind, a policy implemented by George W. Bush.

Nelson-Pallmeyer supports the repeal of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Jack supports the Dream Act and the right to organize for all workers, regardless of citizenship status.

Nelson-Pallmeyer supports full and equal rights for members of the LGBT community, with no exceptions.

Nelson-Pallmeyer believes that the issue of abortion should be left up to individuals and not the state. According to him, abortions should be able to be performed safely and legally in the United States.

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