Al Franken TV

He hasn't even been on the radio for a year, and liberal funnyman and commentator Al Franken is greatly expanding into big-city markets like Washington. But we hear that there's more in store. In D.C. last week to crash President Bush 's inaugural, Franken told us that he's in the final stages of negotiating a long-term contract with the Sundance Channel, the same outfit that temporarily aired his radio show up to Election Day. Franken, the face of the lefty Air America radio network, is thinking big when it comes to TV. Like Howard Stern and Don Imus big. Both of those jocks have popular TV outlets for their radio shows, and Franken eyes borrowing a little from each. "It's sort of halfway in between what Imus does, which is literally a live show on MSNBC, and what Stern does," Franken said, explaining his grand plan. What Stern does, he added, is tape his show and reair it a few weeks later with lots of cool graphics. What Franken wants to do is an Imus-Stern combo: Tape his radio show, edit it, then air a shortened but snazzed-up version on Sundance that night.