June 16-22 SNL Week: Saturday Night Live is celebrating 50 years on the air, can NBC last for another 50 years??

How does a character who was in short sketches get to be in a movie? Ask nearly everyone in the 1990s who had a recurring Saturday Night Live character.

Al Franken created and played the character Stuart Smalley, basing it on people he met in Al-Anon as he went through it to support his wife. First appearing on February 9, 1991, Stuart shared on his public access show how he was a member of many 12-step groups. He became popular enough to have a book, I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!: Daily Affirmations by Stuart Smalley. This led Harold Ramis to get with Franken and push for a film.

By the way, in Live From New York—an Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Franken says that he wanted Mike Myers to play the part, but when they did the read-through, it only worked when he did it, as he wrote it in his voice. Robert Smigel suggested he do the part. He also admitted that he would always be around when Lorne Michaels picked the sketches to make sure Stuart got on.

In the film, Stuart loses his show. He has to come back home for a funeral, facing off with his dysfunctional family of brother Donnie (Vincent D’Onofrio), sister Jodie (Lesley Boone), mom (Shirley Knight), and dad (Harris Yulin). There’s also a battle over where the body will be buried between Dad and his cousins, Ray (Joe Flaherty) and Denise (Robin Duke). By the end, you will be sure of why Stuart has needed all of this therapy, but at least he becomes famous for his self-help and ends up with a good friend, Julia (Laura San Giacomo, always perfect).

Sadly, despite Gene Siskel calling it “smart and hip” and Roger Ebert calling out that “it has more courage than a lot of serious films,” it made under a million at the box office. Stuart would return one more time to the show and cried, yelling, “You didn’t want ‘funny and poignant. You wanted Dumb….and Dumber….and Dumber….and Dumber!” He would also return in 2004 when Al Gore hosted.

This movie’s failure did exactly what Stuart worked to fix. It put Al Franken into a depression. At least it made more than It’s Pat, which grossed $60,000. It’s a sweet film with a good heart and way better than it should be.