Franklin Delano Bluth

Franklin, in a car.
Franklin Delano Bluth
Alias	Franklin
Class	Puppet
Paragon Path	Black Puppet
Epic Destiny	Gob's Puppet
Race	African-Felt-American
Hometown	Newport Beach, CA
Gender	Male
Height	2 feet
Weight	5 lbs
Alignment	Unaligned
Deity	Not you, Whitey
Quote	"My name is Judge"
Player	Brian Rogoski

Franklin Delano Bluth is Gob Bluth's African-American puppet.

The character is first introduced in the Season 2 episode "Meat the Veals", in a flashback to a Bluth family gathering years before. In an effort to hip-up his act, Gob briefly introduced the puppet in a poorly executed ventriloquist act (Gob's mouth moves every time Franklin speaks, even once Gob abandons actual ventriloquism in favor of an audio recorder hidden in Franklin's mouth). Franklin is a fiery-tempered, adulterous, obscenity-spewing, street-wise puppet.

Gob discarded Franklin up in the attic, most likely due to the severe beating Gob received in a night club in Torrance after performing a show with Franklin. During "Meat the Veals", Gob digs up his old friend and uses Franklin in a kidnapping plot with George Sr. Gob soaks Franklin's lips with ether, so that a kiss will incapacitate his mother, and any witnesses (in this case, Buster). Franklin is again soaked in ether two episodes later in "Righteous Brothers" in order to incapacitate George Sr. It's also revealed in "Meat the Veals" that whoever is in possession of Franklin begins speaking like him (cf. when George Sr. finds Franklin in the attic, he blurts, "Hey, man, you're gonna get your sorry white ass thrown in jail!" and "Get your loser hand out of my ass!" when Gob finds Franklin, and when Buster uses Franklin as a hook replacement and Lucille tells him he can't take Franklin to the country club). This phenomenon appears to be involuntary, and surprises the person holding Franklin as much as those around them, evidenced by the quizzical stare which Buster directs at the puppet following the aforementioned outburst by the usually reserved Buster.

Then Gob records a music CD with Franklin called "Franklin Comes Alive", a spoof of Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton. Gob hoped that the CD would "break down racial barriers and maybe be a crossover hit." The song tracks include "It Ain't Easy Bein' White" and Gob's cover of Bryan Adams' song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" which Gob performed especially for Michael. Unfortunately Franklin's musical career is cut short during "Righteous Brothers" when a laundry accident results in Franklin getting bleached. Franklin says, in what is now a stiff, slightly British accent, "You've ruined the act, Gob," and as Gob later tells Michael, Franklin has become "all puckered and white."

Franklin returns in some season 3 episodes, most prominently in "Fakin' It", after he is re-dyed and rested; as a publicity stunt, Gob manages to get Franklin on the witness list for George Sr.'s trial. (A deleted scene reveals that Gob legally adopted Franklin as his son to achieve this.) Gob also finds a way to give Franklin a voice without moving his lips by using voice promos from a magazine advertisement for Mock Trial with J. Reinhold. At the end of the episode, Franklin's dramatic testimonial on the witness stand effectively ends the prosecution's case against the Bluths. Franklin also appears in the next episode "Family Ties" as "Frank", a pimp whom Nellie works for.

Franklin is a portrayal of the 1950s-1980s stereotype of blacks. As part of the political satire, Franklin also wears a "George Bush doesn't care about black puppets" t-shirt in "Fakin' It", a reference to Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" remark. No matter who is controlling him, Franklin often curses and uses racial slurs to describe others in the Bluth Family.

The name Franklin Delano Bluth borrows from the 32nd President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but the reason for this is that in the 1970s Sesame Street introduced what some claimed to be an "insultingly stereotypical African-American" puppet named Roosevelt Franklin (though the puppet's actual intended ethnicity was ambiguous and its 'skin' was purple); the character was eventually dropped from the show's line-up. Franklin could also be another tribute to the Peanuts cartoons, as this show also featured an African American character named Franklin. It is also probable Franklin is inspired at least in some way by Chuck's dummy Bob on the television show Soap shown on ABC from 1977 to 1981.

The running gag with Franklin is that despite being a mere puppet, he is actually treated as a real person. This can be seen in "Meat the Veals", where the Security Guard treats him with respect and the police regarded him as threat despite being immobile at the vehicle in the same episode.