Saturday Night Live and the 1976 Presidential Election: A New Voice Enters Campaign Politics

Two remarkable events occurred during 1976: The debut of Saturday Night Live and the Presidential Election pitting Gerald Ford against Jimmy Carter. Both events had profound and enduring influence on shaping the country America is today. When Saturday Night Live premiered, the show's impact was evident very quickly, as it grabbed huge ratings and several Emmy Awards in its first season; made household names of its seven original stars; and had a remarkable influence on popular and political culture with its mix of music, comedy, and live theater. In April of 1976, while he was in the midst of a fight for the Republican presidential nomination and his political survival, President Gerald Ford gave his press secretary, Ron Nessen, permission to become the first politician to guest host NBC's Saturday Night. In addition to Nessen, the President also appeared on the show, via video tape, to introduce his press secretary and to offer a comic counterpunch to Chevy Chase's signature line, "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," at the beginning of "Weekend Update." Ever since Nessen's and Ford's appearances, it has become a rite of passage for politicians with a national profile, or those with a desire to have a national presence, to appear on Saturday Night Live, and the show's treatment of those politicians and many political topics has had a continuing impact on Americans' feelings and discussions about politics. This book is the first to examine the ground-shaking collision of SNL and Presidential Politics when it all began.