close Video

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Nov. 8, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of Chevy Chase’s comedic portrayal of U.S. President Gerald Ford as a bumbling klutz on Saturday Night Live . Nowadays, we expect SNL to mock the president . (There’s even speculation going into each administration about who will play the president.) But when Chase did it for the first time, it was groundbreaking. In fact, in the years before SNL, mocking the president on what was still the relatively new mass medium of television often had to overcome resistance from network censors and presidential pressure alike.

In the early 1960s, NBC executives would not allow a comedy sketch about President John F. Kennedy to appear on its Art Carney Show. As a network spokesperson explained

See Full Page