Carl Weathers/Robbie Robertson

This episode contains the first in a series of two sketches that involve all of the presidential candidates of the 1988 election. These are two of the very best sketches in Saturday Night Live History. Host Carl Weathers played the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Phil Hartman plays Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. Dana Carvey plays Dick Gephardt. Jon Lovitz Plays Mike Dukakis (a characterization that would only get better as the election went on). Future senator Al Franken plays then current senator Paul Simon ("And that's why I wear... the bow tie"). Kevin Nealon plays Al Gore. Future Repulican joke Dennis Miller played the current Democratic joke Gary Hart. The debate is hosted by Nora Dunn playing Pat Schroeder who had recently bowed out of the race in a crying fit. A couple of weeks after this episode aired, I went to a Jesse Jackson political rally where Rev. Jackson repeated the rap that Carl Weather used in impersonating him in the sketch almost verbatim. I almost fell out of my chair laughing.