The 1983 Decision That Created Today’s Packed Debate Schedule

This election season’s debates have been big winners for the cable networks that have played host to them, and on Saturday CBS hopes to repeat the phenomenon. But, while an onslaught of debates may seem like par for the primary course these days, that wasn’t always the case.

Widely broadcast presidential primary debates date back to 1948, when Republican candidates Harold Stassen and Tom Dewey participated in a debate in Oregon that was aired on the radio. Both parties held broadcast primary debates years before the famous 1960 televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy. (Primary debates and general-election debates are two different beasts, in many ways; notably, the primary debates are organized by the parties while the later debates are organized by a bipartisan commission.)

But, even as televised debates were proven to be able to create news, they remained fairly few and far-between. Their news-creating ability, it turned out, was a problem. Due to the Federal Communications Commission rule that stations had to make equal time available for all candidates, many opted to allot no time to any of them. Under the original wording of the law, anyone who was a “legally qualified candidate” could technically claim their time if a debate took place between major candidates and excluded others. As TIME noted, the rule had been meant to encourage debate by avoiding networks favoring one candidate, but in practice it wiped politics off television. (The rule does apply to officially declared candidates in the primary; last month, Lawrence Lessig asked NBC affiliates for equal time after Hillary Clinton appeared on Saturday Night Live.)

Even after a 1959 amendment made exemptions for “bona fide news,” the law had to be suspended temporarily to allow Nixon and Kennedy to debate in 1960 without opening the gates to third-party candidates. Starting in the 1970s, outside groups could organize debates, which could then be covered by the networks as news events. (The League of Women Voters was the dominant player in that arena for many years.)

In 1983, the law changed again. As TIME explained, the Federal Communications Commission decided that stations could stage their own debates without regard to equal time regulations, by classifying debates sponsored by stations as news events too. It was a controversial decision:

Read more about the 1983 rule change, here in the TIME Vault: More Debates?

The Blooper Heard Round the World

As soon as the debates started back up, so, too, did the “gaffes,” beginning with President Gerald Ford declaring boldly that there was “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” at a time when every Eastern European country was securely locked behind the Iron Curtain.

TIME was as amazed as everyone else, calling Ford’s statement “The Blooper Heard Round the World.” Ford clearly knew that the Soviets dominated Eastern Europe, but he was trying to make a rhetorical point and simply blew it — and went on to blow the election.

The Age Issue

Some observers in 1984 worried that Ronald Reagan might have grown too old to continue in the presidency. His quip during a debate with Walter Mondale is widely seen as having defused this concern. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” he said. “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even Mondale laughed.

All the Emotion

In 1988, CNN’s Bernard Shaw asked Democratic contender Michael Dukakis a bizarre question, and elicited a (politically) terrible answer. “Mr. Dukakis,” Shaw asked, “if Kitty Dukakis [the candidate’s wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty?” This could have been a great time for Dukakis to shed some of his image as a remote, passionless technocrat. He could have said that, of course, as a husband, his instinct would be for revenge, but that we live in a democratic society, and personal revenge has no place in our laws. Instead, he gave a passionless, technocratic answer: “No, I don’t, Bernard,” he said, “and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don’t see any evidence that it’s a deterrent and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime.”

TIME’s Walter Shapiro wrote: “Dukakis mustered all the emotion of a time-and- temperature recording.”

No Jack Kennedy

Sometimes, the vice-presidential debates have yielded the more memorable moments in a given election year. Such was the case when Dukakis’ running mate Lloyd Benson tore into Dan Quayle, who was George H.W. Bush’s running mate.

Quayle, young and fair-haired, was often compared to John Kennedy (usually by Republican operatives) despite his being widely considered to be a bit of a dim bulb (an assessment that was in fact quite unfair). Quayle made the mistake of invoking JFK during the debate, giving Bentson his opening. “I served with Jack Kennedy,” Bentson said. “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” The audience erupted, and in the next day’s papers, “deer in the headlights” was the most-often-used phrase to describe Quayle’s reaction.

The Humblebrag of ’92

In 1992, Ross Perot’s prickly demeanor (“Are you gonna let me finish?”) got a lot of attention during the debates. But it was his running mate, Adm. James Stockdale, whose performance has proven the most memorable. In trying to be self-deprecating about his lack of political experience (actually sort of a humblebrag), Stockdale blurted our, “Who am I? Why am I here?”

Since he already had a reputation (whether deserved or not) as a confused old man, this soundbite was set in concrete. And just as people sometimes confuse Tina Fey’s takeoffs on Sarah Palin for Palin herself (it was Fey, not Palin, who said “I can see Russia from my house!”), people tend to remember Phil Hartman’s portrayal of Stockdale on Saturday Night Live a lot better than they remember Stockdale himself.

The Nod

By 2000, it had been eight years since a national debate yielded any real drama (Clinton vs. Dole was a snooze of an election). Most of the best bits of 2000 came from Al Gore, who memorably sighed a lot at statements from his opponent, George W. Bush. But the best moment might have been when Gore at one point stood up, seemingly to intimidate Bush, and Bush simply nodded hello at him and continued what he was saying.

Getting Personal

In 2004, it was once again the vice presidential debate that yielded the most memorable moment, when Dick Cheney was asked about gay rights. His daughter, a lesbian, wasn’t mentioned — that is, until after Cheney was finished answering, and his opponent, John Edwards, brought her up. “I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter,” he said. “I think they love her very much. And you can’t have anything but respect for the fact that they’re willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It’s a wonderful thing. And there are millions of parents like that who love their children, who want their children to be happy.” Cheney and his wife Lynne both later said they were furious at Edwards for mentioning their daughter.

Likable Enough

In 2008, a common political question was whether Hillary Clinton was “likable.” In a primary debate, Barack Obama answered that question: “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” This was widely interpreted (especially among Clinton supporters) as rude and condescending. But it also could have been a genuine response.

Joe Kidding

Before her debate with vice-presidential contender Joe Biden, Sarah Palin asked her opponent if she could call him Joe. Of course, he said. That set her up for a canned line later in the debate: “Say it ain’t so, Joe.” Palin did much better in the debate than many people were expecting, possibly in part due to Biden being very careful to not insult her or otherwise seem cruel.

Oops

In recent years, primary debates — or at least debate moments — have been getting as much if not more attention than general-election debates. Perhaps the most memorable moment of 2012 came when Republican candidate Rick Perry couldn’t remember the third government agency he wanted to eliminate. He paused, he stumbled, he finally said “oops.” Perry recently became the first GOP candidate to drop out of the 2016 race, and some pundits have said that his “oops” moment might have destroyed his political career.