Dana Carvey recalls SNL's "George H.W. Bush conundrum"

The New York Times

The former Saturday Night Live star kept quiet in the days after the 41st president of the United States' passing. But in a piece written for The New York Times, Carvey recalls how he created his iconic impression and how it resulted in a friendship with a "lucky" 25-year friendship with George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush "President Ronald Reagan was an easy target," writes Carvey. "He had an impossibly low hairline, a tan, wrinkled face, a bobbling head, and as a bonus, he called his wife Mommy. He was comedy gold. On the other hand, the first President Bush was a comedian’s nightmare. There was nothing to do an impression of — no hook. My take on him, in the early sketches, was actually kind of terrible and not particularly funny. I always had good jokes with the help of two brilliant political satirists, Al Franken and Jim Downey, but my first Bush cold opens were just O.K. Then one late Friday night on the 17th floor of Rockefeller Center, as Franken and I sat in his office racking our brains, something unexpected happened..."