Looking Back at the Era of the Innocent Political Comedy: 1600 Penn

This NBC show was released in a quaint era when our political landscape (at least here in the US) wasn’t so trauma-inducing that we can enjoy something politics adjacent as lightweight sitcom fare.

This was also a coming out vehicle of sorts for Josh Gad who wrote the show and fashioned himself as a Chris Farleyesque figure (they’re both plus sized and Gad was probably aware of this) who’s a lovable oaf.

Gad’s character, Skip Gilchrest, the first son to President Dale Gilchrest (Bill Pullman who is basically the same blandly presidential-looking guy as Independence Day) has zero malicious bones in his body but exists in a social climate that’s politicized to a microscopic degree, so he’s a ticking time bomb for social disaster which is a great recipe for comedy.

Rounding out the ensemble are a couple precocious kids, a goody-two-shoes daughter (Martha MacIsaac) whose clean-cut image is derailed by an unplanned pregnancy, and a beautiful step-wife (Jenna Elfman) who spends many of the episodes overcompensating for the “trophy wife” image.

The first season also heavily revolves around the scandal of the goody-two-shoes first daughter getting pregnant from a rare one-night stand. It’s played with too soft of a touch to be relevant commentary but it powers…