Meet the Press began as a promotion vehicle for Lawrence’s Spivak’s magazine The American Mercury, known for its irreverent take on American culture and politics. When it debuted – on radio – in 1945, it was called American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press and it was hosted by Martha Rountree, a journalist and sometime-editor who previously worked with Spivak. With television just launching, Spivak took the opportunity to make the jump, with Rountree and all, to the visual medium.

On this day, November 20, in 1947, in just the second official season of network television’s existence, Spivak’s Meet the Press debuted on NBC-TV. It eventually became the longest running television series in the history of broadcasting.

The format of the 1947 show bears little resemblance to the way the show is run today. It ran only for a half an hour, and included a single guest, questioned by a panel of journalists that always included Spivak himself. Every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy has appeared on the show, as have numerous Prime Ministers, Presidents, Premiers, Kings and Chancellors.