For much of November, 1975, the American networks carried regular updates on a piece of not quite breaking news: General Francisco Franco, the Fascist dictator who had ruled Spain for thirty-six years, was still alive, if only just. In late October, the eighty-two-year-old caudillo, a staunch U.S. ally in the battle against Communism, had fallen into a coma after a series of heart attacks. His death seemed imminent, but Franco, who had survived multiple assassination plots, continued to thwart those eager to announce his demise. This didn’t stop the networks from broadcasting rolling reports on his non-demise: Franco was in critical condition, Franco was responding to treatment, Franco had taken a turn for the worse. When at last he did expire, on November 20th, the new satirical sketch show “Saturday Night Live” saw an opening. “Our top story tonight,” a young Chevy Chase proclaimed in the show’s Weekend Update segment a few weeks later, “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.” The writers reprised the gag for months. “Generalissimo Francisco Franco has been critically dead now for eleven weeks,” Chase declared in January, “and his doctors refuse to speculate on how long he can last in his present condition.”
