 One long tradition began in 1969 with Pat Nixon's appearance on Sesame Street. Every first lady from Nixon when the TV show started to Jill Biden has been on Sesame Street, except for Melania Trump. In the mid 1980s, Nancy Reagan really helped push first lady television appearances into the norm. The camera loved her and she was very much at ease in front of it because of her past as an actor. So Americans got used to seeing the first lady on shows like Good Morning America in different strokes.