Sarah Palin on SNL

After several weeks of being lampooned on SNL, it was Sarah Palin's turn to be on the program, and it appears to have gone well:

NEW YORK (CNN) — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made her debut on NBC's late-night comedy show "Saturday Night Live" — appearing in the opening skit and during a segment that parodies current events.

In both skits, she delivered her lines with a straight face but mostly played the comic foil to the show's cast of mischief-makers.

The opening bit featured former SNL cast member Tina Fey reprising her role as the Alaska governor at a mock press conference.

Fey has impersonated the governor in three prior SNL skits.

The piece then cut to a shot of Palin watching Fey's performance on a television monitor with the show's executive producer Lorne Michaels.

"I just didn't think it was a realistic depiction of the way my press conferences would have gone," she said.

"Why couldn't we have done the '30 Rock' sketch that I wrote?" she asked, referring to the NBC comedy which stars Fey.

"Honestly, not enough people know that show," Michaels responds.

Later, Alec Baldwin — Fey's '30 Rock' co-star and an outspoken liberal — turned up, mistook Palin for Fey, and tried to convince Michaels not to let Fey appear on the show with the governor. He snapped his fingers, trying to remember the nickname some had given Palin.

"Caribou Barbie," Palin reminded him.

Baldwin, still oblivious that he was talking to the governor, continued: "You want her, our Tina, to go out there and stand there with that horrible woman," he asked. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Michaels points out he was standing next to the real thing himself.

"Forgive me, I must say this," Baldwin backtracked. "You are way hotter in person. I mean seriously. I mean, I can't believe they let her play you."

Palin laughed and responded that Baldwin's brother, Stephen, was her favorite. Stephen Baldwin, also an actor, is a Christian conservative with his own ministry.

Palin then took the podium and told the reporters she was not going to take any of their questions.

She then uttered the signature line that opens the show every weekend: "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night."

Later in the show, Palin appeared on the 'Weekend Update' segment that skewers items in the news.

"I've been thinking it over and I'm not going to do the piece we rehearsed," she told Weekend Update co-anchor Seth Meyers. "My gut is telling me it might be a bad idea for the campaign."

Segment host Amy Poehler said she would do the part — and launched into a hilarious rap about being Sarah Palin. Among her backup dancers was a cast member who impersonated Palin's husband, Todd.

Palin grooved along to the music, even raising her hands when Poehler sang "All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up/ All the plumbers in the house, put your pants up."

The plumber reference was meant to invoke the now-famous Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, who Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has held up as a small business owner who will see his taxes rise if his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, wins the election.

Once NBC makes the video available I'll try and run it.