Miss Demeanors
New member
Has anyone ever heard of this show? I haven't but thought it was pretty ironic......
Buckley's Run Ends on `Firing Line'
By DAVID BAUDER=
AP Television Writer=
NEW YORK (AP) _ After 33 years as the conservative beachhead on
television, ``Firing Line'' is declaring a cease-fire.
William F. Buckley taped the final two episodes Tuesday of his
PBS series, which started at conservatism's ebb and provided a
forum for Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The last show will
air during the last week of December.
``You've got to end sometime and I'd just as soon not die
onstage,'' said Buckley, 74. ``That it ends at the millennium gives
it a poetic touch.''
Before ending his 1,429th and last show with a champagne toast,
Buckley told viewers, ``say your prayers, stay healthy and thanks
for sticking with `Firing Line' all this time.''
The National Review magazine founder started ``Firing Line'' in
1966, in the midst of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and
two years after Barry Goldwater's humiliating defeat. His ideas
advanced with the conservative movement, through the glory years of
Reagan and Mrs. Thatcher.
The 1990s saw ``Firing Line'' often drowned out by the combative
political talk that proliferated on cable television. It was cut
from an hour to 30 minutes.
``I don't think it has the impact it had because there are so
many things you can watch with conservatives and liberals,'' said
William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and an
ABC commentator. ``That wasn't the case in the late 1960s.''
Kristol, 46, said as a teen-ager he watched Reagan debate Bobby
Kennedy on the Vietnam War, with Buckley serving as moderator.
``For people of my generation, Bill Buckley was pretty much the
first intelligent, witty, well-educated conservative one saw on
television,'' he said. ``He legitimized conservatism as an
intellectual movement and therefore as a political movement.''
Kristol was one of six panelists on Buckley's final show,
participating in a discussion that meandered through West Coast
politics, abortion, the free market, the Sexual Revolution and
Washington nightlife.
Despite its title, ``Firing Line'' stood out as a forum where
ideas could be debated at length and not screamed across a table.
Buckley was always willing to give time to an intelligent idea,
even when he disagreed, conservative columnist George Will said.
``Americans watch billions of hours of television and almost
never see a conversation,'' Will said. ``They see talking heads,
they see interrogations, they see shticks of various sorts,
monologues, but actual conversation and protracted discussion of
any sort is unheard of.''
While conservative heroes like Mrs. Thatcher, Goldwater, Jerry
Falwell and Jack Kemp were Buckley guests, he also brought on such
liberal figures as George McGovern, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, John
Kenneth Galbraith and Eugene McCarthy.
Buckley and ``Firing Line'' were saluted this week in _ of all
places _ the liberal magazine The Nation. Writer Christopher
Hitchens said ``Firing Line'' was one of the best places for people
of all political stripes to explain themselves.
``I did my first `Firing Line' in 1983 and swiftly learned that
if I left the studio cursing at what I hadn't said, it was my own
fault,'' Hitchens wrote.
``Firing Line'' is seen on about 300 of PBS's 350 stations
nationally. Buckley has endorsed a successor: He is urging more PBS
stations to pick up ``Uncommon Knowledge,'' a weekly public affairs
program with Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter, as host.
It is seen on 75 PBS stations.
Buckley's Run Ends on `Firing Line'
By DAVID BAUDER=
AP Television Writer=
NEW YORK (AP) _ After 33 years as the conservative beachhead on
television, ``Firing Line'' is declaring a cease-fire.
William F. Buckley taped the final two episodes Tuesday of his
PBS series, which started at conservatism's ebb and provided a
forum for Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The last show will
air during the last week of December.
``You've got to end sometime and I'd just as soon not die
onstage,'' said Buckley, 74. ``That it ends at the millennium gives
it a poetic touch.''
Before ending his 1,429th and last show with a champagne toast,
Buckley told viewers, ``say your prayers, stay healthy and thanks
for sticking with `Firing Line' all this time.''
The National Review magazine founder started ``Firing Line'' in
1966, in the midst of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and
two years after Barry Goldwater's humiliating defeat. His ideas
advanced with the conservative movement, through the glory years of
Reagan and Mrs. Thatcher.
The 1990s saw ``Firing Line'' often drowned out by the combative
political talk that proliferated on cable television. It was cut
from an hour to 30 minutes.
``I don't think it has the impact it had because there are so
many things you can watch with conservatives and liberals,'' said
William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and an
ABC commentator. ``That wasn't the case in the late 1960s.''
Kristol, 46, said as a teen-ager he watched Reagan debate Bobby
Kennedy on the Vietnam War, with Buckley serving as moderator.
``For people of my generation, Bill Buckley was pretty much the
first intelligent, witty, well-educated conservative one saw on
television,'' he said. ``He legitimized conservatism as an
intellectual movement and therefore as a political movement.''
Kristol was one of six panelists on Buckley's final show,
participating in a discussion that meandered through West Coast
politics, abortion, the free market, the Sexual Revolution and
Washington nightlife.
Despite its title, ``Firing Line'' stood out as a forum where
ideas could be debated at length and not screamed across a table.
Buckley was always willing to give time to an intelligent idea,
even when he disagreed, conservative columnist George Will said.
``Americans watch billions of hours of television and almost
never see a conversation,'' Will said. ``They see talking heads,
they see interrogations, they see shticks of various sorts,
monologues, but actual conversation and protracted discussion of
any sort is unheard of.''
While conservative heroes like Mrs. Thatcher, Goldwater, Jerry
Falwell and Jack Kemp were Buckley guests, he also brought on such
liberal figures as George McGovern, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, John
Kenneth Galbraith and Eugene McCarthy.
Buckley and ``Firing Line'' were saluted this week in _ of all
places _ the liberal magazine The Nation. Writer Christopher
Hitchens said ``Firing Line'' was one of the best places for people
of all political stripes to explain themselves.
``I did my first `Firing Line' in 1983 and swiftly learned that
if I left the studio cursing at what I hadn't said, it was my own
fault,'' Hitchens wrote.
``Firing Line'' is seen on about 300 of PBS's 350 stations
nationally. Buckley has endorsed a successor: He is urging more PBS
stations to pick up ``Uncommon Knowledge,'' a weekly public affairs
program with Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter, as host.
It is seen on 75 PBS stations.
