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The End of Firing Line: Part I (1999-12-14)
About this film
This pair of farewell shows begins with a pastiche of excerpts from Firing Line (featuring Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Mother Teresa, Jesse Jackson, and many more) and closes with excerpts from Mr. Buckley's appearances on other shows (including Laugh-In) and imitations of him by, e.g., David Frye. In between, WFB and his guests talk about New York versus Washington, the state of the tax-code debate-and the effect of Firing Line. RB: "When we were looking at some of those clippings, you weren't just debating liberals, you were debating actual radicals. You were debating people all across the spectrum, Jesse Jackson when he was far more leftwing than he is today,... Allen Ginsberg, a homosexual Jewish Hindu. You know, people from all across-" WFB: "There are still a lot of them today." RB: "But how often do they get an hour of television? How often does anyone with an intelligent opinion get an hour of television? We've just finished three series of presidential debates. We have men who want to be the most powerful man in the world having to utter haiku and slip them into 45-second slots, and that's the level of discourse." ... WFB: "So there it is, ladies and gentlem…
Directors & creators
Southern Educational Communications Association
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, William F. Buckley Jr., Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Mother Teresa, Jesse Jackson, Allen Ginsberg, David Frye, Firing Line, political discourse, tax code reform, New York, Washington D.C., presidential debates, media criticism
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