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Firing Line

Season 20 1985

  • 1985-02-25T15:00:00Z on Syndication
  • 1h
  • 12h (12 episodes)
  • United States
  • English
Firing Line was an American public affairs show founded and hosted by conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., founder and publisher of National Review magazine. Its 1,504 episodes over 33 years made Firing Line the longest-running public affairs show in television history with a single host. The erudite program, which featured many of the most prominent intellectuals and public figures in the United States, won an Emmy Award in 1969. Reflecting Buckley's talents and preferences, the exchange of views was almost always polite, and the guests were given time to answer questions at length, slowing the pace of the program. "The show was devoted to a leisurely examination of issues and ideas at an extremely high level", according to Jeff Greenfield, who frequently appeared as an examiner. John Kenneth Galbraith said of the program, "Firing Line is one of the rare occasions when you have a chance to correct the errors of the man who's interrogating you." The show might be compared in politeness and style of discourse to other national public interview shows, specifically those hosted by Charlie Rose or Terry Gross, but Buckley was clearly interested in debate. In a 1999 Salon.com article, The Weekly Standard editor William Kristol summarized Buckley's approach to the show: "Buckley really believes that in order to convince, you have to debate and not just preach, which of course means risking the possibility that someone will beat you in debate." Ended December 15, 1999

12 episodes

20x05 Women Against Pornography

  • 1985-02-25T15:00:00Z1h

Harriet Pilpel, Andrea Dworkin

20x11 Women Against Pornography

  • 1985-02-25T15:00:00Z1h

Harriet Pilpel, Andrea Dworkin

20x18 Psychiatry: New Explorations

  • 1985-05-22T14:00:00Z1h

A deeply honest exploration of a very painful subject. All three guests have spent time in Vietnam (Mr. Butterfield was there on April 29, 1975, the day Saigon fell); all have studied the political and military history. They and their host all agree that, as Mr. Butterfield phrases it, "We didn't lose the war on the battlefield, we just left."

A deeply honest exploration of a very painful subject. All three guests have spent time in Vietnam (Mr. Butterfield was there on April 29, 1975, the day Saigon fell); all have studied the political and military history. They and their host all agree that, as Mr. Butterfield phrases it, "We didn't lose the war on the battlefield, we just left."

20x28 The Problems in the Philippines

  • 1985-10-28T15:00:00Z1h

Stephen J. Solarz, Henry J. Hyde

20x29 Where Are We Headed in Nicaragua?

  • 1985-09-03T14:00:00Z1h

The Reagan Administration and Congress had been going back and forth over funding for the Nicaraguan Contras, who were fighting the Marxist Sandinistas (and, as we would learn about a year after this show was taped, some members of the Administration had decided to take matters into their own hands).

20x35 The Problems in the Philippines

  • 1985-10-28T15:00:00Z1h

Stephen J. Solarz, Henry J. Hyde

20x41 A Look at the Hillside Stranglers

  • 1985-11-12T15:00:00Z1h

An absorbing show but painful, both because of the grisly subject matter (the 1977 rape-murders of ten young women in Southern California) and because of the controversial role played by Dr. Watkins in the investigation and trial, and the merciless interrogation of him here by Mr. O'Brien on the question whether one of the Stranglers had a multiple personality.

20x43 What Does PEN Have to Offer?

  • 1985-12-02T15:00:00Z1h
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