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Improviser.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)
ON the air from 1966 until WFB himself brought it to a close in 1999--"The end of the millennium," he said, "kind of makes sense"--Firing Line was the longest-running program in television history whose host never changed. How did a cerebral show devoted to policy and culture set such a record?
I was twice a guest, sat in the control room during several tapings, and pored over scores of transcripts to help WFB edit his 1989 book, On the Firing Line. Here is what I learned.
As a guest: Before the cameras rolled, WFB would offer his interviewees a moment or two of small talk, not a briefing. Although he would have looked over a stack of research, he would have committed to his clipboard only a few notes. When he received his cue, WFB would swivel to the camera to read his introduction, the one item he would always have typed word for word, then swivel to you to ask the first question. You would reply as best you could. WFB would spend the rest of the hour making it up.
Spontaneity, freshness, unpredictability. WFB was to television what Louis Armstrong was to the trumpet: a master of sustained improvisation.
In the control room: Watching WFB from different angles on an array of screens, what struck you was how totally he commanded the frame. The blue eyes, the slouch, the boyish ...
- Parting shot: WFB shores up his place in the establishment.(Cancel Your Own...
- Magazine article from: Columbia Journalism Review Navasky, Victor November 1, 2007 700+ words
...autobiographical protectionism. WFB (which is how he signs his...Gore Vidal article in Esquire, WFB will be heard. "I should have...commentator, declines to appear on Firing Line because, among other reasons...Teddy White, whom he accuses WFB of having called "a national...
- To WFB.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
- Magazine article from: National Review Fisher, Ian R. Smith, William Douglas Richards, Bonette Day, Annette T. August 23, 2004 700+ words
...debacle of Jimmy Carter. So I've cut my conservative teeth on WFB all my adult life. While I don't begrudge him a well-earned...against all prognostications. Now that he has stepped away from Firing Line and NATIONAL REVIEW, I hope Buckley will find himself re...
- The irrepressible.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)
- Magazine article from: National Review Bridges, Linda March 24, 2008 700+ words
...But at the long height of his career--roughly, the Firing Line years, 1966 to 1999--Buckley Diversified kept far more...with NATIONAL REVIEW)--not to mention the NR staff, the Firing Line production staff, and a driver so that he could work in the...
- Mainstay.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)
- Magazine article from: National Review Kissinger, Henry A. March 24, 2008 700+ words
...toleration of the editors, who had never encountered an actual conservative. Twenty years later, Bill introduced me on Firing Line--in the heyday of detente--with the words: "Henry Kissinger reminds me of an athlete who is being carried around the...
- Music man.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)
- Magazine article from: National Review Brookhiser, Richard March 24, 2008 700+ words
MANY people first met Bill (as I did) on Firing Line. That meant that the first thing you heard was the trumpet in the Brandenburg Concerto--a high-pitched reveille, as startling...
- Editor.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)
- Magazine article from: National Review Ponnuru, Ramesh March 24, 2008 700+ words
...blessed many times over, but old age was hard on him. A man of ceaseless activity, he had to slow down. He gave up first Firing Line, then public speaking, sailing, ownership of NR. He was in his seventies by the time I met him. In the last years of...
- Star.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)
- Magazine article from: National Review Kinsley, Michael March 24, 2008 700+ words
FIRING LINE was usually taped, three shows at a time, at the HBO studios in New York. The format evolved over the years. Toward the end...
- Readers remember WFB.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
- Magazine article from: National Review Ritchie, Daniel Nelligan, Jeff Parmly, David W. Watkins, Bill March 24, 2008 700+ words
...scold while in college. On a whim I wrote WFB a letter, enclosing clippings and noting...1983, the phone rang at my house. It was WFB. He had a small project that needed shepherding...despite my best attempts to change it), WFB said, in that unique lilt, "Of course...
Source: HighBeam Research, Improviser.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)