Star.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)

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, my role was to introduce the show and then throw to Bill, Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson. Sometimes I got to ask a question or two at the end. Nervous, I usually got there an hour or two early and hid in an empty corridor, reviewing my notes.

As the taping time approached, word of Bill's progress toward the studio would circulate. He's in the car, he's five minutes away ... The producer-director, Warren Steibel, would start displaying behavior that inspired legitimate concern about his heart. About three minutes before the taping was to begin, Bill would appear in a great cyclone of energy, clutching his clipboard and a pile of papers, and head straight into make-up.

An emissary would track me down in my hiding place and say, "Bill needs to talk with you." As he got coated with greasepaint, Bill would greet me with his famous canary-eating grin and a "How are you, my friend?" Then he would ask me to do or not to do something in connection with one of the shows that day: ask a particular question, avoid a particular topic. He treasured the conceit that I would be doing him a special favor by adhering to this request, as if it were my show and not his.

The first guest would already be ...