Firing Line
How to Win Arguments
TV Flash files “How to Win Arguments” as hour 230 of 326 in the TV Flash guide — Firing Line (1966–1999) on Syndicated/PBS, season 16, episode 33, aired 1981-09-10, 120 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S16E33: listed hour 230 of 326 in the Firing Line guide, hour 11 of 18 in season 16. It aired 1981-09-10 (120 min). The listed hour before it is “Does the Warren Report on the Kennedy Assassination Hold Up?” (S16E32). Next is “Where Do We Go on Immigration?” (S16E36).
Viewer FAQ
Where does How to Win Arguments sit in the Firing Line guide?
S16E33 is listed hour 230 of 326 — hour 11 of 18 in season 16, season 16 episode 33.
When did Firing Line S16E33 air?
How to Win Arguments aired 1981-09-10 and is listed at 120 minutes.
Where should I start?
A Buckley hour with a guest from across the aisle and room for full sentences is the contract. Clipboard, drawl, no countdown clock. Sample debates, not a serialized doctrine.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Firing Line is William F. Buckley Jr. turning argument into spectator sport: clipboard, drawl, and guests from across the aisle in conversations that refused the sound bite. Syndicated, then PBS, it ran for decades on polysyllables. Political talk before the countdown clock — intellectual blood sport with manners, and sentences allowed to finish on national television.
Clipboard, drawl, and a guest from across the aisle — argument as spectator sport before the countdown clock. Firing Line is William F. Buckley Jr. turning political talk into ballet and blood sport at once. Premiered 1966, then ran through syndication and PBS into 1999. Sesquipedalian flair, pointed civility, ideas as combat. Public-affairs TV with a maestro's ego. Sentences allowed to finish on national television. **It set a gold standard for intellectual TV debate across ideological lines.**
Filed against
- William F. Buckley Jr. as Host
William F. Buckley Jr. hosted Firing Line as argument-as-spectator-sport — clipboard, drawl, guests from across the aisle in conversations that refused the sound bite. Syndicated, then PBS, decades on polysyllables. TV Flash files him as…