Firing Line
What Is Radio Free Europe Up To?
TV Flash files “What Is Radio Free Europe Up To?” as hour 249 of 326 in the TV Flash guide — Firing Line (1966–1999) on Syndicated/PBS, season 18, episode 30, aired 1983-09-15, 120 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S18E30: listed hour 249 of 326 in the Firing Line guide, hour 5 of 6 in season 18. It aired 1983-09-15 (120 min). The listed hour before it is “Was Gandhi for Real?” (S18E23). Next is “The Economics and Politics of Race” (S18E36).
Viewer FAQ
Where does What Is Radio Free Europe Up To? sit in the Firing Line guide?
S18E30 is listed hour 249 of 326 — hour 5 of 6 in season 18, season 18 episode 30.
When did Firing Line S18E30 air?
What Is Radio Free Europe Up To? aired 1983-09-15 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…