Firing Line
What Do We Owe Our Country?
TV Flash files “What Do We Owe Our Country?” as hour 289 of 326 in the TV Flash guide — Firing Line (1966–1999) on Syndicated/PBS, season 25, episode 38, aired 1990-12-13, 120 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S25E38: listed hour 289 of 326 in the Firing Line guide, hour 6 of 7 in season 25. It aired 1990-12-13 (120 min). The listed hour before it is “Two Friends Talk, Part II” (S25E33). Next is “New Insights on the Russian Revolution” (S25E40).
Viewer FAQ
Where does What Do We Owe Our Country? sit in the Firing Line guide?
S25E38 is listed hour 289 of 326 — hour 6 of 7 in season 25, season 25 episode 38.
When did Firing Line S25E38 air?
What Do We Owe Our Country? aired 1990-12-13 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…