The Meeting of The New Kid On the Block
This is a fascinating look at the rising publishing/king, Hugh Hefner, in his fighting trim. Here, host Bill Buckley spars with Hefner with gloves of respect on, for the most part. Yet, he makes some of his wittiest asides, in his attempt to topple Hefner from his thin log of respectability as the darling media/king of faux philosphy. Only once, momentarily does Hefner unconsciously squirm into a defensive posture as Buckley gives the Playboy philosopher an historical lecture. It is a wonderful sharing of viewpoints,pre-dating the subsequent collapse of the Playboy empire due to its own self-importance and excesses,on an explicit magazine wrapped in cellaphane-thin philosphy by two opposing publshers. Very enjoyable.
T.rex versus O.cuniculus
In this early Firing Line filmed in black & white and broadcast without the distinctive Brandenburg Concerto theme music, William F. Buckley engages in a mono-e-mono with Hugh Hefner moderated by a third party. Buckley and Hefner go round and round, with Buckley trying to demonstrate that Hefner is inconsistent, contradictory, or lacking in an acceptable philosophical ground for his ethics, and with Hefner unwilling to concede any points. For example, when Hefner criticizes American sexual mores as unacceptable because arbitrary and rule-driven, Buckley points out that Hefner refuses to let the Playboy Bunnies in his clubs sleep with the customers even in their private lives and on their own time. Hefner's only defense is that this is for the protection of the Bunnies, although he has just critiqued protection (from venereal disease and out of wedlock births) as a control tactic used by religious authorities. Hefner does not acknowledge (or address) the parallel Buckley has set up...
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