On the other hand, “Firing Line” was so different in tone and pacing from its descendants that one might almost say that it stands as their inverse  their antithesis (Mr. Buckley was fond of a four-syllable word when two syllables would do), a counterfactual, even. That is to say, a condition that cannot  owing to the present-day climates of television and politics  be fulfilled.

“The show was devoted to a leisurely examination of issues and ideas at an extremely high level,” said Jeff Greenfield of CBS News, another pundit who frequently debated Mr. Buckley on the program. “It’s not at all like what you see now, where everybody says, ‘Who won the week?’ or ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, rate Hillary’s chances.’ ”

Over 33 years, the list of guests on “Firing Line” was impressive and very much bipartisan: Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Clare Boothe Luce and Henry A. Kissinger on the right. Muhammad Ali, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Jimmy Carter and William M. Kunstler on the left. There were also, of course, people who, by dint of political or personal conviction, would not appear on “Firing Line.”

“I was never on his show,” Gore Vidal, with whom Mr. Buckley had a famous feud, said on Thursday. “I don’t like fascism much.”

He added: “I was one of the first people he asked. And, of course, I refused to be on it. And, of course, he lied about it afterward.”