The televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley in the summer of 1968 are the subject of the new PBS documentary. They skyrocketed ABC from dead last in the ratings and birthed a new era in public discourse. Today the heavily scripted exchanges of Sunday-morning television and 24-hour news are a far cry from the explosive but informed vitriol that surrounded the arguments between two of our country’s towering intellectuals. A discussion on the current health — or infirmity — of public discourse in our country follows the screening.