In 1968 America, as two men fight to become the next president, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and the unruly liberal Gore Vidal. During a new nightly television format, they debate the moral landscape of a shattered nation.
Acting
Quinto and Harewood channel two towering egos with surgical precision.
Direction
Herrin turns talking heads into gladiatorial combat.
Production
Seamless archival integration makes 1968 crash into the present.
Director
Jeremy Herrin
Zachary Quinto
Gore Vidal
David Harewood
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Emilio Doorgasingh
William Sheehan / Chet Huntley / Howard Austen
Clare Foster
Patricia Buckley
Tom Godwin
Frank Meyer / Andy Warhol / Bobby Kennedy / More...
John Hodgkinson
Howard K Smith / Mayor Daley
Syrus Lowe
James Baldwin / George / Martin Luther King, Jr.
Kevin McMonagle
Elmer Lower / Walter Kronkite
Sam Otto
Tariq Ali / Matt
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The actual 1968 debates drew 10 million viewers and created the 'point/counterpoint' format later parodied on SNL.
James Graham's script adapts his own play, which premiered in 2021 — remarkably recent for material about events over 50 years old, suggesting our political moment demanded this excavation.
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