While the 1968 Democratic and Republican conventions are now primarily remembered for the unrest and violence between political adversaries in the streets, a different battle was being waged between intellectual opponents on primetime television. Deployed, one might say, by ABC News in an effort to climb out of the ratings cellar, William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal, representing conservative and liberal ideologies respectively, served as the network’s contentious convention commentators, seizing the opportunity, if not each other’s throats. The rivals dispensed eloquent and escalating bombast, and the debates were a sensation. Directors Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Robert Gordon (Johnny Cash’s America) evoke the era with engrossing archival footage and interviews, bringing this watershed spectacle back to life with nuance and insight, and show that the subjects left their marks not only on television history but also on each other.  TM