DICK CAVETT

[Charles Corlett]

Not only was Pynchon on the Dick Cavett show, and for those of you who 
didn't have the pleasure it was a seminal moment in TV history and one of 
my all time favorite TV watching experiences, but Pynchon was also on, or 
rather spoke on, William F. Buckley Jr.'s _Firing Line_.  Supposedly, 
from what I can gather from Buckley's biography, which came out in '88 or 
'89, Pynchon was so aghast at Kerouac's appearance the month before on 
_Firing Line_, when Ginsberg did all the talking for a drunk Jack Kerouac, 
that he decided to fake out Buckley.  Somehow Buckley's defences were down 
and he was under the impression that he was speaking to Pynchon live.  In 
reality, he was talking to a tape.  Pynchon had carefully caculated 
Buckley's average question length (somewhere around 4 minutes) and 
recorded his responses accordingly.  To insure accuracy, he would start 
and end each response with "hmmm," in case there was any overlap.  The 
great thing is that his responses all consisted of just three words, "I 
don't know."  Buckley looked flustered and as far as I know refused to 
interview anymore writers, except for actor-cum-writer David Niven and 
his arch-enemy Gore Vidal.  Does anyone remember this moment?  If you do 
I would love to hear about it.  I think this was Pynchon's first 
experience with TV, and he didn't get the guts to appear, albeit behind a 
screen, until 1973 on the Cavett show.  If anyone can get their hands on 
the archives to either of these shows, I'm willing to pay BIG MONEY.