William F. Buckley died this week. I knew that he hosted Firing Line, but I did not know that Stanford University had a database of Firing Line TV shows. The show ran from 1966 to 1999, and there were just over 1504 episodes of the program.

The database, at http://hoohila.stanford.edu/firingline/programList.php, appears to list something over 1200 episodes (and a couple of related specials.) They’re presented in a table which includes episode number, name, and two columns that show whether the first five minutes are available as streaming media, and whether the whole show is available and in what format (the only available format I saw was VHS.)

If you click on the name of the program you’ll get other information including the list of guests, taping date, duration, a summary of the program, and whether a copy of it is available. If you want to look at the first five minutes of a show (I would say less than ten percent of the shows listed have the first five minutes available as streaming media) you’ll need to have the RealOne video player.

The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, which hosts the site at Stanford, is asking for suggestions on what shows to digitize and make available online. You can get more information on the database at http://hoohila.stanford.edu/firingline/index.php .