Here's something I thought I'd never see. In 1975, KCOP — Channel 13 here in Los Angeles — had a series called Both Sides Now, the premise of which was to have George Putnam and Mort Sahl debate the news each evening. Mr. Putnam was a local newsman who was known for his blustery style and right-wing slant on things. It was said that Ted Knight's character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was based a bit on Putnam and a bit on another local L.A. newsguy, Jerry Dunphy.
Mort Sahl was, of course, Mort Sahl — very witty at times, very iconoclastic, often quite obsessed about certain issues, especially those involving people named Kennedy. Among the many criticisms of the show were that Sahl was not as far to the left as Putnam was to the right and both men were faulted for presenting "facts" of questionable accuracy. I didn't find anything on the show particularly enlightening and I thought a lot of it was just wrestling. People tuned in to watch the fight, not whatever exchange of ideas may have been presented…and I think some were just waiting for one of the hosts to take a swing at the other host.
Finally one night, they came close. They began insulting each other and six minutes into the taping, taping was halted. That episode never aired but someone kept a copy of the tape and it's our Video Link below. As I recall, Putnam exited the show after this, Sahl did a few episodes solo and then they brought in a series of guests to face off with Sahl starting with, I believe, Hugh Downs. Then a few weeks later, the show simply disappeared. Sahl went back to performing and trying to solve the Kennedy Assassination. Putnam bounced around local TV and radio stations for years after.
Here's the video that never aired in '75. I suspect if you could see the episodes that immediately preceded it, you could see this coming…