Seriously?

“I’d never heard about the Vidal/Buckley debates before seeing the documentary,” Mr. Sorkin said by email.

I though Sorkin was supposed to be an intelligent, well-versed individual. By Hollywood standards, anyway. How could you understand Gore Vidal -- his essays and his career -- without knowing of the legendary showdown w/Wm. F. Buckley Jr. ?

I'd start with Palimpsest .
(if, at this late date, I was just starting to read up on Vidal... fwiw.)

Buckley and Vidal “had 15 minutes a night, uninterrupted. Imagine that today. Imagine having two witty, literate heavy thinkers having a go at each other for 15 minutes without someone in the headset saying, ‘Quick, talk about Monica Lewinsky’s underwear.’ ”
...
Buckley and Vidal “were independent thinkers, and independent thinkers aren’t given a lot of time on television today.”