This clip of Jack Paar interviewing Mary McCarthy in November 1963 will convince you of two things:

1. Mary McCarthy was the best.
2. Wowee, television has changed.

The interview begins just after the nine-minute mark:

Jack Paar is prodigiously un-woke, but McCarthy takes it all in stride, offering insights on a range of topics including the kinds of sex it’s appropriate to write about, the professional success of women in communist countries, and the American preoccupation with money.

Also interesting: you can watch the entire clip without having your attention in any way drawn to the fact that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated exactly one week earlier.