Network Page #12

Terrific, Max! Maybe you can start

a whole new career as an actor.

It's the truth.

After living with you for six months,

I'm turning into one of your scripts.

Well, this is not a script, Diana.

There's some real, actual life

going on here.

I went to visit my wife today

because she's in a state of depression...

...so depressed that my daughter flew

all the way from Seattle to be with her.

And I feel lousy about that.

I feel lousy about the pain

that I've caused my wife and my kids.

I feel guilty and conscience-stricken...

...and all of those things

that you think sentimental...

...but which my generation

calls simple, human decency.

And I miss my home...

...because I'm beginning

to get scared shitless.

Because all of a sudden it's closer

to the end than it is to the beginning.

And death is suddenly

a perceptible thing to me...

...with definable features.

You're dealing with a man

that has primal doubts, Diana...

...and you've got to cope with it.

I'm not some guy discussing male

menopause on the Barbara Walters Show.

I'm the man that you presumably love.

I'm part of your life.

I live here. I'm real.

You can't switch to another station.

What exactly is it you want me to do?

I just want you to love me.

I just want you to love me,

primal doubts and all.

You understand that, don't you?

I don't know how to do that.

I'll be with you in a minute, Max.

By the first week in July...

...the Howard Beale Show

was down 11 points.

Hysteria swept through the network.

He's a plague. He's smallpox.

He's typhoid.

I don't wanna follow his goddamn show.

I want out of that 8:00 spot.

I've got enough troubles

without Howard Beale as a lead-in!

Scheduled me against

Tony Orlando and Dawn.

NBC's got Little House on the Prairie.

ABC's got The Bionic Woman.

Do something! You gotta do something

about Howard Beale!

Get him off the air! Get him off!

Do something! Do anything!

We're trying to find a replacement

for him!

I'm going to look

at audition footage now!

And how when the sicks heal...

...man, I tell you I saw it!

It was heavy, baby.

I saw the earth quake.

And I saw the moon became like blood.

And every mountain and island

was moved from its place.

No, no, no. Damn it.

If we wanted hellfire

we'd get Billy Graham!

Don't want faith healers, evangelists

or Oberammergau passion players!

What about that messiah

that ABC was supposed to have signed up...

-...as our competition for next year?

That's him.

-The bottomless pit is here.

That's him?

His ass ending.

Jesus. Turn him off!

I've got three more,

but you've already seen the best ones.

I've got a guru from Spokane

and two more hellfires...

...who see visions of the Virgin Mary.

We're not gonna find a replacement for

Howard Beale. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

Fully fledged messiahs

don't come in bunches.

We either go with Howard Beale

or we go without him.

My reports say

we'll do better without him.

It would be disaster to let this situation

go on another week.

By then, he'll be down 16 points...

...and the trend irreversible,

if it isn't already.

I think we should fire Howard.

Arthur Jensen has taken a strong personal

interest in the Howard Beale Show.

I'm having dinner with him tonight.

Let me have another crack at Jensen...

...and then let's meet in my office

at 10:
00 tonight.

Diana, give me copies

of all your audience research reports.

I may need them for Jensen.

Is 10:
00 convenient for everyone?

I think the time has come

to re-evaluate our relationship, Max.

So I see.

I don't like the way this script of ours

is turning out.

It's turning into a seedy little drama.

Middle-aged man leaves wife and family

for young heartless woman, goes to pot.

The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich

and Emil Jannings. I don't like it.

-So you're gonna cancel the show.

-Right.

Here, let me do that.

The simple fact is, Max,

that you're a family man.

You like a home and kids. That's beautiful.

I'm incapable of any such commitment.

All you'll get from me is

a couple months of intermittent sex...

...and recriminate and ugly little scenes

like the one we had last night.

I'm sorry for all those things

I said to you last night.

You're not the worst f*** I've ever had.

Believe me, I've had worse.

You don't puff or snorkle...

...and make death-like rattles.

As a matter of fact,

you're rather serene in the sack.

Why is it that a woman always thinks...

...that the most savage thing she can say

to a man is to impugn his cocksmanship?

Well, I'm sorry I impugned

your cocksmanship.

I gave up comparing genitals

back in the schoolyard.

You're being docile as hell about this.

Oh, hell, Diana,

I knew it was over with us weeks ago.

Will you go back to your wife?

I'll give it a try,

but I don't think she'll jump at it.

But don't worry about me. I'll manage.

I always have, I always will.

I'm more concerned about you.

You're not the boozer type.

So I figure a year, maybe two,

before you crack up.

Or jump out of your 14th floor

office window.

Stop selling, Max. I don't need you.

I don't want your pain. I don't want

your menopausal decay and death!

I don't need you, Max.

-Now get out of here!

-You need me! You need me badly.

Because I'm your last contact

with human reality.

I love you.

And that painful, decaying love

is the only thing between you...

...and the shrieking nothingness

you live the rest of the day.

Then don't leave me.

It's too late, Diana.

There's nothing left in you

that I can live with.

You're one of Howard's humanoids...

...and if I stay with you,

I'll be destroyed.

Like Howard Beale was destroyed.

Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed.

Like everything that you

and the institution of television touch...

...is destroyed.

You're television incarnate, Diana.

Indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy.

All of life is reduced

to the common rubble of banality.

War, murder, death...

...all the same to you

as bottles of beer.

And the daily business of life

is a corrupt comedy.

You even shatter the sensations

of time and space...

...into split seconds and instant replays.

You're madness, Diana.

Virulent madness.

And everything you touch dies with you.

But not me.

Not as long

as I can feel pleasure and pain...

...and love.

And it's a happy ending.

Wayward husband comes to his senses...

...returns to his wife...

...with whom he's established

a long and sustaining love.

Heartless young woman left alone

in her arctic desolation.

Music up with a swell.

Final commercial.

And here are a few scenes

from next week's show.

How did it go?

Mr. Jensen was unhappy at the idea

of taking Howard Beale off the air.

Mr. Jensen thinks Howard Beale

is bringing a very important message...

...to the American people.

So he wants Howard Beale on the air

and he wants him kept on.

Mr. Jensen feels we're too catastrophic

in our thinking.

I argued that television was a volatile

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