Network Page #2

Right now,

how do we get Beale out of here?

I understand there's at least a hundred

reporters and camera crews in the lobby.

We got a limo at the freight exit.

Howard, you're gonna spend the night

at my place.

There's bound to be press around yours.

I want Snowden here by noon.

Have Lester cover the CIA hearings...

...and give the White House to Doris.

You're late for your screening, Max.

Right. Okay.

If John Wheeler calls,

switch him to Projection Room 7.

Margot, come in here a minute.

-I'm sorry. This Beale business....

-It's all right.

Sit down.

Diana asked if she could sit in on this.

Fine. How's it going?

I think you'll like this footage better

than the stuff I showed you last time, Max.

Max Schumacher.

Goddamn it. When, Louise?

Laureen?

Well, did he say anything?

--Communist Party to be these--

All right, thank you.

--splintered underground groups?

The Communist Party believes...

...that the most pressing

political necessity today...

...is the consolidation

of the revolutionary, radical...

...and democratic movements

into a united front.

Harry, Howard Beale left my house

about 20 minutes ago. Has he come in yet?

--of the bourgeois democratic state....

Well, let me know when he arrives, huh?

That's Laureen Hobbs, isn't it?

Yeah. This is from

a David Susskind thing a while back.

I think we can use some of this stuff.

--by the broadest possible coalition....

What we're going to see now

is something really sensational.

The Flagstaff Independent Bank of Arizona

was ripped off last week...

...by a terrorist group called

the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

They actually took movies of the rip-off

while they were ripping it off.

-Wait till you see it.

-The Ecumenical Liberation Army.

That's not the one

that kidnapped Patty Hearst?

No, no.

That's the Symbionese Liberation Army.

This is the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

They're the ones who kidnapped

Mary Ann Gifford three weeks ago.

There's a lot of liberation armies

in the revolutionary underground...

...and a lot of kidnapped heiresses.

This is Mary Ann Gifford.

That's the Great Ahmed Kahn,

he's their leader.

You mean, they actually shot this film...

...while they were ripping off the bank?

Wait till you see it. I don't know

whether to edit or leave it raw like this.

This is terrific stuff.

Where did you get it?

I got everything through Laureen Hobbs.

She's my contact for all this stuff.

-Yeah?

I've got Howard on the other line.

All right, put him on.

Howard, I've got Max on 4.

Would you pick up?

-Listen, Max, I'd like another shot.

-Oh, come on, Howard.

I don't mean the whole show....

I'd just like to come on,

make some brief farewell statement...

...and then turn the show over

to Jack Snowden.

I have 11 years at this network, Max.

I have some standing in the industry.

I just don't wanna go out like a clown.

It'll be simple, dignified.

You and Harry can check the copy.

I think it'll take the strain

off the show, Max.

Well, what do you think?

Well, okay.

And no booze today, Howard.

No booze.

Summaries have been received.

We're forwarding them....

George, can, uh, you come into my office

for a minute?

Right.

-Barbara, is Tommy around anywhere?

-I think so.

I'd like to see the two of you

for a moment.

Uh, this is Bill Herron from our

West Coast Special Programs Department.

George Bosch, Barbara Schlesinger,

Tommy Pellegrino.

Look, I just saw some rough footage

of a special Bill's doing...

...on the revolutionary underground.

Most is tedious stuff...

...of Laureen Hobbs and two fatigue jackets

muttering mutilated Marxism.

But he's got about eight minutes

of a bank robbery...

...that is absolutely sensational.

Authentic stuff.

Actually shot

while the robbery was going on.

You remember

the Mary Ann Gifford kidnapping?

It's that bunch of nuts. She's in the movie

shooting off machine guns.

Really terrific footage. I think we can get

a hell of a Movie of the Week out of it...

...maybe even a series.

A series out of what?

What are we talking about?

Look, we've got a bunch

of hobgoblin radicals...

...called the Ecumenical

Liberation Army...

...who go around taking home movies

of themselves robbing banks.

And maybe they'll take movies

of themselves kidnapping heiresses...

...um, hijacking 747s, bombing bridges,

assassinating ambassadors.

We'd open each week's segment

with that authentic footage...

...hire writers to write some story

behind that footage...

...and we've got ourselves a series.

A series about a bunch

of, uh, bank-robbing guerillas?

What are we gonna call it,

The Mao Tse-Tung Hour?

-Ha, ha!

Why not?

They've got Strike Force, Task Force,

SWAT, why not Che Guevara...

...and his own little mod squad?

Look, I sent you all

a concept-analysis report yesterday.

Did any of you read it?

Well, in a nutshell, it said

the American people are turning sullen.

They've been clobbered by Vietnam,

Watergate, inflation, the Depression.

They've turned off, shot up and f***ed

themselves limp. And nothing helps.

So this concept-analysis report concludes

the American people want somebody...

...to articulate their rage for them.

I've been telling you people

since I took this job six months ago...

...that I want angry shows.

I don't want conventional programming

on this network, I want counterculture.

I want antiestablishment.

I don't wanna play butch boss

with you people.

When I took over this department...

...it had the worst programming record

in television history.

This network hasn't one show

in the top 20.

This network is an industry joke.

And we better start putting together

one winner for next September.

I want a show developed based

on the activities of a terrorist group.

Joseph Stalin

and his merry band of Bolsheviks.

I want ideas from you people.

That is what you're paid for.

And, by the way, the next time I send

an audience research report around...

...you'd all better read it, or I'll sack

the f***ing lot of you, is that clear?

I'll be out on the coast in, uh, four weeks.

Will you set up a meeting

with Laureen Hobbs?

Sure.

But the business of management

is management.

And at the time CCA took control

of the UBS TV Network...

...it was foundering with less than

...most network programs being sold

at station rates.

I am pleased to announce I am

submitting to the board of directors...

...a plan for the coordination

of the main profit centers.

And with the specific intention...

...of making each division

more responsive to management.

Point one.

The division producing the lowest rate

of return has been the news division...

...with its $98 million budget and

its average annual deficit of 32 million.

I know that, historically, news divisions

are expected to lose money.

But to our minds, this philosophy

is a wanton fiscal affront...

...to be resolutely resisted.

The new plan calls for local news to be

transferred to owned stations' divisions.

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