Network Page #4

Did you see the Times?

We've got press on this you couldn't buy

for a million dollars. Frank.

That dumb show jumped

five rating points in one night.

Tonight's show has gotta be at least 15.

We just increased our audience

by 20 or 30 million people in one night.

You're not gonna get this

dumped in your lap...

...for the rest of your days.

You can't piss it away.

Howard Beale said

what every American feels...

...that he's tired of all the bullshit.

He's articulating the popular rage.

I want that show, Frank. I can turn that

show into the biggest smash on television.

What do you mean? It's a news show.

It's not your department.

I see Howard Beale

as a latter-day prophet.

A magnificent, messianic figure inveighing

against the hypocrisies of our times.

A strip Savonarola,

Monday through Friday...

...that I tell you, Frank,

could just go through the roof...

...and I'm talking about a $6 cost

per thousand show.

I'm talking about a hundred--

A 130,000-dollar minutes.

Do you wanna figure out

the revenues of a strip show...

...that sells for 100,000 bucks a minute?

One show like that could pull

this network out of the hole.

Frank, it's being handed to us on a plate.

Let's not blow it.

Yes?

Tell him I'll be a few minutes.

Let me think it over.

Frank, let's not go to committee on this.

It's 20 after 10.

We want Beale in that studio.

We don't wanna lose the momentum.

For God's sake, Diana...

...we're talking about putting a manifestly

irresponsible man on national television.

I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs at least

and Herb Thackeray...

...and certainly Joe Donnelly

in Standards and Practices.

And you know, I'm going to be eyeball

to eyeball with Mr. Ruddy on this.

If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy,

I wanna make sure of some of my ground.

I'm the one whose ass is going on the line.

I'll get back to you, Diana.

I don't believe this.

I don't believe the top brass...

...of a national television network

are sitting around their salads--

The top brass of a bankrupt

national television network...

...with projected losses

of close to $150 million.

I don't care how bankrupt.

You can't be seriously proposing,

and the rest of us seriously considering...

...putting on a pornographic

Network News show.

-The FCC'd kill us.

-Sit down, Nelson.

The FCC can't do anything

except rap our knuckles.

I don't even wanna think about

the litigious possibilities, Frank.

-Could be up to our ears in lawsuits.

-The affiliates won't carry it.

Affiliates will kiss your ass,

if you can hand them a hit show.

The popular reaction--

We don't know the popular reaction.

We have to find out.

The New York Times--

The New York Times

doesn't advertise on our network.

All I know is this violates every canon

of respectable broadcasting.

We're not a respectable network.

We're a whorehouse network.

We have to take whatever we can get.

Well, I don't want any part of it.

I don't fancy myself

the president of a whorehouse.

That's very commendable of you, Nelson.

Now, sit down.

Your indignation has been duly recorded.

You can always resign tomorrow.

Now look,

what in substance are we proposing?

Merely to add editorial comment

to our Network News show.

Brinkley, Sevareid, Reasoner,

all have their comments.

Now Howard Beale will have his.

I think we ought to give it a shot.

Let's see what happens tonight.

Telephone, please.

I don't wanna be the messenger

that has to tell Max Schumacher.

Max doesn't work

at this network anymore.

Mr. Ruddy fired him last night.

Bob McDonough's running

the news division now.

Bob McDonough in News, please.

Oh, I don't know.

I may teach or I may write a book...

...whatever the hell one does

when one approaches...

...the autumn of one's years.

My God, is that me?

-Was I ever that young?

-Ha, ha.

No. Howard just brought

in a picture of Ed Murrow...

...and the whole CBS gang

when we were there.

You wouldn't believe it.

Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner,

Hollenbeck, Bob Trout.

-Is that you, Howard?

-Mm-hm.

Yeah.

-Okay, Dick, we'll be in touch. Right.

-You remember this kid?

He's the kid I think you once sent out to

interview Cleveland Amory on vivisection.

What's so funny?

So I jump out of bed in my pajamas,

I grab my raincoat, I run downstairs.

I run out in the street and I hail a cab.

And I jumped in and I yell at the driver:

"Take me to the middle

of the George Washington Bridge."

And the driver turns around and he says:

"Don't do it, buddy, don't do it.

You're young,

you got your whole life ahead of you."

Ha-ha-ha!

Wait a minute! Wait a minute!

If you think that's funny--

No, if you think that's funny,

wait till you hear this.

I've just come back

from Frank Hackett's office.

He wants to put Howard on the air.

-You're kidding.

-Apparently...

...the ratings went up

five points last night...

...and he wants Howard to go back on

and do his angry-man thing.

What are you talking about?

I'm telling you. They want Howard

to go back on and yell "bullshit."

They want Howard to go on spontaneously

letting out his anger.

A latter-day prophet denouncing

the hypocrisies of our times.

Hey, that sounds pretty good.

Who's this "they"?

Hackett. Chaney was there.

The Legal Affairs guy.

Oh, and that girl from Programming.

Christensen?

What's she got to do with this?

You're kidding, aren't you?

-I'm not kidding.

I told them. I said:

"Look, we're running a news department,

not a circus.

And Howard Beale's not a bearded lady.

If you think I'm gonna go along

with this bastardization...

...you can have my resignation along

with Max Schumacher's right now.

I think I'm speaking for Howard Beale

and everybody else--"

That's my job you're turning down.

I'd go nuts without some kind of work.

What's wrong with being an angry prophet

denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

What do you think, Max?

Do you want to be an angry prophet

denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

Yeah, I think I'd like to be an angry prophet

denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

Then grab it. Grab it!

-Afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.

-Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.

-He's waiting for you, Mr. Ruddy.

Thank you.

Nelson Chaney tells me Beale

may actually go on the air this evening.

As far as I know,

Howard's going to do it.

You going to sit still for this, Ed?

Yes.

I think Hackett's overstepped himself.

There's some kind of corporate

maneuvering going on, Max.

Hackett is clearly forcing a confrontation.

That would account for his behavior

at the stockholders' meeting.

However, I think he's making a serious

mistake with this Beale business.

I suspect CCA will be upset

at Hackett's presumptuousness.

Certainly Mr. Jensen will.

So I'm going to let Hackett

have his head for a while.

He just might lose it over

this Beale business.

I'd like you to reconsider

your resignation, Max.

I assume that Hackett

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