Network Page #5

wouldn't take such steps...

...without some support

on the CCA board.

I'll have to go directly to Mr. Jensen.

When that happens,

I'm going to need every friend I've got.

And I certainly don't want Hackett's

people in all of the divisional positions.

So I'd like you to stay on, Max.

Of course, Ed.

Thank you, Max.

This has been the UBS

evening news with Howard Beale.

The initial response to the new

Howard Beale Show was not auspicatory.

The press was without exception hostile

and the industry reaction negative.

The ratings for the Thursday

and Friday shows were both 14.

But Monday's rating dropped a point...

...clearly suggesting

the novelty was wearing off.

Did you know there are

a number of psychics...

...working as licensed brokers

on Wall Street?

Some of them counsel their clients

by use of tarot cards.

They're all pretty successful,

even in a bear market and selling short.

I met one of them last week

and thought of doing a show around her.

The Wayward Witch of Wall Street,

something like that.

If her tips were any good,

she could wreck the market.

So I called her this morning and asked her

how she was on predicting the future.

She said she was occasionally prescient.

For example, she said:

"I just had a fleeting vision of you...

...sitting in an office

with a craggy middle-aged man...

...with whom you are,

or will be, emotionally involved."

And here I am.

And she does all this with tarot cards?

No. This one operates on parapsychology.

She has trance-like episodes

and feels things in her energy field.

I think this lady could

be very useful to you, Max.

-In what way?

-Well...

...you put on a news show

and here's somebody who can predict...

...tomorrow's news for you.

Her name, aptly enough, is Sibyl.

Sibyl the Soothsayer.

You could give her two minutes of trance

at the end of a Howard Beale Show...

...say, once a week, Friday...

...which is suggestively occult,

and she could oraculate.

Then next week everyone tunes in to see

how good her predictions were.

Maybe she could do the weather.

Your Network News is going to need

some help, Max, if it's gonna hold.

Beale doesn't do

the angry-man thing well at all.

He's too, uh, kvetchy. He's being irascible.

We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon.

He should do more apocalyptic doom.

I think you should take on a couple of

writers to write some jeremiads for him.

I see you don't fancy my suggestions.

Hell, you're not serious, are you?

Oh, I'm serious.

The fact is I could make your Beale Show

the highest-rated news show...

...in television,

if you'd let me have a crack at it.

-What do you mean, "have a crack at it"?

-I'd like to program it for you. Develop it.

I wouldn't interfere with the actual news

itself, but TV is showbiz, Max.

And even the news

has to have a little showmanship.

My God, you are serious.

Oh. I watched your 6:00 news today.

It's straight tabloid.

You had a minute and a half of that lady

riding a bike naked in Central Park.

You had less than a minute of hard national

and international news.

It was all sex, scandal,

brutal crimes, sports...

...children with incurable diseases

and lost puppies.

I don't think I'll listen to any protestations

of high standards of journalism...

...when you're soliciting audiences

like the rest of us.

All I'm saying is, if you're gonna hustle,

at least do it right.

I'm gonna bring this up

at tomorrow's meeting.

I don't like network hassles. I was hoping

you and I could work this out.

Now that's why I'm here.

And I was hoping that you were looking

for an emotional involvement...

...with a craggy middle-aged man.

Oh, I wouldn't rule that out entirely.

All right, Diana.

You bring up all your ideas

at the meeting tomorrow...

...because if you don't, I will.

I think Howard's making

a goddamn fool of himself...

...and so does everybody

that Howard and I know in this industry.

It was a fluke. It didn't work.

So tomorrow,

Howard goes back to the old format...

...and all of this gutter depravity

comes to an end.

Okay.

I don't get it, Diana.

You hung around until 7:30

and then came all the way down here...

...just to pitch a couple

of loony showbiz ideas...

...when you knew goddamn well

I'd laugh you right out of the office.

I don't get it.

What's your scam in this?

Max, my little visit here tonight...

...was a gesture made out of your stature

in the industry...

...and because I personally admired you

since I was a kid majoring in speech...

...at the University of Missouri.

Sooner or later, with or without you...

...I'm going to take over

your Network News show...

...and I figured

I might as well start tonight.

I, uh, think I once gave a lecture...

...at the University of Missouri.

I was in the audience.

I had a terrible schoolgirl crush

on you for a couple of months.

If we could get back for a moment

to that gypsy...

...who predicted all that about, uh, emotional

involvements and middle-aged men.

What are you doing for dinner tonight?

I can't make it tonight, love.

Call me tomorrow.

-Do you have a favorite restaurant?

-I eat anything.

Son of a b*tch,

I get a feeling I'm being made.

You are.

Ah, I've got to warn you,

I don't do anything on my first date.

We'll see.

Schmuck, what are you getting into?

I was married for four years

and pretended to be happy...

...and had six years of analysis

and pretended to be sane.

My husband ran off with his boyfriend...

...and I had an affair with my analyst.

He told me I was the worst lay

he'd ever had.

I can't tell you how many men

have told me what a lousy lay I am.

I apparently have

a masculine temperament.

I arouse quickly,

consummate prematurely...

...and can't wait to get my clothes back on

and get out of that bedroom.

I seem to be inept at everything

except my work.

I'm good at my work.

So I confine myself to that.

All I want out of life

is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

You're married, surely?

Twenty-five years.

I have a married daughter in Seattle

who's six months pregnant...

...a younger girl who's starting

at Northwestern in January.

Well, Max, here we are.

Middle-aged man reaffirming

his middle-aged manhood...

...and a terrified young woman

with a father complex.

What sort of script do you think

we can make out of this?

Corridor gossip, uh, says that you are

Frank Hackett's backstage girl.

Ha, ha. I'm not.

Frank is a corporation man,

body and soul.

He has no loves, lusts or allegiances

that are not consummately directed...

...toward becoming a CCA board member.

So why should he bother with me?

I'm not even a stockholder.

What about your loves,

lusts and allegiances?

Is your wife in town?

Yes.

Well, then, we better go to my place.

I can't hear you.

You will have to talk a little louder.

Yes. I hear you.

Yes.

Yes.

Why me?

I said, "Why me?"

Okay.

Howard in his office?

Oh, Harry, I'm killing this whole

screwball, angry-prophet thing.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote