Network Page #7

about five minutes ago.

Tell Snowden when he comes in

to let him go on.

Did you get that, Paul?

Six, five, four, three, two...

-...one.

VTA?

This has been the most divisive

meeting the oil states have ever had.

The 13 nations of OPEC have still

not been able to decide by how much...

...to increase the price of oil.

Saudi Arabian....

How much time we got?

--yesterday for further consultations

with his government.

He returned to the Vienna....

-This is Ed Fletcher in Vienna.

-Take two, cue Howard.

I don't have to tell you things are bad,

everybody knows things are bad.

It's a depression.

Everybody's out of work

or scared of losing their job.

The dollar buys a nickel's worth.

Banks are going bust.

Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.

Punks are running wild in the streets.

There's nobody anywhere who seems to

know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe

and our food is unfit to eat.

We sit watching our TVs while

some local newscaster tells us...

...that today we had 15 homicides

and 63 violent crimes...

...as if that's the way it's supposed to be.

We know things are bad.

Worse than bad, they're crazy.

Everything everywhere is going crazy,

so we don't go out anymore.

We sit in the house and the world

we're living in is getting smaller...

...and all we say is, "Please,

at least leave us alone in our living rooms.

Let me have my toaster and my TV,

and my steel-belted radials...

...and I won't say anything.

Just leave us alone!"

Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest, to riot.

Don't write to your congressmen.

I wouldn't know what to tell you.

I don't know what to do

about the depression...

...and the Russians,

and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first,

you've got to get mad.

You've got to say, "I'm a human being,

goddamn it. My life has value."

So I want you to get up now.

I want all of you to get up

out of your chairs.

I want you to get up right now

and go to the window...

...open it and stick your head out

and yell:

"I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

-I want you to get up right now, get up...

-Stay with him.

...go to your windows, open them

and stick your head out and yell:

"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going

to take this anymore!"

-Things have got to change....

-How many stations does this go to?

Sixty-seven.

It goes to Louisville and Atlanta.

"We're not going to take this!"

Then we'll figure out the depression

and the inflation...

...and the oil crisis,

but first get up out of your chairs...

...open the window, stick your head out

and yell and say it!

"I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

-Who are you talking to, Herb?

WCGG, Atlanta.

-They yelling in Atlanta?

-Are they yelling in Atlanta?

But first you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say:

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going

to take this anymore!"

They're yelling in Baton Rouge.

Goddamn it.

Get up, get up out of your chairs.

Son of a b*tch,

we struck the mother lode!

Stick your head out of the window,

stick your head out.

And keep yelling and yell:

"I'm as mad as hell.

I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

Just get up from your chairs,

right now, go to the window!

-Where you going?

-I wanna see if anybody's yelling.

Open it, and stick your head out,

and yell, and keep yelling--

I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take this anymore!

I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

I'm as mad as hell.

I'm not gonna take it anymore!

I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

I'm not gonna take it anymore.

I'm mad as hell!

I'm mad as hell!

I'm mad as hell!

I'm mad as hell!

I'm mad as hell!

I'm mad as hell!

I'm mad as hell!

I'm not gonna take this anymore.

I'm mad as hell!

I'm not gonna take this anymore.

By mid-October...

...the Howard Beale Show

had settled in on a 42 share...

...more than equaling all the other

network news shows combined.

In the Nielsen ratings,

the Howard Beale Show...

...was listed as the fourth highest

rated show of the month...

...surpassed only

by The Six Million Dollar Man...

...All in the Family and Phyllis.

A phenomenal state of affairs

for a news show.

And on October 15,

Diana Christensen flew to Los Angeles...

...for what the trade calls

powwows and confabs...

...with our West Coast

programming execs...

...and to get production rolling

on the shows for the coming season.

Christ.

You brought half the William Morris

West Coast office along with you.

Hi, I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey

of the imperialist ruling circles.

I'm Laureen Hobbs,

a bad-ass commie n*gger.

Sounds like the basis of a firm friendship.

We're gonna need more chairs.

-Anybody want coffee?

I'd love some.

You changed your tailor.

Coffee? Okay.

Want to come take some coffee orders?

This is my lawyer, Sam Haywood,

and his associate, Merrill Grant.

Ms. Christensen,

just what the hell's this all about?

Because when

a national television network...

...in the person of booby here,

comes to me...

...and says they want to put the ongoing

struggle of the oppressed masses...

...on prime-time television,

I have to regard this askance.

What Mr. Haywood was saying,

Ms. Christensen, was that our client...

...Ms. Hobbs, wants it up-front

that the political content of the show...

...has to be entirely in her control.

She can have it. I don't give a damn

about the political content.

-What kind of show did you have in mind?

-I'm interested in a weekly dramatic series...

...based on the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

And I'll tell you right now...

...what the first show has to be:

a special on Mary Ann Gifford.

Let me tell you what I want.

I want a lot more film like the bank rip-off

the Ecumenical sent in.

The way I see the series is...

...each week we open with an authentic act

of political terrorism...

...taken on the spot,

in the actual moment.

Then we go to the drama

behind the opening film footage.

That's your job, Ms. Hobbs.

You gotta get the Ecumenicals to bring in

that film footage for us.

The network can't deal with them directly.

They are, after all, wanted criminals.

The Ecumenical Liberation Army

is an ultra-left sect...

...creating political confusion with wildcat

violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts...

...which the Communist Party

does not endorse.

The American masses are not yet ready

for open revolt.

We would not want to produce

a television show...

...celebrating historically

deviational terrorism.

I'm offering an hour

of prime-time television every week...

...into which you can stick

whatever propaganda.

The Ecumenicals are an undisciplined

ultra-left gang...

...whose leader is an eccentric,

to say the least.

He calls himself the Great Ahmed Kahn

and wears a hussar's shako.

Ms. Hobbs, we're talking about

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