Network Page #8

It's a lot better than handing out...

...mimeographed pamphlets

on ghetto street corners.

I'll have to take this matter

to the central Committee...

...and I'd better check it out

with the Great Ahmed Kahn.

I'll be in L.A. until Saturday,

and I'd like to get it rolling.

Okay?

Well, Ahmed,

you ain't gonna believe this.

But I'm gonna make

a TV star out of you.

Just like Archie Bunker.

You gonna be a household word.

What the f*** are you talking about?

Thirty seconds.

All right, ready VTA.

One, you have the audience to pan.

-Two, you have the window to pull.

Twenty-five.

Three, you're on the announcer.

Twenty.

Stand by, VTA.

Fifteen, 14, 13, 12...

-...eleven, 10, nine, eight, seven...

Roll VTA.

...six, five, four, three...

-...two, one.

Three, cue announcer.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it.

How do you feel?

We're mad as hell

and we're not going to take this anymore!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Network

News Hour with Sibyl the Soothsayer!

Jim Webbing and his

It's-the-Emes Truth Department.

Ms. Mata Hari

and her Skeletons in the Closet.

And tonight,

another segment of Vox Populi.

And starring the Mad Prophet

of the Airways, Howard Beale!

Edward George Ruddy died today.

Edward George Ruddy

was the chairman of the board...

...of the Union Broadcasting Systems

and he died at 11:00 this morning...

...of a heart condition, and woe is us,

we're in a lot of trouble.

So a rich little man with white hair died.

What has that got to do

with the price of rice, right?

And why is that woe to us?

Because you people...

...and 62 million other Americans

are listening to me right now.

Because less than 3 percent

of you people read books.

Because less than 15 percent of you

read newspapers.

Because the only truth you know

is what you get over this tube.

Right now, there is a whole

and entire generation...

...that never knew anything

that didn't come out of this tube.

This tube is the Gospel.

The ultimate revelation.

This tube can make or break presidents,

popes, prime ministers!

This tube is the most awesome

goddamn force...

...in the whole godless world!

And woe is us if it ever falls

into the hands of the wrong people.

And that's why woe is us

that Edward George Ruddy died.

Because this company is now

in the hands of CCA...

...the Communication Corporation

of America.

There's a new chairman.

A man called Frank Hackett...

...sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office

on the 20th floor!

And when the 12th largest company

in the world...

...controls the most awesome,

goddamn propaganda force...

...in the whole godless world...

...who knows what sh*t will be peddled

for truth on this network.

So you listen to me. Listen to me!

Television is not the truth.

Television's a goddamned

amusement park.

Television is a circus, a carnival,

a traveling troupe of acrobats...

...storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers,

sideshow freaks, lion-tamers...

...and football players.

We're in the boredom-killing business.

So if you want the truth, go to God.

Go to your gurus.

Go to yourselves.

Because that's the only place

you're ever gonna find any real truth.

But, man, you're never gonna get

any truth from us.

We'll tell you anything you want to hear.

We lie like hell.

We'll tell you that, uh,

Kojak always gets the killer...

...and that nobody ever gets cancer

in Archie Bunker's house.

No matter how much trouble

the hero is in, don't worry...

...just look at your watch,

at the end of the hour he's gonna win!

We'll tell you any sh*t you want to hear.

We deal in illusions, man.

None of it is true.

But you people sit there,

day after day, night after night...

...all ages, colors, creeds.

We're all you know.

You're beginning to believe

the illusions we're spinning here.

You're beginning to think the tube is

reality and that your own lives are unreal.

You do whatever the tube tells you.

Dress like the tube,

you eat like the tube...

...raise your children like the tube,

you think like the tube.

This is mass madness, you maniacs.

In God's name,

you people are the real thing.

We are the illusion.

So turn off your television sets.

Turn them off now.

Turn them off right now.

Turn them off and leave them off.

Turn them off right in the middle of

the sentence I'm speaking to you now.

Turn them off!

UBS was running

at a cash flow break-even point...

...after taking into account

$110 million...

...of negative cash flow

from the network.

It was clear the fat on the network

had to be flitched off.

Please note an increase in projected

initial programming revenues...

...in the amount of $21 million...

...due to the phenomenal success

of the Howard Beale Show.

I expect a positive cash flow

for the entire complex of 45 million...

...achievable in this fiscal year,

a year, in short, ahead of schedule.

I go beyond that.

This network may well be

the most significant profit center...

...of the communications complex.

And based upon the projected rate

of return on invested capital...

...and if merger

is eventually accomplished...

...the communications complex

may well become...

...the towering and most profitable center...

...in the entire CCA empire.

I await your questions and comments.

Mr. Jensen?

Very good, Frank. Exemplary. Keep it up.

Buy you a cup of coffee?

Hell, yes.

-Do you have to get back to the office?

-Nothing that can't wait.

I....

I drop down to the news studios

every now and then...

...and ask Howard Beale about you,

and he says you're doing fine. Are you?

No.

-Are you keeping busy?

-Oh, in a fashion.

This is the, uh, third funeral

I've been to in two weeks.

I have two other friends

in the hospital whom I visit regularly...

...and, uh, been to a couple of christenings.

All my friends seem to be dying

or having grandchildren.

You should be a grandfather yourself

about now.

You have a pregnant daughter

in Seattle, don't you?

Any day now.

My wife's out there for the occasion.

I've thought many times of calling you.

I wish you had.

You know, I bumped into Sibyl

the Soothsayer in the elevator last week.

I said, "You know, Sibyl,

about four months ago you predicted...

...I would get involved

with a craggy, middle-aged man...

...and so far, all that's happened

has been one many-splendored night.

I don't call that 'getting involved."'

And she said, "Don't worry, you will."

It was a many-splendored night,

wasn't it, Max?

Yes, it was.

Are we going to get involved, Max?

Yes.

I need to become involved very much.

How about you?

I've reached for the phone to call you

a hundred times.

I was sure you hated me for my part

in taking your news show away.

I probably did. I don't know anymore.

All I know is,

I can't get you out of my mind.

Marty.

Marty, I know what NBC offered them...

...so I'm saying go to 3.5...

...and I want an option

for a third run on all of them.

Marty, I'm in a big hurry and you and Charlie

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