Network

THE GREAT KHAN
(flipping through his copy)

Let's get to page twenty-two, five, small a, subsidiary rights.

Everybody starts flipping through their contracts.

LENNIE

Where are we now?

WALLIE

Page twenty-two, middle of the page, subsidiary rights –

(begins to read)

"As used herein, 'subsidiary rights' means, without limitation, any and all rights with respect to theatrical motion picture rights, radio broadcasting, legitimate stage performances, printed publications (including, but not limited to, hard-cover books, but excluding paperback books and comic books) and/or any other uses of a similar or dissimilar nature –

EXT. FRONT OF THE CENTURY PLAZA HOTEL – WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 – 6:00 P.M. – DAY

A HOTEL MARQUEE which reads: "WELCOME UBS AFFILIATES CONVENTION"

Across the marquee, looking down on the CRUSH of station managers, program executives and sales vice-presidents from the various affiliates, all tuxedoed and evening-gowned and milling about. Spotted in the cheerful CRUSH can be seen Diana, Mr. and Mrs. Amundsen, Mr. and Mrs. Zangwill, jollying it up with the affiliates' executives and their wives –

INT. GRAND BALLROOM – COCKTAIL AREA – CENTURY PLAZA HOTEL

A huge BANNER reading "UBS AFFILIATES 1975" hanging high over the ballroom.

PAN DOWN to show 1000 tuxedoed and evening-gowned PEOPLE, mostly middle-aged in the vast shuffle of cocktail time – HUBBUB, intermingling flux and a slow general shuffling surge through the doors leading into –

INT. GRAND BALLROOM

CLOSER ANGLE

Of the CRUSH of PEOPLE at the doors. Herbert Thackeray, (VP Stations Relations,) and Norman Moldanian (VP Owned Stations,) with their WIVES and carrying their drinks and exchanging pleasantries with the GENERAL MANAGER of WJGL Cincinnati and his WIFE and the GENERAL MANAGER of KBEX Albuquerque and his WIFE as well as the SALES MANAGER of that station and his WIFE. High CHATTER and HUBBUB, lots of hearty chuckles and general Rotarian bonhomie. In b.g., Frank Hackett and his WIFE exchanging Rotarian bonhomie with some other GENERAL MANAGERS and PROGRAM DIRECTORS and SALES MANAGERS of various affiliates and their WIVES –

ANOTHER ANGLE

As Diana, evening-gowned, beautiful, glowing and effulgent, leans down from her place on the dais to accept congratulatory comments from the Sales Manager of KGIM, Boise, and his wife standing on the floor level –

SALES MANAGER

(pumping Diana's hand)

– Millard Villanova, Sales Manager, KGIM, Boise – my wife, here, Maureen –

DIANA

My pleasure –

SALES MANAGER

I just want to tell you we saw your great stuff this afternoon, Di – it was great –

DIANA

Great, Millard –

She turns to accept some more enthusiastic greetings from another GENERAL MANAGER and his WIFE being brought down the dais to her by Walter Amundsen, (General Counsel Network) –

WIDE ANGLE SHOT

Of the whole ballroom, dark, everybody seated at their tables now, listening to an address by Nelson Chaney (President UBS Network), a spotlighted figure at the podium –

CHANEY

– Over the past two days, you've all had opportunity to meet Diana Christenson, our Vice President in charge of programming. This afternoon, you all saw some of the stuff she's set up for the new season –

CLOSER SHOT

Of Chaney –

CHANEY

You all know she's the woman behind the Howard Beale show. We know she's beautiful. We know she's brainy. I just think, before we start digging into our Chateaubriands, we ought to let her know how we feel about her –

An OVATION from the AUDIENCE. In response to Chaney's beckoning, Diana rises from her chair in the glistening shadows of the dais and comes down to the podium. She stands there – showered with APPLAUSE, beaming, exultant –

DIANA

We've got the number one show in television!

(applause)

And, at next year's affiliates' meeting, I'll be standing here telling you we've got the top five!

(tumult)

ANOTHER ANGLE ACROSS Hackett at the dais with Diana in b.g. An ASSISTANT MANAGER leans across Hackett and murmurs to him –

DIANA

Last year, we were the number four network – next year, we're number one!

(tumult)

Hackett rises, murmurs apologies to his neighbors, follows the Assistant Manager through the shadows of the dais and heads out –

DIANA

It is exactly seven o'clock here in Los Angeles. And right now over a million homes using television in this city are turning their dials to channel 3– and that's our channel!

MUSIC: A RATAPLAN OF KETTLEDRUMS AND A TARANTARA OF TRUMPETS.

INT. COCKTAIL AREA OF THE GRAND BALLROOM

A portable Teevee set perched on a bar –
 

ANNOUNCER (ON TV)

Ladies and gentlemen! – let's hear it! – how do you feel?! –

STUDIO AUDIENCE (ON TV)

(happily roaring out)

We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take this any more!

PULL BACK to show we are in the vast cocktail area of the Grand Ballroom, now being cleared away by a staff of WAITERS and BUSBOYS – hors d'oeuvres, spreads and booze being carried away, table and chairs being packed off, linens being whisked and folded. A couple of waiters are watching the Howard Beale show on the portable TV set perched on the room's bar –

STUDIO ANNOUNCER (ON TV)

Ladies and gentlemen – the mad prophet of the airways – Howard Beale!

On the TV set, the house lights go down, the curtain rises, and, as before, bare stage, shimmering stained glass window, an ethereal shaft of light, and Howard Beale in his austere black suit trudges out and explodes –

HOWARD (ON TV)

All right, listen to me! Listen carefully! This is your goddam life I'm talking about today! In this country, when one company takes over another company, they simply buy up a controlling share of the stock. But first they have to file notice with the government. That's how C.C. and A. – the Communications Corporation of America – bought up the company that owns this network. And now somebody's buying up C.C. and A! Some company named Western World Funding Corporation is buying up C.C. and A! They filed their notice this morning! Well, just who the hell is Western World Funding Corporation? It's a consortium of banks and insurance companies who are not buying C.C. and A. for themselves but as agents for somebody else!

LONG WIDE ANGLE SHOT with TV set in f.g. showing the spacious cocktail area being cleared away, as far across the room the doors to the Ballroom open and Hackett follows the Assistant Manager in. Hackett lingers at the doors while the Assistant Manager gets a WAITER to bring a jack phone to one of the tables still standing –

HOWARD (ON TV)

Well, who's this somebody else? They won't tell you! They won't tell you, they won't tell the Senate, they won't tell the SEC, the FCC, the Justice Department, they won't tell anybody! They say it's none of our business! The hell it ain't! –

REVERSE ACROSS Hackett as a jack phone is brought to his table; the cluster around the TV set in b.g.

HACKETT
(on phone)

This is Mr. Hackett, do you have a New York call for me?

(calls to cluster around TV set)

Do you want to turn that down, please –

REVERSE ACROSS TV set with Hackett in b.g.

HOWARD (ON TV)

(volume a bit down)

Well, I'll tell you who they're buying C.C. and A. for. They're buying it for the Saudi-Arabian Investment Corporation! They're buying it for the Arabs!

REVERSE ON Hackett.

HACKETT

(on phone, the hearty executive)

Clarence? Frank Hackett here I How's everything back in New York? How's the good lady? –

(his face sobers)

– All right, take it easy, Clarence, I don't know what you're talking about... When?... Clarence, take it easy. The Howard Beale show's just going on out here. You guys get it three hours earlier in New York... Clarence, take it easy. How the hell could I see it? It's just on now – Well, when did Mr. Jensen call you?

REVERSE ACROSS TV set. In b.g., Hackett has hung up and is slowly walking toward the group around the TV set –

HOWARD (ON TV)

– We know the Arabs control more than sixteen billion dollars in this country! They own a chunk of Fifth Avenue, twenty downtown pieces of Boston, a part of the port of New Orleans, an industrial park in Salt Lake city. They own big hunks of the Atlanta Hilton, the Arizona Land and cattle Company, the Security National Bank in California, the Bank of the Commonwealth in Detroit! They control ARAMCO, so that puts them into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil oil! They're all over – New Jersey, Louisville, St.Louis, Missouri! And that's only what we know about! There's a hell of a lot more we don't know about because all those Arab petro-dollars are washed through Switzerland and Canada and the biggest banks in this country!

Hackett peers over the shoulder of a WAITER to watch the television show –

HOWARD (ON TV)

For example, what we don't know about is this C.C.A. deal and all the other C.C.A. deals!

(Hackett winces)

Right now, the Arabs have screwed us out of enough American dollars to come back and, with our own money, buy General Motors, IBM, ITT, A T and T, Dupont, U.S. Steel, and twenty other top American companies. Hell, they already own half of England.

INT. A VIDEOTAPE ROOM – UBS BUILDING – LOS ANGELES

Hackett, Nelson Chaney and Walter Amundsen, all tuxedoed, and Diana, evening-gowned, sit and stand in the dark smallish room, cluttered with electronic equipment, watching a replay of the Howard Beale show on the big screen. TWO TECHNICIANS fiddle with their equipment –

HOWARD (ON SCREEN)

Now, listen to me, goddammit! The Arabs are simply buying us! They're buying all our land, our whole economy, the press, the factories, financial institutions, the government! They're going to own us! A handful of agas, shahs and emirs who despise this country and everything it stands for – democracy, freedom, the right for me to get up on television and tell you about it – a couple of dozen medieval fanatics are going to own where you work, where you live, what you read, what you see, your cars, your bowling alleys, your mortgages, your schools, your churches, your libraries, your kids, your whole life!

AMUNDSEN

(mutters)

The son of a bitch is effective all right –

Hackett, who's seen all this already, isn't even watching. He is sprawled in his chair, eyes closed, numbed, even serene with despair.

HOWARD (ON SCREEN)

– And there's not a single law on the books to stop them! There's only one thing that can stop them – you! So I want you to get up now. I want you to get out of your chairs and go to the phone. Right now. I want you to go to your phone or get in your car and drive into the Western Union office in town. I want everybody listening to me to get up right now and send a telegram to the White House –

HACKETT

(sighs in soft anguish)

Oh, God

HOWARD (ON SCREEN)

By midnight tonight I want a million telegrams in the White House! I want them wading knee-deep in telegrams at the White House! Get up! Right now! And send President Ford a telegram saying: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more! I don't want the banks selling my country to the Arabs! I want this C.C. and A. deal stopped now! –

HACKETT

Oh, God –

HOWARD (ON SCREEN)

I want this C.C. and A. deal stopped now! I want this C.C. and A. deal stopped now!

At which point, Howard keels over in his now familiar prophetic swoon. On SCREEN, ATTENDANTS come and carry Howard off –

CHANEY

(to a Technician)

Is that it? Does he come back later in the show?

TECHNICIAN

That's it. This is one of those shows he just zonks out.

CHANEY

(to Hackett)

Do you want to see any more, Frank?

(Hackett sits in numb silence)

All right, turn it off –