Network

DIANA

Did the overnight ratings come in yet?

SECRETARY

They're on your desk.

DIANA

Have you still got yesterday's overnights around?

SECRETARY

Shall I bring them in?

DIANA

Yeah –

She exits into –
 

INT. DIANA'S OFFICE

Morning SUNLIGHT blasting in. Diana moves to her desk, stands behind it, scanning the front pages of the newspapers piled on her desk, then sits and studies the overnight ratings also on her desk. The Secretary enters with yesterday's overnights, a sheet of paper, which she extends to Diana, who promptly studies them. The Secretary exits as Barbara Schlesinger enters, sinks onto a chair with a sigh –

SCHLESINGER

These are those four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series. You needn't bother to read them. I'll tell them to you. The first one is set in a large Eastern law school, presumably Harvard. The series is irresistibly entitled The Young Lawyers. The running characters are a crusty but benign ex-Supreme Court Justice, presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes by way of Dr. Zorba. There is a beautiful girl graduate student and the local district attorney who is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners –

DIANA

(studying the overnights)

Next one –

SCHLESINGER

The second one is called The Amazon Squad –

DIANA

(studying the overnights)

Lady cops?

SCHLESINGER

The running characters are a crusty but benign police lieutenant who's always getting heat from the Commissioner, a hard-nosed, hard-drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen, and a brilliant and beautiful young girl cop fighting the feminist battle on the force –

DIANA

(now studying the front page of the Daily News)

We're up to our ears in lady cop shows.

SCHLESINGER

The next one is another investigative reporter show. A crusty but benign managing editor who's always getting heat from the publisher –

DIANA

The Arabs have decided to jack up the price of oil another twenty per cent, and the C.I.A. has been caught opening Senator Humphrey's mail, there's a civil war in Angola, another one in Beirut, New York City's facing default, they've finally caught up with Patricia Hearst, and –

(she flips the Daily News over so Barbara can read it)

– the whole front page of the Daily News is Howard Beale.

ACROSS Barbara Schlesinger, half-standing so she can read the newspaper and showing the front page of the Daily News – which consists of a 3/4 page blowup of Howard Beale topped by a 52 point black banner headline: "BEALE FIRED"

DIANA

– it was also a two-column story on page one of the Times –

(calls to her Secretary)

Helen, call Mr. Hackett's office, see if he can give me a few minutes this morning –

INT. ROOM 520 – THE NETWORK NEWS ROOM – 9:30 A.M.

Max Schumacher and Bob McDonough (mid-40's) enter. The Network News Room is something less than Front Page, but, nevertheless, a news room. It's a long, large, windowless room, some 40 desks, mostly unoccupied, a wire room, typewriters and banks of television monitors on the wall. At the moment, work has stopped, and the ENTIRE PERSONNEL of the news room, some 60 PEOPLE – EXECUTIVES and SECRETARIES, PRODUCERS, ASSISTANT PRODUCERS, HEAD WRITERS, WRITERS, DUTY AND ASSIGNMENT EDITORS, and DESK ASSISTANTS, ARTISTS, and FILM AND TAPE EDITORS, REPORTERS, NEWSCASTERS and CAMERA and AUDIO MEN – are all gathered, standing and sitting about to hear Max say –

MAX

Ladies and gentlemen, I've been at this network twelve years, and it's been on the whole a ball –
 

VOICE

(in b.g.)

Louder –

MAX

(louder)

– and I want to thank you all. Bob McDonough here will be taking over for me for the time being, and, much as I hate to admit it, I'm sure everything will go along just fine without me –

INT. UBS BUILDING – 15TH FLOOR – 10:00 A.M.

Diana turning into –

INT. HACKETT'S OUTER OFFICE

The Secretary waves Diana straight into –

INT. HACKETT'S OFFICE

Where Hackett sits unhappily at his desk poring over memos from his Stations Relations Department and reports from his Sales Department.

HACKETT

(not bothering to look up)

KTNS Kansas City refuses to carry our network news any more unless Beale is taken off the air –

DIANA

(drops the sheet of paper on Hackett's desk)

Did you see the overnights on the Network News? It has an 8 in New York and a 9 in L.A. and a 27 share in both cities. Last night, Howard Beale went on the air and yelled bullshit for two minutes, and I can tell you right now that tonight's show will get a 30 share at least. I think we've lucked into something.

HACKETT

Oh, for God's sakes, are you suggesting we put that lunatic back on the air yelling bullshit?

DIANA

Yes, I think we should put Beale back on the air tonight and keep him On. Did you see the Times this morning? Did you see the News? We've got press coverage 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 got to be at least fifteen! We just increased our audience by twenty or thirty million people in one night. You're not going to get something like this dumped in your lap for the rest of your days, and you just can't piss it away! Howard Beale got up there last night and 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 in television.

HACKETT

What do you mean, you want that show? It's a news show. It's not your department.

DIANA

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. I tell you, Frank, that could just go through the roof. And I'm talking about a six dollar cost per thousand show! I'm talking about a hundred, a hundred thirty thousand dollar minutes! Do you want to figure out the revenues of a strip show that sells for a hundred thousand bucks a minute? One show like that could pull this whole network right out of the hole! Now, Frank, it's being handed to us on a plate; let's not blow it!

Hackett's intercom BUZZES.

HACKETT

(on intercom)

Yes?... Tell him I'll be a few minutes.

(clicks off, regards Diana)

Let me think it over.

DIANA

Frank, let's not go to committee about this. It's twenty after ten, and we want Beale in that studio by half-past six. We don't want to lose the momentum –

HACKETT

For God's sakes, 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 and 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 want to 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.

INT. EXECUTIVE DINING ROOM – 12:20 P.M.

A large room of white-linened tables, almost empty save for the five men at one of the window tables, with the spectacular view of midtown Manhattan. The five are Frank Hackett, Nelson Chaney, Walter Amundsen (General Counsel Network,) Arthur Zangwill (VP Standards and Practices,) and Joe Donnelly (VP Sales).

CHANEY

(who is standing)

I don't believe this! I don't believe the top brass of a national television network are sitting around their Caesar salads –

HACKETT

The top brass of a bankrupt national television network, with projected losses of close to a hundred and fifty million dollars this year.

CHANEY

I don't care how bankrupt! You can't seriously be proposing and the rest of us seriously considering putting on a pornographic network news show! The FCC will kill us!

HACKETT

Sit down, Nelson. The FCC can't do anything except rap our knuckles.

Chaney sits.

AMUNDSEN

I don't even want to think about the litigious possibilities, Frank. We could be up to our ears in lawsuits.

CHANEY

The affiliates won't carry it –

HACKETT

The affiliates will kiss your ass if you can hand them a hit show.

CHANEY

The popular reaction –

HACKETT

We don't know the popular reaction. That's what we have to find out.

CHANEY

The New York Times –

HACKETT

The New York Times doesn't advertise on our network.

CHANEY

(stands)

All I know is that this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting.

HACKETT

We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get.

CHANEY

Well, I don't want any part of it. I don't fancy myself the president of a whorehouse.

HACKETT

That's very commendable of you, Nelson. Now, sit down. Your indignation has been duly recorded, you can always resign tomorrow.

Chaney sits.

HACKETT

Look, what in substance are we proposing? – merely to add editorial comment to our network news show. Brinkley, Sevareid, and Reasoner all have their comments. So now Howard Beale will have his. I think we ought to give it a shot. Let's see what happens tonight.

DONNELLY

Well, I don't want to be the Babylonian messenger who has to tell Max Schumacher about this.

HACKETT

(flagging a WAITER)

Max Schumacher doesn't work at this network any more. Mr. Ruddy fired him last night.

(to the Waiter)

A telephone, please –
(to his colleagues)

Bob McDonoguh's running the News Division now –

A phone is placed before Hackett, who promptly picks it up and murmurs:

HACKETT

(on phone)

Bob McDonough in News, please –

INT. MAX'S OFFICE – 1:40 P.M.

Max is on the phone and cleaning out his desk and office at the same time. There are empty cartons everywhere into which Max is dumping his files. There are piles of files on his desk, which he is skimming through even as he talks on the phone –

MAX

(on phone)

– I'm just fine financially, Fred. I cashed in my stock options back in April when CC and A took over the network.

(his other phone BUZZES)

That's my other phone, Fred, thanks for calling –

(hangs up, picks up the other phone)

Max Schumacher... Hi, Dick, how's everything at NBC? –

Howard Beale walks in, carrying an 8 x 12 photograph –

MAX

I don't know, Dick. I might teach, I might write a book, whatever the hell one does when one approaches the autumn of one's years –

Howard puts the photograph on the desk in front of Max.

MAX

(studying the photograph)

My God, is that me? Was I ever that young?

(on phone)

Howard just showed me a picture of the whole Ed Murrow gang when I was at CBS. My God, Bob Trout, Harry Reasoner, Cronkite, Hollenbeck, and that's you, Howard, right? – I'll see you, Dick –

Hangs up.

HOWARD

(points to the photo)

You remember this kid? He's the kid I think you once sent out to interview Cleveland Amory on vivisection –

MAX

(beginning to shake with laughter)

That's him – that's him –

They both begin wheezing with laughter. Milton Steinman pokes his head in –

STEINMAN

What the hell's so funny?

INT. ROOM 509 – EXECUTIVE OFFICES, NEWS DIVISION

Bob McDonough (VP Network News and interim head of the division) enters, frowning. There is a clot of PEOPLE spilling out from Max Schumacher's office from whence sounds of LAUGHTER and SHOUTING emanate. Even the Secretaries have left their desks to share the fun. McDonough, wondering what the hell it's all about, makes his way through the CRUSH at the door, murmuring: "Excuse me... sorry, honey... etc." When he finally gets through the outer office and into –

INT. MAX'S OFFICE

– what he sees is a room filled with News Executives – Max, Howard, Harry Hunter, Walter Gianini (Legal Affairs), Michael Sandies, Milton Steinman, and a COUPLE of younger PRODUCERS, delightedly listening to this gang of middle-aged men remembering their maverick days –

MAX

– I jump out of bed in my pajamas! I grab my raincoat, run down the stairs, run out into the middle of the street, flag a cab. I jump in, I yell: "Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge!" –