Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies
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“I copied it out word for word”: Elliot Norton, “Chayefsky Learned by Copying a Play,” Boston Daily Record, Mar. 14, 1958.
“I stormed and ranted”: Philip Minoff, “Chayefsky Churns Ahead,” Cue, Nov. 28, 1953.
“Nobody called me to tell me what night they were putting it on”: George Anthony, “Chayefsky’s Latest—All Fabricated, All Fiction and All True,” Toronto Sun, Mar. 14, 1976.
“the most perishable item known to man”: Rod Serling, Patterns (New York: Bantam, 1957), introduction.
“He had the gift of melding significance and meaning and humor”: Author interview with Carol Serling, May 23, 2012.
“My position is nonnegotiable”: John Brady, The Craft of the Screenwriter (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), p. 37.
All his demands were accepted: Reg Ovington, “TV’s Fair-Haired Boy,” Pictorial TView, Mar. 27, 1955.
“studio story editors better spend more time at home”: Ronald Holloway, review of Marty, Variety, Mar. 22, 1955.
“the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the unattached male”: “Cinema: The New Pictures,” Time, Apr. 18, 1955.
“The industry has no pride and no culture”: Joe Hyams, “Chayefsky Assails TV as Stupid and Doomed,” New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 2, 1957.
“frankly demanding to be relieved of the epithet”: Paddy Chayefsky, “Not So Little,” New York Times, July 15, 1956.
“a short, stocky and heavy-shouldered chap”: Minoff, “Chayefsky Churns Ahead.”
“a squarish, hefty young playwright”: “People Are Talking About…,” Vogue, Oct. 15, 1955.
“a chunky, Bronx-born, reformed éclair addict”: Dudar, “A Post Portrait.”
“Mr. Chayefsky did not wear a hat”: Don Ross, “Chayefsky Is Bearded and Busy,” New York Herald Tribune, Jan. (possibly Feb.) 22, 1959.
“Once they got control, it would be so dehydrated”: “Chayefsky Walks Out on Psychiatric Series in Hassle over Control,” Variety, Oct. 25, 1958.
“They did everything possible to divert our attention”: Dudar, “A Post Portrait.”
he was “sick of” Broadway due to “economic futility”: “Irked Chayefsky Says He’s ‘Sick’ of Broadway, Will Work Elsewhere,” Associated Press, June 3, 1962.
“I should never have tried to direct it, too”: Frances Herridge, “Chayefsky Says It with Humor,” New York Post, Nov. 23, 1964.
“so rich, deep, comic and pitiable”: Clive Barnes, “Theater: ‘The Latent Heterosexual,’” New York Times, Mar. 22, 1968.
“the best platform to express meaningful drama”: Kay Gardella, “A Chayefsky Deal with CBS,” Daily News (New York), Dec. 8, 1967.
they struck a deal with CBS in July 1969: Val Adams, “Chayefsky Writing CBS-TV Pilot,” Daily News (New York), July 15, 1969.
a three-part TV Guide series he had been reading that summer: Richard Warren Lewis, “The Man on the 34th Floor,” TV Guide, July 12–18, 1969; July 19–25, 1969; and July 26–Aug. 1, 1969.
“We’re not in the business of good drama”: CP, Box 127, Folder 8.
“Well, Charley, what do you feel like doing?”: Ibid.
“Mike said, ‘I’m sorry—we can’t do this’”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
“the hospital represents American society”: CP, Box 127, Folder 3.
The Latent Humanitarian: A. H. Weiler, “What’s Up, Doc? Murder!” New York Times, Aug. 2, 1970.
“They didn’t bother you”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
he “just couldn’t work” with Ritchie: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 278.
“I’ve lost my raison d’etre, my purpose”: Paddy Chayefsky, The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky: The Screenplays Vol. II (New York: Applause Books, 1994), pp. 53–54.
in April 1972, Chayefsky gave a brief acceptance speech: Paddy Chayefsky, Academy Awards acceptance speech, Apr. 10, 1972, aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/044-22/.
“Those other four guys, they got mothers, too”: Ernest Tidyman, Academy Awards acceptance speech, Apr. 10, 1972, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uad8qcBIRS4.
“someone had asked him to go up to Hefner’s”: Author interview with Warren Beatty, Nov. 8, 2012.
newer and more unconventional treatments, including the drug Elavil: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 289.
“She was a perfectionist”: Author interview with Dan Chayefsky, Mar. 1, 2013.
In one instance she went into a frenzy: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 335.
“It almost gave her withdrawal a cause”: Author interview with Dan Chayefsky, Mar. 1, 2013.
“He was a fortress, my dad”: Ibid.
Dan remained by himself in the family apartment: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 294.
“I was just very self-destructive and very lost”: Author interview with Dan Chayefsky, Mar. 1, 2013.
“he brought this bonfire to his office”: Ibid.
he was not some “new-Mobe militant or placard carrier”: CP, Box 140, Folder 24.
“Six million went up with a snap of the finger”: G. Y. Dryansky, “Chayefsky: ‘Save the Jews,’” Women’s Wear Daily, 1971.
“I don’t know that it’s that guy”: Author interview with David Steinberg, May 10, 2012.
“These Arabs would like you to believe”: Display advertisement, New York Times, Dec. 17, 1973.
a screenplay set in the West Bank about a pair of police officers: CP, Box 123, Folder 3.
“There is a Jew dog here!” CP, Box 126, Folder 5.
“I’ll tell you about your civilized world!”: Ibid.
“Now, one might say it was in the contract”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
“they said they couldn’t make it in Jerusalem”: Author interview with Maurice Spanbock, June 21, 2012.
“they broke up the fee for the whole bundle”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
the IRS said The Goddess was Columbia’s property: “Limit Indies Loan Credits,” Variety, Feb. 21, 1973.
a tax bill of $86,770, plus a $5,248 penalty for late filing: “Chayefskys Are Losers,” Variety, Feb. 13, 1973.
“the main character is a revered and retired old rabbi”: CP, Box 137, Folder 10.
Your Place or Mine: CP, Box 137, Folder 6.
“He said he could not master it”: Author interview with Dan Chayefsky, Mar. 1, 2013.
2. Strangelove-y as Hell
“I’m going to spend the day with you”: Author interview with Richard Wald, Feb. 2, 2012.
HUT ratings. Audience flow. The dark weeks: CP, Box 91, Folder 9.
“I expected grunts”: Author interview with Richard Wald, Feb. 2, 2012.
“it is an indestructible and terrifying giant”: CP, Box 93, Folder 4.
“the American people are angry and want angry shows”: Ibid.
Chayefsky recorded the clockwork precision of their schedules: CP, Box 91, Folder 2.
a 60 Minutes segment from March 10, 1974, titled “The Ratings War”: CP, Box 91, Folder 3.
“Cats, Dogs and Underdogs”: Les Brown, “Livelier and Longer TV News Spurs Hunt for Talent,” New York Times, Apr. 22, 1974.
“You win because you have a competitive edge”: Pat Polillo, Remarks to National Association of Television Program Executives convention, Los Angeles, Feb. 19, 1974.
“The Atlanta trip made it clear that there was nothing”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
“the concept of RATINGS UBER ALLES”: CP, Box 91, Folder 9.
“FAUST + MEPHISTOPHELES today”: CP, Box 91, Folder 10.
“If you can get in four good hours a day”: Brady, Craft of the Screenwriter, p. 60.
haphazardly furnished with a piano: Ibid., pp. 31, 60.
The view his workspace offered: Joan Barthel, “Paddy Chayefsky: ‘TV Will Do Anything for a Rating. Anything!’” New York Times, Nov. 14, 1976.
“BY THE END OF THE PICTURE”: CP, Box 92, Folder 2.
&nbs
p; “a tough, but righteous fellow”: CP, Box 91, Folder 1.
a nod to the baseball pitcher Harold “Prince Hal” Schumacher: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 31, 2012.
“His method of doing this is to adopt a tabloid attitude”: CP, Box 92, Folder 1.
“ten minutes into the news cast he flips out”: Ibid.
“this time, his flip is not an unruly, profanity-ridden flip out”: Ibid.
“we put a raging prophet on the air, a prophet in the biblical sense”: Ibid.
“In keeping with Channel 40’s policy”: Jon Dietz, “On-Air Shot Kills TV Personality,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 16, 1974.
“like that girl in Florida”: CP, Box 95, Folder 5.
a set of screenplay notes dated July 16, 1974: CP, Box 93, Folder 1.
“tall, willowy and with the best ass ever seen”: CP, Box 94, Folder 4.
“Howard doesn’t need the encouragement. He gets madder and madder”: CP, Box 93, Folder 1.
“She looks him up and down”: Ibid.
“Leader of the People guy”: CP, Box 92, Folder 6.
“the individual human will be just a piston rod in the whole vast machinery”: CP, Box 93, Folder 1.
Chayefsky wrote year-by-year biographies for his characters: CP, Box 91, Folder 9.
Surgeon’s Hospital, Pedro and the Putz, Celebrity Canasta: CP, Box 92, Folder 5.
a page-long list of synonyms for the verb corrupt: CP, Box 92, Folder 10.
a separate, three-page list of the increasingly ominous political calamities: CP, Box 93, Folder 1.
“the states of human consciousness”: CP, Box 62, Folder 3.
“If their show is a hit, they already have attention—Ransom?” CP, Box 93, Folder 3.
“if he assassinates Beale and takes film of it”: Ibid.
“We’ve got to replace Beale”: Ibid.
“THE SHOW LACKS A POINT OF VIEW”: CP, Box 93, Folder 2.
“This story is about Howard Beale”: CP, Box 92, Folder 6.
“She sank into an overstuffed chair”: Ibid.
“What was this, some kind of demented gag!” CP, Box 92, Folder 8.
“He was hoping I’d fall on my face with this Beale show”: CP, Box 94, Folder 1.
Howard Beale is found by his housekeeper: CP, Box 92, Folder 5.
Beale’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Celia: CP, Box 92, Folder 9.
a psychiatrist, Dr. Sindell: CP, Box 94, Folder 1.
“Its propagandist potential hasn’t even been touched”: Ibid.
The Madame Defarge Show and something called Rape of the Week: CP, Box 95, Folder 1.
“You and Ed Murrow and Fred Friendly”: CP, Box 92, Folder 7.
“If I could stand the taste of liquor I’d be a lush”: CP, Box 92, Folder 9.
“it was nipple clear that she was bra-less”: CP, Box 92, Folder 8.
“Sounds like good family entertainment”: CP, Box 92, Folder 10.
“I’ll try to make a home with you”: CP, Box 93, Folder 7.
“We’re born in terror and we live in terror”: CP, Box 93, Folder 6.
“Wayward husband comes to his senses”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 216.
“We can hear the CLICK of the door being opened”: Ibid.
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad”: Ibid., pp. 173–74.
“Since that production,” the article said, “nothing”: Richard Hatch, “Follow-Up on the News: Paddy Chayefsky,” New York Times, Jan. 12, 1975.
“She had the kind of skin that doesn’t need powder or makeup”: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 334.
“I got the wedding; Paddy got the honeymoon”: Author interview with Mary Lynn Gottfried, Mar. 31, 2012.
Susan offered Paddy her comments, recorded on a memo pad: CP, Box 95, Folder 2.
Chayefsky received an offer on June 24: CP, Box 213, Folder 10.
“People thought about making good movies to make money”: Author interview with Mike Medavoy, Mar. 12, 2012.
A deal offered by United Artists for the Network screenplay in the fall of 1974: CP, Box 182, Folder 1. As executed, the deal paid Chayefsky in six installments of $50,000: on signing; on delivery of the script; on approval of the film’s budget and director; on approval of its principal cast; on completion of principal photography; and the final deferment.
the studio gave a substantial 42.5 percent of any net profits from the picture to Chayefsky’s Simcha Productions: CP, Box 214, Folder 2. Those profits were then split between Chayefsky and Gottfried, who also received a producer’s fee of $110,000 and a further $15,000 for “script supervising services.”
An internal MGM memo cited “an off-the-record speculation”: CP, Box 96, Folder 3.
Network “is all madness and bullshit philosophy”: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 310.
“I turned to both of them and I said, ‘Are you serious?’”: Author interview with Mike Medavoy, Mar. 12, 2012.
Summarizing a May 15 meeting with the United Artists executive Dan Rissner: CP, Box 215, Folder 8. Chayefsky was not particularly consistent about the spelling of the name of the Great Ahmed Kahn. In the closing credits of Network, his surname is given as “Kahn,” while some screenplay drafts and script pages render it as “Khan.”
“He says, ‘Listen, guys, it’s a great script’”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
“They didn’t want to have anything to do with it”: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 312.
“he made it plain that UA would look like assholes”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
Variety reported that MGM and United Artists had made a deal: “Chayefsky’s ‘Network’ Via Metro and UA,” Variety, July 2, 1975.
3. A Great Deal of Bullshit
a budget of about $4 million: According to the film’s production designer, Philip Rosenberg, the budget for Network may have been as little as $3.5 million.
One list of candidates compiled by Chayefsky: CP, Box 95, Folder 6.
Chayefsky wrote that the directing of Shampoo was “blunt and obvious”: CP, Box 94, Folder 3.
William Bernstein … wrote to Chayefsky’s lawyer, Maurice Spanbock: CP, Box 96, Folder 3.
“We said, ‘Here it is. You name the part’”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, March 20, 2012.
Van Devere wrote directly to Chayefsky: CP, Box 96, Folder 3.
on July 31 he finally wrote to her: Ibid.
“I advise all the children who want to go on the stage”: “Young Veteran on ‘Warpath,’” no publication, no date [probably 1937].
“As a Jew, I’m very judgmental”: John Lombardi, “Lumet: The City Is His Sound Stage,” New York Times Magazine, June 6, 1982.
A 1953 feature in Life magazine: “Director Participation: Sidney Lumet Kisses, Fights, Dies, Running Two Top TV Shows a Week,” Life, June 8, 1953.
“I spent nights puzzling the problem”: “Good Men and True and All Angry,” Life, Apr. 22, 1957.
front-page news in the summer of 1963: “Sidney Lumet Takes Overdose,” New York Post, Aug. 26, 1963.
Lumet later joked that what he’d indulged in: “Lumet Did Wed Lena Horne’s Girl,” Daily News (New York), Dec. 21, 1963.
finally admitting to their nuptials: Ibid.
Lumet was “everybody’s second choice”: Pauline Kael, “The Making of The Group,” in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (London: Calder and Boyards, 1970), pp. 70, 82.
“I found that I was getting something back”: Randolph Hogan, “At Modern, Lumet’s Love Affair with New York,” New York Times, Dec. 31, 1981.
“I never left television; it left me”: Lumet made remarks to this effect in interviews in the New York Post, Dec. 6, 1975; the (Los Angeles) Herald-Examiner, Nov. 14, 1976; and the Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 13, 1981.
Amjen Entertainment, would ultimately receive 12.5 percent of the film’s net profits: CP, Box 214, Folder 2.
“Paddy is a tough writer and creator”: Author interview with Philip
Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
“Most of the directors who worked in New York”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.
“His cynicism was partly a pose”: Sidney Lumet, Making Movies (New York: Random House, 1995), p. 42.
“I think of Faye Dunaway as an enchanted panther in a poem”: “A Panther of an Actress Springs Back to the Top,” People, Dec. 30, 1974.
gossipy newspaper columns and their readers: Hy Gardner, “Where Did Faye Fade To?” Glad You Asked That (column), Jersey Journal, Sept. 25, 1970.
a poetically apt summation of the actress: Brad Darrach, “A Gauzy Grenade Called Dunaway,” People, July 29, 1974.
“You have, I guarantee, never seen such certifiable proof of craziness”: Tom Burke, “The Restoration of Roman Polanski,” Rolling Stone, July 18, 1974.
“The fact is a man can be difficult and people applaud him”: Faye Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), p. 260.
a one-room frame house on the Florida farm: Ibid., p. 11.
“I would never allow myself to be in the position”: Ibid., p. 39.
she passed up a Fulbright Scholarship: Ibid., p. 66.
“a creature who wanted freedom, and a bra just didn’t fit”: Ibid., p. 127.
“These were women who found out who they were”: Ibid., p. 162.
she had to give back $25,000 of her $60,000 salary: “Biography: Faye Dunaway,” Movie News, Mar. 1972.
“I couldn’t stand how I was—my manners, my gestures”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 118.
“I used men as buffers against the world”: Production notes for Network, as printed in the novelization of Network by Sam Hedrin (New York: Pocket Books, 1976), p. 184.
“She wasn’t beautiful”: Marcello Mastroianni with Oriana Fallaci, “X Ray of a Man,” McCall’s, Sept. 1971.
Dunaway married Peter Wolf: Time, Aug. 19, 1974.
“I could no longer represent her if she didn’t do this film”: “A List: Art of the Deal,” W, Feb. 2006.
“one of the most important female roles to come along”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, pp. 293–94.
“‘Where’s her vulnerability? Don’t ask it’”: Lumet, Making Movies, p. 41.
Max Schumacher should be played by Robert Mitchum: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 296.
a press release announcing that Dunaway would star: Press release from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists, Sept. 24, 1975.