Network

by Lee Hall

  Technicians in the studio laugh.

  What’s so goddam funny?!

  Howard I don’t have any kids …

  I don’t have any kids and I was married for thirty-three years of shrill, shrieking fraud and I don’t have any bullshit left.

  Production Assistant Ten seconds and counting …

  Hackett Has he gone completely nuts?

  Assistant Cameraman It’s the sanest thing I’ve heard on this network.

  Production Assistant Seven … six … (Etc.)

  Howard I just ran out of it, you see. That is the news. It has been an honour and privilege to serve you. This is Howard Beale signing off forever.

  Director And ad break.

  SCENE EIGHT

  MAX GETS A DRESSING-DOWN

  Max is in Howard’s chair. Ruddy is berating him. Nelson Chaney is there watching.

  Ruddy The way I hear it, you’re the one responsible for this colossally stupid prank. Is that the fact, Max?

  Max That’s the fact.

  Ruddy It was unconscionable. There doesn’t seem anything more to say.

  Max I have something to say, Ed. I’d like to know why that whole debasement of the News Division announced at the stockholders’ meeting this afternoon was kept secret from me. You and I go back twenty years, Ed. I took this job with your personal assurance that you would back my autonomy against any encroachment. But ever since CCA acquired control of the UBS systems ten months ago, Hackett’s been taking over everything. Who the hell’s running this network, you or some conglomerate called CCA? I mean, you’re the President of the Systems group, Hackett’s just CCA’s hatchet man. Nelson here – for Pete’s sake, he’s president of the network – he hasn’t got a damn thing to say about anything any more.

  Ruddy I told you at the stockholders’ meeting, Max, that we would discuss all that at our regular meeting tomorrow morning. If you had been patient, I would’ve explained to you that I too thought Frank Hackett precipitate and that the reorganisation of the News Division would not be executed until everyone, specifically you, Max, had been consulted and satisfied. Instead you sulked off like a child and engaged this network in a shocking and disgraceful episode. Your position here is no longer tenable, regardless of how management is restructured. I will expect your resignation at ten o’clock tomorrow morning and we will coordinate our statement to the least detriment of everyone. Hunter will take over the News Division till we sort this all out.

  SCENE NINE

  DIANA READS THE NEWS

  Diana is at her desk reading the papers as her researcher, Schlesinger, talks to her.

  Schlesinger There are four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series. The first is set in a large eastern law school, presumably Harvard, and is irresistibly called The New Lawyers. The running characters are a crusty but benign ex-Supreme Court Justice, a beautiful girl graduate student and a local district attorney who is brilliant but sometimes cuts corners.

  Diana Next.

  Schlesinger The second is called The Amazon Squad. The characters are a crusty but benign police lieutenant who is always getting heat from the commissioner, a hard-nosed, hard-drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen and a beautiful girl cop who –

  Diana The Arabs have decided to jack up the price of oil another ten per cent, the CIA have been accused of opening Senator Humphrey’s mail, there are three separate wars in the Middle East, New York City is facing default and the whole front page of the Daily News is Howard Beale. There is also a two-column story on page one of the Times, the LA Times and the Washington Post. Get me Mr Hackett’s office.

  SCENE TEN

  DIANA MAKES A PITCH

  Hackett in his office.

  Diana Last night Howard Beale went on the air and yelled bullshit for two minutes and we’ve got press coverage you couldn’t buy for a million dollars. Did you see the overnights on the Network News? It has an eight in New York and a nine in LA and 27 share on both cities. I can tell you right now if we put Beale back on tonight the show will get a 30 share at least. I think we’ve totally lucked into something.

  Hackett Oh for God’s sake, 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. Frank, that dumb show jumped five rating points in one night! 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 on 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 hypocrites of our times, a nightly 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! 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.

  Intercom buzzes.

  Secretary (on intercom) John Carlton to see you.

  Hackett (to intercom) Tell him I’ll be a few minutes. Let me think it over.

  Diana Frank, let’s not go to committee on 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 sake, Diana, we’re talking about putting a manifestly irresponsible man on national television.

  Diana Yes.

  Hackett I’d like to talk to legal affairs at least. 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 be sure of some of my ground. I am the one whose ass is going on the line.

  Diana A hundred thousand a minute, Frank. Fuck Ruddy.

  Hackett Let me talk to Chaney. We’ll give it a go.

  SCENE ELEVEN

  A WORKING LUNCH

  Chaney and Hackett at a working lunch in the boardroom.

  Chaney I don’t believe this. I don’t believe the top brass of a national television network are sitting round their Caesar salads …

  Hackett The top brass of a bankrupt national television network – with projected losses of close to a 150 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 The FCC can’t do anything except rap our knuckles.

  Chaney I don’t even want to think about the litigious possibilities, Frank. Anyway, no affiliates are gonna carry it.

  Hackett The affiliates will kiss your fat 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 Times –

  Hackett The New York Times doesn’t advertise on our network.

  Chaney 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. 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 tonigh
t. Telephone.

  Chaney I may be in charge here but I don’t want to be the Babylonian messenger who has to tell Max Schumacher about this.

  Hackett Max Schumacher no longer works at this network. Mr Ruddy fired him last night. Harry Hunter is running the News Division now. Phone.

  Chaney passes Hackett the phone.

  Hunter in News, please.

  SCENE TWELVE

  MAX AND HOWARD PACK UP

  Howard Fifty-two years between us in two cardboard boxes. What are we going to do?

  Max Teach? Write a book? Whatever the hell one does in the autumn of one’s years. It had to come sooner or later.

  Howard What’s that?

  Max It’s us at NBC with Ed Murrow and the gang.

  Howard takes the picture.

  Howard My God, is that me? Were we ever that young? Is that Cronkite? He looked old even then. Who is that?

  Max Remember that kid who we sent out to interview Cleveland Amory on vivisection?

  Howard Oh yes! Yes.

  They laugh.

  A Secretary walks in.

  Secretary Everybody’s waiting.

  SCENE THIRTEEN

  HOWARD GIVES HIS FAREWELL SPEECH

  Howard is surrounded by people enjoying his speech.

  Howard … So I jump out of bed, run down stairs … I get out in the street, I flag a cab, jump in. I say. ‘Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge!’ The driver turns round. He says, ‘Don’t do it, buddy. You’re a young man, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.’

  General hilarity. Harry Hunter comes in.

  Harry Hunter Well, if you think that’s funny, wait till you hear this. I’ve just had a call from Hackett and he wants to put Howard back on the air tonight. Apparently the ratings jumped five points last night. And he wants Howard to go back on and do his angry man thing.

  Howard What are you talking about?

  Harry Hunter I’m telling you. They want Howard to go back on and yell bullshit. They want Howard to go on spontaneously venting his anger, a latter-day prophet, denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

  Howard Sounds pretty good.

  Max Who is this ‘they’?

  Harry Hunter Hackett and Chaney had a meeting, they’ve passed it by legal affairs, apparently that girl from Programming was there.

  Max What’s she got to do with it?

  Howard You’re kidding, right?

  Harry Hunter I’m not kidding. I told them, ‘Forget it. We’re running a news department down there, not a circus. And Howard Beale isn’t a bearded lady. And if you think I’ll go along with this bastardisation of the news you can have my resignation along with Max Schumacher’s right now. And I think I’m speaking for Howard Beale and everyone else down there in News.’

  Howard Hold on. What’s wrong with being an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times? What do you think, Max?

  Max Do you want to be an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

  He thinks.

  Howard Yeah, I think I’d like to be an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

  Max Then grab it.

  The company cheer.

  SCENE FOURTEEN

  MAX CHALLENGES RUDDY

  Max alone. Ruddy enters.

  Ruddy Chaney tells me Beale may actually go on the air this evening.

  Max As far as I know, Howard’s gonna do it. Are you actually gonna sit still for this, Ed?

  Ruddy Yes, I think Hackett’s overstepped himself. This isn’t about Howard, this is corporate manoeuvring. Hackett is clearly forcing a confrontation. That would account for his behaviour at the stockholders’ meeting. However, I think he’s making a serious mistake with this Beale business. I suspect CCA will be upset by Hackett’s presumptuousness and certainly Mr Jensen will. So I’m going to let Hackett have his head for a while. He just might lose it over this Beale business. I’d like you to reconsider your resignation. I have to assume whatever Hackett does, he’s gonna take the CCA Board so I’ll have to appeal directly to Mr Jensen. When that happens I’m gonna need every friend I’ve got. And I certainly don’t want Hackett’s people in all the divisional positions. So I’m putting you back in charge, Max.

  Max To preside over Howard making a complete fool of himself and everybody else.

  Ruddy I’m afraid so.

  Max OK.

  Ruddy Thank you, Max.

  SCENE FIFTEEN

  HOWARD BACK ON AIR

  Back in the studio the machine grinds on as usual:

  Production Assistant One minute to go.

  Floor Manager One minute to go.

  Director Can we have Howard, please?

  Floor Manager Can we have Howard?

  Production Assistant Continuity on air in fifty-five seconds.

  Floor Manager Fifty-five seconds and counting.

  Howard. Where the hell is Howard?

  Howard is brought on, followed by his make-up and costume people.

  Director Give me Camera-A. Do we have sound?

  Floor Manager Check.

  Production Assistant Thirty seconds.

  Director Camera-B.

  Floor Manager Check.

  Director Sound.

  Floor Manager Check.

  Director Howard.

  Floor Manager Check.

  Director Studio ready?

  Floor Manager Studio ready.

  Production Assistant Ten … nine … eight … seven … six…. five …

  Director Continuity.

  Continuity Announcer It’s time for Tonight, with Howard Beale.

  Director Cue music.

  Production Assistant Three … two … one.

  Director Titles, credits, camera, and Howard!

  Howard Good evening. It is Thursday, September the twenty-fifth and I am Howard Beale, still bringing you the news. Today at a meeting of OPEC the Arabs have decided to jack up the price of oil another twenty per cent – has anybody done anything about it? Nope. President Ford has convened another meeting of the IFA to do, surprise surprise, nothing in particular. If that’s not bad enough, unemployment figures are up another five per cent, there are more closures in the Rust Belt, and the CIA has finally admitted opening Senator Humphrey’s mail, but we all know we can trust the CIA, can’t we? Basically, business as usual. And let’s not forget: there’s a civil war in Angola –

  Howard’s speech is broadcast on a TV in Max’s office.

  SCENE SIXTEEN

  MAX’S OFFICE

  Max is watching Howard on TV.

  Howard (on TV) – another one in Beirut. New York City is facing default. And there are terrorists on the loose out there. One damned thing after another. Day after day after day. And what I’m asking is: when is this going to stop?

  Max turns off the TV. In the studio, we see the end of the broadcast, Howard taking off his mike, the studio closing down. But we are focused on Max’s room. Diana has entered, and surprises Max.

  Diana The Thursday show rated 14 with a 37 share, the Friday show rated 11 with a 30 share, and Monday’s show is down another three points. It’s gonna to need some help if it’s going to hold, Max. Beale doesn’t do the angry man thing well at all. He’s too kvetchy. He’s being irascible. We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon. He should do more ‘Day of Wrath’, apocalyptic doom. I think you should take on a couple of writers to write some jeremiads for him. I see you don’t like my suggestions.

  Max Hell, you’re not being serious, are you?

  Diana Oh, I am being totally serious. The fact is, I could make your Beale show the highest rated news show in television if you’d let me have a crack at it.

  Max What do you mean, ‘have a crack at it’?

  Diana I’d like to programme it for you, develop it. I wouldn’t interfere with the actual news. But teevee is showbiz, Max, and even the news has to have a little showmanship. What we need is someone who cuts through this anodyne crap we peddle as news. We need someone
who reminds us who we are.

  Max My God, you are serious.

  Diana I watched your six o’clock show today, it’s straight tabloid. You had a minute and a half on that lady riding a bike naked in Central Park. On the other hand you had less than a minute of hard national and international news. It was all sex, scandal, brutal crimes, sports, children with incurable diseases and lost puppies. So I don’t think I’ll listen to any protestations of high standards of journalism. You’re right down in the street soliciting audiences like the rest of us. All I’m saying is, if you’re going to hustle at least do it right. I’m going to bring this up at tomorrow’s network meeting, but I don’t like network hassles, and I was hoping you and I could work this out between us. That’s why I’m here right now.

  Max And I was hoping you were looking for an emotional involvement with a craggy middle-aged man.

  Diana I wouldn’t rule that out entirely.

  Max Well, Diana, you bring all your ideas up at the meeting tomorrow, because if you don’t I will. I think Howard is making a goddam fool of himself and so does everybody Howard and I know in this industry. It was a fluke. It didn’t work. Tomorrow, Howard goes back to the old format and this gutter depravity comes to an end.

  Diana OK.

  Max I don’t get it, Diana. You hung around till half past seven and came all the way down here just to pitch this crazy idea when you knew goddam well I’d laugh you out of this office. I don’t get it. What’s your scam in this?

  Diana Max, my little visit here tonight was just a courtesy made out of respect for your stature in the industry and because I’ve personally admired you ever since I was a kid majoring in Speech at the University of Missouri. But sooner or later, with or without you, I’m going to take over your network news show and I figured I might as well start tonight.