WEBVTT 00:00:18.227 --> 00:00:19.977 This story is about Howard Beale... 00:00:20.145 --> 00:00:23.314 ...who was the Network News anchorman on UBS TV. 00:00:23.482 --> 00:00:26.693 In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television. 00:00:26.860 --> 00:00:31.989 The grand old man of news, with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. 00:00:32.157 --> 00:00:35.702 In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. 00:00:35.869 --> 00:00:37.578 He fell to a 22 share. 00:00:37.746 --> 00:00:41.541 The following year his wife died, and he was left a childless widower... 00:00:41.709 --> 00:00:43.751 ...with an 8 rating and a 12 share. 00:00:43.919 --> 00:00:47.380 He became morose and isolated, began to drink heavily. 00:00:47.548 --> 00:00:51.217 And on September 22, 1975, he was fired... 00:00:51.385 --> 00:00:53.094 ...effective in two weeks. 00:00:53.262 --> 00:00:55.847 The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher... 00:00:56.014 --> 00:00:58.850 ...who was the president of the news division at UBS. 00:00:59.017 --> 00:01:01.644 The two old friends got properly pissed. 00:01:01.812 --> 00:01:06.691 I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951. 00:01:07.443 --> 00:01:09.694 Must've been 1950, then. 00:01:09.862 --> 00:01:14.866 I was NBC, uh, associate producer, Morning News. 00:01:15.033 --> 00:01:17.160 I was just a kid, 26 years old. 00:01:18.829 --> 00:01:19.954 Anyway... 00:01:20.330 --> 00:01:25.084 Anyway, they were building the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. 00:01:25.878 --> 00:01:27.837 We were doing a remote from there. 00:01:27.861 --> 00:01:31.661 ..:: Presented By ZarFilm Website ::.. ‏.:: www.bolboljan.net ::. 00:01:31.842 --> 00:01:33.843 And nobody told me. 00:01:36.138 --> 00:01:38.431 Then after 7 in the morning, I get a call. 00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:42.810 "Where the hell are you? You're supposed to be on the George Washington Bridge. " 00:01:43.771 --> 00:01:47.482 I jump out of bed, throw my raincoat over my pajamas. 00:01:47.649 --> 00:01:51.569 I run down the stairs, I run out in the street, hail a cab. 00:01:51.737 --> 00:01:56.282 And I say to the cabby, "Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge. " 00:01:58.786 --> 00:02:02.246 And the cabbie turns around and he says... 00:02:03.123 --> 00:02:06.000 He says, "Don't do it, buddy. 00:02:06.543 --> 00:02:08.211 You're a young man. 00:02:08.378 --> 00:02:10.963 You got your whole life ahead of you. " 00:02:16.595 --> 00:02:18.429 Didn't I ever tell you that one before? 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:26.729 I'm gonna kill myself. 00:02:27.564 --> 00:02:29.065 Oh, shit, Howard. 00:02:30.651 --> 00:02:34.153 I'm gonna blow my brains out right on the air. 00:02:34.571 --> 00:02:36.781 Right in the middle of the 7:00 news. 00:02:37.741 --> 00:02:41.536 Well, you'll get a hell of a rating, I'll guarantee you that. 00:02:41.703 --> 00:02:44.497 -50 share easy. - You think so? 00:02:44.665 --> 00:02:48.417 Well, sure. We could make a series out of it. 00:02:48.585 --> 00:02:50.670 Suicide of the Week. 00:02:52.589 --> 00:02:55.091 Hell. Why limit ourselves? 00:02:55.259 --> 00:02:56.509 Execution of the Week. 00:02:57.970 --> 00:02:59.512 Terrorist of the Week. 00:03:00.097 --> 00:03:01.931 I love it. 00:03:02.808 --> 00:03:04.851 Suicides. 00:03:05.018 --> 00:03:07.311 Assassinations. 00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:11.607 Mad bombers, Mafia hit men... 00:03:11.775 --> 00:03:13.609 ...automobile smashups. 00:03:13.986 --> 00:03:16.237 The Death Hour. 00:03:18.448 --> 00:03:22.827 Great Sunday night show for the whole family. 00:03:23.579 --> 00:03:26.956 We'll wipe that fucking Disney right off the air. 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:04.493 Let's do the Lenin deportation at the end of three. 00:04:04.661 --> 00:04:05.995 That strong enough to bump? 00:04:06.163 --> 00:04:09.999 In one then, I'll do a lead on Sara Jane Moore to Mayberry in San Francisco. 00:04:10.167 --> 00:04:12.418 In the film I saw, it was the chief of detectives. 00:04:12.586 --> 00:04:17.173 I think we've got about 10 seconds on the shooting itself. 00:04:17.341 --> 00:04:19.675 The whole thing is 1:25. 00:04:19.843 --> 00:04:23.679 - What does that come out? About 4:50. 00:04:24.514 --> 00:04:27.725 We using Squeaky Fromme? Let's do that in two. 00:04:27.893 --> 00:04:31.687 Squeaky, Ford at the airport, bump. 00:04:32.147 --> 00:04:34.440 Now, you using a map going into San Francisco? 00:04:34.608 --> 00:04:37.401 Um, I prefer our news pics. 00:04:37.694 --> 00:04:39.695 What have we got left? 00:04:40.113 --> 00:04:43.366 Gun control, Patty Hearst affidavit. 00:04:43.533 --> 00:04:46.285 Guerrillas in Chad, OPEC in Vienna. 00:05:07.724 --> 00:05:10.977 All right, fine. I'll see you later. 00:05:12.396 --> 00:05:15.231 - Hello, Howard, how are you? Hi. Okay. 00:05:25.492 --> 00:05:27.535 Don't forget, Howard, Ron Nessen is now 16, okay? 00:05:32.749 --> 00:05:36.168 The first attempt on President Ford's life was 18 days ago... 00:05:36.336 --> 00:05:38.671 ...and again yesterday in San Francisco. 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:40.423 In spite of the two attempts... 00:05:40.590 --> 00:05:43.759 ...Mr. Ford says he will not become a prisoner of the Oval Office... 00:05:43.927 --> 00:05:46.762 ...a hostage of would-be assassins. 00:05:47.264 --> 00:05:50.641 The American people are good people: 00:05:50.976 --> 00:05:54.770 Democrats, Independents, Republicans and others. 00:05:54.938 --> 00:05:56.814 How the hell you always get mixed up... 00:05:56.982 --> 00:05:59.650 Under no circumstances will I... 00:06:01.611 --> 00:06:04.947 ...and I hope no others, capitulate... 00:06:05.115 --> 00:06:09.243 ...to those that want to undercut... 00:06:09.411 --> 00:06:11.537 ...what's all good in America. 00:06:11.705 --> 00:06:12.747 Two, cue Howard. 00:06:13.623 --> 00:06:14.832 Ladies and gentlemen... 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.502 ...I would like to announce that I will be retiring from this program... 00:06:18.670 --> 00:06:22.048 ...in two weeks' time because of poor ratings. 00:06:22.632 --> 00:06:26.677 Since this show was the only thing I had going for me in my life... 00:06:27.137 --> 00:06:28.888 ...I have decided to kill myself. 00:06:29.056 --> 00:06:30.431 So, what did she say? 00:06:30.599 --> 00:06:35.436 I'm gonna blow my brains out right on this program, a week from today. 00:06:35.604 --> 00:06:37.271 Ten seconds to commercial. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:38.814 So tune in next Tuesday. 00:06:38.982 --> 00:06:42.735 That should give the public-relations people a week to promote the show. 00:06:43.361 --> 00:06:48.449 We ought to get a hell of a rating out of that. A 50 share, easy. 00:06:48.617 --> 00:06:51.494 Take Tellison. - Listen. 00:06:51.661 --> 00:06:54.121 - Uh, did you hear that? - What was that about? 00:06:54.664 --> 00:06:57.833 Howard just said he was going to blow his brains out next Tuesday. 00:06:58.001 --> 00:06:59.251 What are you talking about? 00:06:59.419 --> 00:07:02.004 - Didn't you hear him? He just said- - What's wrong now? 00:07:02.380 --> 00:07:05.132 Howard just said he was going to kill himself next Tuesday. 00:07:06.426 --> 00:07:10.096 What do you mean, "Howard just said he was going to kill himself next Tuesday"? 00:07:10.263 --> 00:07:12.223 He was supposed to do a tag on Ron Nessen- 00:07:12.390 --> 00:07:16.018 He said, "Tune in next Tuesday. I'm gonna shoot myself. " 00:07:16.311 --> 00:07:17.520 What the hell's going on? 00:07:17.687 --> 00:07:20.314 He said he was going to blow his brains out. 00:07:20.774 --> 00:07:22.358 What the fuck's going on, Howard? 00:07:22.526 --> 00:07:24.401 They wanna know what the fuck's going on. 00:07:24.569 --> 00:07:26.695 - I can't hear you. - Turn the studio mike on. 00:07:26.863 --> 00:07:29.448 - We're back on in 11 seconds. Ten seconds. 00:07:29.908 --> 00:07:31.242 Howard, what are you doing? 00:07:31.409 --> 00:07:33.702 - Have you flipped? - I think we better get him off. 00:07:33.870 --> 00:07:35.788 - Get him off. - What's the matter with you? 00:07:35.956 --> 00:07:39.333 - Get your fucking hands off. - Turn the sound off. He's going out live! 00:07:39.501 --> 00:07:41.669 We're in a lot of fucking trouble down here. 00:07:41.837 --> 00:07:44.547 - This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. That's my head. 00:07:44.714 --> 00:07:46.924 Go to standby. You dumb schmuck! 00:07:49.928 --> 00:07:52.054 Lou, can't we clear out that downstairs lobby? 00:07:52.222 --> 00:07:53.973 - There must be a hundred people. - How? 00:07:54.141 --> 00:07:57.893 Every TV station and wire service in the city. I could barely get in. 00:07:58.061 --> 00:08:00.688 - Arthur, anything litigable? - Not so far. 00:08:00.856 --> 00:08:03.357 How many spots were wiped out? - Frank just walked in. 00:08:03.525 --> 00:08:05.109 We had to abort. What could we do? 00:08:05.277 --> 00:08:07.486 He's talking to Wheeler. Over 900 phone calls... 00:08:07.654 --> 00:08:09.613 - ... complaining about foul language. Shit. 00:08:09.781 --> 00:08:12.158 Come on, Mickey, what page are you putting it on? 00:08:12.325 --> 00:08:14.910 Hackett just walked in. - ABC again, they want the tape. 00:08:15.078 --> 00:08:17.705 Tell him to go fuck himself. That goes for you too. 00:08:17.873 --> 00:08:19.456 You're off the air as of now. 00:08:19.791 --> 00:08:22.751 He wants to talk to you. - Who's replacing Beale tomorrow? 00:08:22.919 --> 00:08:25.796 - We're flying Snowden up from Washington. - Everybody, hold it. 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:28.174 Let's see how the other networks handle this. 00:08:28.341 --> 00:08:29.800 Ten o'clock news opened with it. 00:08:29.968 --> 00:08:32.511 Good evening. Howard Beale, one of television's... 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:34.805 They're all gonna make it their lead story. 00:08:34.973 --> 00:08:37.933 Howard Beale interrupted his Network News program tonight... 00:08:38.101 --> 00:08:40.227 ...to announce that he was gonna kill himself. 00:08:40.395 --> 00:08:44.398 An unusual thing happened at one of our sister networks, UBS, this evening. 00:08:44.566 --> 00:08:46.275 How are we handling it? 00:08:46.443 --> 00:08:49.695 Halloway's going to make a brief statement at the end of the show... 00:08:49.863 --> 00:08:52.656 ...that Howard's been under great personal stress, et cetera. 00:08:52.824 --> 00:08:54.241 I'll call you back, John. 00:08:54.409 --> 00:08:56.952 All right. We've got a stockholders' meeting tomorrow... 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.372 ...at which we're gonna announce the restructuring-of-management plan. 00:09:00.540 --> 00:09:03.292 I don't want this grotesque incident to interfere with that. 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:07.421 I'll suggest Mr. Ruddy open with a short statement, washing this whole thing off. 00:09:07.589 --> 00:09:09.465 You, Max, you better have some answers... 00:09:09.633 --> 00:09:12.176 ...for those nuts that come to stockholders' meetings. 00:09:12.344 --> 00:09:15.012 Mr. Beale has been under professional and personal strain. 00:09:15.180 --> 00:09:17.473 I've got some surprises for you too, Schumacher. 00:09:17.641 --> 00:09:21.477 I've had it up to here with your cruddy division and its annual $33 million deficit! 00:09:21.645 --> 00:09:24.688 You keep your hands off my news division, Frank. 00:09:24.856 --> 00:09:27.441 We're responsible to corporate level, not you. 00:09:27.609 --> 00:09:31.153 - Well, goddamn, we'll see about that. - All right, take it easy. 00:09:31.321 --> 00:09:33.322 Right now, how do we get Beale out of here? 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:37.326 I understand there's at least a hundred reporters and camera crews in the lobby. 00:09:37.494 --> 00:09:39.328 We got a limo at the freight exit. 00:09:39.496 --> 00:09:41.830 Howard, you're gonna spend the night at my place. 00:09:41.998 --> 00:09:43.832 There's bound to be press around yours. 00:09:53.218 --> 00:09:55.636 I want Snowden here by noon. 00:09:55.804 --> 00:09:57.846 Have Lester cover the CIA hearings... 00:09:58.014 --> 00:10:00.099 ...and give the White House to Doris. 00:10:00.267 --> 00:10:02.393 You're late for your screening, Max. 00:10:03.645 --> 00:10:05.688 Right. Okay. 00:10:08.233 --> 00:10:10.985 If John Wheeler calls, switch him to Projection Room 7. 00:10:11.152 --> 00:10:12.528 Margot, come in here a minute. 00:10:14.197 --> 00:10:16.573 - I'm sorry. This Beale business... - It's all right. 00:10:16.741 --> 00:10:19.285 Sit down. Diana asked if she could sit in on this. 00:10:19.452 --> 00:10:21.662 Fine. How's it going? 00:10:21.830 --> 00:10:25.207 I think you'll like this footage better than the stuff I showed you last time, Max. 00:10:28.044 --> 00:10:29.878 Max Schumacher. 00:10:31.006 --> 00:10:33.716 Goddamn it. When, Louise? 00:10:34.551 --> 00:10:35.634 Laureen? 00:10:35.802 --> 00:10:37.219 Well, did he say anything? 00:10:37.387 --> 00:10:39.179 - Communist Party to be these- 00:10:39.347 --> 00:10:40.556 All right, thank you. 00:10:40.724 --> 00:10:42.474 - splintered underground groups? 00:10:42.642 --> 00:10:44.143 The Communist Party believes... 00:10:44.311 --> 00:10:47.563 ...that the most pressing political necessity today... 00:10:47.731 --> 00:10:51.442 ...is the consolidation of the revolutionary, radical... 00:10:51.609 --> 00:10:54.111 ...and democratic movements into a united front. 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:58.240 Harry, Howard Beale left my house about 20 minutes ago. Has he come in yet? 00:10:58.408 --> 00:11:00.284 - of the bourgeois democratic state... 00:11:00.452 --> 00:11:02.828 Well, let me know when he arrives, huh? 00:11:03.747 --> 00:11:05.247 That's Laureen Hobbs, isn't it? 00:11:05.415 --> 00:11:08.459 Yeah. This is from a David Susskind thing a while back. 00:11:08.626 --> 00:11:10.419 I think we can use some of this stuff. 00:11:10.587 --> 00:11:13.255 - by the broadest possible coalition... 00:11:13.757 --> 00:11:16.925 What we're going to see now is something really sensational. 00:11:17.218 --> 00:11:20.554 The Flagstaff Independent Bank of Arizona was ripped off last week... 00:11:20.722 --> 00:11:23.724 ...by a terrorist group called the Ecumenical Liberation Army. 00:11:23.892 --> 00:11:27.227 They actually took movies of the rip-off while they were ripping it off. 00:11:27.395 --> 00:11:29.938 - Wait till you see it. - The Ecumenical Liberation Army. 00:11:30.106 --> 00:11:32.232 That's not the one that kidnapped Patty Hearst? 00:11:32.400 --> 00:11:34.568 No, no. That's the Symbionese Liberation Army. 00:11:34.736 --> 00:11:36.987 This is the Ecumenical Liberation Army. 00:11:37.155 --> 00:11:40.240 They're the ones who kidnapped Mary Ann Gifford three weeks ago. 00:11:40.408 --> 00:11:43.660 There's a lot of liberation armies in the revolutionary underground... 00:11:43.828 --> 00:11:47.581 ...and a lot of kidnapped heiresses. This is Mary Ann Gifford. 00:11:51.169 --> 00:11:53.962 That's the Great Ahmed Kahn, he's their leader. 00:11:55.048 --> 00:11:57.174 You mean, they actually shot this film... 00:11:57.342 --> 00:11:58.967 ...while they were ripping off the bank? 00:11:59.135 --> 00:12:04.139 Wait till you see it. I don't know whether to edit or leave it raw like this. 00:12:05.767 --> 00:12:09.228 This is terrific stuff. Where did you get it? 00:12:09.396 --> 00:12:13.816 I got everything through Laureen Hobbs. She's my contact for all this stuff. 00:12:19.406 --> 00:12:22.199 - Yeah? I've got Howard on the other line. 00:12:22.826 --> 00:12:23.867 All right, put him on. 00:12:24.035 --> 00:12:26.662 Howard, I've got Max on 4. Would you pick up? 00:12:28.456 --> 00:12:32.209 - Listen, Max, I'd like another shot. - Oh, come on, Howard. 00:12:32.377 --> 00:12:34.128 I don't mean the whole show... 00:12:34.295 --> 00:12:37.965 I'd just like to come on, make some brief farewell statement... 00:12:38.133 --> 00:12:41.135 ...and then turn the show over to Jack Snowden. 00:12:41.302 --> 00:12:43.345 I have 11 years at this network, Max. 00:12:43.513 --> 00:12:45.222 I have some standing in the industry. 00:12:45.390 --> 00:12:47.683 I just don't wanna go out like a clown. 00:12:47.851 --> 00:12:50.102 It'll be simple, dignified. 00:12:50.270 --> 00:12:52.062 You and Harry can check the copy. 00:12:52.689 --> 00:12:55.357 I think it'll take the strain off the show, Max. 00:12:56.651 --> 00:12:58.152 Well, what do you think? 00:12:58.319 --> 00:13:00.362 Well, okay. 00:13:00.530 --> 00:13:03.157 And no booze today, Howard. 00:13:03.741 --> 00:13:05.534 No booze. 00:13:08.830 --> 00:13:11.373 Summaries have been received. We're forwarding them... 00:13:11.541 --> 00:13:14.084 George, can, uh, you come into my office for a minute? 00:13:14.252 --> 00:13:15.669 Right. 00:13:20.717 --> 00:13:22.885 - Barbara, is Tommy around anywhere? - I think so. 00:13:23.052 --> 00:13:25.721 I'd like to see the two of you for a moment. 00:13:32.270 --> 00:13:36.023 Uh, this is Bill Herron from our West Coast Special Programs Department. 00:13:36.191 --> 00:13:38.817 George Bosch, Barbara Schlesinger, Tommy Pellegrino. 00:13:38.985 --> 00:13:42.279 Look, I just saw some rough footage of a special Bill's doing... 00:13:42.447 --> 00:13:45.240 ...on the revolutionary underground. Most is tedious stuff... 00:13:45.408 --> 00:13:48.911 ...of Laureen Hobbs and two fatigue jackets muttering mutilated Marxism. 00:13:49.078 --> 00:13:53.081 But he's got about eight minutes of a bank robbery... 00:13:53.249 --> 00:13:56.293 ...that is absolutely sensational. Authentic stuff. 00:13:56.461 --> 00:13:59.421 Actually shot while the robbery was going on. 00:13:59.589 --> 00:14:01.840 You remember the Mary Ann Gifford kidnapping? 00:14:02.091 --> 00:14:05.761 It's that bunch of nuts. She's in the movie shooting off machine guns. 00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:10.432 Really terrific footage. I think we can get a hell of a Movie of the Week out of it... 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:11.725 ...maybe even a series. 00:14:13.019 --> 00:14:15.229 A series out of what? What are we talking about? 00:14:15.396 --> 00:14:17.898 Look, we've got a bunch of hobgoblin radicals... 00:14:18.066 --> 00:14:20.067 ...called the Ecumenical Liberation Army... 00:14:20.235 --> 00:14:23.654 ...who go around taking home movies of themselves robbing banks. 00:14:23.821 --> 00:14:26.573 And maybe they'll take movies of themselves kidnapping heiresses... 00:14:26.741 --> 00:14:30.911 ...um, hijacking 747s, bombing bridges, assassinating ambassadors. 00:14:32.997 --> 00:14:35.916 We'd open each week's segment with that authentic footage... 00:14:36.084 --> 00:14:38.752 ...hire writers to write some story behind that footage... 00:14:38.920 --> 00:14:41.088 ...and we've got ourselves a series. 00:14:41.256 --> 00:14:44.675 A series about a bunch of, uh, bank-robbing guerillas? 00:14:46.010 --> 00:14:47.928 What are we gonna call it, The Mao Tse-Tung Hour? 00:14:48.096 --> 00:14:50.389 Why not? 00:14:50.974 --> 00:14:54.184 They've got Strike Force, Task Force, SWAT, why not Che Guevara... 00:14:54.352 --> 00:14:56.019 ...and his own little mod squad? 00:14:56.187 --> 00:14:58.855 Look, I sent you all a concept-analysis report yesterday. 00:14:59.023 --> 00:15:00.857 Did any of you read it? 00:15:03.069 --> 00:15:06.572 Well, in a nutshell, it said the American people are turning sullen. 00:15:06.739 --> 00:15:10.659 They've been clobbered by Vietnam, Watergate, inflation, the Depression. 00:15:10.827 --> 00:15:14.413 They've turned off, shot up and fucked themselves limp. And nothing helps. 00:15:14.581 --> 00:15:19.293 So this concept-analysis report concludes the American people want somebody... 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:22.296 ...to articulate their rage for them. 00:15:22.463 --> 00:15:25.591 I've been telling you people since I took this job six months ago... 00:15:25.758 --> 00:15:27.843 ...that I want angry shows. 00:15:28.011 --> 00:15:31.597 I don't want conventional programming on this network, I want counterculture. 00:15:31.764 --> 00:15:33.765 I want antiestablishment. 00:15:36.185 --> 00:15:39.771 I don't wanna play butch boss with you people. 00:15:40.106 --> 00:15:41.732 When I took over this department... 00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:44.693 ...it had the worst programming record in television history. 00:15:45.153 --> 00:15:47.154 This network hasn't one show in the top 20. 00:15:47.322 --> 00:15:49.656 This network is an industry joke. 00:15:49.824 --> 00:15:52.868 And we better start putting together one winner for next September. 00:15:53.036 --> 00:15:58.582 I want a show developed based on the activities of a terrorist group. 00:15:58.750 --> 00:16:01.043 Joseph Stalin and his merry band of Bolsheviks. 00:16:01.210 --> 00:16:04.630 I want ideas from you people. That is what you're paid for. 00:16:04.797 --> 00:16:08.550 And, by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around... 00:16:08.718 --> 00:16:12.554 ...you'd all better read it, or I'll sack the fucking lot of you, is that clear? 00:16:12.722 --> 00:16:14.890 I'll be out on the coast in, uh, four weeks. 00:16:15.058 --> 00:16:17.142 Will you set up a meeting with Laureen Hobbs? 00:16:17.310 --> 00:16:18.352 Sure. 00:16:18.770 --> 00:16:21.980 But the business of management is management. 00:16:22.148 --> 00:16:24.858 And at the time CCA took control of the UBS TV Network... 00:16:25.026 --> 00:16:28.987 ...it was foundering with less than 7 percent of national television revenues... 00:16:29.155 --> 00:16:31.740 ...most network programs being sold at station rates. 00:16:31.908 --> 00:16:35.118 I am pleased to announce I am submitting to the board of directors... 00:16:35.286 --> 00:16:38.372 ...a plan for the coordination of the main profit centers. 00:16:38.539 --> 00:16:40.123 And with the specific intention... 00:16:40.291 --> 00:16:44.461 ...of making each division more responsive to management. 00:16:45.088 --> 00:16:46.797 Point one. 00:16:47.423 --> 00:16:51.426 The division producing the lowest rate of return has been the news division... 00:16:51.594 --> 00:16:57.224 ...with its $98 million budget and its average annual deficit of 32 million. 00:16:57.725 --> 00:17:00.936 I know that, historically, news divisions are expected to lose money. 00:17:01.104 --> 00:17:04.523 But to our minds, this philosophy is a wanton fiscal affront... 00:17:04.691 --> 00:17:07.317 ...to be resolutely resisted. 00:17:07.777 --> 00:17:12.447 The new plan calls for local news to be transferred to owned stations' divisions. 00:17:12.615 --> 00:17:16.827 News radio would be transferred to the UBS Radio Division and in effect... 00:17:17.995 --> 00:17:21.206 ...the news division would be reduced from an independent division... 00:17:21.374 --> 00:17:25.335 ...to a department accountable to network. 00:17:30.633 --> 00:17:33.760 - What was that all about, Ed? - This is not the time, Max. 00:17:33.928 --> 00:17:35.929 Why wasn't I told about this? 00:17:36.097 --> 00:17:38.849 Why was I led up onto that podium and publicly humiliated... 00:17:39.016 --> 00:17:40.642 ...in front of the stockholders? 00:17:40.810 --> 00:17:43.145 Goddamn it, I spoke to John Wheeler this morning... 00:17:43.312 --> 00:17:45.480 ...and he assured me the news division was safe. 00:17:45.648 --> 00:17:47.816 That's one hell of a way to get me to resign. 00:17:47.984 --> 00:17:51.737 We'll talk about this tomorrow at our regular morning meeting. 00:18:02.498 --> 00:18:04.374 Eleven, 10... Roll VTA. 00:18:04.542 --> 00:18:07.961 ...nine, eight, seven, six. 00:18:08.129 --> 00:18:12.007 In five, four, three, two... 00:18:12.341 --> 00:18:14.634 One. One, cue VTA. 00:18:19.182 --> 00:18:20.348 Cue announcer. 00:18:20.516 --> 00:18:25.520 The UBS evening news with Howard Beale. 00:18:25.772 --> 00:18:27.272 Ready, two? 00:18:27.857 --> 00:18:29.191 Two, cue Howard. 00:18:29.358 --> 00:18:33.320 Good evening. Today is Wednesday, September the 24th... 00:18:33.488 --> 00:18:35.363 ...and this is my last broadcast. 00:18:36.866 --> 00:18:41.745 Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide. 00:18:41.913 --> 00:18:46.082 Admittedly an act of madness. Well, I'll tell you what happened. 00:18:46.250 --> 00:18:47.584 I just ran out of bullshit. 00:18:47.752 --> 00:18:50.504 - All right, cut him off. - Leave him on. 00:18:51.756 --> 00:18:52.798 Am I still on the air? 00:18:52.965 --> 00:18:55.175 If this is how he wants to go out, this is how he goes out. 00:18:56.594 --> 00:18:58.053 - except I just ran out of bullshit. 00:18:58.221 --> 00:19:00.138 Mr. Schumacher's right here. Wanna talk to him? 00:19:00.306 --> 00:19:02.682 Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living. 00:19:02.850 --> 00:19:06.061 If we can't think up any reasons of our own, we have the God bullshit. 00:19:06.229 --> 00:19:08.522 Holy Mary, Mother of Christ. - Tom, what is it? 00:19:08.731 --> 00:19:11.691 - through all this pointless pain, humiliation and decay... 00:19:11.859 --> 00:19:13.944 ...so there better be someone who does know. 00:19:14.111 --> 00:19:15.695 That's the God bullshit. 00:19:15.863 --> 00:19:19.366 He's saying that life is bullshit and it is. What are you screaming about? 00:19:19.534 --> 00:19:21.993 Man is a noble creature that can order his own world. Who needs God? 00:19:23.496 --> 00:19:24.955 If there's anybody out there... 00:19:25.122 --> 00:19:28.250 ...that can look around this slaughterhouse of a world we live in... 00:19:28.417 --> 00:19:30.752 ...and tell me that man is a noble creature... 00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:33.255 ...believe me, that man is full of bullshit. 00:19:34.465 --> 00:19:37.968 - What's so goddamn funny? - I can't help it, Harry. It's funny. 00:19:38.594 --> 00:19:42.639 Max, this is going out live to 67 affiliates. 00:19:42.807 --> 00:19:44.182 Leave him on. 00:19:44.433 --> 00:19:48.770 And I was married for 33 years of shrill, shrieking fraud. 00:19:48.938 --> 00:19:52.941 - Mr. Hackett's trying to get through to you. - Tell Mr. Hackett to go fuck himself. 00:19:53.109 --> 00:19:55.777 So I don't have any bullshit left. 00:19:56.696 --> 00:19:59.114 I just ran out of it, you see. 00:20:05.121 --> 00:20:07.789 Mr. Ruddy, could we have just one statement from you? 00:20:07.957 --> 00:20:10.792 Sorry, I don't have all the information yet. 00:20:11.127 --> 00:20:12.669 One question. 00:20:13.629 --> 00:20:17.883 Could we-? If we could just have one statement about Mr. Beale. 00:20:27.351 --> 00:20:29.060 Max. 00:20:37.737 --> 00:20:39.571 I'll want to see Mr. Beale after this. 00:20:42.283 --> 00:20:44.910 The way I hear it, Max, you were primarily responsible... 00:20:45.077 --> 00:20:47.120 ...for this colossally stupid prank. 00:20:47.997 --> 00:20:50.165 - Is that the fact, Max? - That's the fact. 00:20:50.875 --> 00:20:52.792 It was unconscionable. 00:20:56.005 --> 00:20:58.089 There doesn't seem to be anything more to say. 00:20:58.257 --> 00:20:59.591 I have something to say, Ed. 00:21:00.676 --> 00:21:03.678 I want to know why that whole debasement of the news division... 00:21:03.846 --> 00:21:08.266 ...announced at the stockholders' meeting this afternoon was kept secret from me. 00:21:08.684 --> 00:21:10.894 You and I go back 20 years, Ed. 00:21:11.354 --> 00:21:13.521 I took this job with your personal assurance... 00:21:13.689 --> 00:21:17.317 ...that you'd back my autonomy against any encroachment. 00:21:17.485 --> 00:21:22.197 But ever since CCA acquired control of UBS Systems 10 months ago... 00:21:22.365 --> 00:21:24.491 ...Hackett's been taking over everything. 00:21:24.659 --> 00:21:28.787 Now who the hell is running this network? You or some conglomerate called CCA? 00:21:29.413 --> 00:21:31.665 I mean you're president of the Systems Group... 00:21:31.832 --> 00:21:34.876 ...and Hackett's nothing but a hatchet man for CCA. 00:21:35.044 --> 00:21:38.046 Nelson here, president of a network... 00:21:38.214 --> 00:21:40.882 ...and he hasn't a thing to say about anything anymore. 00:21:41.050 --> 00:21:43.510 I told you at the stockholders' meeting, Max... 00:21:43.678 --> 00:21:47.555 ...that we would discuss all that at our regular meeting tomorrow morning. 00:21:47.723 --> 00:21:48.890 If you had been patient... 00:21:49.058 --> 00:21:52.143 ...I would've explained that I thought Frank Hackett precipitate... 00:21:52.311 --> 00:21:54.562 ...and that the reorganization of the division... 00:21:54.730 --> 00:21:58.066 ...would not be executed until everyone, specifically you, Max... 00:21:58.567 --> 00:22:01.069 ...had been consulted and satisfied. 00:22:02.071 --> 00:22:05.031 Instead, you sulked off like a child and engaged this network... 00:22:05.199 --> 00:22:07.075 ...in a shocking and disgraceful episode. 00:22:07.576 --> 00:22:09.327 Your position is no longer tenable... 00:22:09.495 --> 00:22:12.372 ...regardless of how management is restructured. 00:22:13.499 --> 00:22:16.209 I will expect your resignation at 10:00 tomorrow morning... 00:22:16.377 --> 00:22:20.046 ...and we will coordinate our statements to the least detriment of everyone. 00:22:20.715 --> 00:22:22.966 Bob McDonough will take over the news division... 00:22:23.134 --> 00:22:25.093 ...until we can sort all this out. 00:22:27.596 --> 00:22:29.723 I'd like to see Mr. Beale now. 00:22:30.307 --> 00:22:33.518 They're looking for him, Ed. They don't know where he is. 00:22:35.563 --> 00:22:39.941 Every day, five days a week for 15 years, I've been sitting behind that desk. 00:22:40.109 --> 00:22:41.609 The dispassionate pundit... 00:22:42.445 --> 00:22:45.572 ...reporting with seemly detachment the daily parade... 00:22:45.740 --> 00:22:48.283 ...of lunacies that constitute the news. 00:22:48.868 --> 00:22:51.786 And just once I wanted to say what I really felt. 00:22:51.954 --> 00:22:53.830 Knock it off, Arthur. 00:22:53.998 --> 00:22:55.582 It was, after all, my last... 00:23:12.475 --> 00:23:15.351 - Did the overnight ratings come in yet? - They're on your desk. 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:17.479 Have you still got yesterday's overnights? 00:23:17.646 --> 00:23:19.564 Shall I bring them in? Yeah. 00:23:25.404 --> 00:23:28.990 These are those four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series. 00:23:29.158 --> 00:23:31.701 You needn't bother to read them. I'll tell them to you. 00:23:31.869 --> 00:23:36.331 The first one is set in a large Eastern law school, presumably Harvard. 00:23:36.499 --> 00:23:39.334 The series is irresistibly entitled The New Lawyers. 00:23:39.502 --> 00:23:42.921 The running characters are a crusty but benign ex-Supreme Court Justice... 00:23:43.089 --> 00:23:46.382 ...presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes by way of Dr. Zorba. 00:23:46.550 --> 00:23:48.635 There is a beautiful girl graduate student... 00:23:48.803 --> 00:23:52.180 ...and the district attorney who is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners. 00:23:52.348 --> 00:23:53.681 Next one. 00:23:53.849 --> 00:23:55.934 The second one is called The Amazon Squad. 00:23:56.102 --> 00:23:57.352 Lady cops? 00:23:57.520 --> 00:24:00.438 The running characters include a crusty but benign lieutenant... 00:24:00.606 --> 00:24:03.024 ...who's always getting heat from the commissioner... 00:24:03.192 --> 00:24:06.444 ...a hard-drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen... 00:24:06.612 --> 00:24:08.863 ...and a brilliant and beautiful young girl cop... 00:24:09.031 --> 00:24:12.534 - ... who's fighting the feminist battle. We're up to our ears in lady cops. 00:24:12.701 --> 00:24:15.745 The next is another one of those investigative reporter shows. 00:24:15.913 --> 00:24:18.331 A crusty but benign managing editor who's always- 00:24:18.499 --> 00:24:20.166 You know, Barbara... 00:24:20.835 --> 00:24:25.547 ...the Arabs have decided to jack up the price of oil another 20 percent. 00:24:25.714 --> 00:24:29.467 Uh, the CIA has been caught opening Senator Humphrey's mail. 00:24:29.635 --> 00:24:34.556 There's a civil war in Angola, another one in Beirut. 00:24:35.099 --> 00:24:37.725 The- New York City's still facing default. 00:24:37.893 --> 00:24:40.520 They finally caught up with Patricia Hearst. 00:24:40.688 --> 00:24:44.566 And the whole front page of the Daily News is Howard Beale. 00:24:45.609 --> 00:24:49.362 There's also a two-column story on Page 1 of the Times. 00:24:52.324 --> 00:24:54.951 Helen, call Mr. Hackett's office. 00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:57.829 See if he can give me a few minutes this morning. 00:25:03.752 --> 00:25:07.964 KTNS, Kansas City, refuses to carry our Network News show anymore... 00:25:08.132 --> 00:25:09.883 ...unless Beale is taken off the air. 00:25:10.050 --> 00:25:12.260 Did you see the overnights on the Network News? 00:25:12.428 --> 00:25:17.056 It has an eight in New York, a nine in L.A. and a 27 share in both cities. 00:25:17.224 --> 00:25:20.935 Last night Howard Beale went on the air and yelled "bullshit" for two minutes... 00:25:21.103 --> 00:25:25.064 ...and I can tell you right now that tonight's show will get a 30 share, at least. 00:25:25.232 --> 00:25:26.941 I think we've lucked into something. 00:25:27.109 --> 00:25:29.986 For God's sakes. Are you suggesting that we put that lunatic... 00:25:30.154 --> 00:25:31.946 ...back on the air yelling "bullshit"? 00:25:32.114 --> 00:25:35.283 I think we should put Beale back on the air tonight and keep him on. 00:25:35.451 --> 00:25:38.119 Did you see the news this morning? Did you see the Times? 00:25:38.287 --> 00:25:41.831 We've got press on this you couldn't buy for a million dollars. Frank. 00:25:41.999 --> 00:25:45.293 That dumb show jumped five rating points in one night. 00:25:45.461 --> 00:25:47.337 Tonight's show has gotta be at least 15. 00:25:47.504 --> 00:25:51.341 We just increased our audience by 20 or 30 million people in one night. 00:25:51.508 --> 00:25:53.635 You're not gonna get this dumped in your lap... 00:25:53.802 --> 00:25:56.262 ...for the rest of your days. You can't piss it away. 00:25:56.430 --> 00:25:58.556 Howard Beale said what every American feels... 00:25:58.724 --> 00:26:03.645 ...that he's tired of all the bullshit. He's articulating the popular rage. 00:26:03.938 --> 00:26:07.982 I want that show, Frank. I can turn that show into the biggest smash on television. 00:26:08.150 --> 00:26:11.110 What do you mean? It's a news show. It's not your department. 00:26:11.278 --> 00:26:13.863 I see Howard Beale as a latter-day prophet. 00:26:14.323 --> 00:26:17.992 A magnificent, messianic figure inveighing against the hypocrisies of our times. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:20.620 A strip Savonarola, Monday through Friday... 00:26:20.788 --> 00:26:23.790 ...that I tell you, Frank, could just go through the roof... 00:26:23.958 --> 00:26:27.001 ...and I'm talking about a $6 cost per thousand show. 00:26:27.378 --> 00:26:30.004 I'm talking about a hundred- A 130,000-dollar minutes. 00:26:30.172 --> 00:26:32.715 Do you wanna figure out the revenues of a strip show... 00:26:32.883 --> 00:26:34.801 ...that sells for 100,000 bucks a minute? 00:26:34.969 --> 00:26:37.804 One show like that could pull this network out of the hole. 00:26:37.972 --> 00:26:40.515 Frank, it's being handed to us on a plate. Let's not blow it. 00:26:42.685 --> 00:26:44.018 Yes? 00:26:44.937 --> 00:26:47.021 Tell him I'll be a few minutes. 00:26:49.358 --> 00:26:50.400 Let me think it over. 00:26:50.567 --> 00:26:53.361 Frank, let's not go to committee on this. It's 20 after 10. 00:26:53.529 --> 00:26:56.447 We want Beale in that studio. We don't wanna lose the momentum. 00:26:56.615 --> 00:26:57.824 For God's sake, Diana... 00:26:57.992 --> 00:27:03.413 ...we're talking about putting a manifestly irresponsible man on national television. 00:27:13.007 --> 00:27:15.925 I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs at least and Herb Thackeray... 00:27:16.093 --> 00:27:18.970 ...and certainly Joe Donnelly in Standards and Practices. 00:27:20.055 --> 00:27:23.391 And you know, I'm going to be eyeball to eyeball with Mr. Ruddy on this. 00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:27.020 If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy, I wanna make sure of some of my ground. 00:27:27.187 --> 00:27:29.689 I'm the one whose ass is going on the line. 00:27:32.484 --> 00:27:34.152 I'll get back to you, Diana. 00:27:38.073 --> 00:27:40.575 I don't believe this. I don't believe the top brass... 00:27:40.743 --> 00:27:43.911 ...of a national television network are sitting around their salads- 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:46.831 The top brass of a bankrupt national television network... 00:27:46.999 --> 00:27:49.250 ...with projected losses of close to $150 million. 00:27:49.418 --> 00:27:50.668 I don't care how bankrupt. 00:27:52.171 --> 00:27:56.049 You can't be seriously proposing, and the rest of us seriously considering... 00:27:56.216 --> 00:27:59.093 ...putting on a pornographic Network News show. 00:27:59.261 --> 00:28:01.012 - The FCC'd kill us. - Sit down, Nelson. 00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:03.931 The FCC can't do anything except rap our knuckles. 00:28:04.099 --> 00:28:07.185 I don't even wanna think about the litigious possibilities, Frank. 00:28:07.353 --> 00:28:10.605 - Could be up to our ears in lawsuits. - The affiliates won't carry it. 00:28:10.773 --> 00:28:13.691 Affiliates will kiss your ass, if you can hand them a hit show. 00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:14.901 The popular reaction- 00:28:15.069 --> 00:28:18.112 We don't know the popular reaction. We have to find out. 00:28:18.280 --> 00:28:19.322 The New York Times- 00:28:19.490 --> 00:28:22.825 The New York Times doesn't advertise on our network. 00:28:24.953 --> 00:28:29.082 All I know is this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting. 00:28:29.625 --> 00:28:32.377 We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network. 00:28:32.544 --> 00:28:34.796 We have to take whatever we can get. 00:28:36.215 --> 00:28:37.799 Well, I don't want any part of it. 00:28:37.966 --> 00:28:40.551 I don't fancy myself the president of a whorehouse. 00:28:40.719 --> 00:28:43.429 That's very commendable of you, Nelson. Now, sit down. 00:28:44.848 --> 00:28:48.976 Your indignation has been duly recorded. You can always resign tomorrow. 00:28:50.938 --> 00:28:54.315 Now look, what in substance are we proposing? 00:28:54.858 --> 00:28:58.653 Merely to add editorial comment to our Network News show. 00:28:58.821 --> 00:29:02.490 Brinkley, Sevareid, Reasoner, all have their comments. 00:29:02.658 --> 00:29:04.617 Now Howard Beale will have his. 00:29:04.785 --> 00:29:08.329 I think we ought to give it a shot. Let's see what happens tonight. 00:29:08.497 --> 00:29:09.539 Telephone, please. 00:29:09.706 --> 00:29:12.625 I don't wanna be the messenger that has to tell Max Schumacher. 00:29:12.793 --> 00:29:14.710 Max doesn't work at this network anymore. 00:29:14.878 --> 00:29:16.379 Mr. Ruddy fired him last night. 00:29:16.547 --> 00:29:19.257 Bob McDonough's running the news division now. 00:29:20.801 --> 00:29:22.677 Bob McDonough in News, please. 00:29:24.263 --> 00:29:26.180 Oh, I don't know. 00:29:26.348 --> 00:29:28.766 I may teach or I may write a book... 00:29:28.934 --> 00:29:31.352 ...whatever the hell one does when one approaches... 00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:33.896 ...the autumn of one's years. 00:29:35.899 --> 00:29:38.151 My God, is that me? 00:29:38.444 --> 00:29:40.528 - Was I ever that young? 00:29:41.196 --> 00:29:43.614 No. Howard just brought in a picture of Ed Murrow... 00:29:43.782 --> 00:29:46.117 ...and the whole CBS gang when we were there. 00:29:46.285 --> 00:29:47.618 You wouldn't believe it. 00:29:47.786 --> 00:29:51.998 Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner, Hollenbeck, Bob Trout. 00:29:52.166 --> 00:29:54.083 - Is that you, Howard? - Mm-hm. 00:29:55.127 --> 00:29:56.711 Yeah. 00:29:57.045 --> 00:29:59.881 - Okay, Dick, we'll be in touch. Right. - You remember this kid? 00:30:00.048 --> 00:30:03.384 He's the kid I think you once sent out to interview Cleveland Amory on vivisection. 00:30:07.181 --> 00:30:09.056 What's so funny? 00:30:11.977 --> 00:30:15.480 So I jump out of bed in my pajamas, I grab my raincoat, I run downstairs. 00:30:15.647 --> 00:30:18.065 I run out in the street and I hail a cab. 00:30:18.233 --> 00:30:20.234 And I jumped in and I yell at the driver: 00:30:20.402 --> 00:30:23.321 "Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge. " 00:30:25.449 --> 00:30:29.118 And the driver turns around and he says: "Don't do it, buddy, don't do it. 00:30:29.286 --> 00:30:31.704 You're young, you got your whole life ahead of you. " 00:30:31.872 --> 00:30:34.832 Wait a minute! Wait a minute! 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:36.667 If you think that's funny- 00:30:36.835 --> 00:30:39.378 No, if you think that's funny, wait till you hear this. 00:30:39.546 --> 00:30:41.797 I've just come back from Frank Hackett's office. 00:30:41.965 --> 00:30:43.716 He wants to put Howard on the air. 00:30:43.884 --> 00:30:45.301 - You're kidding. - Apparently... 00:30:45.469 --> 00:30:47.678 ...the ratings went up five points last night... 00:30:47.846 --> 00:30:50.973 ...and he wants Howard to go back on and do his angry-man thing. 00:30:51.642 --> 00:30:53.142 What are you talking about? 00:30:53.310 --> 00:30:56.270 I'm telling you. They want Howard to go back on and yell "bullshit. " 00:30:59.525 --> 00:31:02.860 They want Howard to go on spontaneously letting out his anger. 00:31:03.028 --> 00:31:05.905 A latter-day prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times. 00:31:06.073 --> 00:31:08.199 Hey, that sounds pretty good. 00:31:09.117 --> 00:31:10.535 Who's this "they"? 00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:14.747 Hackett. Chaney was there. The Legal Affairs guy. 00:31:14.915 --> 00:31:16.832 Oh, and that girl from Programming. 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.001 Christensen? What's she got to do with this? 00:31:19.169 --> 00:31:21.671 You're kidding, aren't you? - I'm not kidding. 00:31:21.838 --> 00:31:22.880 I told them. I said: 00:31:23.048 --> 00:31:25.633 "Look, we're running a news department, not a circus. 00:31:25.801 --> 00:31:28.135 And Howard Beale's not a bearded lady. 00:31:28.303 --> 00:31:30.972 If you think I'm gonna go along with this bastardization... 00:31:31.139 --> 00:31:34.350 ...you can have my resignation along with Max Schumacher's right now. 00:31:34.518 --> 00:31:37.311 I think I'm speaking for Howard Beale and everybody else-" 00:31:37.479 --> 00:31:40.523 That's my job you're turning down. 00:31:40.816 --> 00:31:43.276 I'd go nuts without some kind of work. 00:31:43.443 --> 00:31:47.738 What's wrong with being an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times? 00:31:47.906 --> 00:31:49.699 What do you think, Max? 00:31:49.866 --> 00:31:53.452 Do you want to be an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times? 00:31:53.620 --> 00:31:58.040 Yeah, I think I'd like to be an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times. 00:31:59.418 --> 00:32:01.294 Then grab it. Grab it! 00:32:07.884 --> 00:32:09.677 - Afternoon, Mr. Ruddy. - Good afternoon. 00:32:09.845 --> 00:32:11.804 Good afternoon, Mr. Ruddy. 00:32:14.975 --> 00:32:17.768 - He's waiting for you, Mr. Ruddy. Thank you. 00:32:23.567 --> 00:32:27.862 Nelson Chaney tells me Beale may actually go on the air this evening. 00:32:29.072 --> 00:32:30.990 As far as I know, Howard's going to do it. 00:32:33.660 --> 00:32:35.369 You going to sit still for this, Ed? 00:32:35.537 --> 00:32:38.998 Yes. I think Hackett's overstepped himself. 00:32:39.166 --> 00:32:41.792 There's some kind of corporate maneuvering going on, Max. 00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:44.170 Hackett is clearly forcing a confrontation. 00:32:44.338 --> 00:32:47.548 That would account for his behavior at the stockholders' meeting. 00:32:47.716 --> 00:32:51.302 However, I think he's making a serious mistake with this Beale business. 00:32:51.928 --> 00:32:56.599 I suspect CCA will be upset at Hackett's presumptuousness. 00:32:56.767 --> 00:32:58.851 Certainly Mr. Jensen will. 00:32:59.019 --> 00:33:02.063 So I'm going to let Hackett have his head for a while. 00:33:02.606 --> 00:33:05.149 He just might lose it over this Beale business. 00:33:09.488 --> 00:33:12.156 I'd like you to reconsider your resignation, Max. 00:33:12.699 --> 00:33:14.950 I assume that Hackett wouldn't take such steps... 00:33:15.118 --> 00:33:17.119 ...without some support on the CCA board. 00:33:17.829 --> 00:33:20.081 I'll have to go directly to Mr. Jensen. 00:33:20.248 --> 00:33:23.250 When that happens, I'm going to need every friend I've got. 00:33:23.418 --> 00:33:27.088 And I certainly don't want Hackett's people in all of the divisional positions. 00:33:27.255 --> 00:33:29.382 So I'd like you to stay on, Max. 00:33:34.262 --> 00:33:35.346 Of course, Ed. 00:33:37.140 --> 00:33:38.933 Thank you, Max. 00:33:39.976 --> 00:33:44.271 This has been the UBS evening news with Howard Beale. 00:33:44.940 --> 00:33:49.527 The initial response to the new Howard Beale Show was not auspicatory. 00:33:49.695 --> 00:33:53.948 The press was without exception hostile and the industry reaction negative. 00:33:54.116 --> 00:33:57.118 The ratings for the Thursday and Friday shows were both 14. 00:33:57.285 --> 00:33:59.245 But Monday's rating dropped a point... 00:33:59.413 --> 00:34:02.832 ...clearly suggesting the novelty was wearing off. 00:34:04.292 --> 00:34:06.502 Did you know there are a number of psychics... 00:34:06.670 --> 00:34:09.296 ...working as licensed brokers on Wall Street? 00:34:09.464 --> 00:34:12.133 Some of them counsel their clients by use of tarot cards. 00:34:12.300 --> 00:34:15.678 They're all pretty successful, even in a bear market and selling short. 00:34:15.846 --> 00:34:19.265 I met one of them last week and thought of doing a show around her. 00:34:19.433 --> 00:34:22.101 The Wayward Witch of Wall Street, something like that. 00:34:22.269 --> 00:34:24.770 If her tips were any good, she could wreck the market. 00:34:24.938 --> 00:34:30.317 So I called her this morning and asked her how she was on predicting the future. 00:34:30.485 --> 00:34:33.028 She said she was occasionally prescient. 00:34:33.196 --> 00:34:35.072 For example, she said: 00:34:35.240 --> 00:34:37.825 "I just had a fleeting vision of you... 00:34:37.993 --> 00:34:40.870 ...sitting in an office with a craggy middle-aged man... 00:34:41.037 --> 00:34:44.582 ...with whom you are, or will be, emotionally involved. " 00:34:44.750 --> 00:34:46.000 And here I am. 00:34:48.462 --> 00:34:50.337 And she does all this with tarot cards? 00:34:50.505 --> 00:34:53.966 No. This one operates on parapsychology. 00:34:54.134 --> 00:34:58.345 She has trance-like episodes and feels things in her energy field. 00:34:59.473 --> 00:35:01.974 I think this lady could be very useful to you, Max. 00:35:02.350 --> 00:35:04.018 - In what way? - Well... 00:35:04.186 --> 00:35:07.354 ...you put on a news show and here's somebody who can predict... 00:35:07.522 --> 00:35:09.106 ...tomorrow's news for you. 00:35:09.274 --> 00:35:11.901 Her name, aptly enough, is Sibyl. 00:35:12.068 --> 00:35:13.402 Sibyl the Soothsayer. 00:35:13.570 --> 00:35:17.156 You could give her two minutes of trance at the end of a Howard Beale Show... 00:35:17.324 --> 00:35:18.699 ...say, once a week, Friday... 00:35:18.867 --> 00:35:21.952 ...which is suggestively occult, and she could oraculate. 00:35:22.120 --> 00:35:26.165 Then next week everyone tunes in to see how good her predictions were. 00:35:27.042 --> 00:35:28.584 Maybe she could do the weather. 00:35:30.712 --> 00:35:33.923 Your Network News is going to need some help, Max, if it's gonna hold. 00:35:34.090 --> 00:35:36.383 Beale doesn't do the angry-man thing well at all. 00:35:36.551 --> 00:35:40.221 He's too, uh, kvetchy. He's being irascible. We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon. 00:35:40.388 --> 00:35:42.014 He should do more apocalyptic doom. 00:35:42.182 --> 00:35:46.560 I think you should take on a couple of writers to write some jeremiads for him. 00:35:47.062 --> 00:35:49.063 I see you don't fancy my suggestions. 00:35:51.608 --> 00:35:53.317 Hell, you're not serious, are you? 00:35:54.152 --> 00:35:56.028 Oh, I'm serious. 00:35:57.030 --> 00:36:00.866 The fact is I could make your Beale Show the highest-rated news show... 00:36:01.034 --> 00:36:04.370 ...in television, if you'd let me have a crack at it. 00:36:04.621 --> 00:36:09.750 - What do you mean, "have a crack at it"? - I'd like to program it for you. Develop it. 00:36:09.918 --> 00:36:14.797 I wouldn't interfere with the actual news itself, but TV is showbiz, Max. 00:36:15.298 --> 00:36:18.592 And even the news has to have a little showmanship. 00:36:18.760 --> 00:36:21.136 My God, you are serious. 00:36:21.304 --> 00:36:25.099 Oh. I watched your 6:00 news today. It's straight tabloid. 00:36:25.267 --> 00:36:28.811 You had a minute and a half of that lady riding a bike naked in Central Park. 00:36:28.979 --> 00:36:32.147 You had less than a minute of hard national and international news. 00:36:32.315 --> 00:36:34.900 It was all sex, scandal, brutal crimes, sports... 00:36:35.443 --> 00:36:38.112 ...children with incurable diseases and lost puppies. 00:36:38.280 --> 00:36:42.032 I don't think I'll listen to any protestations of high standards of journalism... 00:36:42.200 --> 00:36:44.785 ...when you're soliciting audiences like the rest of us. 00:36:44.953 --> 00:36:48.455 All I'm saying is, if you're gonna hustle, at least do it right. 00:36:48.623 --> 00:36:50.791 I'm gonna bring this up at tomorrow's meeting. 00:36:50.959 --> 00:36:54.336 I don't like network hassles. I was hoping you and I could work this out. 00:36:54.504 --> 00:36:56.171 Now that's why I'm here. 00:36:57.048 --> 00:37:00.426 And I was hoping that you were looking for an emotional involvement... 00:37:00.594 --> 00:37:02.595 ...with a craggy middle-aged man. 00:37:04.222 --> 00:37:06.181 Oh, I wouldn't rule that out entirely. 00:37:09.519 --> 00:37:11.687 All right, Diana. 00:37:11.855 --> 00:37:14.356 You bring up all your ideas at the meeting tomorrow... 00:37:14.524 --> 00:37:16.483 ...because if you don't, I will. 00:37:17.193 --> 00:37:19.820 I think Howard's making a goddamn fool of himself... 00:37:19.988 --> 00:37:23.657 ...and so does everybody that Howard and I know in this industry. 00:37:24.117 --> 00:37:27.161 It was a fluke. It didn't work. 00:37:27.621 --> 00:37:31.415 So tomorrow, Howard goes back to the old format... 00:37:31.583 --> 00:37:34.627 ...and all of this gutter depravity comes to an end. 00:37:37.255 --> 00:37:38.964 Okay. 00:37:46.431 --> 00:37:48.557 I don't get it, Diana. 00:37:49.517 --> 00:37:53.020 You hung around until 7:30 and then came all the way down here... 00:37:53.188 --> 00:37:55.689 ...just to pitch a couple of loony showbiz ideas... 00:37:55.857 --> 00:37:59.443 ...when you knew goddamn well I'd laugh you right out of the office. 00:37:59.611 --> 00:38:01.487 I don't get it. 00:38:02.155 --> 00:38:04.156 What's your scam in this? 00:38:04.324 --> 00:38:06.867 Max, my little visit here tonight... 00:38:07.035 --> 00:38:11.288 ...was a gesture made out of your stature in the industry... 00:38:11.665 --> 00:38:15.376 ...and because I personally admired you since I was a kid majoring in speech... 00:38:15.543 --> 00:38:17.086 ...at the University of Missouri. 00:38:18.338 --> 00:38:20.172 Sooner or later, with or without you... 00:38:20.340 --> 00:38:22.675 ...I'm going to take over your Network News show... 00:38:22.842 --> 00:38:25.094 ...and I figured I might as well start tonight. 00:38:25.261 --> 00:38:28.389 I, uh, think I once gave a lecture... 00:38:28.556 --> 00:38:31.976 ...at the University of Missouri. 00:38:32.143 --> 00:38:33.394 I was in the audience. 00:38:33.561 --> 00:38:37.606 I had a terrible schoolgirl crush on you for a couple of months. 00:38:38.483 --> 00:38:40.943 If we could get back for a moment to that gypsy... 00:38:41.111 --> 00:38:46.782 ...who predicted all that about, uh, emotional involvements and middle-aged men. 00:38:47.325 --> 00:38:49.576 What are you doing for dinner tonight? 00:38:59.129 --> 00:39:02.089 I can't make it tonight, love. Call me tomorrow. 00:39:04.300 --> 00:39:07.678 - Do you have a favorite restaurant? - I eat anything. 00:39:08.722 --> 00:39:10.848 Son of a bitch, I get a feeling I'm being made. 00:39:11.016 --> 00:39:12.558 You are. 00:39:13.268 --> 00:39:16.729 Ah, I've got to warn you, I don't do anything on my first date. 00:39:16.896 --> 00:39:18.605 We'll see. 00:39:24.237 --> 00:39:26.780 Schmuck, what are you getting into? 00:39:48.053 --> 00:39:52.097 I was married for four years and pretended to be happy... 00:39:52.265 --> 00:39:55.601 ...and had six years of analysis and pretended to be sane. 00:39:56.478 --> 00:39:59.188 My husband ran off with his boyfriend... 00:39:59.355 --> 00:40:01.231 ...and I had an affair with my analyst. 00:40:01.399 --> 00:40:04.610 He told me I was the worst lay he'd ever had. 00:40:05.320 --> 00:40:08.906 I can't tell you how many men have told me what a lousy lay I am. 00:40:09.074 --> 00:40:11.408 I apparently have a masculine temperament. 00:40:11.993 --> 00:40:15.329 I arouse quickly, consummate prematurely... 00:40:15.497 --> 00:40:19.166 ...and can't wait to get my clothes back on and get out of that bedroom. 00:40:19.709 --> 00:40:24.379 I seem to be inept at everything except my work. 00:40:24.547 --> 00:40:29.343 I'm good at my work. So I confine myself to that. 00:40:29.636 --> 00:40:32.971 All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating. 00:40:34.724 --> 00:40:36.642 You're married, surely? 00:40:38.269 --> 00:40:40.145 Twenty-five years. 00:40:40.855 --> 00:40:44.024 I have a married daughter in Seattle who's six months pregnant... 00:40:44.776 --> 00:40:49.988 ...a younger girl who's starting at Northwestern in January. 00:40:52.200 --> 00:40:54.243 Well, Max, here we are. 00:40:56.204 --> 00:40:58.872 Middle-aged man reaffirming his middle-aged manhood... 00:40:59.040 --> 00:41:02.084 ...and a terrified young woman with a father complex. 00:41:02.252 --> 00:41:05.212 What sort of script do you think we can make out of this? 00:41:06.631 --> 00:41:10.968 Corridor gossip, uh, says that you are Frank Hackett's backstage girl. 00:41:11.136 --> 00:41:14.179 I'm not. 00:41:15.223 --> 00:41:18.475 Frank is a corporation man, body and soul. 00:41:18.643 --> 00:41:22.187 He has no loves, lusts or allegiances that are not consummately directed... 00:41:22.355 --> 00:41:24.106 ...toward becoming a CCA board member. 00:41:24.274 --> 00:41:27.818 So why should he bother with me? I'm not even a stockholder. 00:41:28.987 --> 00:41:33.073 What about your loves, lusts and allegiances? 00:41:33.241 --> 00:41:35.284 Is your wife in town? 00:41:36.077 --> 00:41:37.578 Yes. 00:41:38.246 --> 00:41:40.581 Well, then, we better go to my place. 00:41:42.083 --> 00:41:44.918 I can't hear you. You will have to talk a little louder. 00:41:51.759 --> 00:41:55.554 Yes. I hear you. 00:41:58.349 --> 00:41:59.766 Yes. 00:42:02.604 --> 00:42:03.979 Yes. 00:42:10.028 --> 00:42:12.029 Why me? 00:42:13.448 --> 00:42:15.532 I said, "Why me?" 00:42:22.790 --> 00:42:24.208 Okay. 00:42:35.929 --> 00:42:37.763 Howard in his office? 00:42:39.265 --> 00:42:43.894 Oh, Harry, I'm killing this whole screwball, angry-prophet thing. 00:42:44.062 --> 00:42:47.898 - Tonight we go back to straight news. - Okay. 00:42:49.442 --> 00:42:52.986 Fifteen seconds, 14, 13... 00:42:53.154 --> 00:42:54.571 Yeah? What? 00:42:54.739 --> 00:42:58.450 Max, I'm telling you, he's fine. He's been sharp all day. 00:42:58.618 --> 00:43:02.246 He's been funny as hell. Had everybody cracking up at the rundown meeting. 00:43:02.413 --> 00:43:04.248 I told him. I told him. 00:43:04.415 --> 00:43:06.792 Up. Cue VTA. 00:43:07.335 --> 00:43:09.336 Ready, two. 00:43:11.089 --> 00:43:12.172 Cue announcer. 00:43:12.340 --> 00:43:15.342 The UBS Evening News with Howard Beale. 00:43:15.510 --> 00:43:17.177 Take 2, cue Howard. 00:43:17.512 --> 00:43:21.306 Last night, I was awakened from a fitful sleep... 00:43:21.474 --> 00:43:24.017 ...shortly after 2:00 in the morning... 00:43:24.185 --> 00:43:27.145 ...by a shrill, sibilant, faceless voice. 00:43:27.897 --> 00:43:30.857 I couldn't make it out at first in the dark bedroom... 00:43:32.318 --> 00:43:35.529 ...and I said, "I'm sorry, you will have to talk a little louder. " 00:43:35.697 --> 00:43:38.782 - What do you want me to do? - Nothing. 00:43:38.950 --> 00:43:42.160 And the voice said to me, "I want you to tell the people the truth. 00:43:42.328 --> 00:43:45.205 Not an easy thing to do because the people don't want to know. " 00:43:45.373 --> 00:43:47.833 And I said, "You're kidding. 00:43:48.001 --> 00:43:50.419 What the hell should I know about the truth?" 00:43:50.586 --> 00:43:54.923 But the voice said to me, "Don't worry about the truth. 00:43:55.091 --> 00:43:57.384 I will put the words in your mouth. " 00:43:57.552 --> 00:44:00.887 I said, "What's this, the Burning Bush? For God's sake, I'm not Moses. " 00:44:01.055 --> 00:44:04.391 The voice said to me, "And I'm not God. What has that got to do with it?" 00:44:04.559 --> 00:44:05.642 The voice said to me: 00:44:05.810 --> 00:44:08.854 "We're not talking about eternal or absolute or ultimate truth. 00:44:09.022 --> 00:44:12.065 We're talking about impermanent, transient, human truth. 00:44:12.233 --> 00:44:14.568 I don't expect you people to be capable of truth... 00:44:14.736 --> 00:44:17.237 ...but at least you're capable of self-preservation. " 00:44:18.406 --> 00:44:21.616 And I said, "Why me?" 00:44:22.243 --> 00:44:24.870 And the voice said, "Because you're on television, dummy. 00:44:25.079 --> 00:44:26.121 Beautiful. 00:44:26.289 --> 00:44:28.540 You have 40 million Americans listening to you. 00:44:28.708 --> 00:44:30.375 After this show, you could have 50. 00:44:30.543 --> 00:44:34.921 I'm not asking you to walk the land in sackcloth, preaching the Armageddon. 00:44:35.089 --> 00:44:36.840 You're on TV, man. " 00:44:37.008 --> 00:44:39.176 So I thought about it for a moment... 00:44:41.054 --> 00:44:43.972 ...and then I said, "Okay. " 00:45:03.785 --> 00:45:05.786 Close the door, Harry. 00:45:09.165 --> 00:45:12.042 Howard, I'm taking you off the air. 00:45:13.294 --> 00:45:16.505 I think you're having a breakdown. Require treatment. 00:45:18.800 --> 00:45:21.802 This is not a psychotic episode. 00:45:22.178 --> 00:45:24.888 This is a cleansing moment of clarity. 00:45:29.352 --> 00:45:31.311 I'm imbued, Max. 00:45:32.146 --> 00:45:36.191 I'm imbued with some special spirit. It's not a religious feeling at all. 00:45:36.359 --> 00:45:39.653 It's a shocking eruption of great electrical energy. 00:45:39.821 --> 00:45:42.989 I feel vivid and flashing, as if suddenly... 00:45:43.157 --> 00:45:48.078 ...I'd been plugged into some great electromagnetic field. 00:45:49.414 --> 00:45:51.998 I feel connected to all living things. 00:45:52.166 --> 00:45:53.917 To flowers... 00:45:54.419 --> 00:45:58.463 ...birds, all the animals of the world... 00:46:00.341 --> 00:46:05.887 ...and even to some great unseen living force. 00:46:06.055 --> 00:46:09.099 What I think the Hindus call prana. 00:46:09.976 --> 00:46:12.018 It is not a breakdown. 00:46:12.687 --> 00:46:14.813 I've never felt more orderly in my life. 00:46:15.273 --> 00:46:19.609 It is a shattering and beautiful sensation. 00:46:20.111 --> 00:46:23.822 It is the exalted flow of the space-time continuum... 00:46:23.990 --> 00:46:27.909 ...save that it is spaceless and timeless and... 00:46:28.536 --> 00:46:30.787 ...of such loveliness. 00:46:32.123 --> 00:46:37.419 I feel on the verge of some great ultimate truth. 00:46:42.383 --> 00:46:48.138 And you will not take me off the air for now, or for any other spaceless time. 00:46:51.517 --> 00:46:53.143 Oh, boy. 00:46:55.062 --> 00:46:56.980 Is he okay? He's just fainted. 00:46:57.315 --> 00:47:00.150 I'd better get him back to my house again tonight. 00:47:00.318 --> 00:47:02.319 Help me get him up. 00:47:23.090 --> 00:47:24.883 Everyone's going crazy. 00:47:26.385 --> 00:47:28.053 The whole place has gone crazy. 00:47:28.221 --> 00:47:31.264 Sitting in their house and they don't do anything about it. 00:48:50.094 --> 00:48:53.597 Wake up, Max, because Howard's gone. 00:48:54.307 --> 00:48:56.224 I'll make you some coffee. 00:48:57.518 --> 00:48:58.810 You don't know where he is? 00:48:58.978 --> 00:49:02.105 The son of a bitch is a hit, goddamn it! Over 2000 phone calls. 00:49:02.273 --> 00:49:05.358 Go down to the mail room. As of this minute, over 14,000 telegrams! 00:49:05.526 --> 00:49:09.112 The response is sensational! Tell him. Herb's phone hasn't stopped ringing. 00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:11.364 Every goddamned affiliate from Albuquerque to Sandusky. 00:49:12.700 --> 00:49:14.409 The response is sensational! 00:49:14.577 --> 00:49:18.955 Yes. All right. For you, Herb. Get back to your office. 00:49:19.123 --> 00:49:21.124 Moldanian called me. Joe Donnelly called me. 00:49:21.292 --> 00:49:24.127 We got a goddamn hit, goddamn it. Diana, show him the Times. 00:49:24.295 --> 00:49:26.921 We got an editorial in the holy goddamn New York Times. 00:49:27.089 --> 00:49:29.382 - "A call to morality. " - I don't know where he is. 00:49:29.550 --> 00:49:31.384 That son of a bitch Beale has caught on. 00:49:31.552 --> 00:49:35.013 - Don't tell me you don't know. - Could be jumping off a roof for all I know. 00:49:35.181 --> 00:49:38.516 The man is insane. He's not responsible for himself. 00:49:38.684 --> 00:49:40.393 He needs care and treatment. 00:49:40.561 --> 00:49:44.064 And all you grave robbers think about is that he's a hit. 00:49:44.231 --> 00:49:47.400 You know, Max, it's just possible that he isn't insane. 00:49:47.568 --> 00:49:50.278 That he is, in fact, imbued with some special spirit. 00:49:50.446 --> 00:49:52.405 My God, I'm supposed to be the romantic... 00:49:52.573 --> 00:49:54.366 ...you're the hard-bitten realist. 00:49:54.533 --> 00:49:57.285 All right. Howard Beale obviously fills a void. 00:49:57.453 --> 00:50:00.622 The audience out there wants a prophet, even a manufactured one... 00:50:00.790 --> 00:50:02.415 ...even if he's as mad as Moses. 00:50:02.583 --> 00:50:05.168 By tomorrow he'll have a 50 share, maybe even a 60. 00:50:05.336 --> 00:50:07.295 Howard Beale is processed, instant God. 00:50:07.463 --> 00:50:10.256 It looks like he may just go bigger than Mary Tyler Moore. 00:50:10.424 --> 00:50:12.926 I am not putting Howard back on the air. 00:50:13.094 --> 00:50:15.887 It's not your show anymore, Max, it's mine. 00:50:18.099 --> 00:50:19.599 I gave her the show, Schumacher. 00:50:20.226 --> 00:50:22.936 I'm putting the Network News show under programming. 00:50:23.104 --> 00:50:26.022 Mr. Ruddy has had a mild heart attack and is not taking calls. 00:50:26.190 --> 00:50:29.067 In his absence, I'm making all network decisions... 00:50:29.235 --> 00:50:31.778 ...including one I've been wanting to make a long time. 00:50:31.946 --> 00:50:35.281 You're fired. I want you out of this building by noon. 00:50:35.449 --> 00:50:39.285 I'll call the security guards and have you thrown out, if you're still here. 00:50:42.289 --> 00:50:44.124 Well, let's say, "Fuck you, Hackett. " 00:50:44.458 --> 00:50:47.877 You want me out, you're gonna have to drag me out kicking and screaming... 00:50:48.045 --> 00:50:50.213 ...and the whole division kicking with me! 00:50:50.381 --> 00:50:52.966 Gonna quit their jobs for you? Not in this recession. 00:50:53.134 --> 00:50:54.968 When Ruddy gets back he'll have your ass. 00:50:55.136 --> 00:50:58.471 I got a hit, Schumacher, and Ruddy doesn't count anymore. 00:50:58.639 --> 00:51:01.808 He was hoping I'd fall on my face with this Beale Show, but I didn't. 00:51:01.976 --> 00:51:06.479 It's a big, fat, big-titted hit and I don't have to waffle around with Ruddy anymore. 00:51:06.647 --> 00:51:09.399 If he wants to take me up before the CCA Board, let him. 00:51:09.567 --> 00:51:12.318 Think Ruddy is stupid enough to go to the CCA Board and say: 00:51:12.486 --> 00:51:14.487 "I'm taking our one hit show off the air"? 00:51:14.655 --> 00:51:17.365 And comes November 14, I'm going to be standing up there... 00:51:17.533 --> 00:51:19.492 ...at the annual CCA management meeting. 00:51:19.660 --> 00:51:22.287 I'm gonna announce projected earnings for this network... 00:51:22.455 --> 00:51:24.164 ...for the first time in five years. 00:51:24.331 --> 00:51:28.209 And believe me, Mr. Jensen's going to be sitting there rocking back and forth... 00:51:28.377 --> 00:51:32.714 ...in his little chair and he's going to say: "That's very good, Frank, keep it up. " 00:51:32.882 --> 00:51:36.468 Don't have any illusions about who's running this network. You're fired! 00:51:36.635 --> 00:51:40.138 I want you out of your office before noon or I'll have you thrown out. 00:51:44.727 --> 00:51:46.728 You go along with this? 00:51:47.354 --> 00:51:50.148 Max, I told you I didn't want a network hassle on this. 00:51:50.316 --> 00:51:54.319 I told you I'd much rather work the Beale Show out just between the two of us. 00:51:55.488 --> 00:51:57.739 Well, let's just say, "Fuck you too, honey. " 00:51:58.866 --> 00:52:01.618 Howard Beale may be my best friend. I'll go to court. 00:52:01.786 --> 00:52:05.121 I'll put him in a hospital before I'll let you exploit him like a freak. 00:52:05.289 --> 00:52:07.499 You get your psychiatrists, I'll get mine. 00:52:07.666 --> 00:52:10.710 I'm gonna spread this whole reeking business in every newspaper... 00:52:10.878 --> 00:52:13.546 ...on every network, group and affiliate in this country. 00:52:13.714 --> 00:52:18.384 - I'm gonna make a lot of noise about this. - Great. We need all the press we can get. 00:52:21.096 --> 00:52:23.765 Something going on between you and Schumacher? 00:52:24.558 --> 00:52:26.226 Not anymore. 00:52:44.703 --> 00:52:47.080 - How do you do, Mr. Beale? - I must make my witness. 00:52:47.248 --> 00:52:49.123 Sure thing, Mr. Beale. 00:52:52.753 --> 00:52:55.922 Oil ministers of the OPEC nations meeting in Vienna still haven't decided... 00:52:56.090 --> 00:52:57.882 ...how much more to increase the price of oil. 00:52:59.385 --> 00:53:00.593 - Ready, VTA? - Yeah. Okay. 00:53:00.761 --> 00:53:03.221 He came in the building about five minutes ago. 00:53:03.389 --> 00:53:05.849 Tell Snowden when he comes in to let him go on. 00:53:06.016 --> 00:53:07.141 Did you get that, Paul? 00:53:07.309 --> 00:53:12.188 Six, five, four, three, two... 00:53:12.356 --> 00:53:13.481 - ... one. VTA? 00:53:13.649 --> 00:53:17.277 This has been the most divisive meeting the oil states have ever had. 00:53:20.406 --> 00:53:24.158 The 13 nations of OPEC have still not been able to decide by how much... 00:53:24.326 --> 00:53:26.619 ...to increase the price of oil. Saudi Arabian... 00:53:27.746 --> 00:53:29.497 How much time we got? 00:53:29.665 --> 00:53:32.417 - yesterday for further consultations with his government. 00:53:32.585 --> 00:53:33.918 He returned to the Vienna... 00:53:35.963 --> 00:53:39.132 - This is Ed Fletcher in Vienna. - Take two, cue Howard. 00:53:39.300 --> 00:53:42.802 I don't have to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad. 00:53:42.970 --> 00:53:44.804 It's a depression. 00:53:44.972 --> 00:53:48.808 Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. 00:53:49.310 --> 00:53:51.144 The dollar buys a nickel's worth. 00:53:51.312 --> 00:53:54.480 Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. 00:53:54.648 --> 00:53:56.399 Punks are running wild in the streets. 00:53:56.567 --> 00:54:00.236 There's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. 00:54:00.821 --> 00:54:05.325 We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. 00:54:05.492 --> 00:54:08.661 We sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us... 00:54:08.829 --> 00:54:12.332 ...that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes... 00:54:12.499 --> 00:54:15.627 ...as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad. 00:54:15.794 --> 00:54:17.670 Worse than bad, they're crazy. 00:54:17.838 --> 00:54:21.132 Everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. 00:54:21.300 --> 00:54:24.594 We sit in the house and the world we're living in is getting smaller... 00:54:24.762 --> 00:54:28.264 ...and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. 00:54:28.432 --> 00:54:31.392 Let me have my toaster and my TV, and my steel-belted radials... 00:54:31.560 --> 00:54:33.853 ...and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone!" 00:54:34.021 --> 00:54:37.440 Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! 00:54:38.525 --> 00:54:40.360 I don't want you to protest, to riot. 00:54:40.527 --> 00:54:43.571 Don't write to your congressmen. I wouldn't know what to tell you. 00:54:43.739 --> 00:54:46.074 I don't know what to do about the depression... 00:54:46.241 --> 00:54:48.534 ...and the Russians, and the crime in the street. 00:54:48.702 --> 00:54:51.371 All I know is that first, you've got to get mad. 00:54:51.538 --> 00:54:56.626 You've got to say, "I'm a human being, goddamn it. My life has value. " 00:54:59.421 --> 00:55:03.675 So I want you to get up now. 00:55:03.842 --> 00:55:07.095 I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. 00:55:07.262 --> 00:55:10.515 I want you to get up right now and go to the window... 00:55:10.683 --> 00:55:13.935 ...open it and stick your head out and yell: 00:55:14.103 --> 00:55:18.648 "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" 00:55:18.816 --> 00:55:21.943 - I want you to get up right now, get up... - Stay with him. 00:55:22.111 --> 00:55:25.571 ...go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell: 00:55:25.739 --> 00:55:28.783 "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" 00:55:28.951 --> 00:55:32.036 - Things have got to change... - How many stations does this go to? 00:55:32.204 --> 00:55:34.455 Sixty-seven. It goes to Louisville and Atlanta. 00:55:34.623 --> 00:55:36.082 "We're not going to take this!" 00:55:36.250 --> 00:55:38.918 Then we'll figure out the depression and the inflation... 00:55:39.086 --> 00:55:42.213 ...and the oil crisis, but first get up out of your chairs... 00:55:42.381 --> 00:55:45.842 ...open the window, stick your head out and yell and say it! 00:55:46.010 --> 00:55:50.471 "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" 00:55:50.639 --> 00:55:52.765 - Who are you talking to, Herb? WCGG, Atlanta. 00:55:52.933 --> 00:55:55.560 - They yelling in Atlanta? - Are they yelling in Atlanta? 00:55:55.728 --> 00:55:58.521 But first you've got to get mad. You've gotta say: 00:55:58.689 --> 00:56:02.233 "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" 00:56:02.401 --> 00:56:05.445 They're yelling in Baton Rouge. Goddamn it. 00:56:05.612 --> 00:56:07.405 Get up, get up out of your chairs. 00:56:07.573 --> 00:56:10.658 Son of a bitch, we struck the mother lode! 00:56:10.826 --> 00:56:13.453 Stick your head out of the window, stick your head out. 00:56:13.620 --> 00:56:15.204 And keep yelling and yell: 00:56:15.372 --> 00:56:18.875 "I'm as mad as hell. I'm not gonna take this anymore!" 00:56:19.126 --> 00:56:21.919 Just get up from your chairs, right now, go to the window! 00:56:22.087 --> 00:56:24.505 - Where you going? - I wanna see if anybody's yelling. 00:56:24.673 --> 00:56:28.134 Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, and keep yelling- 00:56:29.636 --> 00:56:34.432 I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore! 00:56:34.600 --> 00:56:38.811 I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore! 00:56:38.979 --> 00:56:41.689 I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore! 00:56:41.857 --> 00:56:44.484 I'm as mad as hell. I'm not gonna take it anymore! 00:56:44.651 --> 00:56:47.070 I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore. 00:56:47.237 --> 00:56:49.489 I'm not gonna take it anymore. I'm mad as hell! 00:56:49.656 --> 00:56:51.157 I'm mad as hell! 00:56:54.161 --> 00:56:55.995 I'm mad as hell! 00:56:56.163 --> 00:56:57.205 I'm mad as hell! 00:56:57.372 --> 00:56:59.290 I'm mad as hell! 00:56:59.917 --> 00:57:01.584 I'm mad as hell! 00:57:01.752 --> 00:57:06.339 I'm mad as hell! I'm not gonna take this anymore. 00:57:06.507 --> 00:57:09.383 I'm mad as hell! I'm not gonna take this anymore. 00:57:41.291 --> 00:57:42.667 By mid-October... 00:57:42.835 --> 00:57:45.211 ...the Howard Beale Show had settled in on a 42 share... 00:57:45.379 --> 00:57:49.006 ...more than equaling all the other network news shows combined. 00:57:49.174 --> 00:57:51.384 In the Nielsen ratings, the Howard Beale Show... 00:57:51.552 --> 00:57:54.387 ...was listed as the fourth highest rated show of the month... 00:57:54.555 --> 00:57:56.889 ...surpassed only by The Six Million Dollar Man... 00:57:57.057 --> 00:57:58.850 ...All in the Family and Phyllis. 00:57:59.017 --> 00:58:01.811 A phenomenal state of affairs for a news show. 00:58:01.979 --> 00:58:05.481 And on October 15, Diana Christensen flew to Los Angeles... 00:58:05.649 --> 00:58:08.025 ...for what the trade calls powwows and confabs... 00:58:08.193 --> 00:58:10.153 ...with our West Coast programming execs... 00:58:10.320 --> 00:58:13.531 ...and to get production rolling on the shows for the coming season. 00:58:13.699 --> 00:58:15.283 Christ. 00:58:15.450 --> 00:58:18.744 You brought half the William Morris West Coast office along with you. 00:58:18.912 --> 00:58:23.749 Hi, I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles. 00:58:23.917 --> 00:58:26.502 I'm Laureen Hobbs, a bad-ass commie nigger. 00:58:26.670 --> 00:58:30.256 Sounds like the basis of a firm friendship. We're gonna need more chairs. 00:58:30.424 --> 00:58:32.133 - Anybody want coffee? I'd love some. 00:58:32.301 --> 00:58:33.342 You changed your tailor. 00:58:33.510 --> 00:58:35.178 Coffee? Okay. 00:58:35.345 --> 00:58:37.930 Want to come take some coffee orders? 00:58:39.766 --> 00:58:43.769 This is my lawyer, Sam Haywood, and his associate, Merrill Grant. 00:58:46.106 --> 00:58:50.234 Ms. Christensen, just what the hell's this all about? 00:58:50.402 --> 00:58:53.529 Because when a national television network... 00:58:53.697 --> 00:58:57.283 ...in the person of booby here, comes to me... 00:58:57.492 --> 00:59:01.120 ...and says they want to put the ongoing struggle of the oppressed masses... 00:59:01.288 --> 00:59:05.416 ...on prime-time television, I have to regard this askance. 00:59:05.584 --> 00:59:08.961 What Mr. Haywood was saying, Ms. Christensen, was that our client... 00:59:09.129 --> 00:59:14.800 ...Ms. Hobbs, wants it up-front that the political content of the show... 00:59:14.968 --> 00:59:16.802 ...has to be entirely in her control. 00:59:17.095 --> 00:59:20.431 She can have it. I don't give a damn about the political content. 00:59:21.516 --> 00:59:25.811 - What kind of show did you have in mind? - I'm interested in a weekly dramatic series... 00:59:25.979 --> 00:59:29.440 ...based on the Ecumenical Liberation Army. And I'll tell you right now... 00:59:29.608 --> 00:59:32.526 ...what the first show has to be: a special on Mary Ann Gifford. 00:59:32.694 --> 00:59:34.028 Let me tell you what I want. 00:59:34.196 --> 00:59:37.740 I want a lot more film like the bank rip-off the Ecumenical sent in. 00:59:37.908 --> 00:59:40.534 The way I see the series is... 00:59:40.702 --> 00:59:45.831 ...each week we open with an authentic act of political terrorism... 00:59:45.999 --> 00:59:48.000 ...taken on the spot, in the actual moment. 00:59:48.168 --> 00:59:50.836 Then we go to the drama behind the opening film footage. 00:59:51.004 --> 00:59:53.256 That's your job, Ms. Hobbs. 00:59:53.674 --> 00:59:57.301 You gotta get the Ecumenicals to bring in that film footage for us. 00:59:57.469 --> 01:00:01.264 The network can't deal with them directly. They are, after all, wanted criminals. 01:00:02.307 --> 01:00:05.184 The Ecumenical Liberation Army is an ultra-left sect... 01:00:05.352 --> 01:00:10.106 ...creating political confusion with wildcat violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts... 01:00:10.274 --> 01:00:12.400 ...which the Communist Party does not endorse. 01:00:12.859 --> 01:00:15.695 The American masses are not yet ready for open revolt. 01:00:16.196 --> 01:00:18.698 We would not want to produce a television show... 01:00:18.865 --> 01:00:22.118 ...celebrating historically deviational terrorism. 01:00:22.286 --> 01:00:24.996 I'm offering an hour of prime-time television every week... 01:00:25.163 --> 01:00:27.581 ...into which you can stick whatever propaganda. 01:00:27.749 --> 01:00:30.376 The Ecumenicals are an undisciplined ultra-left gang... 01:00:30.544 --> 01:00:33.087 ...whose leader is an eccentric, to say the least. 01:00:33.255 --> 01:00:36.924 He calls himself the Great Ahmed Kahn and wears a hussar's shako. 01:00:37.092 --> 01:00:41.429 Ms. Hobbs, we're talking about 30 to 50 million people a shot. 01:00:41.596 --> 01:00:43.389 It's a lot better than handing out... 01:00:43.557 --> 01:00:46.058 ...mimeographed pamphlets on ghetto street corners. 01:00:52.357 --> 01:00:55.359 I'll have to take this matter to the central Committee... 01:00:56.528 --> 01:00:59.155 ...and I'd better check it out with the Great Ahmed Kahn. 01:01:00.782 --> 01:01:05.244 I'll be in L.A. until Saturday, and I'd like to get it rolling. 01:01:24.806 --> 01:01:26.390 Okay? 01:01:39.321 --> 01:01:43.741 Well, Ahmed, you ain't gonna believe this. 01:01:44.117 --> 01:01:46.744 But I'm gonna make a TV star out of you. 01:01:46.912 --> 01:01:50.748 Just like Archie Bunker. 01:01:50.916 --> 01:01:53.542 You gonna be a household word. 01:01:55.295 --> 01:01:57.588 What the fuck are you talking about? 01:01:58.131 --> 01:02:00.341 Thirty seconds. All right, ready VTA. 01:02:00.509 --> 01:02:02.635 One, you have the audience to pan. 01:02:02.803 --> 01:02:05.388 - Two, you have the window to pull. Twenty-five. 01:02:05.555 --> 01:02:07.473 Three, you're on the announcer. 01:02:07.641 --> 01:02:09.266 Twenty. 01:02:11.478 --> 01:02:12.603 Stand by, VTA. 01:02:12.771 --> 01:02:16.649 Fifteen, 14, 13, 12... 01:02:16.817 --> 01:02:21.487 - ... eleven, 10, nine, eight, seven... Roll VTA. 01:02:21.655 --> 01:02:25.324 ...six, five, four, three... 01:02:25.492 --> 01:02:28.160 - ... two, one. Three, cue announcer. 01:02:28.453 --> 01:02:31.747 Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it. How do you feel? 01:02:31.915 --> 01:02:36.585 We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore! 01:02:36.753 --> 01:02:40.548 Ladies and gentlemen, the Network News Hour with Sibyl the Soothsayer! 01:02:44.845 --> 01:02:48.305 Jim Webbing and his It's-the-Emes Truth Department. 01:02:52.018 --> 01:02:54.562 Ms. Mata Hari and her Skeletons in the Closet. 01:02:58.525 --> 01:03:02.027 And tonight, another segment of Vox Populi. 01:03:05.574 --> 01:03:10.119 And starring the Mad Prophet of the Airways, Howard Beale! 01:03:24.634 --> 01:03:26.886 Edward George Ruddy died today. 01:03:27.053 --> 01:03:29.763 Edward George Ruddy was the chairman of the board... 01:03:29.931 --> 01:03:34.727 ...of the Union Broadcasting Systems and he died at 11:00 this morning... 01:03:34.895 --> 01:03:39.440 ...of a heart condition, and woe is us, we're in a lot of trouble. 01:03:43.028 --> 01:03:48.741 So a rich little man with white hair died. 01:03:48.909 --> 01:03:51.494 What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? 01:03:51.661 --> 01:03:53.579 And why is that woe to us? 01:03:55.457 --> 01:03:57.416 Because you people... 01:03:57.584 --> 01:04:01.545 ...and 62 million other Americans are listening to me right now. 01:04:01.713 --> 01:04:05.883 Because less than 3 percent of you people read books. 01:04:07.010 --> 01:04:10.429 Because less than 15 percent of you read newspapers. 01:04:10.597 --> 01:04:14.266 Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. 01:04:14.434 --> 01:04:17.937 Right now, there is a whole and entire generation... 01:04:18.104 --> 01:04:21.732 ...that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. 01:04:22.526 --> 01:04:26.779 This tube is the Gospel. The ultimate revelation. 01:04:26.947 --> 01:04:31.659 This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers! 01:04:31.826 --> 01:04:35.412 This tube is the most awesome goddamn force... 01:04:35.580 --> 01:04:37.081 ...in the whole godless world! 01:04:37.249 --> 01:04:40.292 And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people. 01:04:40.460 --> 01:04:44.004 And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. 01:04:44.172 --> 01:04:47.299 Because this company is now in the hands of CCA... 01:04:47.467 --> 01:04:49.969 ...the Communication Corporation of America. 01:04:50.136 --> 01:04:53.097 There's a new chairman. A man called Frank Hackett... 01:04:53.265 --> 01:04:55.599 ...sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor! 01:04:55.767 --> 01:04:58.811 And when the 12th largest company in the world... 01:04:58.979 --> 01:05:03.482 ...controls the most awesome, goddamn propaganda force... 01:05:03.650 --> 01:05:05.442 ...in the whole godless world... 01:05:05.610 --> 01:05:09.488 ...who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network. 01:05:09.656 --> 01:05:15.327 So you listen to me. Listen to me! Television is not the truth. 01:05:15.495 --> 01:05:17.871 Television's a goddamned amusement park. 01:05:18.039 --> 01:05:22.376 Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats... 01:05:22.544 --> 01:05:26.964 ...storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion-tamers... 01:05:27.132 --> 01:05:31.510 ...and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business. 01:05:33.513 --> 01:05:37.516 So if you want the truth, go to God. 01:05:37.684 --> 01:05:39.602 Go to your gurus. 01:05:40.186 --> 01:05:41.937 Go to yourselves. 01:05:42.105 --> 01:05:45.858 Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth. 01:05:47.861 --> 01:05:51.572 But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. 01:05:51.865 --> 01:05:54.700 We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell. 01:05:54.868 --> 01:05:57.786 We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer... 01:05:57.954 --> 01:06:00.873 ...and that nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house. 01:06:01.041 --> 01:06:03.667 No matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry... 01:06:03.835 --> 01:06:06.879 ...just look at your watch, at the end of the hour he's gonna win! 01:06:07.047 --> 01:06:09.673 We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. 01:06:10.258 --> 01:06:13.302 We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true. 01:06:13.470 --> 01:06:17.806 But you people sit there, day after day, night after night... 01:06:17.974 --> 01:06:20.559 ...all ages, colors, creeds. 01:06:20.727 --> 01:06:22.061 We're all you know. 01:06:22.228 --> 01:06:25.064 You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. 01:06:25.231 --> 01:06:28.984 You're beginning to think the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. 01:06:29.152 --> 01:06:31.111 You do whatever the tube tells you. 01:06:31.279 --> 01:06:33.364 Dress like the tube, you eat like the tube... 01:06:33.531 --> 01:06:36.533 ...raise your children like the tube, you think like the tube. 01:06:36.743 --> 01:06:39.912 This is mass madness, you maniacs. 01:06:40.080 --> 01:06:42.790 In God's name, you people are the real thing. 01:06:42.957 --> 01:06:45.042 We are the illusion. 01:06:45.210 --> 01:06:48.545 So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. 01:06:48.713 --> 01:06:52.049 Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. 01:06:52.217 --> 01:06:56.011 Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now. 01:06:56.179 --> 01:06:58.097 Turn them off! 01:07:12.195 --> 01:07:14.738 UBS was running at a cash flow break-even point... 01:07:14.906 --> 01:07:17.241 ...after taking into account $110 million... 01:07:17.409 --> 01:07:19.410 ...of negative cash flow from the network. 01:07:19.577 --> 01:07:23.038 It was clear the fat on the network had to be flitched off. 01:07:23.331 --> 01:07:26.458 Please note an increase in projected initial programming revenues... 01:07:26.626 --> 01:07:28.585 ...in the amount of $21 million... 01:07:28.753 --> 01:07:33.257 ...due to the phenomenal success of the Howard Beale Show. 01:07:33.842 --> 01:07:38.345 I expect a positive cash flow for the entire complex of 45 million... 01:07:38.513 --> 01:07:43.767 ...achievable in this fiscal year, a year, in short, ahead of schedule. 01:07:44.144 --> 01:07:45.978 I go beyond that. 01:07:46.396 --> 01:07:49.273 This network may well be the most significant profit center... 01:07:49.441 --> 01:07:51.567 ...of the communications complex. 01:07:51.735 --> 01:07:55.738 And based upon the projected rate of return on invested capital... 01:07:55.905 --> 01:07:58.657 ...and if merger is eventually accomplished... 01:07:58.825 --> 01:08:00.993 ...the communications complex may well become... 01:08:01.161 --> 01:08:03.787 ...the towering and most profitable center... 01:08:04.372 --> 01:08:07.374 ...in the entire CCA empire. 01:08:08.918 --> 01:08:11.837 I await your questions and comments. 01:08:12.464 --> 01:08:14.214 Mr. Jensen? 01:08:14.716 --> 01:08:17.760 Very good, Frank. Exemplary. Keep it up. 01:08:43.536 --> 01:08:45.496 Buy you a cup of coffee? 01:08:47.582 --> 01:08:49.291 Hell, yes. 01:08:50.210 --> 01:08:54.671 - Do you have to get back to the office? - Nothing that can't wait. 01:09:07.393 --> 01:09:08.769 I... 01:09:08.937 --> 01:09:11.688 I drop down to the news studios every now and then... 01:09:11.856 --> 01:09:15.275 ...and ask Howard Beale about you, and he says you're doing fine. Are you? 01:09:15.443 --> 01:09:16.777 No. 01:09:17.237 --> 01:09:20.948 - Are you keeping busy? - Oh, in a fashion. 01:09:21.115 --> 01:09:25.118 This is the, uh, third funeral I've been to in two weeks. 01:09:25.286 --> 01:09:30.207 I have two other friends in the hospital whom I visit regularly... 01:09:30.375 --> 01:09:33.502 ...and, uh, been to a couple of christenings. 01:09:33.670 --> 01:09:37.923 All my friends seem to be dying or having grandchildren. 01:09:38.591 --> 01:09:40.801 You should be a grandfather yourself about now. 01:09:40.969 --> 01:09:43.595 You have a pregnant daughter in Seattle, don't you? 01:09:43.763 --> 01:09:48.600 Any day now. My wife's out there for the occasion. 01:09:52.814 --> 01:09:56.775 I've thought many times of calling you. 01:09:58.111 --> 01:10:00.112 I wish you had. 01:10:03.449 --> 01:10:07.411 You know, I bumped into Sibyl the Soothsayer in the elevator last week. 01:10:07.579 --> 01:10:11.123 I said, "You know, Sibyl, about four months ago you predicted... 01:10:11.291 --> 01:10:14.918 ...I would get involved with a craggy, middle-aged man... 01:10:15.086 --> 01:10:18.630 ...and so far, all that's happened has been one many-splendored night. 01:10:18.798 --> 01:10:21.717 I don't call that 'getting involved. "' 01:10:22.343 --> 01:10:26.221 And she said, "Don't worry, you will. " 01:10:28.641 --> 01:10:32.477 It was a many-splendored night, wasn't it, Max? 01:10:34.230 --> 01:10:36.189 Yes, it was. 01:10:38.484 --> 01:10:40.986 Are we going to get involved, Max? 01:10:43.531 --> 01:10:44.907 Yes. 01:10:45.617 --> 01:10:50.746 I need to become involved very much. How about you? 01:10:52.498 --> 01:10:55.167 I've reached for the phone to call you a hundred times. 01:10:55.335 --> 01:10:58.545 I was sure you hated me for my part in taking your news show away. 01:11:00.340 --> 01:11:03.342 I probably did. I don't know anymore. 01:11:03.927 --> 01:11:08.680 All I know is, I can't get you out of my mind. 01:11:13.227 --> 01:11:15.395 Marty. Marty, I know what NBC offered them... 01:11:15.563 --> 01:11:18.023 ...so I'm saying go to 3.5... 01:11:18.191 --> 01:11:21.109 ...and I want an option for a third run on all of them. 01:11:21.277 --> 01:11:25.155 Marty, I'm in a big hurry and you and Charlie are supposed to be negotiating this... 01:11:25.323 --> 01:11:27.950 ...so goodbye, good luck, I'll see you Monday. 01:11:30.370 --> 01:11:32.955 Jimmy Caan's agent just called and says absolutely nix. 01:11:33.122 --> 01:11:35.540 Can't win them all. - Where can I reach you later? 01:11:35.708 --> 01:11:37.542 You can't. I'll be gone all weekend. 01:11:42.632 --> 01:11:44.883 NBC's offering $3.25 mil... 01:11:45.051 --> 01:11:47.260 ...per package of five James Bond movies... 01:11:47.428 --> 01:11:52.641 ...and I think I'm gonna steal them for $3.5 million with a third run. 01:12:01.067 --> 01:12:03.485 And I'm gonna stick The Mao Tse-Tung Hour in at 8... 01:12:03.653 --> 01:12:06.947 ...because we're having a lot of trouble selling The Mao Tse-Tung Hour. 01:12:07.115 --> 01:12:08.699 This way... 01:12:16.749 --> 01:12:21.795 That Mao Tse-Tung Hour's turning into one big pain in the ass. 01:12:22.922 --> 01:12:27.175 We're having heavy legal problems with the federal government right now. 01:12:28.261 --> 01:12:31.054 Two FBI guys turned up in Hackett's office last week... 01:12:31.222 --> 01:12:33.724 ...and served us with a subpoena. 01:12:34.851 --> 01:12:39.438 They heard about our Flagstaff bank rip-off film and they want it. 01:12:40.523 --> 01:12:43.316 Hackett told the FBI to fuck off. 01:12:48.531 --> 01:12:50.365 No, but we're getting around the FBI... 01:12:50.533 --> 01:12:54.036 ...by doing the show in collaboration with the news division. 01:12:54.203 --> 01:12:57.080 We're standing on the First Amendment, Freedom of the Press... 01:12:57.248 --> 01:12:59.124 ...and the right to protect our sources. 01:12:59.292 --> 01:13:02.586 Walter thinks we can knock out the misprision of felony charge. 01:13:10.470 --> 01:13:13.555 But he says absolutely nix on going to series. 01:13:13.723 --> 01:13:18.685 They'll hit us with conspiracy and inducement to commit a crime. 01:13:18.853 --> 01:13:21.188 Christ, it's cold in here. 01:13:21.355 --> 01:13:24.524 See, we're paying these nuts from the Ecumenical Liberation Army... 01:13:24.692 --> 01:13:27.778 ...$10,000 a week in order to turn in authentic film footage... 01:13:27.945 --> 01:13:29.946 ...of their revolutionary activities... 01:13:30.114 --> 01:13:33.325 ...and that can constitute inducement to commit a crime. 01:13:33.493 --> 01:13:37.788 And Walter says we'll all wind up in federal prison. 01:13:38.164 --> 01:13:41.208 I said, "Walter, let the government sue us. 01:13:41.375 --> 01:13:45.378 Let the federal government sue us. We'll take them to the Supreme Court. 01:13:45.546 --> 01:13:49.007 We'll be front page, mm, for months. 01:13:49.258 --> 01:13:52.052 The New York Times and The Washington Post... 01:13:52.220 --> 01:13:55.180 ...will be writing two editorials a week about us. 01:13:55.348 --> 01:13:58.600 We'll be front page for months. We'll have more press than Watergate. " 01:13:58.768 --> 01:14:03.313 All I need is six weeks' federal litigation... 01:14:03.481 --> 01:14:07.025 ...and The Mao Tse-Tung Hour can start carrying its own time slot. 01:14:23.626 --> 01:14:27.587 What's really bugging me now is my daytime programming. 01:14:28.589 --> 01:14:31.174 NBC's got a lock on daytime... 01:14:31.342 --> 01:14:33.468 ...with their lousy game shows... 01:14:34.011 --> 01:14:36.388 ...and I'd like to bust them. 01:14:36.806 --> 01:14:40.058 I'm thinking of doing a homosexual soap opera. 01:14:40.226 --> 01:14:41.935 The Dykes. 01:14:42.728 --> 01:14:46.231 The heart-rendering saga about a woman hopelessly in love... 01:14:46.399 --> 01:14:50.694 ...with her husband's mistress. What do you think? 01:15:02.748 --> 01:15:04.207 How long has it been going on? 01:15:06.669 --> 01:15:08.253 A month. 01:15:10.256 --> 01:15:13.466 I thought it was a transient thing, blow over in a week. 01:15:14.886 --> 01:15:20.473 And I still pray to God it's just a menopausal infatuation. 01:15:21.392 --> 01:15:24.769 But it is an infatuation, Louise. 01:15:26.355 --> 01:15:30.150 There's no sense in my saying I won't see her again, because I will. 01:15:34.238 --> 01:15:38.533 Do you want me to leave? Check into a hotel? 01:15:41.287 --> 01:15:42.954 Do you love her? 01:15:46.626 --> 01:15:48.585 I don't know how I feel. 01:15:50.963 --> 01:15:52.547 I'm grateful I can feel anything. 01:15:57.303 --> 01:15:59.095 I know I'm obsessed with her. 01:16:01.390 --> 01:16:03.183 Then say it. 01:16:04.143 --> 01:16:07.896 Don't keep telling me that you're obsessed, that you're infatuated. 01:16:08.064 --> 01:16:10.315 Say that you're in love with her. 01:16:12.860 --> 01:16:14.236 I'm in love with her. 01:16:15.404 --> 01:16:17.197 Then get out! 01:16:17.365 --> 01:16:20.992 Go anywhere you want. Go to a hotel, go live with her, but don't come back. 01:16:21.160 --> 01:16:22.827 Because after 25 years... 01:16:22.995 --> 01:16:26.748 ...of building a home and raising a family and all the senseless pain... 01:16:26.916 --> 01:16:30.669 ...that we have inflicted on each other, I'm damned if I'm gonna stand here... 01:16:30.836 --> 01:16:33.505 ...and have you tell me you're in love with somebody else. 01:16:34.090 --> 01:16:38.718 Because this isn't a convention weekend with your secretary, is it? 01:16:38.886 --> 01:16:43.181 Or some broad that you picked up after three belts of booze. 01:16:43.349 --> 01:16:46.101 This is your great winter romance, isn't it? 01:16:46.269 --> 01:16:50.188 Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. 01:16:50.356 --> 01:16:52.065 Is that what's left for me? 01:16:52.233 --> 01:16:56.278 Is that my share? She gets the winter passion and I get the dotage. 01:16:56.445 --> 01:16:57.696 What am I supposed to do? 01:16:57.863 --> 01:17:01.574 Am I supposed to sit home knitting and purling while you slink back... 01:17:01.742 --> 01:17:03.868 ...like some penitent drunk? 01:17:04.328 --> 01:17:06.079 I'm your wife, damn it. 01:17:06.247 --> 01:17:08.373 If you can't work up a winter passion for me... 01:17:08.541 --> 01:17:11.543 ...the least I require is respect and allegiance. 01:17:24.056 --> 01:17:27.434 I hurt, don't you understand that? 01:17:29.562 --> 01:17:32.105 I hurt badly. 01:17:40.740 --> 01:17:42.824 Oh, say something, for God's sake. 01:17:52.585 --> 01:17:54.794 I've got nothing to say. 01:18:05.598 --> 01:18:08.099 I won't give you up easily, Max. 01:18:14.273 --> 01:18:17.108 I think perhaps it is better if you move out. 01:18:22.990 --> 01:18:25.200 Does she love you, Max? 01:18:29.163 --> 01:18:32.832 I'm not sure she's capable of any real feelings. 01:18:33.000 --> 01:18:37.087 She's television generation. She learned life from Bugs Bunny. 01:18:37.254 --> 01:18:41.257 The only reality she knows comes to her over the TV set. 01:18:42.635 --> 01:18:45.428 She's very carefully devised a number of scenarios... 01:18:45.596 --> 01:18:49.349 ...for all of us to play, like the Movie of the Week. 01:18:52.311 --> 01:18:54.646 My God, look at us, Louise. 01:18:55.022 --> 01:18:58.441 Here we are going through the obligatory middle of Act 2... 01:18:58.609 --> 01:19:02.445 ...scorned-wife-throws peccant-husband-out scene. 01:19:02.613 --> 01:19:05.824 But don't worry, I'll come back to you in the end. 01:19:05.991 --> 01:19:08.284 All of her plot outlines have me leaving her... 01:19:08.452 --> 01:19:11.204 ...and coming back to you, because the audience won't buy... 01:19:11.372 --> 01:19:14.082 ...a rejection of the happy American family. 01:19:16.919 --> 01:19:20.171 She does have one script in which I kill myself. 01:19:20.464 --> 01:19:25.218 An adapted for television version of Anna Karenina... 01:19:26.554 --> 01:19:29.055 ...where she's Count Vronsky and I'm Anna. 01:19:34.228 --> 01:19:36.438 You're in for some dreadful grief, Max. 01:19:39.275 --> 01:19:40.817 I know. 01:19:41.277 --> 01:19:44.112 The Mao Tse-Tung Hour went on the air March 14. 01:19:44.280 --> 01:19:46.531 It received a 47 share. 01:19:46.699 --> 01:19:50.618 The network promptly committed to 15 shows with an option for 10 more. 01:19:50.786 --> 01:19:53.037 There were the usual contractual difficulties. 01:19:53.205 --> 01:19:57.000 "Equal to 20 percent, 20, except that such percentages shall be 30 percent, 30... 01:19:57.168 --> 01:19:59.669 ...for 90-minute or longer television programs. " 01:19:59.879 --> 01:20:01.754 Have we settled that sublicensing thing? 01:20:01.922 --> 01:20:05.175 - No. - We want a clear definition here. 01:20:06.302 --> 01:20:10.680 "Gross proceeds should consist of all funds the sublicensee receives... 01:20:10.848 --> 01:20:15.643 ...not merely the net amount remitted after payment to the sublicensee or distributor. " 01:20:15.811 --> 01:20:19.481 We're not sitting still for overhead charges as a cost prior to distribution. 01:20:19.648 --> 01:20:22.942 Don't fuck with my distribution costs. 01:20:23.110 --> 01:20:24.944 I'm making a lousy 215 per segment. 01:20:25.112 --> 01:20:27.530 I'm already deficiting $25,000 a week with Metro! 01:20:27.698 --> 01:20:29.949 I'm paying William Morris 10 percent off the top! 01:20:30.117 --> 01:20:33.244 I'm giving this turkey $10,000 and another five to this fruitcake. 01:20:33.412 --> 01:20:35.371 Don't start no shit with me about a piece. 01:20:35.539 --> 01:20:39.626 I'm paying Metro 20 percent for all foreign and Canadian distribution after recoupment. 01:20:39.793 --> 01:20:43.463 The Communist Party's not gonna see a nickel until we go into syndication! 01:20:43.631 --> 01:20:47.050 Come on, Laureen. The Party's in for 7500 a week production expenses. 01:20:47.218 --> 01:20:50.637 I'm not giving this pseudo-insurrectionary sectarian a piece of my show. 01:20:50.804 --> 01:20:54.849 I'm not giving him script approval. I'm not cutting him in on my distribution charges. 01:20:55.017 --> 01:20:56.851 You fucking fascist! 01:20:57.019 --> 01:20:59.771 Did you see the film we made of San Marino jail breakout... 01:20:59.939 --> 01:21:03.441 ...demonstrating the rising up of the seminal prisoner-class infrastructure? 01:21:03.609 --> 01:21:06.736 You can blow the seminal prisoner-class infrastructure out your ass! 01:21:06.904 --> 01:21:09.489 I'm not knocking down my goddamn distribution charges. 01:21:10.783 --> 01:21:15.245 Man, give her the fucking overhead clause. 01:21:15.412 --> 01:21:17.997 How did I get here? Who's gonna believe this? 01:21:18.165 --> 01:21:20.625 I'm sitting here in a goddamn farmhouse in Encino... 01:21:20.793 --> 01:21:26.339 Let's get back to Page 22, 5, small "A", Subsidiary Rights. 01:21:26.840 --> 01:21:27.882 Where are we now? 01:21:28.050 --> 01:21:30.301 Page 22, middle of the page. Subsidiary Rights. 01:21:30.469 --> 01:21:34.097 "'Subsidiary rights' means without limitation any and all rights... " 01:21:45.317 --> 01:21:49.821 Over the past two days, you've all had opportunity to meet Diana Christensen... 01:21:49.989 --> 01:21:53.074 ...our vice president in charge of programming. 01:21:53.242 --> 01:21:57.787 This afternoon, you all saw some of the stuff she's set up for the new season. 01:22:07.172 --> 01:22:10.967 You all know that she is the woman behind the Howard Beale Show. 01:22:19.768 --> 01:22:21.477 We all know she's beautiful. 01:22:22.563 --> 01:22:24.772 We all know she's brainy. 01:22:25.357 --> 01:22:30.987 I was thinking, before we start digging into our Chateaubriands... 01:22:32.197 --> 01:22:34.907 ...let's show her how we feel about her. 01:22:50.299 --> 01:22:52.884 We have the number-one show in television! 01:22:56.305 --> 01:22:58.056 At next year's affiliates' meeting... 01:22:58.223 --> 01:23:00.975 ...I'll be standing here telling you we've got the top five. 01:23:07.232 --> 01:23:10.068 Last year, we were the number-four network... 01:23:10.569 --> 01:23:12.570 ...next year we're number one! 01:23:13.322 --> 01:23:17.408 We're number one! We're number one! 01:23:17.576 --> 01:23:19.202 We're number one! 01:23:19.370 --> 01:23:21.162 We're number one! 01:23:21.330 --> 01:23:23.122 We're number one! 01:23:23.290 --> 01:23:25.416 We're number one! 01:23:28.420 --> 01:23:31.714 It is exactly 7:00 here in Los Angeles. 01:23:31.924 --> 01:23:35.927 And right now, over a million homes using television in this city... 01:23:36.095 --> 01:23:40.598 ...are turning their dials to Channel 3 and that's our channel! 01:23:47.898 --> 01:23:49.524 Howard Beale! 01:23:52.611 --> 01:23:54.487 Stop it, stop it! 01:23:55.322 --> 01:23:56.447 Now you listen to me. 01:23:56.615 --> 01:24:02.286 And listen carefully because this is your goddamn life I'm talking about today. 01:24:03.205 --> 01:24:06.499 In this country, when one company wants to take over another company... 01:24:06.667 --> 01:24:08.960 ...they buy up a controlling share of the stock... 01:24:09.128 --> 01:24:11.796 ...but first they have to file notice with the government. 01:24:11.964 --> 01:24:14.716 That's how CCA took over the company that owns this network. 01:24:14.883 --> 01:24:17.885 But now, somebody's buying up CCA. 01:24:18.053 --> 01:24:21.597 Somebody called the Western World Funding Corporation. 01:24:21.765 --> 01:24:23.391 They filed the notice this morning. 01:24:23.559 --> 01:24:28.187 Well, just who in the hell is the Western World Funding Corporation? 01:24:28.397 --> 01:24:31.733 It is a consortium of banks and insurance companies... 01:24:31.900 --> 01:24:35.361 ...who are not buying CCA for themselves, but as agents for somebody else. 01:24:35.529 --> 01:24:37.739 Who is this somebody else? They won't tell you. 01:24:37.906 --> 01:24:40.199 They won't tell you, they won't tell the Senate... 01:24:40.367 --> 01:24:44.370 ...they won't tell the SEC, the FTC, they won't tell the Justice Department... 01:24:44.538 --> 01:24:47.248 This is Mr. Hackett. Do you have a New York call for me? 01:24:47.416 --> 01:24:50.168 The hell it ain't! - Do you wanna turn that down, please? 01:24:50.335 --> 01:24:52.712 I will tell you who they're buying CCA for. 01:24:54.339 --> 01:24:58.050 They're buying it for the Saudi Arabian Investment Corporation. 01:24:58.218 --> 01:25:00.219 They're buying it for the Arabs! 01:25:00.512 --> 01:25:01.846 Clarence? Frank Hackett here. 01:25:02.014 --> 01:25:05.308 How's everything back in New York? How's the good lady? 01:25:08.353 --> 01:25:12.356 All right, Clarence, take it easy. I don't know what you're talking about. 01:25:12.524 --> 01:25:18.362 When? Tonight's show? Clarence, take it easy. 01:25:19.531 --> 01:25:21.699 The Howard Beale Show is just going on out here. 01:25:21.867 --> 01:25:25.203 You guys get it three hours earlier in New York. Clarence, take it easy. 01:25:25.370 --> 01:25:28.372 How the hell could I see it? It's just going on now! 01:25:28.540 --> 01:25:32.210 And there's not a single law in the books to stop them. 01:25:33.545 --> 01:25:36.005 When did Mr. Jensen call? 01:25:36.673 --> 01:25:42.887 We all know that the Arabs control $16 billion in this country. 01:25:43.055 --> 01:25:44.931 They own a chunk of 5th Avenue... 01:25:45.098 --> 01:25:49.393 ...twenty downtown pieces of Boston. A part of the port of New Orleans. 01:25:49.561 --> 01:25:52.021 An industrial park in Salt Lake City. 01:25:52.189 --> 01:25:57.318 They own big hunks of the Atlanta Hilton, the Arizona Land and Cattle Company... 01:25:57.486 --> 01:25:59.237 ...part of a bank in California... 01:25:59.404 --> 01:26:01.364 ...the Bank of the Commonwealth in Detroit. 01:26:01.532 --> 01:26:05.910 They control Aramco, so that puts them into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil Oil. 01:26:06.078 --> 01:26:10.289 They're all over! New Jersey, Louisville, St. Louis, Missouri... 01:26:10.457 --> 01:26:12.375 ...and that's only what we know about. 01:26:12.543 --> 01:26:15.127 There's a hell of a lot more we don't know about. 01:26:15.295 --> 01:26:17.755 Because all of those Arab petrol dollars... 01:26:17.923 --> 01:26:20.258 ...are washed through Switzerland and Canada... 01:26:20.425 --> 01:26:22.343 ...and the biggest banks in this country. 01:26:22.511 --> 01:26:26.222 For example, what we don't know about is this CCA deal... 01:26:26.890 --> 01:26:29.392 ...and all the other CCA deals. 01:26:29.852 --> 01:26:33.688 Right now the Arabs have screwed us out of enough American dollars... 01:26:33.856 --> 01:26:37.233 ...to come right back and, with our own money, buy General Motors... 01:26:37.401 --> 01:26:41.612 ...IBM, ITT, AT&T, Dupont, U.S. Steel... 01:26:41.780 --> 01:26:44.073 ...and 20 other American companies. 01:26:44.241 --> 01:26:49.537 Hell, they already own half of England. So listen to me. 01:26:49.705 --> 01:26:53.958 Listen to me, goddamn it. The Arabs are simply buying us. 01:26:54.793 --> 01:26:57.628 There's only one thing that can stop them. You! 01:26:58.589 --> 01:27:00.339 You! 01:27:00.591 --> 01:27:03.384 So I want you to get up now. 01:27:03.594 --> 01:27:06.304 I want you to get up out of your chairs. 01:27:06.471 --> 01:27:09.265 I want you to get up right now and go to the phone. 01:27:09.433 --> 01:27:13.311 I want you to get up from your chairs, go to the phone, get in your cars... 01:27:13.478 --> 01:27:15.980 ...drive into the Western Union offices in town. 01:27:16.148 --> 01:27:19.483 I want you to send a telegram to the White House. 01:27:19.651 --> 01:27:22.028 - Oh, my God. - By midnight tonight... 01:27:22.195 --> 01:27:24.989 ...I want a million telegrams in the White House. 01:27:25.157 --> 01:27:29.118 I want them wading knee-deep in telegrams at the White House. 01:27:29.369 --> 01:27:34.415 I want you to get up right now and write a telegram to President Ford saying: 01:27:34.583 --> 01:27:38.461 "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore. 01:27:38.629 --> 01:27:41.672 I don't want the banks selling my country to the Arabs. 01:27:41.840 --> 01:27:45.009 I want the CCA deal stopped now. 01:27:45.177 --> 01:27:48.429 I want the CCA deal stopped now. Come on. 01:27:48.597 --> 01:27:51.849 I want the CCA deal stopped now! 01:27:52.017 --> 01:27:55.061 I want the CCA deal stopped now! 01:27:55.228 --> 01:27:58.314 I want the CCA deal stopped now! 01:27:58.482 --> 01:28:00.524 I want the CCA deal stopped now! 01:28:14.873 --> 01:28:17.708 - Look, could we have the room? Sure. 01:28:26.134 --> 01:28:30.221 Well, I'd like to see a typescript and run through a couple more times. 01:28:30.806 --> 01:28:33.891 But as for this whole CCA deal with the Saudis... 01:28:34.059 --> 01:28:36.727 ...you'd know a lot more about that, Frank, than I would. 01:28:36.895 --> 01:28:38.646 Is it true? 01:28:42.234 --> 01:28:46.070 The CCA has 2 billion in loans with the Saudis... 01:28:46.279 --> 01:28:49.240 ...and they hold every pledge we've got. 01:28:50.492 --> 01:28:53.244 We need that Saudi money bad. 01:28:55.414 --> 01:28:58.332 Disaster. The show is a disaster. 01:28:59.751 --> 01:29:02.920 Unmitigated disaster. The death knell. 01:29:04.423 --> 01:29:08.259 I'm ruined. I'm dead. Finished. 01:29:08.927 --> 01:29:12.847 Maybe we're overstating Beale's clout with the public. 01:29:14.016 --> 01:29:16.600 An hour ago, Clarence McElheny called me from New York. 01:29:16.768 --> 01:29:19.979 It was 10:00 in the east and our people in the White House report... 01:29:20.147 --> 01:29:22.982 ...they were already knee-deep in telegrams. 01:29:23.150 --> 01:29:28.029 By tomorrow morning, they'll be suffocating in telegrams. 01:29:28.196 --> 01:29:30.823 - Can the government stop the deal? - They can hold it up. 01:29:30.991 --> 01:29:34.410 The SEC could hold this deal up for 20 years, if they wanted to. 01:29:34.661 --> 01:29:36.037 I'm finished. 01:29:36.204 --> 01:29:39.707 Any second that phone's gonna ring and Clarence McElheny is gonna tell me... 01:29:39.875 --> 01:29:42.710 ...Mr. Jensen wants me in his office tomorrow morning... 01:29:42.878 --> 01:29:46.338 ...so he can personally chop my head off. 01:29:47.007 --> 01:29:49.383 Four hours ago, I was the sun god at CCA. 01:29:49.551 --> 01:29:53.637 Mr. Jensen's hand-picked golden boy, the heir apparent. 01:29:53.805 --> 01:29:58.392 Now, .... I'm a man without a corporation. 01:29:59.478 --> 01:30:01.645 Let's get back to Howard Beale. 01:30:02.981 --> 01:30:06.150 You're not seriously gonna pull Beale off the air? 01:30:10.447 --> 01:30:14.450 Mr. Jensen's unhappy with Howard Beale and wants him discontinued. 01:30:14.618 --> 01:30:16.994 But he may be unhappy, but he isn't stupid enough... 01:30:17.162 --> 01:30:20.039 ...to withdraw the number-one show on television out of pique. 01:30:20.207 --> 01:30:23.084 Two billion dollars isn't pique! That's the wrath of God! 01:30:23.251 --> 01:30:25.586 And the wrath of God wants Howard Beale fired! 01:30:25.754 --> 01:30:28.255 Every other network will grab him the minute he walks. 01:30:28.423 --> 01:30:31.133 He'll be back on the air for ABC and we'll lose 20 points- 01:30:31.301 --> 01:30:33.844 I'm gonna impale the son of a bitch with a sharp stick! 01:30:34.012 --> 01:30:36.680 Forty million loss in revenues. - I'll take out a contract. 01:30:36.848 --> 01:30:40.142 - Let's not discount federal action... - I'll hire professional killers. 01:30:40.310 --> 01:30:45.481 No, I'll do it myself. I'll strangle him with a sash cord! 01:30:45.816 --> 01:30:48.984 - and a breach of the consent decree. I don't think Jensen's gonna fire anybody. 01:30:54.783 --> 01:30:56.200 Hackett. 01:30:58.411 --> 01:31:01.872 Yes, Clarence. I've already booked my flight. 01:31:03.583 --> 01:31:05.918 Uh, well, can you give me a little more time than that? 01:31:06.086 --> 01:31:08.796 I've got the red-eye flight, I won't be back in New York... 01:31:08.964 --> 01:31:11.132 ...till 6 tomorrow morning. 01:31:13.093 --> 01:31:15.136 That'll be just fine. 01:31:15.387 --> 01:31:17.054 I'll see you then. 01:31:25.689 --> 01:31:28.983 Mr. Jensen wants to meet Howard Beale personally. 01:31:29.526 --> 01:31:33.279 He wants Mr. Beale in his office at 10:00 tomorrow morning. 01:31:39.786 --> 01:31:42.496 The final revelation is at hand. 01:31:42.664 --> 01:31:46.750 I have seen the shattering fulgurations of ultimate clarity. 01:31:46.918 --> 01:31:51.755 The light is impending. I bear witness to the light! 01:32:12.569 --> 01:32:14.153 Good morning, Mr. Beale. 01:32:14.321 --> 01:32:17.031 - They tell me you're a madman. - Only desultorily. 01:32:17.199 --> 01:32:19.533 - How are you now? - I'm as mad as a hatter. 01:32:19.701 --> 01:32:21.368 Who isn't? 01:32:21.953 --> 01:32:24.121 I'm going to take you into our conference room. 01:32:24.289 --> 01:32:27.625 Seems more seemly a setting for what I have to say to you. 01:32:28.960 --> 01:32:31.378 I started as a salesman, Mr. Beale. 01:32:31.546 --> 01:32:34.423 I sold sewing machines and automobile parts... 01:32:34.591 --> 01:32:37.509 ...hairbrushes and electronic equipment. 01:32:37.677 --> 01:32:40.012 They say I can sell anything. 01:32:40.847 --> 01:32:44.099 I'd like to try to sell something to you. 01:32:47.687 --> 01:32:51.315 Valhalla, Mr. Beale. Please, sit down. 01:33:20.804 --> 01:33:25.599 You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale. 01:33:25.767 --> 01:33:30.104 And I won't have it! Is that clear? 01:33:30.397 --> 01:33:32.856 You think you've merely stopped a business deal. 01:33:33.024 --> 01:33:34.566 That is not the case. 01:33:34.734 --> 01:33:37.653 The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country... 01:33:37.821 --> 01:33:39.697 ...and now they must put it back! 01:33:39.864 --> 01:33:45.035 It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance. 01:33:46.621 --> 01:33:48.372 You are an old man... 01:33:48.540 --> 01:33:52.376 ...who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. 01:33:52.544 --> 01:33:55.921 There are no nations, there are no peoples. There are no Russians. 01:33:56.089 --> 01:33:58.549 There are no Arabs. There are no Third Worlds. 01:33:58.717 --> 01:33:59.883 There is no West! 01:34:00.051 --> 01:34:05.014 There is only one holistic system of systems. 01:34:05.181 --> 01:34:07.391 One vast and immane... 01:34:07.559 --> 01:34:10.394 ...interwoven, interacting, multi-variate... 01:34:10.562 --> 01:34:13.731 ...multinational dominion of dollars. 01:34:13.898 --> 01:34:17.026 Petrol dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars. 01:34:17.193 --> 01:34:22.948 Reichsmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels. 01:34:24.284 --> 01:34:28.746 It is the international system of currency which determines... 01:34:28.913 --> 01:34:32.291 ...the totality of life on this planet. 01:34:33.251 --> 01:34:37.755 That is the natural order of things today. 01:34:38.882 --> 01:34:42.634 That is the atomic... 01:34:42.802 --> 01:34:44.928 ...and subatomic... 01:34:45.096 --> 01:34:50.434 ...and galactic structure of things today. 01:34:51.186 --> 01:34:53.270 And you have meddled... 01:34:53.438 --> 01:34:57.983 ...with the primal forces of nature! 01:34:58.276 --> 01:35:03.781 And you will atone. 01:35:04.407 --> 01:35:06.784 Am I getting it through to you, Mr. Beale? 01:35:10.246 --> 01:35:14.792 You get up on your little 21-inch screen... 01:35:15.502 --> 01:35:20.381 ...and howl about America and democracy. 01:35:20.965 --> 01:35:25.302 There is no America. There is no democracy. 01:35:25.470 --> 01:35:30.974 There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T... 01:35:31.142 --> 01:35:36.730 ...and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. 01:35:36.898 --> 01:35:40.484 Those are the nations of the world today. 01:35:40.860 --> 01:35:44.988 What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state? Karl Marx? 01:35:45.156 --> 01:35:47.491 They get out their linear programming charts... 01:35:47.659 --> 01:35:50.160 ...statistical decision theories, minimax solutions... 01:35:50.328 --> 01:35:53.789 ...and compute price-cost probabilities of transactions and investments... 01:35:53.957 --> 01:35:54.998 ...just like we do. 01:35:55.500 --> 01:35:59.753 We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. 01:35:59.921 --> 01:36:04.591 The world is a college of corporations... 01:36:05.260 --> 01:36:12.141 ...inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. 01:36:14.227 --> 01:36:17.187 The world is a business, Mr. Beale. 01:36:19.107 --> 01:36:23.068 It has been since man crawled out of the slime. 01:36:25.864 --> 01:36:30.784 And our children will live, Mr. Beale... 01:36:32.162 --> 01:36:33.745 ...to see that... 01:36:36.040 --> 01:36:38.792 ...perfect world... 01:36:39.794 --> 01:36:43.005 ...in which there's no war or famine... 01:36:43.173 --> 01:36:46.508 ...oppression or brutality. 01:36:47.552 --> 01:36:51.513 One vast and ecumenical holding company... 01:36:51.681 --> 01:36:55.976 ...for whom all men will work to serve a common profit... 01:36:56.144 --> 01:37:00.397 ...in which all men will hold a share of stock... 01:37:01.649 --> 01:37:04.568 ...all necessities provided... 01:37:05.278 --> 01:37:09.114 ...all anxieties tranquillized... 01:37:10.074 --> 01:37:13.994 ...all boredom amused. 01:37:19.959 --> 01:37:24.546 And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale... 01:37:24.714 --> 01:37:27.216 ...to preach this evangel. 01:37:27.884 --> 01:37:29.510 Why me? 01:37:30.762 --> 01:37:33.597 Because you're on television, dummy. 01:37:34.474 --> 01:37:39.937 Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. 01:37:40.813 --> 01:37:43.106 I have seen the face of God. 01:37:45.652 --> 01:37:48.237 You just might be right, Mr. Beale. 01:37:49.781 --> 01:37:52.115 That evening, Howard Beale went on the air... 01:37:52.283 --> 01:37:54.952 ...to preach the corporate cosmology of Arthur Jensen. 01:37:55.119 --> 01:37:57.996 Last night I got up here and asked you people... 01:37:58.164 --> 01:38:02.459 ...to stand up and fight for your heritage, and you did, and it was beautiful. 01:38:02.627 --> 01:38:05.629 Six million telegrams were received at the White House. 01:38:05.797 --> 01:38:08.966 The Arab takeover of CCA has been stopped. 01:38:09.133 --> 01:38:14.805 The people spoke, the people won. It was a radiant eruption of democracy. 01:38:14.973 --> 01:38:19.017 But I think that was it, fellas. 01:38:19.185 --> 01:38:21.895 That sort of thing is not likely to happen again. 01:38:22.105 --> 01:38:25.065 Because at the bottom of all our terrified souls... 01:38:25.233 --> 01:38:28.277 ...we know that democracy is a dying giant... 01:38:28.444 --> 01:38:33.240 ...a sick, sick, dying, decaying, political concept writhing in its final pain. 01:38:33.408 --> 01:38:36.994 I don't mean that the United States is finished as a world power. 01:38:37.161 --> 01:38:39.329 The States is the richest and most powerful... 01:38:39.497 --> 01:38:42.457 ...the most advanced country, light years ahead of any country. 01:38:42.625 --> 01:38:45.335 I don't mean the communists are gonna take over the world. 01:38:45.503 --> 01:38:48.839 The communists are deader than we are. What is finished... 01:38:50.466 --> 01:38:53.927 ...is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom... 01:38:54.095 --> 01:38:57.806 ...and flourishing of every individual in it. 01:38:58.891 --> 01:39:01.852 It's the individual that's finished. 01:39:02.270 --> 01:39:06.189 It's the single, solitary, human being that's finished. 01:39:07.066 --> 01:39:11.111 It's every single one of you out there that's finished. 01:39:11.654 --> 01:39:13.864 Because this is no longer... 01:39:14.032 --> 01:39:17.743 ...a nation of independent individuals. 01:39:18.036 --> 01:39:20.829 It's a nation of some 200-odd million... 01:39:20.997 --> 01:39:23.540 ...transistorized, deodorized... 01:39:23.708 --> 01:39:29.212 ...whiter than white steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings... 01:39:29.380 --> 01:39:32.758 ...and as replaceable as piston rods. 01:39:43.394 --> 01:39:46.605 Well, the time has come to say... 01:39:46.773 --> 01:39:49.941 ...is "dehumanization" such a bad word? 01:39:50.318 --> 01:39:53.403 Whether it's good or bad, that's what is so. 01:39:53.571 --> 01:39:58.742 The whole world is becoming humanoid, creatures that look human but aren't. 01:39:59.202 --> 01:40:00.577 The whole world, not just us. 01:40:00.745 --> 01:40:04.915 We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first. 01:40:05.583 --> 01:40:10.545 The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed... 01:40:10.713 --> 01:40:12.464 ...numbered insensate things. 01:40:12.882 --> 01:40:14.925 It was a perfectly admissible argument... 01:40:15.093 --> 01:40:17.678 ...that Howard Beale advanced in the days that followed. 01:40:17.845 --> 01:40:20.722 It was, however, also a very depressing one. 01:40:20.890 --> 01:40:24.226 Nobody particularly cared to hear his life was utterly valueless. 01:40:24.394 --> 01:40:26.228 By the end of the first week in June... 01:40:26.396 --> 01:40:29.147 ...the Howard Beale Show dropped one point in the ratings... 01:40:29.315 --> 01:40:33.944 ...and its trend of shares dipped under 48 for the first time since last November. 01:40:34.112 --> 01:40:38.115 You're his goddamn agent. I'm counting on you to talk some sense into the lunatic. 01:40:38.282 --> 01:40:41.785 Nobody wants to hear about dying democracy and dehumanization. 01:40:42.412 --> 01:40:43.495 I'm sorry I'm late. 01:40:43.663 --> 01:40:45.872 We're starting to get rumbles from the agencies. 01:40:46.040 --> 01:40:48.834 Another couple of weeks and the sponsors will be bailing out! 01:40:49.001 --> 01:40:52.129 This is a breach of contract. This isn't the Howard Beale we signed. 01:40:52.296 --> 01:40:56.591 Get him off that corporate universe kick, or so help me, I'll pull it off the air! 01:40:56.759 --> 01:40:59.886 I told him, Lou! I've been telling him every day for a week! 01:41:00.054 --> 01:41:03.140 I'm sick of telling him. Now you tell him! 01:41:11.023 --> 01:41:12.399 Jesus Christ. 01:41:15.903 --> 01:41:18.238 You could help me out with Howard if you wanted to. 01:41:18.406 --> 01:41:20.657 He listens to you. You're his best friend. 01:41:20.825 --> 01:41:23.285 I'm tired of all this hysteria about Howard Beale. 01:41:23.453 --> 01:41:26.121 Every time you come from seeing somebody in your family... 01:41:26.289 --> 01:41:28.623 ...you come back in one of these middle-aged moods. 01:41:28.791 --> 01:41:31.835 I'm tired of finding you on the telephone every time I turn around. 01:41:32.003 --> 01:41:34.838 I'm tired of being an accessory in your life. 01:41:35.298 --> 01:41:37.841 And I'm tired of pretending to write this dumb book... 01:41:38.009 --> 01:41:41.178 ...about my maverick days in the great early years of television. 01:41:41.345 --> 01:41:45.015 Every goddamned executive fired from a network in the last 20 years... 01:41:45.183 --> 01:41:49.186 ...has written this dumb book about the great early years of television. 01:41:49.353 --> 01:41:52.647 And nobody wants a dumb, damn, goddamn book... 01:41:52.815 --> 01:41:55.025 ...about the early days of television. 01:41:55.193 --> 01:41:58.236 Terrific, Max! Maybe you can start a whole new career as an actor. 01:41:58.404 --> 01:42:00.113 It's the truth. 01:42:00.865 --> 01:42:05.619 After living with you for six months, I'm turning into one of your scripts. 01:42:06.412 --> 01:42:08.872 Well, this is not a script, Diana. 01:42:09.207 --> 01:42:12.834 There's some real, actual life going on here. 01:42:13.628 --> 01:42:17.214 I went to visit my wife today because she's in a state of depression... 01:42:17.423 --> 01:42:21.051 ...so depressed that my daughter flew all the way from Seattle to be with her. 01:42:21.219 --> 01:42:23.220 And I feel lousy about that. 01:42:23.387 --> 01:42:27.516 I feel lousy about the pain that I've caused my wife and my kids. 01:42:27.683 --> 01:42:29.601 I feel guilty and conscience-stricken... 01:42:29.769 --> 01:42:32.395 ...and all of those things that you think sentimental... 01:42:32.563 --> 01:42:36.525 ...but which my generation calls simple, human decency. 01:42:40.530 --> 01:42:42.572 And I miss my home... 01:42:43.282 --> 01:42:46.117 ...because I'm beginning to get scared shitless. 01:42:46.285 --> 01:42:49.746 Because all of a sudden it's closer to the end than it is to the beginning. 01:42:49.914 --> 01:42:52.874 And death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me... 01:42:53.042 --> 01:42:55.544 ...with definable features. 01:42:59.590 --> 01:43:03.969 You're dealing with a man that has primal doubts, Diana... 01:43:04.303 --> 01:43:06.763 ...and you've got to cope with it. 01:43:07.348 --> 01:43:11.434 I'm not some guy discussing male menopause on the Barbara Walters Show. 01:43:12.103 --> 01:43:15.438 I'm the man that you presumably love. 01:43:16.524 --> 01:43:19.442 I'm part of your life. 01:43:19.610 --> 01:43:23.280 I live here. I'm real. 01:43:24.448 --> 01:43:27.325 You can't switch to another station. 01:43:34.792 --> 01:43:37.627 What exactly is it you want me to do? 01:43:41.632 --> 01:43:44.676 I just want you to love me. 01:43:45.928 --> 01:43:49.389 I just want you to love me, primal doubts and all. 01:43:51.726 --> 01:43:54.144 You understand that, don't you? 01:43:59.150 --> 01:44:01.443 I don't know how to do that. 01:44:13.164 --> 01:44:15.790 I'll be with you in a minute, Max. 01:44:20.922 --> 01:44:22.422 By the first week in July... 01:44:22.590 --> 01:44:24.716 ...the Howard Beale Show was down 11 points. 01:44:24.884 --> 01:44:26.718 Hysteria swept through the network. 01:44:26.886 --> 01:44:28.553 He's a plague. He's smallpox. 01:44:28.721 --> 01:44:31.222 He's typhoid. I don't wanna follow his goddamn show. 01:44:31.390 --> 01:44:32.724 I want out of that 8:00 spot. 01:44:32.892 --> 01:44:35.602 I've got enough troubles without Howard Beale as a lead-in! 01:44:35.770 --> 01:44:37.854 Scheduled me against Tony Orlando and Dawn. 01:44:38.022 --> 01:44:41.274 NBC's got Little House on the Prairie. ABC's got The Bionic Woman. 01:44:41.442 --> 01:44:44.027 Do something! You gotta do something about Howard Beale! 01:44:44.195 --> 01:44:46.363 Get him off the air! Get him off! 01:44:46.530 --> 01:44:48.156 Do something! Do anything! 01:44:48.324 --> 01:44:50.325 We're trying to find a replacement for him! 01:44:50.493 --> 01:44:52.535 I'm going to look at audition footage now! 01:44:52.787 --> 01:44:56.247 And how when the sicks heal... 01:44:56.415 --> 01:44:59.376 ...man, I tell you I saw it! 01:45:00.211 --> 01:45:05.298 It was heavy, baby. I saw the earth quake. 01:45:05.466 --> 01:45:09.219 And I saw the moon became like blood. 01:45:09.387 --> 01:45:13.264 And every mountain and island was moved from its place. 01:45:13.432 --> 01:45:15.684 No, no, no. Damn it. 01:45:15.851 --> 01:45:17.852 If we wanted hellfire we'd get Billy Graham! 01:45:18.020 --> 01:45:21.398 Don't want faith healers, evangelists or Oberammergau passion players! 01:45:21.565 --> 01:45:24.609 What about that messiah that ABC was supposed to have signed up... 01:45:24.777 --> 01:45:27.445 - ... as our competition for next year? That's him. 01:45:27.613 --> 01:45:31.908 - The bottomless pit is here. That's him? 01:45:32.076 --> 01:45:33.952 His ass ending. 01:45:34.120 --> 01:45:36.162 Jesus. Turn him off! 01:45:37.289 --> 01:45:41.084 I've got three more, but you've already seen the best ones. 01:45:41.252 --> 01:45:44.087 I've got a guru from Spokane and two more hellfires... 01:45:44.255 --> 01:45:46.047 ...who see visions of the Virgin Mary. 01:45:46.215 --> 01:45:50.010 We're not gonna find a replacement for Howard Beale. Let's stop kidding ourselves. 01:45:50.177 --> 01:45:53.013 Fully fledged messiahs don't come in bunches. 01:45:53.180 --> 01:45:56.349 We either go with Howard Beale or we go without him. 01:45:56.517 --> 01:45:59.394 My reports say we'll do better without him. 01:45:59.562 --> 01:46:02.439 It would be disaster to let this situation go on another week. 01:46:02.606 --> 01:46:05.233 By then, he'll be down 16 points... 01:46:05.401 --> 01:46:08.778 ...and the trend irreversible, if it isn't already. 01:46:09.989 --> 01:46:13.074 I think we should fire Howard. 01:46:15.870 --> 01:46:21.624 Arthur Jensen has taken a strong personal interest in the Howard Beale Show. 01:46:23.627 --> 01:46:27.088 I'm having dinner with him tonight. Let me have another crack at Jensen... 01:46:27.256 --> 01:46:29.674 ...and then let's meet in my office at 10:00 tonight. 01:46:29.842 --> 01:46:32.635 Diana, give me copies of all your audience research reports. 01:46:32.803 --> 01:46:36.931 I may need them for Jensen. Is 10:00 convenient for everyone? 01:47:08.964 --> 01:47:13.218 I think the time has come to re-evaluate our relationship, Max. 01:47:13.844 --> 01:47:15.512 So I see. 01:47:17.098 --> 01:47:20.475 I don't like the way this script of ours is turning out. 01:47:20.643 --> 01:47:23.436 It's turning into a seedy little drama. 01:47:23.604 --> 01:47:27.941 Middle-aged man leaves wife and family for young heartless woman, goes to pot. 01:47:28.109 --> 01:47:31.861 The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings. I don't like it. 01:47:32.029 --> 01:47:34.114 - So you're gonna cancel the show. - Right. 01:47:34.281 --> 01:47:36.199 Here, let me do that. 01:47:37.785 --> 01:47:42.914 The simple fact is, Max, that you're a family man. 01:47:43.082 --> 01:47:46.835 You like a home and kids. That's beautiful. I'm incapable of any such commitment. 01:47:47.002 --> 01:47:49.921 All you'll get from me is a couple months of intermittent sex... 01:47:50.089 --> 01:47:53.466 ...and recriminate and ugly little scenes like the one we had last night. 01:47:53.634 --> 01:47:57.220 I'm sorry for all those things I said to you last night. 01:47:57.388 --> 01:48:01.724 You're not the worst fuck I've ever had. Believe me, I've had worse. 01:48:02.226 --> 01:48:05.603 You don't puff or snorkle... 01:48:05.771 --> 01:48:07.480 ...and make death-like rattles. 01:48:07.648 --> 01:48:10.441 As a matter of fact, you're rather serene in the sack. 01:48:11.777 --> 01:48:13.653 Why is it that a woman always thinks... 01:48:13.821 --> 01:48:19.033 ...that the most savage thing she can say to a man is to impugn his cocksmanship? 01:48:20.244 --> 01:48:23.580 Well, I'm sorry I impugned your cocksmanship. 01:48:24.248 --> 01:48:28.042 I gave up comparing genitals back in the schoolyard. 01:48:37.678 --> 01:48:40.430 You're being docile as hell about this. 01:48:41.473 --> 01:48:44.976 Oh, hell, Diana, I knew it was over with us weeks ago. 01:48:45.311 --> 01:48:47.979 Will you go back to your wife? 01:48:49.982 --> 01:48:52.775 I'll give it a try, but I don't think she'll jump at it. 01:48:52.943 --> 01:48:55.195 But don't worry about me. I'll manage. 01:48:55.362 --> 01:48:59.699 I always have, I always will. I'm more concerned about you. 01:49:00.534 --> 01:49:02.285 You're not the boozer type. 01:49:02.453 --> 01:49:05.997 So I figure a year, maybe two, before you crack up. 01:49:06.165 --> 01:49:08.833 Or jump out of your 14th floor office window. 01:49:09.001 --> 01:49:12.212 Stop selling, Max. I don't need you. 01:49:23.599 --> 01:49:27.477 I don't want your pain. I don't want your menopausal decay and death! 01:49:27.645 --> 01:49:28.728 I don't need you, Max. 01:49:28.896 --> 01:49:32.649 - Now get out of here! - You need me! You need me badly. 01:49:32.816 --> 01:49:35.610 Because I'm your last contact with human reality. 01:49:35.778 --> 01:49:37.779 I love you. 01:49:37.947 --> 01:49:41.950 And that painful, decaying love is the only thing between you... 01:49:42.117 --> 01:49:45.036 ...and the shrieking nothingness you live the rest of the day. 01:49:45.204 --> 01:49:46.829 Then don't leave me. 01:49:49.959 --> 01:49:52.168 It's too late, Diana. 01:49:53.295 --> 01:49:56.172 There's nothing left in you that I can live with. 01:49:58.884 --> 01:50:01.427 You're one of Howard's humanoids... 01:50:01.595 --> 01:50:04.264 ...and if I stay with you, I'll be destroyed. 01:50:04.932 --> 01:50:07.517 Like Howard Beale was destroyed. 01:50:08.018 --> 01:50:10.645 Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed. 01:50:11.188 --> 01:50:15.024 Like everything that you and the institution of television touch... 01:50:15.192 --> 01:50:17.235 ...is destroyed. 01:50:23.033 --> 01:50:25.034 You're television incarnate, Diana. 01:50:26.453 --> 01:50:31.833 Indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy. 01:50:33.127 --> 01:50:37.171 All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. 01:50:40.884 --> 01:50:43.803 War, murder, death... 01:50:44.555 --> 01:50:47.724 ...all the same to you as bottles of beer. 01:50:48.267 --> 01:50:52.937 And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. 01:50:54.106 --> 01:50:57.483 You even shatter the sensations of time and space... 01:50:57.651 --> 01:51:02.405 ...into split seconds and instant replays. 01:51:06.160 --> 01:51:07.869 You're madness, Diana. 01:51:09.705 --> 01:51:12.040 Virulent madness. 01:51:13.751 --> 01:51:16.878 And everything you touch dies with you. 01:51:21.717 --> 01:51:23.509 But not me. 01:51:24.470 --> 01:51:30.141 Not as long as I can feel pleasure and pain... 01:51:33.937 --> 01:51:35.646 ...and love. 01:51:47.076 --> 01:51:48.159 And it's a happy ending. 01:51:50.454 --> 01:51:54.123 Wayward husband comes to his senses... 01:51:54.750 --> 01:51:56.334 ...returns to his wife... 01:51:56.543 --> 01:51:59.545 ...with whom he's established a long and sustaining love. 01:52:00.756 --> 01:52:04.801 Heartless young woman left alone in her arctic desolation. 01:52:07.846 --> 01:52:10.139 Music up with a swell. 01:52:13.060 --> 01:52:14.852 Final commercial. 01:52:17.481 --> 01:52:21.067 And here are a few scenes from next week's show. 01:52:32.996 --> 01:52:34.872 How did it go? 01:52:51.515 --> 01:52:56.686 Mr. Jensen was unhappy at the idea of taking Howard Beale off the air. 01:52:57.938 --> 01:53:01.858 Mr. Jensen thinks Howard Beale is bringing a very important message... 01:53:02.025 --> 01:53:04.444 ...to the American people. 01:53:05.779 --> 01:53:09.365 So he wants Howard Beale on the air and he wants him kept on. 01:53:11.618 --> 01:53:14.620 Mr. Jensen feels we're too catastrophic in our thinking. 01:53:14.788 --> 01:53:18.958 I argued that television was a volatile industry in which success and failure... 01:53:19.126 --> 01:53:21.711 ...were determined week by week. 01:53:22.379 --> 01:53:25.882 Mr. Jensen said he did not like volatile industries and suggested... 01:53:26.049 --> 01:53:29.552 ...with a certain sinister silkiness... 01:53:30.429 --> 01:53:34.056 ...that volatility in business usually reflected bad management. 01:53:35.058 --> 01:53:38.311 He didn't care if Howard Beale was the number-one show or the 50th. 01:53:38.479 --> 01:53:40.938 He didn't really care if the Beale Show lost money. 01:53:42.149 --> 01:53:46.611 He wants Howard Beale on the air and he wants him kept on. 01:53:47.321 --> 01:53:51.991 I would describe his position on this as inflexible. 01:53:52.743 --> 01:53:55.119 Where does that put us, Diana? 01:53:55.996 --> 01:53:59.916 That puts us in the shithouse, that's where that puts us. 01:54:02.544 --> 01:54:05.379 - Do you want me to go through this? Yes. 01:54:06.465 --> 01:54:10.760 The Beale Show Q score's down to 33. 01:54:11.428 --> 01:54:14.889 Most of this loss occurred in the child and teen and 18-34 categories... 01:54:15.057 --> 01:54:18.309 ...which were our key core markets. 01:54:18.519 --> 01:54:21.646 And as the AR department's carefully considered judgment and mine... 01:54:21.813 --> 01:54:25.191 ...that if we get rid of Beale, we should maintain a respectable share... 01:54:25.359 --> 01:54:28.236 ...in the high 20s, possibly 30, with a comparable Q level. 01:54:28.403 --> 01:54:30.947 The other segments of the show, Sibyl the Soothsayer... 01:54:31.114 --> 01:54:35.284 ...Jim Webbing, the Vox Populi, have all developed their own audiences. 01:54:35.452 --> 01:54:37.620 Our AR reports show that it is Howard Beale... 01:54:37.788 --> 01:54:40.623 ...that is the destructive force here. 01:54:41.208 --> 01:54:46.003 Minimally, we're talking about a 10-point differential in shares. 01:54:46.964 --> 01:54:49.966 I think Joe ought to spell it out for us. Joe? 01:54:50.467 --> 01:54:53.594 A 28 share is 80,000-dollar minutes. 01:54:53.762 --> 01:54:56.389 I think we can sell complete positions on the whole. 01:54:56.557 --> 01:54:59.183 We're just getting into the pre-Christmas gift sellers... 01:54:59.351 --> 01:55:02.895 ...and I'll tell you the agencies are coming back to me with $4 CPM's. 01:55:03.063 --> 01:55:07.316 If that's any indication, we're talking 40-, 45 million-dollar loss in annual revenues. 01:55:07.484 --> 01:55:09.485 Wanna hear the flak from the affiliates? 01:55:09.653 --> 01:55:11.153 We know all about it, Herb. 01:55:11.321 --> 01:55:15.116 And you would describe Mr. Jensen's position on Beale as inflexible? 01:55:15.617 --> 01:55:18.119 Intractable and adamantine. 01:55:19.997 --> 01:55:23.165 So, what do we do about this Beale son of a bitch? 01:55:25.335 --> 01:55:27.420 I suppose we'll have to kill him. 01:55:30.340 --> 01:55:33.426 I don't suppose you have any ideas on that, Diana? 01:55:40.142 --> 01:55:43.185 Well, what would you fellows say to an assassination? 01:55:44.688 --> 01:55:48.691 I think I can get the Mao Tse-Tung people to kill Beale for us... 01:55:48.859 --> 01:55:50.026 ...as one of their shows. 01:55:51.236 --> 01:55:55.698 In fact, it'll make a hell of a kickoff show for the season. 01:55:55.866 --> 01:55:59.368 We're facing heavy opposition on the other networks for Wednesday nights... 01:55:59.536 --> 01:56:02.955 ...and The Mao Tse-Tung Hour could use a sensational opener. 01:56:04.416 --> 01:56:08.210 It could be done right on camera in the studio. 01:56:09.880 --> 01:56:12.048 We ought to get a fantastic look-in audience... 01:56:12.215 --> 01:56:16.177 ...for the assassination of Howard Beale as our opening show. 01:56:16.345 --> 01:56:21.057 Well, if Beale dies, what would our continuing obligation... 01:56:21.224 --> 01:56:23.267 ...to the Beale corporation be? 01:56:23.560 --> 01:56:26.395 I know our contract with Beale contains a buy-out clause... 01:56:26.563 --> 01:56:28.689 ...triggered by his death or incapacity. 01:56:28.857 --> 01:56:32.151 There must be a formula for the computation of the purchase price. 01:56:32.319 --> 01:56:36.280 Offhand, I think it was based on a multiple 1975 earnings... 01:56:36.490 --> 01:56:38.574 ...with the base period in 1975. 01:56:38.992 --> 01:56:43.037 I think it was 50 percent of salary plus 25 percent of the first year's profit... 01:56:43.205 --> 01:56:46.499 ...multiplied by the unexpired portion of the contract. 01:56:46.667 --> 01:56:49.627 I don't think the show has any substantial syndication value... 01:56:49.795 --> 01:56:50.961 ...would you say, Diana? 01:56:51.129 --> 01:56:52.838 Syndication profits are minimal. 01:56:54.174 --> 01:56:56.842 We're talking about a capital crime here. 01:56:57.969 --> 01:57:00.513 The network can't be implicated. 01:57:11.024 --> 01:57:15.236 I hope you don't have any hidden tape machines in this office, Frank. 01:57:17.364 --> 01:57:20.241 Well, the issue is, shall we kill Howard Beale or not? 01:57:20.409 --> 01:57:22.868 I'd like to hear some more opinions on that. 01:57:23.036 --> 01:57:26.455 I don't see we have any option, Frank. Let's kill the son of a bitch. 01:57:26.707 --> 01:57:30.084 Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it. How do you feel? 01:57:30.252 --> 01:57:34.630 We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore! 01:57:34.798 --> 01:57:36.882 Ladies and gentlemen, the Network News Hour... 01:57:37.050 --> 01:57:39.301 ...with Sibyl the Soothsayer. 01:57:42.139 --> 01:57:45.808 Jim Webbing and his It's-the-Emes Truth Department. 01:57:48.562 --> 01:57:52.440 Ms. Mata Hari and her Skeletons in the Closet. 01:57:55.152 --> 01:57:57.486 And tonight, another segment of Vox Populi. 01:58:02.033 --> 01:58:06.662 And starring the Mad Prophet of the Airways, Howard Beale! 01:58:26.141 --> 01:58:30.519 The Network News anchorman on the UBS Network News show... 01:58:30.687 --> 01:58:34.565 ...known to millions as the Mad Prophet of the Airways... 01:58:34.733 --> 01:58:38.569 ...was shot to death tonight in a fusillade of automatic-rifle fire... 01:58:38.737 --> 01:58:41.530 ...just as he began this evening's broadcast. 01:58:41.698 --> 01:58:43.783 We never compromise, so why should you? 01:58:43.950 --> 01:58:46.327 Canada Dry mixers, why compromise? 01:58:46.495 --> 01:58:49.538 - identified themselves as the group responsible for the killing. 01:58:49.706 --> 01:58:53.209 Ahmed Kahn, a massive man of well over 6 feet, carrying an automatic weapon. 01:58:53.376 --> 01:58:55.044 - supposed to be good for you. 01:58:55.212 --> 01:58:58.756 - Did you try it? I'm not gonna try it, you try it. 01:58:58.924 --> 01:59:02.009 - I'm not gonna try it. - Let's get Mikey. 01:59:02.219 --> 01:59:05.054 Yeah. He won't eat it. He hates everything. 01:59:05.222 --> 01:59:06.722 The extraordinary incident... 01:59:06.890 --> 01:59:09.141 ...occurred in full view of his millions of viewers. 01:59:09.309 --> 01:59:11.560 The assassins were members of a terrorist group... 01:59:11.728 --> 01:59:15.815 ...called the Ecumenical Liberation Army, two of whom were apprehended. 01:59:15.982 --> 01:59:19.401 The leader of the group, known as the Great Ahmed Kahn, escaped. 01:59:19.820 --> 01:59:22.112 This was the story of Howard Beale... 01:59:22.280 --> 01:59:24.824 ...the first known instance of a man who was killed... 01:59:24.991 --> 01:59:26.617 ...because he had lousy ratings. 01:59:26.641 --> 01:59:37.641 Telegram Channel and Instagram Page .:: @bollbolljan_com ::.