
Network
- R
- Year:
- 1976
- 121 min
- 1,169 Views
This story is about Howard Beale...
...who was the Network News anchorman
on UBS TV.
In his time, Howard Beale
had been a mandarin of television.
The grand old man of news, with a HU rating of 16 and a 28 audience share.
In 1969, however,
his fortunes began to decline.
He fell to a 22 share.
The following year his wife died,
and he was left a childless widower...
...with an 8 rating and a 12 share.
He became morose and isolated,
began to drink heavily.
And on September 22, 1975,
he was fired...
...effective in two weeks.
The news was broken to him
by Max Schumacher...
...who was the president
of the news division at UBS.
The two old friends got properly pissed.
I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951.
Must've been 1950, then.
I was NBC, uh, associate producer,
Morning News.
I was just a kid, 26 years old.
Anyway....
Anyway, they were building the lower level
of the George Washington Bridge.
We were doing a remote from there.
And nobody told me.
Then after 7 in the morning, I get a call.
"Where the hell are you? You're supposed
to be on the George Washington Bridge."
I jump out of bed,
throw my raincoat over my pajamas.
I run down the stairs,
I run out in the street, hail a cab.
And I say to the cabby, "Take me to the
middle of the George Washington Bridge."
and he says....
He says, "Don't do it, buddy.
You're a young man.
You got your whole life ahead of you."
Didn't I ever tell you that one before?
I'm gonna kill myself.
Oh, shit, Howard.
right on the air.
Right in the middle of the 7:00 news.
Well, you'll get a hell of a rating,
I'll guarantee you that.
-50 share easy.
-You think so?
Well, sure.
We could make a series out of it.
Suicide of the Week.
Hell. Why limit ourselves?
Execution of the Week.
Terrorist of the Week.
I love it.
Suicides.
Assassinations.
Mad bombers, Mafia hit men...
...automobile smashups.
The Death Hour.
for the whole family.
We'll wipe that fucking Disney
right off the air.
Hmm.
Let's do the Lenin deportation
at the end of three.
In one then, I'll do a lead on Sara Jane
Moore to Mayberry in San Francisco.
In the film I saw,
it was the chief of detectives.
I think we've got about 10 seconds
on the shooting itself.
-What does that come out?
About 4:
50.Let's do that in two.
Squeaky, Ford at the airport, bump.
Now, you using a map
going into San Francisco?
Um, I prefer our news pics.
What have we got left?
Gun control, Patty Hearst affidavit.
Guerrillas in Chad, OPEC in Vienna.
All right, fine. I'll see you later.
-Hello, Howard, how are you?
Hi. Okay.
Don't forget, Howard,
Ron Nessen is now 16, okay?
Mm-hm.
The first attempt on President Ford's life
was 18 days ago...
...and again yesterday in San Francisco.
In spite of the two attempts...
...Mr. Ford says he will not become
a prisoner of the Oval Office...
...a hostage of would-be assassins.
The American people are good people:
Democrats, Independents,
Republicans and others.
How the hell you always get mixed up....
Under no circumstances will I...
...and I hope no others, capitulate...
...to those that want to undercut...
...what's all good in America.
Two, cue Howard.
Ladies and gentlemen...
...I would like to announce
that I will be retiring from this program...
...in two weeks' time
because of poor ratings.
Since this show was the only thing
I had going for me in my life...
...I have decided to kill myself.
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"Network" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 26 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/network_14679>.