A 28 share is 80,000 dollar minutes.
A crusty but benign managing editor who's always
A latter day prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.
A magnificent, messianic figure inveighing against the hypocrisies of our times.
A month.
A phenomenal state of affairs for a news show.
A series about a bunch of, uh, bank robbing guerillas?
A series out of what? What are we talking about?
A strip Savonarola, Monday through Friday...
Actually shot while the robbery was going on.
Admittedly an act of madness. Well, I'll tell you what happened.
Affiliates will kiss your ass, if you can hand them a hit show.
After living with you for six months, I'm turning into one of your scripts.
After this show, you could have 50.
Ah, I've got to warn you, I don't do anything on my first date.
Ahmed Kahn, a massive man of well over 6 feet, carrying an automatic weapon.
ALL [CHANTING]: We're number one!
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.
All I know is this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting.
All I know is, I can't get you out of my mind.
All I need is six weeks' federal litigation...
All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating.
All I'm saying is, if you're gonna hustle, at least do it right.
All my friends seem to be dying or having grandchildren.
All of her plot outlines have me leaving her...
All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality.
All right, Clarence, take it easy. I don't know what you're talking about.
All right, Diana.
All right, put him on.
All right, thank you.
All right. Howard Beale obviously fills a void.
All right. We've got a stockholders' meeting tomorrow...
All you'll get from me is a couple months of intermittent sex...
ALL: Ha ha ha! MAN: Wait a minute! Wait a minute!
ALL: We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!
ALL: We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!
Am I getting it through to you, Mr. Beale?
Am I still on the air?
Am I supposed to sit home knitting and purling while you slink back...
An adapted for television version of Anna Karenina...
An hour ago, Clarence McElheny called me from New York.
An industrial park in Salt Lake City.
An unusual thing happened at one of our sister networks, UBS, this evening.
ANCHOR: identified themselves as the group responsible for the killing.
ANCHOR: The extraordinary incident...
ANCHOR: The Network News anchorman on the UBS Network News show...
And all you grave robbers think about is that he's a hit.
And as the AR department's carefully considered judgment and mine...
And at the time CCA took control of the UBS TV Network...
And based upon the projected rate of return on invested capital...
And believe me, Mr. Jensen's going to be sitting there rocking back and forth...
And comes November 14, I'm going to be standing up there...
And death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me...
And even the news has to have a little showmanship.
And every mountain and island was moved from its place.
And everything you touch dies with you.
And here are a few scenes from next week's show.
And here I am.
And Howard Beale's not a bearded lady.
And I certainly don't want Hackett's people in all of the divisional positions.
And I feel lousy about that.
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale...
And I jumped in and I yell at the driver:
And I miss my home...
And I said, "Why me?"
And I said, "You're kidding.
And I saw the moon became like blood.
And I say to the cabby, "Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge."
And I still pray to God it's just a menopausal infatuation.
And I was hoping that you were looking for an emotional involvement...
And I was married for 33 years of shrill, shrieking fraud.
And I won't have it! Is that clear?
And I'm tired of pretending to write this dumb book...
And it's a happy ending.
And just once I wanted to say what I really felt.
And keep yelling and yell:
And listen carefully because this is your goddamn life I'm talking about today.
And maybe they'll take movies of themselves kidnapping heiresses...
And no booze today, Howard.
And nobody told me.
And nobody wants a dumb, damn, goddamn book...
And on October 15, Diana Christensen flew to Los Angeles...
And on September 22, 1975, he was fired...
And our children will live, Mr. Beale...
And right now, over a million homes using television in this city...
And she does all this with tarot cards?
And she said, "Don't worry, you will."
And starring the Mad Prophet of the Airways, Howard Beale!
And starring the Mad Prophet of the Airways, Howard Beale!
And that painful, decaying love is the only thing between you...
And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died.
And the cabbie turns around and he says...
And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy.
And the driver turns around and he says: "Don't do it, buddy, don't do it.
And the voice said to me, "I want you to tell the people the truth.
And the voice said, "Because you're on television, dummy.
And the whole front page of the Daily News is Howard Beale.
And the wrath of God wants Howard Beale fired!
And tonight, another segment of Vox Populi.
And tonight, another segment of Vox Populi.
And Walter says we'll all wind up in federal prison.
And we better start putting together one winner for next September.
And when the 12th largest company in the world...
And why is that woe to us?
And with the specific intention...
And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.
And you have meddled...
And you know, I'm going to be eyeball to eyeball with Mr. Ruddy on this.
And you will atone.
And you will not take me off the air for now, or for any other spaceless time.
And you would describe Mr. Jensen's position on Beale as inflexible?
And, by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around...
ANNOUNCER: Howard Beale!
ANNOUNCER: Jim Webbing and his It's the Emes Truth Department.
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the Network News Hour...
ANNOUNCER: Ms. Mata Hari and her Skeletons in the Closet.
ANNOUNCER: The UBS evening news with Howard Beale.
ANNOUNCER: The UBS Evening News with Howard Beale.
ANNOUNCER: This has been the UBS evening news with Howard Beale.
ANNOUNCER: We never compromise, so why should you?
Another couple of weeks and the sponsors will be bailing out!
Any day now. My wife's out there for the occasion.
Any second that phone's gonna ring and Clarence McElheny is gonna tell me...
Anyway, they were building the lower level of the George Washington Bridge.
Anyway...
Are we going to get involved, Max?
Arthur Jensen has taken a strong personal interest in the Howard Beale Show.
As a matter of fact, you're rather serene in the sack.
As far as I know, Howard's going to do it.
Assassinations.
At next year's affiliates' meeting...
AUDIENCE: I want the CCA deal stopped now!
Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
BARBARA: Coffee? Okay.
Beale doesn't do the angry man thing well at all.
Beautiful.
Because after 25 years...
Because all of a sudden it's closer to the end than it is to the beginning.
Because all of those Arab petrol dollars...
Because at the bottom of all our terrified souls...
Because I'm your last contact with human reality.
Because less than 15 percent of you read newspapers.
Because less than 3 percent of you people read books.
Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth.
Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube.
Because this company is now in the hands of CCA...
Because this is no longer...
Because this isn't a convention weekend with your secretary, is it?
Because when a national television network...
Because you people...
Because you're on television, dummy.
BILL: Wait till you see it. I don't know whether to edit or leave it raw like this.
BILL: Yeah. This is from a David Susskind thing a while back.
Bob McDonough in News, please.
Bob McDonough will take over the news division...
Bob McDonough's running the news division now.
BOY 1: Supposed to be good for you.
BOY 1: Yeah. He won't eat it. He hates everything.
Brinkley, Sevareid, Reasoner, all have their comments.
Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living.
But as for this whole CCA deal with the Saudis...
But don't worry about me. I'll manage.
But don't worry, I'll come back to you in the end.
But ever since CCA acquired control of UBS Systems 10 months ago...
But first you've got to get mad. You've gotta say:
But he may be unhappy, but he isn't stupid enough...
But he says absolutely nix on going to series.
But he's got about eight minutes of a bank robbery...
But I think that was it, fellas.
But I'm gonna make a TV star out of you.
But it is an infatuation, Louise.
But Monday's rating dropped a point...
But not me.
But now, somebody's buying up CCA.
But the business of management is management.
But the voice said to me, "Don't worry about the truth.
But to our minds, this philosophy is a wanton fiscal affront...
But you people sit there, day after day, night after night...
But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us.
Buy you a cup of coffee?
By the end of the first week in June...
By then, he'll be down 16 points...
By tomorrow he'll have a 50 share, maybe even a 60.
By tomorrow morning, they'll be suffocating in telegrams.
Canada Dry mixers, why compromise?
Certainly Mr. Jensen will.
Christ, it's cold in here.
Christensen? What's she got to do with this?
Clarence? Frank Hackett here.
Close the door, Harry.
Come on, Laureen. The Party's in for 7500 a week production expenses.
Corridor gossip, uh, says that you are Frank Hackett's backstage girl.
Could we ? If we could just have one statement about Mr. Beale.
Cue announcer.
Cue announcer.
Democrats, Independents, Republicans and others.
Diana, give me copies of all your audience research reports.
DIANA: And I'm gonna stick The Mao Tse Tung Hour in at 8...
DIANA: Can't win them all. Where can I reach you later?
DIANA: Christ.
DIANA: Forty million loss in revenues. I'll take out a contract.
DIANA: Have you still got yesterday's overnights?
DIANA: I'd like to see the two of you for a moment.
DIANA: Lady cops?
DIANA: Let's get back to Howard Beale.
DIANA: Next one.
DIANA: No, but we're getting around the FBI...
DIANA: You can't. I'll be gone all weekend.
DIANA: You mean, they actually shot this film...
Did any of you read it?
Did you get that, Paul?
Did you know there are a number of psychics...
Did you see the film we made of San Marino jail breakout...
Did you see the news this morning? Did you see the Times?
Did you see the overnights on the Network News?
Didn't I ever tell you that one before?
Disaster. The show is a disaster.
Do something! Do anything!
Do something! You gotta do something about Howard Beale!
Do you love her?
Do you wanna figure out the revenues of a strip show...
Do you want me to leave? Check into a hotel?
Do you want to be an angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?
Does she love you, Max?
Don't forget, Howard, Ron Nessen is now 16, okay?
Don't fuck with my distribution costs.
Don't have any illusions about who's running this network. You're fired!
Don't keep telling me that you're obsessed, that you're infatuated.
Don't start no shit with me about a piece.
Don't want faith healers, evangelists or Oberammergau passion players!
Don't write to your congressmen. I wouldn't know what to tell you.
Dress like the tube, you eat like the tube...
ED: I'll want to see Mr. Beale after this.
ED: Sorry, I don't have all the information yet.
Edward George Ruddy died today.
Edward George Ruddy was the chairman of the board...
Every day, five days a week for 15 years, I've been sitting behind that desk.
Every goddamned affiliate from Albuquerque to Sandusky.
Every goddamned executive fired from a network in the last 20 years...
Every other network will grab him the minute he walks.
Every time you come from seeing somebody in your family...
Every TV station and wire service in the city. I could barely get in.
Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job.
Everyone's going crazy.
Everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore.
Execution of the Week.
Final commercial.
Fine. How's it going?
For example, she said:
For example, what we don't know about is this CCA deal...
For God's sake, Diana...
For God's sakes. Are you suggesting that we put that lunatic...
FORD: The American people are good people:
FORD: Under no circumstances will I...
Four hours ago, I was the sun god at CCA.
Frank is a corporation man, body and soul.
Frank, it's being handed to us on a plate. Let's not blow it.
Frank, let's not go to committee on this. It's 20 after 10.
FRANK: I gave her the show, Schumacher.
FRANK: I'll call you back, John.
FRANK: Mr. Jensen was unhappy at the idea of taking Howard Beale off the air.
FRANK: The top brass of a bankrupt national television network...
FRANK: We know all about it, Herb.
FRANK: Well, the issue is, shall we kill Howard Beale or not?
FRANK: Yes?
FRANK: You don't know where he is?
Fully fledged messiahs don't come in bunches.
George Bosch, Barbara Schlesinger, Tommy Pellegrino.
George, can, uh, you come into my office for a minute?
GEORGE: Right.
Get him off that corporate universe kick, or so help me, I'll pull it off the air!
Get him off the air! Get him off!
Get up, get up out of your chairs.
GIFFORD: You fucking fascist!
Go anywhere you want. Go to a hotel, go live with her, but don't come back.
Go down to the mail room. As of this minute, over 14,000 telegrams!
Go to standby. You dumb schmuck!
Go to your gurus.
Go to yourselves.
Goddamn it, I spoke to John Wheeler this morning...
Goddamn it. When, Louise?
Gonna quit their jobs for you? Not in this recession.
Good afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.
Good evening. Today is Wednesday, September the 24th...
Great Sunday night show for the whole family.
Guerrillas in Chad, OPEC in Vienna.
Ha, ha. I'm not.
Hackett is clearly forcing a confrontation.
Hackett told the FBI to fuck off.
Hackett.
Hackett. Chaney was there. The Legal Affairs guy.
Halloway's going to make a brief statement at the end of the show...
Harry, Howard Beale left my house about 20 minutes ago. Has he come in yet?
HARRY: Is he okay? MAX: He's just fainted.
Have Lester cover the CIA hearings...
Have we settled that sublicensing thing?
He became morose and isolated, began to drink heavily.
He calls himself the Great Ahmed Kahn and wears a hussar's shako.
He came in the building about five minutes ago.
He didn't care if Howard Beale was the number one show or the 50th.
He didn't really care if the Beale Show lost money.
He fell to a 22 share.
He has no loves, lusts or allegiances that are not consummately directed...
He just might lose it over this Beale business.
He listens to you. You're his best friend.
He needs care and treatment.
He returned to the Vienna...
He said, "Tune in next Tuesday. I'm gonna shoot myself."
He says, "Don't do it, buddy.
He should do more apocalyptic doom.
He told me I was the worst lay he'd ever had.
He wants Howard Beale on the air and he wants him kept on.
He wants Mr. Beale in his office at 10:00 tomorrow morning.
He wants to put Howard on the air.
He was hoping I'd fall on my face with this Beale Show, but I didn't.
He was supposed to do a tag on Ron Nessen
He'll be back on the air for ABC and we'll lose 20 points
He's a plague. He's smallpox.
He's been funny as hell. Had everybody cracking up at the rundown meeting.
He's saying that life is bullshit and it is. What are you screaming about?
He's talking to Wheeler. Over 900 phone calls...
He's the kid I think you once sent out to interview Cleveland Amory on vivisection.
He's too, uh, kvetchy. He's being irascible. We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon.
He's typhoid. I don't wanna follow his goddamn show.
Heartless young woman left alone in her arctic desolation.
Helen, call Mr. Hackett's office.
Hell, they already own half of England. So listen to me.
Hell, yes.
Hell, you're not serious, are you?
Hell. Why limit ourselves?
Help me get him up.
Her name, aptly enough, is Sibyl.
Here we are going through the obligatory middle of Act 2...
Here, let me do that.
Hey, that sounds pretty good.
Hi, I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles.
His ass ending.
Hmm.
How are we handling it?
How did I get here? Who's gonna believe this?
How did it go?
How long has it been going on?
How the hell could I see it? It's just going on now!
How the hell you always get mixed up...
How's everything back in New York? How's the good lady?
Howard Beale interrupted his Network News program tonight...
Howard Beale is processed, instant God.
Howard Beale may be my best friend. I'll go to court.
Howard Beale said what every American feels...
Howard in his office?
Howard just said he was going to blow his brains out next Tuesday.
Howard just said he was going to kill himself next Tuesday.
Howard, I'm taking you off the air.
Howard, I've got Max on 4. Would you pick up?
Howard, what are you doing?
Howard, you're gonna spend the night at my place.
HOWARD: And there's not a single law in the books to stop them.
HOWARD: I can't hear you. You will have to talk a little louder.
HOWARD: I don't mean the whole show...
HOWARD: Let's do the Lenin deportation at the end of three.
HOWARD: Mm hm.
HOWARD: The hell it ain't! Do you wanna turn that down, please?
HOWARD: What have we got left?
HOWARD: You're kidding, aren't you? I'm not kidding.
However, I think he's making a serious mistake with this Beale business.
Hysteria swept through the network.
I always have, I always will. I'm more concerned about you.
I am not putting Howard back on the air.
I am pleased to announce I am submitting to the board of directors...
I apparently have a masculine temperament.
I argued that television was a volatile industry in which success and failure...
I arouse quickly, consummate prematurely...
I assume that Hackett wouldn't take such steps...
I await your questions and comments.
I can't make it tonight, love. Call me tomorrow.
I can't tell you how many men have told me what a lousy lay I am.
I couldn't make it out at first in the dark bedroom...
I don't believe this. I don't believe the top brass...
I don't call that 'getting involved."'
I don't care how bankrupt.
I don't even wanna think about the litigious possibilities, Frank.
I don't expect you people to be capable of truth...
I don't fancy myself the president of a whorehouse.
I don't get it, Diana.
I don't get it.
I don't have to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad.
I don't know how I feel.
I don't know how to do that.
I don't know what to do about the depression...
I don't like network hassles. I was hoping you and I could work this out.
I don't like the way this script of ours is turning out.
I don't mean that the United States is finished as a world power.
I don't mean the communists are gonna take over the world.
I don't need you, Max.
I don't see we have any option, Frank. Let's kill the son of a bitch.
I don't suppose you have any ideas on that, Diana?
I don't think I'll listen to any protestations of high standards of journalism...
I don't think the show has any substantial syndication value...
I don't wanna be the messenger that has to tell Max Schumacher.
I don't wanna play butch boss with you people.
I don't want conventional programming on this network, I want counterculture.
I don't want the banks selling my country to the Arabs.
I don't want this grotesque incident to interfere with that.
I don't want you to protest, to riot.
I don't want your pain. I don't want your menopausal decay and death!
I drop down to the news studios every now and then...
I expect a positive cash flow for the entire complex of 45 million...
I feel connected to all living things.
I feel guilty and conscience stricken...
I feel lousy about the pain that I've caused my wife and my kids.
I feel on the verge of some great ultimate truth.
I feel vivid and flashing, as if suddenly...
I gave up comparing genitals back in the schoolyard.
I go beyond that.
I got a hit, Schumacher, and Ruddy doesn't count anymore.
I got everything through Laureen Hobbs. She's my contact for all this stuff.
I had a terrible schoolgirl crush on you for a couple of months.
I have 11 years at this network, Max.
I have a married daughter in Seattle who's six months pregnant...
I have seen the face of God.
I have seen the shattering fulgurations of ultimate clarity.
I have some standing in the industry.
I have two other friends in the hospital whom I visit regularly...
I hope you don't have any hidden tape machines in this office, Frank.
I hurt badly.
I jump out of bed, throw my raincoat over my pajamas.
I just don't wanna go out like a clown.
I just ran out of bullshit.
I just ran out of it, you see.
I just want you to love me, primal doubts and all.
I just want you to love me.
I know I'm obsessed with her.
I know our contract with Beale contains a buy out clause...
I know that, historically, news divisions are expected to lose money.
I know.
I live here. I'm real.
I love it.
I love you.
I may need them for Jensen. Is 10:00 convenient for everyone?
I may teach or I may write a book...
I mean you're president of the Systems Group...
I met one of them last week and thought of doing a show around her.
I need to become involved very much. How about you?
I probably did. I don't know anymore.
I run down the stairs, I run out in the street, hail a cab.
I run out in the street and I hail a cab.
I said, "Walter, let the government sue us.
I said, "What's this, the Burning Bush? For God's sake, I'm not Moses."
I said, "Why me?"
I said, "You know, Sibyl, about four months ago you predicted...
I see Howard Beale as a latter day prophet.
I see you don't fancy my suggestions.
I seem to be inept at everything except my work.
I sold sewing machines and automobile parts...
I started as a salesman, Mr. Beale.
I suppose we'll have to kill him.
I suspect CCA will be upset at Hackett's presumptuousness.
I think Howard's making a goddamn fool of himself...
I think I can get the Mao Tse Tung people to kill Beale for us...
I think I'm speaking for Howard Beale and everybody else "
I think it was 50 percent of salary plus 25 percent of the first year's profit...
I think it'll take the strain off the show, Max.
I think Joe ought to spell it out for us. Joe?
I think perhaps it is better if you move out.
I think the time has come to re evaluate our relationship, Max.
I think this lady could be very useful to you, Max.
I think we can sell complete positions on the whole.
I think we can use some of this stuff.
I think we ought to give it a shot. Let's see what happens tonight.
I think we should fire Howard.
I think we should put Beale back on the air tonight and keep him on.
I think we've got about 10 seconds on the shooting itself.
I think we've lucked into something.
I think you should take on a couple of writers to write some jeremiads for him.
I think you'll like this footage better than the stuff I showed you last time, Max.
I think you're having a breakdown. Require treatment.
I thought it was a transient thing, blow over in a week.
I told him, Lou! I've been telling him every day for a week!
I told him. I told him.
I told them. I said:
I told you at the stockholders' meeting, Max...
I told you I'd much rather work the Beale Show out just between the two of us.
I took this job with your personal assurance...
I understand there's at least a hundred reporters and camera crews in the lobby.
I want a lot more film like the bank rip off the Ecumenical sent in.
I want a show developed based on the activities of a terrorist group.
I want all of you to get up out of your chairs.
I want antiestablishment.
I want ideas from you people. That is what you're paid for.
I want out of that 8:00 spot.
I want Snowden here by noon.
I want that show, Frank. I can turn that show into the biggest smash on television.
I want the CCA deal stopped now!
I want the CCA deal stopped now.
I want the CCA deal stopped now. Come on.
I want them wading knee deep in telegrams at the White House.
I want to know why that whole debasement of the news division...
I want you out of your office before noon or I'll have you thrown out.
I want you to get up from your chairs, go to the phone, get in your cars...
I want you to get up out of your chairs.
I want you to get up right now and go to the phone.
I want you to get up right now and go to the window...
I want you to get up right now and write a telegram to President Ford saying:
I want you to send a telegram to the White House.
I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951.
I was in the audience.
I was just a kid, 26 years old.
I was married for four years and pretended to be happy...
I was NBC, uh, associate producer, Morning News.
I was sure you hated me for my part in taking your news show away.
I was thinking, before we start digging into our Chateaubriands...
I went to visit my wife today because she's in a state of depression...
I will expect your resignation at 10:00 tomorrow morning...
I will put the words in your mouth."
I will tell you who they're buying CCA for.
I wish you had.
I won't give you up easily, Max.
I would describe his position on this as inflexible.
I wouldn't interfere with the actual news itself, but TV is showbiz, Max.
I, uh, think I once gave a lecture...
I...
I'd better get him back to my house again tonight.
I'd go nuts without some kind of work.
I'd just like to come on, make some brief farewell statement...
I'd like to hear some more opinions on that.
I'd like to see Mr. Beale now.
I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs at least and Herb Thackeray...
I'd like to try to sell something to you.
I'd like you to reconsider your resignation, Max.
I'll be in L.A. until Saturday, and I'd like to get it rolling.
I'll be out on the coast in, uh, four weeks.
I'll be with you in a minute, Max.
I'll call the security guards and have you thrown out, if you're still here.
I'll get back to you, Diana.
I'll give it a try, but I don't think she'll jump at it.
I'll have to go directly to Mr. Jensen.
I'll have to take this matter to the central Committee...
I'll make you some coffee.
I'll put him in a hospital before I'll let you exploit him like a freak.
I'll see you then.
I'll suggest Mr. Ruddy open with a short statement, washing this whole thing off.
I'm already deficiting $25,000 a week with Metro!
I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!
I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.
I'm as mad as hell. I'm not gonna take it anymore!
I'm finished.
I'm giving this turkey $10,000 and another five to this fruitcake.
I'm going to look at audition footage now!
I'm going to take you into our conference room.
I'm gonna announce projected earnings for this network...
I'm gonna blow my brains out right on the air.
I'm gonna blow my brains out right on this program, a week from today.
I'm gonna bring this up at tomorrow's meeting.
I'm gonna impale the son of a bitch with a sharp stick!
I'm gonna kill myself.
I'm gonna spread this whole reeking business in every newspaper...
I'm good at my work. So I confine myself to that.
I'm grateful I can feel anything.
I'm having dinner with him tonight. Let me have another crack at Jensen...
I'm imbued with some special spirit. It's not a religious feeling at all.
I'm imbued, Max.
I'm in love with her.
I'm Laureen Hobbs, a bad ass commie ******.
I'm mad as hell!
I'm mad as hell!
I'm mad as hell! I'm not gonna take this anymore.
I'm making a lousy 215 per segment.
I'm not asking you to walk the land in sackcloth, preaching the Armageddon.
I'm not giving him script approval. I'm not cutting him in on my distribution charges.
I'm not giving this pseudo insurrectionary sectarian a piece of my show.
I'm not gonna take it anymore. I'm mad as hell!
I'm not knocking down my goddamn distribution charges.
I'm not some guy discussing male menopause on the Barbara Walters Show.
I'm not sure she's capable of any real feelings.
I'm offering an hour of prime time television every week...
I'm part of your life.
I'm paying Metro 20 percent for all foreign and Canadian distribution after recoupment.
I'm paying William Morris 10 percent off the top!
I'm putting the Network News show under programming.
I'm ruined. I'm dead. Finished.
I'm sick of telling him. Now you tell him!
I'm sitting here in a goddamn farmhouse in Encino...
I'm sorry for all those things I said to you last night.
I'm sorry I'm late.
I'm talking about a hundred A 130,000 dollar minutes.
I'm telling you. They want Howard to go back on and yell "bullshit."
I'm the man that you presumably love.
I'm the one whose ass is going on the line.
I'm thinking of doing a homosexual soap opera.
I'm tired of all this hysteria about Howard Beale.
I'm tired of being an accessory in your life.
I'm tired of finding you on the telephone every time I turn around.
I'm your wife, damn it.
I've been telling you people since I took this job six months ago...
I've got a guru from Spokane and two more hellfires...
I've got enough troubles without Howard Beale as a lead in!
I've got nothing to say.
I've got some surprises for you too, Schumacher.
I've got the red eye flight, I won't be back in New York...
I've got three more, but you've already seen the best ones.
I've had it up to here with your cruddy division and its annual $33 million deficit!
I've just come back from Frank Hackett's office.
I've never felt more orderly in my life.
I've reached for the phone to call you a hundred times.
I've thought many times of calling you.
If he wants to take me up before the CCA Board, let him.
If her tips were any good, she could wreck the market.
If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy, I wanna make sure of some of my ground.
If John Wheeler calls, switch him to Projection Room 7.
If that's any indication, we're talking 40 , 45 million dollar loss in annual revenues.
If there's anybody out there...
If this is how he wants to go out, this is how he goes out.
If we can't think up any reasons of our own, we have the God bullshit.
If we could get back for a moment to that gypsy...
If we wanted hellfire we'd get Billy Graham!
If you can't work up a winter passion for me...
If you think I'm gonna go along with this bastardization...
If you think that's funny
In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline.
In fact, it'll make a hell of a kickoff show for the season.
In five, four, three, two...
In God's name, you people are the real thing.
In his absence, I'm making all network decisions...
In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television.
In one then, I'll do a lead on Sara Jane Moore to Mayberry in San Francisco.
In spite of the two attempts...
In the Nielsen ratings, the Howard Beale Show...
In this country, when one company wants to take over another company...
Indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy.
Instead, you sulked off like a child and engaged this network...
Intractable and adamantine.
Is it true?
Is that my share? She gets the winter passion and I get the dotage.
Is that what's left for me?
Is your wife in town?
It could be done right on camera in the studio.
It has an eight in New York, a nine in L.A. and a 27 share in both cities.
It has been since man crawled out of the slime.
It is a consortium of banks and insurance companies...
It is a shattering and beautiful sensation.
It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance.
It is exactly 7:00 here in Los Angeles.
It is not a breakdown.
It is the exalted flow of the space time continuum...
It is the international system of currency which determines...
It looks like he may just go bigger than Mary Tyler Moore.
It received a 47 share.
It was 10:00 in the east and our people in the White House report...
It was a fluke. It didn't work.
It was a many splendored night, wasn't it, Max?
It was all sex, scandal, brutal crimes, sports...
It was clear the fat on the network had to be flitched off.
It was heavy, baby. I saw the earth quake.
It was unconscionable.
It was, after all, my last...
It was, however, also a very depressing one.
It would be disaster to let this situation go on another week.
It'll be simple, dignified.
It's a big, fat, big titted hit and I don't have to waffle around with Ruddy anymore.
It's a depression.
It's a lot better than handing out...
It's a nation of some 200 odd million...
It's a shocking eruption of great electrical energy.
It's every single one of you out there that's finished.
It's not your show anymore, Max, it's mine.
It's that bunch of nuts. She's in the movie shooting off machine guns.
It's the individual that's finished.
It's the single, solitary, human being that's finished.
It's too late, Diana.
It's turning into a seedy little drama.
JENSEN: Good morning, Mr. Beale.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus. Turn him off!
Jim Webbing and his It's the Emes Truth Department.
Joseph Stalin and his merry band of Bolsheviks.
Just get up from your chairs, right now, go to the window!
Just like Archie Bunker.
Knock it off, Arthur.
KTNS, Kansas City, refuses to carry our Network News show anymore...
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it. How do you feel?
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it. How do you feel?
Ladies and gentlemen, the Network News Hour with Sibyl the Soothsayer!
Ladies and gentlemen...
Last night Howard Beale went on the air and yelled "bullshit" for two minutes...
Last night I got up here and asked you people...
Last night, I was awakened from a fitful sleep...
Last year, we were the number four network...
LAUREEN: Well, Ahmed, you ain't gonna believe this.
Laureen?
Leave him on.
Let me have my toaster and my TV, and my steel belted radials...
Let me tell you what I want.
Let me think it over.
Let the federal government sue us. We'll take them to the Supreme Court.
Let's get back to Page 22, 5, small "A", Subsidiary Rights.
Let's see how the other networks handle this.
Like everything that you and the institution of television touch...
Like Howard Beale was destroyed.
Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed.
Listen to me, goddamn it. The Arabs are simply buying us.
Look, I just saw some rough footage of a special Bill's doing...
Look, I sent you all a concept analysis report yesterday.
Look, we've got a bunch of hobgoblin radicals...
Lou, can't we clear out that downstairs lobby?
LOUISE: I hurt, don't you understand that?
Mad bombers, Mafia hit men...
MAN [ON SCREEN]: Communist Party to be these
MAN [ON SCREEN]: And how when the sicks heal...
MAN [ON TV]: Good evening. Howard Beale, one of television's...
MAN [OVER SPEAKER]: He said he was going to blow his brains out.
MAN 1: How many spots were wiped out? Frank just walked in.
MAN 1: I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!
MAN 1: That strong enough to bump?
MAN 1: Three, you're on the announcer.
MAN 2: Come on, Mickey, what page are you putting it on?
MAN 2: I'm mad as hell!
MAN 2: In the film I saw, it was the chief of detectives.
MAN 2: Stand by, VTA.
MAN 2: Um, I prefer our news pics.
MAN 2: We using Squeaky Fromme? MAN 1: Let's do that in two.
MAN 3: Hackett just walked in. ABC again, they want the tape.
MAN 3: He wants to talk to you. Who's replacing Beale tomorrow?
MAN 3: I'm mad as hell!
MAN 4: I'm mad as hell! I'm not gonna take this anymore.
Man is a noble creature that can order his own world. Who needs God?
Man, give her the fucking overhead clause.
MAN: All right, fine. I'll see you later.
MAN: How much time we got?
MAN: Jimmy Caan's agent just called and says absolutely nix.
MAN: Margot, come in here a minute.
MAN: Okay?
MAN: Ready, two?
MAN: Sixty seven. It goes to Louisville and Atlanta.
MAN: Summaries have been received. We're forwarding them...
MAN: Take Tellison. Listen.
MAN: They're yelling in Baton Rouge. HOWARD: Goddamn it.
MAN: Two, cue Howard.
MAN: We're number one! We're number one!
MAN: Well, if Beale dies, what would our continuing obligation...
Marty, I'm in a big hurry and you and Charlie are supposed to be negotiating this...
Marty. Marty, I know what NBC offered them...
Max doesn't work at this network anymore.
Max Schumacher.
Max, I told you I didn't want a network hassle on this.
Max, I'm telling you, he's fine. He's been sharp all day.
Max, my little visit here tonight...
Max, this is going out live to 67 affiliates.
MAX: I have something to say, Ed.
MAX: It's the truth.
MAX: Oh, boy.
