World View: No Longer Mad as Hell

When the movie Network was released in 1976, it created a sensation with its depiction of the fictitious U.S. network UBS, its management’s crazed quest for ratings and its use and misuse of anchorman Howard Beale’s rage, famously encapsulated in the line, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

If you haven’t seen the movie, I strongly encourage you to. First, it features superb writing and acting. It was directed by Sidney Lumet and won four Academy Awards: best actor for Peter Finch as Howard Beale; best actress for Faye Dunaway as UBS’s programming executive; best supporting actress for Beatrice Straight, the scorned wife of news executive Max Schumacher, played by William Holden; and best screenplay for Paddy Chayefsky. Second, Chayefsky’s brilliant satire of network tunnel vision and large corporations’ unbridled greed predicted some of what we’ve seen actually occur in the business and media worlds today. However, and this is the most important reason to watch the movie, the television industry has veered far from the demise Chayefsky envisioned. The programming that is emerging from networks today is vastly better than that shown in the movie.

Briefly, Network is about Howard Beale, an anchorman who is disgusted with the vapid nature of television programming, the executives who keep commissioning garbage because it generates ratings and profits, and the clueless audience that thinks television is more real than real life. At the beginning of the movie, Beale incites viewers to get mad as hell and yell in the streets. He tells them, from his anchor desk, that television is trash that is ruining their lives. Obviously, network brass is displeased and they want to fire Beale. But Beale strikes a chord with the audience and his ratings go through the roof. So, the executives give him a longer, expanded show and let him preach his gospel of anger to the masses. Meanwhile, the head of programming cuts a deal with a radical terrorist group and orders a docudrama series called The Mao Tse-Tung Hour, in which the group commits crimes and acts of terrorism—all in pursuit of ratings. As a result, UBS goes from the fourth-ranked network to number one. UBS is then acquired by a large corporation, which in turn is bought by Arabs. Beale discloses this transaction on his show, much to the chagrin of the head of the corporation, who gives one of the movie’s best speeches: “There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars…. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today.” This, and the movie’s shocking ending, which I won’t give away, provides plenty of food for thought.

Chayefsky, who began his career in television, wrote some of the best shows in the early days of the medium. His teleplays were performed live and he preferred stark, simple sets so that the audience would focus on the dialogue, of which he was a master. He died in 1981 and his Oscar for Network was his third. Had he lived longer, I believe he would be oh-so-pleasantly surprised to see what the television industry in the U.S. has become today. No longer dominated by three broadcast networks, the competition from cable, satellite and online players has set the bar for quality so, so high. The multichannel landscape has been replicated in market after market around the world. Viewers are no longer passive couch potatoes. They can pick and choose their favorite movies and shows from a vast array of sources. While not everything on television today is great, I’m convinced Chayefsky would be delighted with the choices available. 

Our main feature in the MIPTV issue of World Screen looks at some of the world’s leading channel groups and programming, marketing and business models that are keeping pay television a vibrant business. We launch a new targeted publication as well, TV Drama. With so much quality scripted programming being produced around the world, we felt it appropriate to give more attention to this genre. Scripted fare is also providing growth to the format industry. While the crimes planned for Network’s The Mao Tse-Tung Hour were a bit extreme, to say the least, true crime remains an extremely popular section of factual programming. We look at what is fueling the creativity in the Israeli TV market, the increased competition in the kids’ television market in Germany, leading prime-time trends across Europe, and OTT platforms in Asia.

Our main interviews are with Lionsgate’s Jon Feltheimer, Disney/ABC’s Anne Sweeney, Televisa’s Emilio Azcárraga and Viacom’s Robert Bakish. I’m sure they have seen Network; you should, too.      

Anna Carugati is the group editorial director of World Screen.