Network (1976) Faye Dunaway Diana Christensen William Holden Max Schumacher Peter Finch Howard Beale Robert Duvall Frank Hackett Wesley Addy Nelson Chaney Ned Beatty Arthur Jensen Arthur Burghardt Great Ahmed Kahn Bill Burrows TV Director John Carpenter (IV) George Bosch Jordan Charney (II) Harry Hunter Kathy Cronkite Mary Ann Gifford Ed Crowley Joe Donnelly Jerome Dempsey Walter C Amundsen Conchata Ferrell Barbara Schlesinger Gene Gross Milton K Steinman Stanley Grover (II) Jack Snowden Cindy Grover Caroline Schumacher Darryl Hickman Bill Herron Mitchell Jason Arthur Zangwill Directed by: Sidney Lumet Produced by: Howard Gottfried, Paddy Chayefsky, Fred Caruso Howard Beale, the dean of newscasters at the United Television Network, is put out to pasture because he too old. Network executive Max Schumacher, Howard's best friend, is forced to deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program. What he doesn't count on is a media blitz surrounding his circumstance. ========== In 1975 terrorist violence is the stuff of network nightly news programming and the corporate structure of the UBS television network is changing. Meanwhile, Howard Beale, the aging UBS news anchor, has lost his once strong ratings share and so the network fires him. Beale reacts in an unexpected way. We then see how this affects the fortunes of Beale, his coworkers (Max Schumacher and Diana Christensen), and the network. ========== A fourth network is struggling for ratings and turns its news division over to the entertainment division. As one of the ramifications of this move the news Anchor is fired. He goes on the air with a wonderfully daffy rant and rave session culminating in his insisting that people go to the windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." His ravings make him an Icon as the need to sell begins to overwhelm everyone touched by the network. ========== Howard Beale is an aging TV anchorman for UBS who is fired, effective in two weeks, after his ratings have been steadily deteriorating. He reacts to this by sensationally announcing on live television his intention to commit suicide on air. In doing so, Beale becomes a major TV icon and one of the most valuable assets to the Communications Corporation of America (CCA), the company that is gradually taking control of UBS. As a result he is given his own show as 'the mad prophet of the air-waves'. He appears live on television every week-day evening to tell the real truth to the people of America. The program is a huge success but Beale uses his power to make startling revelations about CCA, leaving the company executives with a serious problem.