Brilliant. I wonder how many people forget that network news and especially cable news is all fake when they agree with what they're seeing?

I'll be watching "Network" with my History of American Screenwriting class tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see how college students react to the film [of course, many have already seen it]. One thing that always grabs me when I read the "mad as hell" monologue is how relevant the observations are for today. Perhaps even more so Ned Beatty's character's monologue: “You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!! Is that clear?! You think you’ve merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. 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, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, Yen, Rubles, Pounds, and Shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state — Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.”

It's strange to go back and hear politicians from 40, 50 years ago... it's like, and no pun intended, they're all part of the same script, hitting the same beats. Unemployment. Energy efficiency. Gas/Oil dependency. It's the same old song and dance, just for a new generation who doesn't know any better. Last summer I was struck by a sense of deja vu after seeing a lot of things happening around the world and then I was reminded of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jPsU4DkjSs One doesn't have to be a Winger fan to appreciate it and it's amazing that its almost 20 years old - many of the events featured within 20 years prior to that as if to say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Great interview. I think the question on my mind now is - do I have enough shocking sex and violence in my spec screenplay to entertain the cynical reader?

Wow, what a treat! Paddy Chayefsky with my morning coffee. Thanks. From what I understand, this interview is from Dinah! which was a daytime talk show that aired on CBS, and is included as an extra on the Network Blu-ray. Can you imagine if The View or another daytime talk show today would have a deep discussion with a bearded screenwriter? Unthinkable.

That is one of my favorite scenes, Scott. I hope you give equal attention to some other elements that are similar to today like the documentary filmmaker who is sensationalizing the terrorists for profit. That character reminds me of Michael Moore. He's a greedy man that is enjoying the chaos like a thief rolling around in a pot of gold coins. He's intentionally confusing people because of his strong held ideals that Beatty's character claims no longer exist. The same perverted ideals that the network values. If you really take a look at what Beatty says and don't forget that he's representing the network it becomes clear that he's lying to Beale in a last ditch attempt to quiet him. Network news is an orgy of half-truths that captivates and then poisons the minds of those it hooks. Beale pulled the curtain back and got a look at the Wizard. The Wizard tells him that corporate communism is the only future. It's all a lie. Here's a quote from the Apostle of Common Sense that sums things up better Beatty's character. “It is the mark of our whole modern history that the masses are kept quiet with a fight. They are kept quiet by the fight because it is a sham-fight; thus most of us know by this time that the Party System has been popular only in the sense that a football match is popular.”