My favourite scene is very much in keeping with the various Biblical elements - Ned Beatty terrorising Peter Finch http://youtu.be/NKkRDMil0bw. Truly great cinema in this scene - the writing, the directing, the lighting, the acting - everything top quality. And how prescient were the points Chayefsky was making? Written in 1975. Amazing. Just amazing.

Great observation, Kevin. It hadn't occurred to me to invert the prophecy dynamic and turn it toward Arthur Jensen. But you're absolutely right, he's as much as a prophet in his own way as Howard Beale is. Amazing is the right word for it. I screen this movie every year with my History of American Screenwriting class and it never ceases to shock me how on target Chayfesky's perceptions were... and still are.

These marvelous Paddy Chayefsky notes -- along with Bruce Joel Rubin's notes for Ghost -- are exciting and inspiring. Both are writers I've admired forever. Glimpsing their processes is so very affirming. They clearly use both sides of the brain in their creating and critiquing cycles. Just for fun... a couple more of the TV shows on Chayefsky's network programming grid for "Network" are Celebrity Canasta, Celebrity Mah-Jongh, Lady Cop, Prince and the Procurer, Killer Theater... The titles cracked me up.