Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies

by Dave Itzkoff

  “Remember that this was not a set”: “Network and How It Was Photographed.”

  “Some of the extras are black. And some of them are women”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.

  “Not to get into any kind of a battle with him”: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.

  a reporter from the Sunday News came to visit the Network set in early March: Kathleen Carroll, “Hollywood Zaps the Boob Tube,” Sunday News (New York), Mar. 14, 1976.

  in his acerbic stage directions, described it as a “shambles”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 181.

  the site of a 140-year-old farmhouse: http://www.drdaviesfarm.com/history.htm.

  the “increasingly desperate, imperialist ruling clique”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 134.

  “This scene should come out”: Network script with Dan Melnick notes, dated June 2, 1975.

  “a fire-eating militant with a bandolier of cartridges”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 181.

  “there was so much challenge to my individuality from Dad”: Author interview with Kathy Cronkite, Feb. 21, 2012.

  “Fugginfascist!”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 196.

  “I’m coming down the stairs screaming this line of propaganda”: Author interview with Kathy Cronkite, Feb. 21, 2012.

  actually an office building in Melville, Long Island: “Hollywood on the LIE,” Newsday, Mar. 14, 1976.

  “a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 178.

  “It tasted very good”: Author interview with Marlene Warfield, Jan. 16, 2013.

  The U.S. Supreme court was about to review the case: “Actor Is Released after 28 Months in Draft Evasion,” Associated Press, New York Times, Feb. 16, 1974. On May 28, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled, in an 8–0 decision, that a writ of mandamus issued by a federal judge in Indiana that prohibited Kunstler from representing Burghardt had been “improvidently granted.”

  “I knew that black people were far more relevant to the world”: Author interview with Arthur Burghardt, Feb. 11, 2012.

  “I’m never at ease in love scenes”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 301.

  “We would open with a high shot of the two in bed”: Considine, Mad as Hell, pp. 324–25.

  The official filming log from that day is consistent: Network shooting script.

  “it was a very uneventful shoot that day”: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.

  “Bill could not make it through a scene without dissolving into laughter”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 301.

  “you have to lie there, faking that you’re pumping into her”: Lumet, Network DVD, director’s commentary.

  “You could have shown a little more”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.

  “She was wearing a sheet for the most part”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.

  a lion’s tooth from Holden and a Gucci checkbook wallet from Finch: Chapin, diary entry, Mar. 5, 1976.

  “You have to be disciplined”: Author interview with Marlene Warfield, Jan. 16, 2013.

  “Faye Dunaway ducked the ‘wrap-up’ party of the film”: Earl Wilson, It Happened Last Night (column), New York Post, Mar. 22, 1976.

  “the rain-swept streets of the Upper East Side”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 176.

  “One day when we were talking about it, Sidney comes in with an idea”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 19, 2012.

  “‘You want a crane? Sure, no problem, you got a crane’”: Author interview with Fred Schuler, Jan. 28, 2012.

  three nights of filming, from March 23 through 25: Network shooting script.

  “fire trucks with water hoses to wet down the buildings”: “Network and How It Was Photographed.”

  “You are a man of your word and of your words”: CP, Box 96, Folder 3.

  “Sunday night, I got a call from Howard Gottfried”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.

  5. A Storm of Humanity

  the handiwork of Stephen Frankfurt: Leslie Kaufman, “Stephen Frankfurt, Artist on Madison Ave., Dies at 80,” New York Times, Oct. 3, 2012.

  “I know I am in for a storm of humanity”: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.

  a marketing campaign budgeted at nearly $3 million: Arthur Unger, “Film Jars TV Industry,” Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 2, 1976.

  This compilation of personal biographies, cast and crew rosters: Network production notes, Apr. 12, 1976.

  “DO NOT EVER refer to this film NETWORK as a ‘black’ comedy”: CP, Box 96, Folder 4.

  “Dear Mr. Chayevsky [sic]”: CP, Box 214, Folder 1.

  “The adaptor must remain entirely outside the telling of the story”: CP, Box 96, Folder 7.

  “What’s this shit got to do with anything?”: CP, Box 96, Folder 1.

  “the bitterest attack yet on television”: This Women’s Wear Daily article was attributed to Louise J. Esterhazy, the pseudonym used by John Fairchild, the publisher and editorial director of the newspaper and the grandson of Fairchild Publications founder Edmund Fairchild.

  “the most controversial movie ever made about television”: The original Newsday article was written by Bill Kaufman and Joseph Gelmis and published under the titles “‘Network’ Film Roughs up Television” and “‘Network’ Zeroes in on the Tube.”

  “you must have some idea of the hysteria attendant on the opening of a film”: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.

  “People in broadcasting,” Shales wrote, “are calling it ‘preposterous’”: Tom Shales, “‘Network’: Hating TV Can Be Fun,” Washington Post, Oct. 24, 1976.

  an outwardly joyous Chayefsky was in the Milton Berle Room: Clarke Taylor, “Paddy May Have a Hit on His Hands,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 21, 1976.

  “a searing but unfair indictment of television morality”: Unger, “Film Jars TV Industry.”

  “such an incompetent movie, such a poor job, that any point it tried to make was lost”: “How Television Rates ‘Network,’” W, Nov. 12–19, 1976.

  a “first revolt against bullshitism”: CP, Box 140, Folder 3.

  “I’m just beginning to get some negative feedback on my movie”: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.

  “Has this caused you any embarrassment or professional discomfort?”: Ibid.

  “I should have had my head examined”: Author interview with Barbara Walters, Apr. 12, 2012.

  the very first sentence of its front-page story: Robert D. McFadden, “Barbara Walters Accepts ABC’s Offer,” New York Times, Apr. 23, 1976.

  “I went on the night of Yom Kippur”: Author interview with Barbara Walters, Apr. 12, 2012.

  Diana Christensen was the “Great American Bitch”: Attributed to Deborah Rosenfelt, as cited in Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 312.

  “People will think they’re getting the inside story, and they’re not”: Shales, “‘Network’: Hating TV Can Be Fun.”

  “If people accept the film as reality,” she said, “it will be dreadful”: Unger, “Film Jars TV Industry.”

  “you had to be tough as nails”: Author interview with Barbara Walters, Apr. 12, 2012.

  “They hated it. Oh my God”: Author interview with Richard Wald, Feb. 2, 2012.

  Chayefsky said he was “upset to hell”: Earl Wilson, “Paddy Was Affectionate, Says Paddy,” It Happened Last Night (column), New York Post, Nov. 9, 1976.

  “My rage isn’t against television”: Allan Wolper, “Paddy Chayefsky: TV Goes to the Movies,” SoHo Weekly News, Nov. 11, 1976.

  “the look of a satyr who has retired from active duty”: Howard Kissel, “Chayefsky and Television: Rating Each Other,” Women’s Wear Daily, Nov. 12, 1976.

  “Television is democracy at its ugliest”: Barthel, “Paddy Chayefsky: ‘TV Will Do Anything for a Rating. Anything!’”

  the principal members of its creative team gathered for a 10:00 A.M. press conference: Ray Loynd, “… And the Stars Ta
lk,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Nov. 14, 1976.

  “I consider them decent, respectable, sensitive people”: Carmie Armata, “Chayefsky on ‘Network,’” Focus on Film, No. 26, 1977.

  “It’s also brilliantly, cruelly funny, a topical American comedy”: Vincent Canby, “Chayefsky’s ‘Network’ Bites Hard as a Film Satire of TV Industry,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 1976.

  “a ruthless exploration of the ‘aesthetics’ and ‘art’ of television”: Judith Crist, “The Day TV Went Mad,” Saturday Review, Nov. 13, 1976.

  The Daily News gave it two thumbs-up as well: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 328.

  “a satiric send-up of commercial television”: Vincent Canby, “‘A Surreal Attack on American Life,’” New York Times, Nov. 28, 1976.

  Network “inherits the Glib Piety Award direct from the hands of The Front”: John Simon, “Vicious Video,” New York, Nov. 22, 1976.

  “So this is a slashing comment on network television”: Robert Hatch, Films (column), The Nation, Dec. 4, 1976.

  “drastically out of control—dramatically, cinematically and intellectually”: Frank Rich, “‘Network’ Caught in Its Own Web,” New York Post, Nov. 1976.

  “Paddy Chayefsky blitzes you with one idea after another”: Pauline Kael, “Hot Air,” The Current Cinema (column), New Yorker, Dec. 6, 1976.

  “As satire or as serious comment, the movie seemed oddly pious and heavy-handed”: Michael J. Arlen, “What We Do in the Dark,” The Air (column), New Yorker, Dec. 6, 1976.

  An item in New York magazine straightforwardly declared: “The ‘Network’ Guessing Game: Who’s Who?” New York, Nov. 29, 1976.

  Lin Bolen, who had spoken briefly by phone with Dunaway: Vernon Scott, “Producer Lin Bolen Denies She’s ‘Network’ Character,” UPI, Milwaukee Sentinel, July 31, 1978.

  Time magazine published its own battlefield update: “The Movie TV Hates and Loves,” Time, Dec. 13, 1976.

  “P.S. I’m quitting my job”: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.

  6. Primal Forces and Phantasmagoria

  a New York Times essay proclaiming the arrival of the new “cynical cinema”: Vincent Canby, “Cynical Cinema Is Chic,” New York Times, Nov. 21, 1976.

  grossing more than $20 million in its original theatrical release: CP, Box 214, Folders 8 and 9. According to quarterly statements from United Artists, Network had grossed $7,255,587.60 by Mar. 26, 1977; $11,841,862.53 by June 25, 1977; $16,859,744.68 by Sept. 24, 1977; and $20,868,133.31 by Dec. 30, 1978, at which point it had been in theatrical release for more than two years.

  “footage showing the tragedy of Danang, with the blood of civilians flowing”: Guy Flatley, At the Movies (column), New York Times, Nov. 12, 1976.

  the “ever so slight a suggestion of a harrumph”: Jan Hodenfield, “Holden’s Network of Sighs,” New York Post, Nov. 1976.

  a joint interview with Holden in the upscale pages of W magazine: Christopher Sharp, “Dunaway and Holden: A ‘Network,’” W, Nov. 26–Dec. 3, 1976.

  “If you blink, you miss it, but it is a lucky break”: Bob Weiner, “A Straight Arrow Pierces the Heart,” Sunday News (New York), Nov. 14, 1976.

  they lived in an apartment on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip: Barbara Wilkins, “Peter Finch Used to Grow Them, but Now He Is Going Bananas in ‘Network,’” People, Dec. 6, 1976.

  “This is the place where all the deals are made”: David Barry, Arts & Pleasures (column), Women’s Wear Daily, Oct. 11, 1976.

  a lead role as Yitzhak Rabin: New York Post, Jan. 15, 1977.

  “We’re all so dreadfully egocentric in this business:” Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 330.

  “Peter wanted to win that Oscar”: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 334.

  “He would turn to my mom and he would say”: Author interview with Diana Finch-Braley, Aug. 26, 2012.

  preferred to walk four or five miles a day: Wilkins, “Peter Finch Used to Grow Them.”

  “He always knew somebody—because he was Peter Finch—would buy him breakfast”: Author interview with Barry Krost, Mar. 30, 2012.

  “The problems and the potential power of TV exist everywhere”: David Sterritt, “Peter Finch Won’t Accept Superviolent Roles,” Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 10, 1976.

  “There had to be a suggestion that he was eminently sane”: David Galligan, “Peter Finch: A Lot of Phantasmagoria,” Advocate, Mar. 23, 1977.

  a book about his experiences, which he planned to call Chutzpah: Production notes for Network, as cited in Network novelization by Sam Hedrin, p. 188.

  “There is a lot of phantasmagoria in my life”: Galligan, “Peter Finch: A Lot of Phantasmagoria.”

  Chayefsky … had gone to the hospital to visit Fosse: Richard Eder, “Lumet Discovers Marvels and Puzzles in Shooting ‘Equus,’” At the Movies (column), New York Times, Dec. 31, 1976.

  the New York Film Critics Circle named Chayefsky the author of the year’s best screenplay: Daily News (New York), Jan. 4, 1977.

  The Los Angeles Film Critics Association also chose Network: http://www.lafca.net/years/1976.html.

  “Paddy Chayefsky, when he gets his dander up on something”: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Jan. 13, 1977, archived at the Paley Center for Media, New York, NY.

  “Peter talked about death”: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 338.

  “I was walking down the staircase toward him”: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 330.

  There, he was pronounced dead of a heart attack: Murray Illson, “Peter Finch Is Dead on Coast at 60; British Actor on Stage and Screen,” New York Times, Jan. 15, 1977.

  “I had four phone lines at home”: Author interview with Barry Krost, Mar. 30, 2012.

  “The sudden and untimely passing of Peter Finch has come as a blow”: Illson, “Peter Finch Is Dead on Coast at 60; British Actor on Stage and Screen.”

  assembled at the Palm restaurant to pay an impromptu tribute to Finch: Considine, Mad as Hell, p. 330.

  “If the film industry told the truth, it would admit that deceased 60-year-old actors”: Russell Davies, Guardian, Jan. 16, 1977.

  An official memorial service for Finch: “Finch Eulogized at Funeral for Professionalism in Film Roles,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1977.

  “a black-and-white painting with pen and ink, of this man”: Author interview with Diana Finch-Braley, Aug. 26, 2012.

  “a two-hour meat parade”: Tom O’Neil, “1970 Flashback: George C. Scott Slaps Oscar,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 23, 2011.

  “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry”: Sacheen Littlefeather, Academy Awards speech, Mar. 27, 1973, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU.

  “I don’t want any nonsense on my show”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.

  a dislike of “sentimentality”: Liz Smith (column), Daily News (New York), Apr. 5, 1977.

  “It was made by the board of governors of the Academy”: William Friedkin, “IAmA Hollywood film director (Killer Joe, The Exorcist, French Connection). I’m William Friedkin. AMA,” http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/u2y5r/iama_hollywood_film_director_killer_joe_the/c4sac3g.

  “I knew that she had a reputation as a bit of a loose cannon”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.

  “People were going to change, and they just didn’t know it”: Author interview with Marlene Warfield, Jan. 16, 2013.

  “We agreed that I would tell Friedkin”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.

  “Eletha, will attend Oscar ceremonies in case her late husband wins”: New York Post, Mar. 17, 1977.

  Box 13, Row F, Seat 46: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.

  People published a cover story on Dunaway: Brad Darrach, “Will She Win the Big O?” People, Mar. 28, 1977.

  “They gave the best supporting actor thing right off the bat”: Author interview with Ned Beatty, Mar. 8, 2012.

  “It’s very heavy” … “and I’m the dark horse”: Beatrice Straight, Academy Awards speech, Mar. 28, 1977, http://www.youtu
be.com/watch?v=o3g7kclmm0I.

  Chayefsky was going to confess his dislike of “modest acceptance speeches”: CP, Box 140, Folder 1.

  “it’s time that I acknowledge two people whom I can never really thank”: Paddy Chayefsky, Academy Awards speech, Mar. 28, 1977, http://collections.oscars.org/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=qbe_query&TN=AAtrans&RF=WebReportOscars&MF=oscarsmsg.ini&NP=255&BU=http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/index.asp&QY=find+acceptorlink+%3d049-21.

  “I didn’t expect this to happen quite yet”: Faye Dunaway, Academy Awards speech, Mar. 28, 1977, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePkEsHmwCZE.

  “She was panic-struck”: Author interview with Barry Krost, Mar. 30, 2012.

  250 million people watching the ceremony around the world: Jon Nordheimer, “‘Rocky’ Gets Oscar as Top Film; Finch, Dunaway Win for Acting,” New York Times, Mar. 29, 1977.

  “I want to say thanks to members of the Academy”: Eletha Finch, Academy Awards speech, Mar. 28, 1977, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnL3uE-TzFw.

  “We were sitting with a bunch of executives—accountants, really”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.

  “‘I’ve got this idea for a picture that I wanted to do’”: Author interview with Terry O’Neill, Aug. 15, 2012.

  “as Peggy Lee sang, ‘Is that all there is?’”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 319.

  the Beverly Hills Hotel sent a note to the room: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.

  in the possession of Howard and Mary Lynn Gottfried: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 31, 2012.

  7. Corrupt and Lunatic Energies

  news clippings that all … referenced Howard Beale’s combustible catchphrase: CP, Box 96, Folder 7.

  the story of Anthony Kiritsis, a failed businessman: Time, Feb. 21, 1977.

  a Mad magazine parody of the movie: Mort Drucker and Stan Hart, “Nutwork,” Mad, no. 192, July 1977.

  “They shouldn’t have appropriated my idea”: J. A. Trachtenberg, “How Suite It Is,” Women’s Wear Daily, Dec. 20, 1978.

  “I just made it up”: Brady, Craft of the Screenwriter, pp. 69, 70, 78.

  “It’s the world that’s gone nuts”: Paddy Chayefsky, interview with Dinah Shore, Dinah!, recorded Jan. 19, 1977, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNa019FaNW0.