Network Quotes
Frank Hackett : Four hours ago I was the Sun God at CCA, Mr. Jensen's handpicked golden boy, the heir apparent. Now I'm a man without a corporation.
Movie: Network
Frank Hackett : Mr. Jensen is unhappy with Howard Beale and wants him discontinued.
Diana Christensen : He may be unhappy, but he isn't stupid enough to withdraw the number one show on television out of pique.
Frank Hackett : Two billion dollars is not pique! That's the Wrath of God! And the Wrath of God wants Howard Beale fired.
Diana Christensen : He may be unhappy, but he isn't stupid enough to withdraw the number one show on television out of pique.
Frank Hackett : Two billion dollars is not pique! That's the Wrath of God! And the Wrath of God wants Howard Beale fired.
Movie: Network
Frank Hackett : I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna impale the son-of-a-bitch with a sharp stick through the heart. I'll take out a contract on him. I'll hire a professional killer; no, I'll do it myself. I'll strangle him with a sash cord.
Movie: Network
Diana Christensen : Let's stop kidding ourselves. Full-fledged messiahs don't come in bunches.
Movie: Network
Laureen Hobbs : Well Ahmed, you ain't gonna believe this. They gonna make a TV star out of you. Just like Archie Bunker. You gonna be a household word.
Great Ahmed Kahn : What the fuck are you talking about?
Great Ahmed Kahn : What the fuck are you talking about?
Movie: Network
[ first lines ]
Narrator : This story is about Howard Beale, who was the news anchorman on UBS TV. In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television, the grand old man of news, with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share. He became morose and isolated, began to drink heavily, and on September 22, 1975, he was fired, effective in two weeks. The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher, who was the president of the news division at UBS. The two old friends got properly pissed.
Howard Beale : [ on the street ] I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951.
Max Schumacher : Must've been 1950 then. [ Beale nods ]
Max Schumacher : I was at NBC, uh, associate producer. Morning News. I was just a kid. 26 years old. [ Not interested, Beale wanders off, until Schumacher stops him ]
Max Schumacher : Anyway... anyway... they're building the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. [ Interested, Beale listens ]
Max Schumacher : We were doing a remote from there.
Howard Beale, Max Schumacher : [ start to laugh and snicker in unison ]
Max Schumacher : And nobody told me! [ Beale keeps laughing, very interested ]
Max Schumacher : Ten after seven in the morning, I get a call, "Where the hell are YOU? You're supposed to be on the George Washington Bridge!" [ Beale and Schumacher exchange laughs ]
Max Schumacher : I jump out of bed, throw my raincoat over my pajamas. I run downstairs and out into the street... [ Schumacher runs into the street ]
Max Schumacher : ...hail a cab, and I say to the cabbie, "TAKE ME TO THE MIDDLE OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE!"
Narrator : This story is about Howard Beale, who was the news anchorman on UBS TV. In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television, the grand old man of news, with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share. He became morose and isolated, began to drink heavily, and on September 22, 1975, he was fired, effective in two weeks. The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher, who was the president of the news division at UBS. The two old friends got properly pissed.
Howard Beale : [ on the street ] I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951.
Max Schumacher : Must've been 1950 then. [ Beale nods ]
Max Schumacher : I was at NBC, uh, associate producer. Morning News. I was just a kid. 26 years old. [ Not interested, Beale wanders off, until Schumacher stops him ]
Max Schumacher : Anyway... anyway... they're building the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. [ Interested, Beale listens ]
Max Schumacher : We were doing a remote from there.
Howard Beale, Max Schumacher : [ start to laugh and snicker in unison ]
Max Schumacher : And nobody told me! [ Beale keeps laughing, very interested ]
Max Schumacher : Ten after seven in the morning, I get a call, "Where the hell are YOU? You're supposed to be on the George Washington Bridge!" [ Beale and Schumacher exchange laughs ]
Max Schumacher : I jump out of bed, throw my raincoat over my pajamas. I run downstairs and out into the street... [ Schumacher runs into the street ]
Max Schumacher : ...hail a cab, and I say to the cabbie, "TAKE ME TO THE MIDDLE OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE!"
Movie: Network
Man on Phones : So far, over 900 fucking phone calls complaining about the foul language.
Frank Hackett : Shit.
Frank Hackett : Shit.
Movie: Network
Arthur Jensen : [ greeting Beale ] How are you now?
Howard Beale : I'm as mad as a hatter.
Arthur Jensen : Who isn't?
Howard Beale : I'm as mad as a hatter.
Arthur Jensen : Who isn't?
Movie: Network
[ Jensen leads Beale into the conference room ]
Arthur Jensen : Valhalla, Mr. Beale. Please, sit down.
Arthur Jensen : Valhalla, Mr. Beale. Please, sit down.
Movie: Network
Max Schumacher : Howard, I'm taking you off the air. I think you're having a breakdown, require treatment.
Howard Beale : This is not a psychotic episode. This is a cleansing moment of clarity. I'm imbued, Max. I'm imbued with some special spirit. It's not a religious feeling at all. It's a shocking eruption of great electrical energy. I feel vivid and flashing, as if suddenly I'd been plugged into some great electromagnetic field. I feel connected to all living things. To flowers, birds, all the animals of the world. And even to some great, unseen, living force. What I think the Hindus call prana. But it's not a breakdown. I've never felt more orderly in my life. It is a shattering and beautiful sensation. It is the exalted flow of the space-time continuum, save that it is spaceless and timeless and... of such loveliness. I feel on the verge of some great, ultimate truth. And you will not take me off the air for now or for any other spaceless time!
Howard Beale : This is not a psychotic episode. This is a cleansing moment of clarity. I'm imbued, Max. I'm imbued with some special spirit. It's not a religious feeling at all. It's a shocking eruption of great electrical energy. I feel vivid and flashing, as if suddenly I'd been plugged into some great electromagnetic field. I feel connected to all living things. To flowers, birds, all the animals of the world. And even to some great, unseen, living force. What I think the Hindus call prana. But it's not a breakdown. I've never felt more orderly in my life. It is a shattering and beautiful sensation. It is the exalted flow of the space-time continuum, save that it is spaceless and timeless and... of such loveliness. I feel on the verge of some great, ultimate truth. And you will not take me off the air for now or for any other spaceless time!
Movie: Network
Howard Beale : What is finished... is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being that's finished. It's every single one of you out there that's finished, because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some 200-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-that-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings, and as replaceable as piston rods... Well, the time has come to say, is dehumanization such a bad word. Because good or bad, that's what is so. The whole world is becoming humanoid - creatures that look human but aren't. The whole world not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first. The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things...
Movie: Network
Narrator : The initial response to the new Howard Beale show was not auspicatory. The press was, without exception, hostile and industry reaction, negative. The ratings for the Thursday and Friday shows were both 14, but Monday's rating dropped a point, clearly suggesting the novelty was wearing off.
Movie: Network
Narrator : By mid-October, "The Howard Beale Show" had settled in at a 42 share, more than equaling all the other network news shows combined. In the Nielsen ratings, "The Howard Beale Show" was listed as the fourth highest rated show of the month, surpassed only by "The Six Million Dollar Man", "All in the Family" and "Phyllis" - a phenomenal state of affairs for a news show - and on October the 15th, Diana Christensen flew to Los Angeles for what the trade calls powwows and confabs with our west coast programming execs and to get production rolling on the shows for the coming season.
Movie: Network
Narrator : "The Mao Tse-Tung Hour" went on the air March 14th. It received a 47 share. The network promptly committed to 15 shows with an option for 10 more. There were the usual contractual difficulties.
Movie: Network
Narrator : That evening, Howard Beale went on the air to preach the corporate cosmology of Arthur Jensen.
Movie: Network
Narrator : It was a perfectly admissible argument that Howard Beale advanced in the days that followed. It was, however, also a very depressing one. Nobody particularly cared to hear his life was utterly valueless. By the end of the first week in June, "The Howard Beale Show" had dropped one point in the rating and its trend of shares dipped under 48 for the first time since last November.
Movie: Network