In this episode, Martin talks to New York Time culture reporter Dave Itzkoff about his new book Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies. "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" Those words, spoken by the unhinged television anchorman named Howared Beale, the 'mad prophet of the airwaves,' took America by storm in 1976, when Network because a sensation. With a superb cast (William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall) directed by Sidney Lumet, the film won four Academy Awards and indelibly shaped how we think about corporate and media power.
Itzkoff's fascinating book recounts the incredible story of how Network made it to the screen, and gives us an in-depth view of the man responsible for the film, the uncompromising screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky.
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