Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies (44 page)

Peter Finch died of a heart attack on January 14, 1977, one month before his portrayal of Howard Beale earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. When Finch won the award that March, Chayefsky—who had just received his own Oscar for the
Network
screenplay—invited the actor’s widow, Eletha Finch, onto the stage to pick up the trophy for her late husband.
(Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

The morning after she won the Oscar for best actress, Faye Dunaway allowed Terry O’Neill to photograph her at the pool of the Beverly Hills Hotel, surrounded by strewn newspapers as she contemplated her statuette with uncertainty. O’Neill said the image depicted Dunaway in a “really reflective” moment, while the actress said it showed that “success is a solitary place to be. In my life, it has been the same.… Or, as Peggy Lee sang, ‘Is that all there is?’ ”
(Credit: Terry O’Neill/Getty Images)

Acknowledgments

Television, as someone once observed, may be a goddamned amusement park, but book publishing is serious business, and telling this remarkable story required the assistance of many people, to whom I am most grateful.

Jonathan Pace introduced me to the Paddy Chayefsky papers at the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and launched me on a cinematic and literary journey that continues after three years and counting. Kit Messick and Brad Campbell performed the invaluable service of cataloguing and processing the Chayefsky papers, and offered essential guidance at the outset of my research. Karen Nickeson, Annemarie van Roessel, Jeremy Megraw, and the staff of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts consistently went above and beyond to facilitate my access to the Chayefsky papers and other archival materials.

Of everyone who shared their personal recollections with me, I am particularly indebted to Dan Chayefsky and Howard Gottfried, who were unfailingly generous with their time and their candor.

Owen Roizman bravely agreed to speak to me before I’d conducted any other interviews, and was crucial in connecting me to many more of his
Network
colleagues.

I am doubly obliged to Kay Chapin, who allowed me to review her
Network
production diary, and who taught me how to read a shooting script.

For offering their memories of Paddy Chayefsky, the making of
Network
, its era, and its aftermath, I thank: Ned Beatty, Warren Beatty, Arthur Burghardt, Jordan Charney, Francis Ford Coppola, Kathy Cronkite, Diana Finch-Braley, Mary Lynn Gottfried, Alan Heim, Barry Krost, Sherry Lansing, Shirley MacLaine, Mike Medavoy, Terry O’Neill, Tom Priestley Jr., Philip Rosenberg, Fred Schuler, Carol Serling, Maurice Spanbock, David Steinberg, Juliet Taylor, Richard Wald, Barbara Walters, and Marlene Warfield.

Michael Ginsburg added further dimensions of emotion and humanity to this story with his extraordinary photographs from the
Network
set.

Keith Olbermann was an especially energetic source of insights about the television news business and the prophetic genius of Paddy Chayefsky. I also suspect he knows the entire
Network
screenplay by heart.

For sharing their thoughts about the enduring influence of
Network
, I thank: Ben Affleck, James L. Brooks, Stephen Colbert, Anderson Cooper, Gwen Ifill, Peggy Noonan, Bill O’Reilly, Aaron Sorkin, Oliver Stone, and Bill Wolff.

For arranging interviews, connecting me to sources, and sharing ideas, materials, and conspiracy theories, thank you also: Susie Arons, Michael Barker, Anne Bell, Cindi Berger, Peter Biskind, Carrie Byalick, Leslee Dart, Patrick Farrell, Joy Fehily, Leslie Gimbel, Bill Hader, Simon Halls, Sean Howe, Lilith Jacobs, Melody Korenbrot, Matt Mayes, Deborah Miller, Stan Rosenfield, Shawn Sachs, Betsy Sharkey, Shimrit Sheetrit, Lauren Skowronski, Jonathan Wald, Makeda Wubneh, Nicole Yavasile, and Mark Scott Zicree.

Tomoko Kawamoto, Barbara Miller, and the Museum of the Moving Image; Carrie Oman and the Paley Center for Media; and Jenny Romero and the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were instrumental in providing documents and other resources.

Stephen Rubin turned a vague pitch about a collection of papers into the story of a man who made a movie that defined an era. Paul Golob, my extraordinary editor, worked with me every day to push me past my boundaries, and helped me accomplish something I didn’t believe I was capable of achieving. Their colleagues at Times Books have been deeply supportive, especially Emi Ikkanda, Ellis Levine, Jenna Dolan, and Christopher O’Connell.

Daniel Greenberg, my tireless agent, encouraged all my ideas, no matter how far-fetched, then seized upon a genuinely good one. He and his staff at Levine Greenberg have never let anyone fuck with my distribution costs.

I cannot sufficiently convey my gratitude to Jonathan Landman, Sia Michel, Scott Veale, Alex Ward, and all my colleagues at the holy goddamn
New York Times
, who first gave me the opportunity to write about Paddy Chayefsky and
Network
in the pages of the world’s greatest newspaper, and then allowed me to pursue this project to its fullest extent.

My wife and my family have all my love for teaching me that there is more to life than a 30 share and a 20 rating.

Also by Dave Itzkoff

Cocaine’s Son: A Memoir

Lads: A Memoir of Manhood

About the Author

D
AVE
I
TZKOFF
is a culture reporter at
The New York Times
, where he writes regularly about film, television, theater, and popular culture and is a lead contributor to the newspaper’s “ArtsBeat” blog. He has previously worked at
Spin, Maxim
, and
Details
, and his work has appeared in
GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired
, and other publications. He is the author of two previous books,
Cocaine’s Son
and
Lads
. He lives in New York City.

M
AD AS
H
ELL
. Copyright © 2014 by Dave Itzkoff. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Dan Chayefsky for permission to reprint excerpts of material from the Paddy Chayefsky papers at the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Excerpts from
The Hospital
and
Network
by Paddy Chayefsky. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard/Applause Theater Books and Dan Chayefsky.

www.henryholt.com

Cover art courtesy of Photofest, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Itzkoff, Dave.

Mad as hell: the making of Network and the fateful vision of the angriest man in movies / David Itzkoff.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8050-9569-2 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-8050-9570-8 (electronic book)

1. Network (Motion picture) 2. Chayefsky, Paddy, 1923–1981—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.

PN1997.N385I89 2014

808.2
'
3—dc23 2013018292