:00:00
23.976
:00:15
This story is about Howard Beale, who was
the "Network News" anchorman on UBS TV.
:00:20
In his time, Howard Beale had been
a mandarin of television...
:00:23
the grand old man of news...
:00:24
with a HUT rating of 16
and a 28 audience share.
:00:28
In 1969, however, his fortunes
began to decline.
:00:31
He fell to a 22 share.
:00:33
The following year, his wife died,
and he was left a childless widower...
:00:37
with an 8 rating
and a 12 share.
:00:39
He became morose and isolated,
began to drink heavily.
:00:43
On September 22, 1975,
he was fired...
:00:47
effective in two weeks.
:00:48
The news was broken to him
by Max Schumacher...
:00:51
who was the president
of the News Division at UBS.
:00:54
The two old friends
got properly pissed.
:00:56
I was at CBS
with Ed Murrow in 1951.
:01:02
Must've been 1950, then.
:01:04
I was at NBC.
Associate producer.
:01:08
Morning news.
I was just a kid... 26 years old.
:01:13
Anyway... anyway, they're building the lower
level of the George Washington Bridge.
:01:20
We were doing a remote from there.
:01:25
And nobody told me.
:01:30
Then after 7 in the morning,
I get a call.
:01:32
"Where the hell are you? You're supposed to be
on the George Washington Bridge?"
:01:37
I jump out of bed,
throw my raincoat over my pajamas.
:01:41
I run downstairs
and out into the street...
:01:43
hail a cab and say to the cabbie...
:01:46
"Take me to the middle
of the George Washington Bridge."
:01:51
The cabbie turns around and says...
:01:55
He says, "Don't do it, buddy.
:01:58
You're a young man. You've got
your whole life ahead of you."