:25:01
It's a news show.
It's not your department.
:25:04
I see Howard Beale
as a latter-day prophet...
:25:07
a messianic figure inveighing
against the hypocrisies of our times!
:25:11
A strip Savonarola
Monday through Friday...
:25:13
that will just go through the roof!
:25:16
And I'm talking about
a six-dollar cost per thousand show.
:25:19
I'm talking about
130,000 dollar minutes.
:25:22
Figure out the revenues of a strip show
that sells for $100,000 a minute!
:25:26
One show like that could pull
this network out of the hole!
:25:30
It's being handed to us on a plate.
Let's not blow it.
:25:34
Yes.
:25:36
Tell him I'll be a few minutes.
:25:41
- Let me think it over.
- Let's not go to committee on this.
:25:44
It's 10:20. We want Beale in the studio
by 6:30. We don't want to lose momentum.
:25:48
For God sakes, we're talking about
putting an irresponsible man...
:25:52
on national television.
:26:03
I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs,
Herb Thackery...
:26:06
and Joe Donnelly
in Standards and Practices.
:26:10
You know I'll be eyeball to eyeball
with Mr. Ruddy on this.
:26:13
If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy,
I want to be sure of my ground.
:26:16
My ass is going on the line.
:26:22
I'll get back to you.
:26:27
I don't believe the top brass...
:26:29
of a national television network
is sitting around their Caesar salads...
:26:33
Top brass of a bankrupt
national television network...
:26:36
with projected losses
of $150 million.
:26:38
I don't care!
:26:41
You can't be seriously proposing,
and the rest of us considering...
:26:45
putting on a pornographic
network news show.
:26:47
- The FCC would kill us.
- Sit down, Nelson.
:26:49
The FCC can't do anything
except rap our knuckles.
:26:52
I don't even want to think about
the litigious possibilities.
:26:56
- We could be up to our ears in lawsuits.
- The affiliates won't carry it.
:26:59
The affiliates will kiss your ass
if you can hand them a hit show.