The WGA has an annual honor called The Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award. And even though it’s for writers who work in TV, where Chayefsky ruled during its so-called “Golden Age,” there is no piece of writing that displays Chayefsky’s brilliance than this famous monologue in the movie Network (1976). In this scene, newscaster Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes on a tirade about contemporary life that is as relevant today as it was over 30 years ago.

Nobody in the control room is paying too much attentionto Yamani, they are all watching the double bank ofblack-and-white monitors which show HOWARD BEALEentering the studio, drenched, hunched, staring gauntlyoff into his own space, moving with single-mindedpurpose across the studio floor past cameras andASSISTANT DIRECTORS, CAMERAMEN, SOUND MEN, ELECTRICIANSand ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS, to his desk which is beingvacated for him by JACK SNOWDEN.  On the SHOW MONITOR,the film clip of Yamani has come to an end.

  ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Ready 2.

  DIRECTOR Take 2.

-- and, suddenly, the obsessed face of HOWARD BEALE,gaunt, haggard, red-eyed with unworldly fervor, hairstreaked and plastered on his brow, manifestly mad,fills the MONITOR SCREEN.

  HOWARD (ON MONITOR) I don't have to tell you things are bad.  Everybody knows things are bad.  It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job, the dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter, punks are running wild in the streets, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.  We know the air's unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit and watch our tee-vees while some local newscaster tells us today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We all know things are bad. Worse than bad.  They're crazy. It's like everything's going crazy.  So we don't go out any more.  We sit in the house, and slowly the world we live in gets smaller, and all we ask is please, at least leave us alone in our own living rooms.  Let me have my toaster and my tee-vee and my hair-dryer and my steel- belted radials, and I won't say anything, just leave us alone. Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.  I want you to get mad --

ANOTHER ANGLE showing the rapt attention of the PEOPLEin the control room, especially of DIANA --

  HOWARD I don't want you to riot.  I don't want you to protest.  I don't want you to write your congressmen.  Because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the defense budget and the Russians and crime in the street.  All I know is first you got to get mad.  You've got to say:  "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more.  I'm a human being, goddammit.  My life has value."  So I want you to get up now.  I want you to get out of your chairs and go to the window.  Right now.  I want you to go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell.  I want you to yell: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!"

  DIANA  (grabs HUNTER's  shoulder) How many stations does this go out live to?

  HUNTER Sixty-seven.  I know it goes out to Atlanta and Louisville, I think --

  HOWARD (ON MONITOR) -- Get up from your chairs. Go to the window.  Open it. Stick your head out and yell and keep yelling --

But DIANA has already left the control room and isscurrying down --

100.  INT. CORRIDOR

-- yanking doors open, looking for a phone, whichshe finds in --

101.  INT. AN OFFICE

  DIANA  (seizing the phone) Give me Stations Relations --  (the call goes through) Herb, this is Diana Christenson, are you watching because I want you to call every affiliate carrying this live -- I'll be right up --

102.  INT. ELEVATOR AREA - FIFTEENTH FLOOR

DIANA bursts out of the just-arrived elevator andstrides down to where a clot of EXECUTIVES and OFFICEPERSONNEL are blocking an open doorway.  DIANA pushesthrough to --

103.  INT. THACKERAY'S OFFICE - STATIONS RELATIONS

HERB THACKERAY on the phone, staring up at HOWARDBEALE on his wall monitor --

  HOWARD (ON MONITOR) -- First, you have to get mad. When you're mad enough --

Both THACKERAY'S SECRETARY's office and his own officeare filled with his STAFF.  The Assistant VP StationRelations, a 32-year-old fellow named RAY PITOFSKY,is at the SECRETARY's desk, also on the phone.  AnotherASSISTANT VP is standing behind him on the SECRETARY'sother phone --

  DIANA  (shouting to THACKERAY) Whom are you talking to?

  THACKERAY WCGG, Atlanta --

  DIANA Are they yelling in Atlanta, Herb?

  HOWARD (ON CONSOLE) -- we'll figure out what to do about the depression --

  THACKERAY  (on phone) Are they yelling in Atlanta, Ted?

104.  INT. GENERAL MANAGER'S OFFICE - UBS AFFILIATE - ATLANTA

The GENERAL MANAGER of WCGG, Atlanta, a portly58-year-old man, is standing by the open windows of hisoffice, staring out into the gathering dusk, holdinghis phone.  The station is located in an Atlantasuburb, but from far off across the foliagesurrounding the station, there can be heard a faintRUMBLE.  On his office console, HOWARD BEALE issaying --

  HOWARD (ON CONSOLE) -- and the inflation and the oil crisis --

  GENERAL MANAGER  (into phone) Herb, so help me, I think they're yelling --

105.  INT. THACKERAY'S OFFICE

  PITOFSKY  (at SECRETARY's desk,  on the phone) They're yelling in Baton Rouge.

DIANA grabs the phone from him and listens to thepeople of Baton Rouge yelling their anger in thestreets --

  HOWARD (ON CONSOLE) -- Things have got to change. But you can't change them unless you're mad.  You have to get mad. Go to the window --

  DIANA  (gives phone back to  PITOFSKY; her eyes  glow with excitement) The next time somebody asks you to explain what ratings are, you tell them:  that's ratings!  (exults) Son of a bitch, we struck the mother lode!

Notice how the dialogue builds from Howard seated behind the desk, almost as if someone confessing something. Then the pivot point, “Well, I’m not going to leave you alone,” where Howard turns from confessor to prophet letting loose with his clarion call: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Watch Finch who gives an incredible performance in this scene:

Now that is a great scene!

And doesn’t it seem like TV programmer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) would fit into today’s world filled with reality TV?

I’m sure someone will be tempted to comment about the length of Howard’s dialogue. For instance, his first side — setting aside the SD that breaks it up — is 59 lines long. I doubt there’s a screenwriting guru or script reader alive who would — in theory at least — acknowledge that writing a 59 line monologue is a good idea. However, two things. First, Chayefsky was a consummate wordsmith, especially his dialogue, so he could do anything he wanted to do. But the second thing is about the individuality of our stories. And if our story requires a character to go on a 59 line monologue, then we, as writers, have the right to let them do that. We also have the responsibility to make sure those 59 lines are damn good lines!

For an additional treat, check out this post from last August which features two extended clips of “The Dinah Shore Show” featuring Chayefsky himself talking about Network.