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Robin, May 2018
Hardcover / e-Book
Mad As Hell, February 2014
Hardcover / e-Book
The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies
Times Books
February 2014
On Sale: February 18, 2014
304 pages ISBN: 0805095691 EAN: 9780805095692 Kindle: B00EGJAZGA Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
The behind-the-scenes story of the making of the iconic movie Network, which transformed the way we think about television and the way television thinks about us βIβm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!β Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard Beale, βthe mad prophet of the airwaves,β took America by storm in 1976, when Network became a sensation. With a superb cast (including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, 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. In Mad As Hell, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times recounts the surprising and dramatic story of how Network made it to the screen. Such a movie rarely gets made any moreβone manβs vision of the world, independent of studio testing or market research. And that man was Paddy Chayefsky, the tough, driven, Oscar-winning screenwriter whose visionβoutlandish for its timeβis all too real today. Itzkoff uses interviews with the cast and crew, as well as Chayefskyβs notes, letters, and drafts to re-create the action in front of and behind the camera at a time of swirling cultural turmoil. The result is a riveting account that enriches our appreciation of this prophetic and still-startling film. Itzkoff also speaks with todayβs leading broadcasters and filmmakers to assess Networkβs lasting impact on television and popular culture. They testify to the enduring genius of Paddy Chayefsky, who foresaw the future and whose life offers an unforgettable lesson about the true cost of self-expression.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - February 19, 2014
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