On This Day

Premiere of Network

November 14th 1976

12:19 14 November 2024

The premiere of 'Network' took place in New York City on this day in 1976. Sidney Lumet's dark satire based on a script by Paddy Chayefsky tells the story of veteran news anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) who is fired, effective in two weeks, due to declining ratings.

After threatening to kill himself on live television, Beale instead launches into an angry rant about the state of the world which proves to be a huge ratings boost for the network. Co-starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty, 'Network' was a critical and commercial success with Finch winning a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor.

Nearly half a century on, the brilliant black humour and outrage of Lumet's film now seems eerily prescient.