{"id":1285,"date":"2016-11-07T08:23:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T08:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2017-01-23T06:58:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T06:58:36","slug":"flashback-howard-beale-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/11\/flashback-howard-beale-show.html","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: The Howard Beale Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

A ratings phenomenon.<\/p>\n

A presenter, Howard Beale, who has been dumped by his wife and television company, is going through a breakdown on screen. This in front of millions of Americans, in his final week of broadcasting.<\/p>\n

But his raves are making the ratings sky rocket. Then he is propped up by the television network. They christen a new show: the Howard Beale Show.<\/p>\n

It’s funny, but seriously, this kind of scenario is not my cup of tea. It\u2019s not everyone\u2019s cup of tea. I was put-off at first. Too inhumane. Why even watch it happen?<\/p>\n

I watched it on the movie Network.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
Peter Finch (pictured) played Howard Beale in Network. (image sourced via google images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Howard Beale Show<\/h4>\n

Network<\/em> is a satire of the television industry, released in 1976.<\/p>\n

It puts a mirror to the corruption and shallowness of ratings television, which is about whatever works or is perceived to work.<\/p>\n

The Howard Beale Show is a show that works. It came along by accident when Howard is going through a breakdown. His raves go down a treat.<\/p>\n

All the network see is money.<\/p>\n

The public embrace him. He speaks their language\u2014he\u2019s honest, brutal and tells it like it is\u2014all wrapped up in an effective whimsy that they take to their breast.<\/p>\n

But the network does not know what he will say next. This may turn their fortunes from hero to zero.<\/p>\n

Decency<\/h4>\n

Rating fluctuations is the fickle nature of ratings television. At the whim of someone fragile like Howard Beale, ratings instability is acerbated.<\/p>\n

When it comes down to it, ratings hero Howard Beale is experiencing a breakdown; there\u2019s a more pressing matter at hand. Howard Beale is a human being, not a statistic.<\/p>\n

Beale is given to rants and raves and the others just want to make a buck out of him. He shouldn’t be a pawn in the rating\u2019s game for his on screen raves and rants.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Beale is the most human of the television people. He is going through a crisis with its share of revelations and concerns. This makes him the most honest.<\/p>\n

A producer (played by William Holden) is being human when he sees Beale in trouble. In the sense that he sees Howard needs to be stood down because he is going through a breakdown.\u00a0 He sees the need for decency.<\/p>\n

The point of all this is that Network<\/em> is about compulsive television, compulsive for the producers of television and the audience. Despite a milieu of making a buck no more and no less, the makers of this film seem to call to truth, love and decency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ratings phenomenon. A presenter, Howard Beale, who has been dumped by his wife and television company, is going through a breakdown on screen. This in front of millions of Americans, in his final week of broadcasting. But his raves are making the ratings sky rocket. Then he is propped up by the television network.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,318],"tags":[61,33,8,10,9,16,7,310,309,24,39],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dramas","category-practical","tag-classics","tag-drama","tag-film","tag-film-commentaries","tag-film-reviews","tag-life","tag-movies","tag-network-movie","tag-peter-finch","tag-problems","tag-relationships"],"yoast_head":"\nFlashback: The Howard Beale Show - Life at the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flashback: The Howard Beale Show - Life at the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A ratings phenomenon. A presenter, Howard Beale, who has been dumped by his wife and television company, is going through a breakdown on screen. This in front of millions of Americans, in his final week of broadcasting. But his raves are making the ratings sky rocket. 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A 3 star rating out of 5 stars is above average from me.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.peteswriting.wordpress.com","https:\/\/x.com\/peteswriting"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/author\/pveugelaers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}