Still Mad as Hell: Why the Movie ‘Network’ Still Resonates
Today–And What It Says About Charlie Sheen  Feb 16, 2011
When the movie was first released, many in Hollywood TV circles
were not pleased. Wrote Time magazine: “In Los Angeles, network
executives watching a screening of the movie were on the edge of
their seats, almost clawing at the armrests with indignation. In
New York City, the film was a three-martini lunch topic along
Sixth Avenue–’Network Row’–and NBC angrily barred ['Network']
director Sidney Lumet from a screening of one of its own TV
movies. ‘It’s a piece of crap,’ huffed an NBC vice president.
‘It had nothing to do with our business.’ ABC’s Barbara Walters
was more delicate. She said that while the movie was
entertaining, she was afraid audiences would think the movie was
not satire but the truth.”  Chayefsky–who died of cancer at age
58 five years after “Network” was released–maintained that while
yes, the film was a satire, one of the points is that it was
also indeed the truth.