On this day in movie history – Network (movie & book):

Network

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Paddy Chayefsky,

was released in the United States on November 27, 1976.
Music by Elliot Lawrence.

Cast:

Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, Arthur Burghardt, Bill Burrows, John Carpenter, Jordan Charney, Kathy Cronkite, Ed Crowley, Jerome Dempsey, Conchata Ferrell, Gene Gross, Stanley Grover, Cindy Grover, Darryl Hickman, Mitchell Jason, Paul Jenkins, Ken Kercheval, Kenneth Kimmins, Lynn Klugman, Carolyn Krigbaum, Zane Lasky, Michael Lipton, Michael Lombard, Pirie MacDonald, Russ Petranto, Bernard Pollock, Roy Poole, William Prince, Sasha von Scherler, Lane Smith, Ted Sorel, Beatrice Straight, Fred Stuthman, Cameron Thomas, Marlene Warfield, Lydia Wilen, Lee Richardson, Robert P. Cohen, Andrew Duncan, Todd Everett, John Gabriel, Tom Gibney, Lance Henriksen, Raymond Martino, John Pashley, Michael Tucker.

Recommended reading:

Mad as Hell:

The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies

By Dave Itzkoff.

Published by Picador.

Published 2015.

ISBN-10: 1250062241

ISBN-13: 9781250062246

Description:

"Dave Itzkoff takes us on an extraordinary journey, and in the process reveals Chayefsky's prognosis for TV, a prognosis we've chosen to ignore even as it's come true before our eyes." – Forbes.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard Beale, "the mad prophet of the airwaves," 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 Oscars 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, and of Paddy Chayefsky, the tough, driven, Oscar-winning screenwriter who envisioned a world – outlandish for its time – that is all too real today. Itzkoff vividly re-creates the action 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.

On this day in television history - M Squad (1959):

M Squad

Season 3. Episode 10.

Episode entitled: Another Face, Another Life.

Released November 27, 1959.

Directed by Sidney Lanfield.

Written by Stuart Jerome, Irwin Winehouse and A. Sanford Wolfe.

Music by Benny Carter.

Cast:

Lee Marvin, Paul Newlan, James Douglas, Barbara Stuart, Jay Novello, John Archer, Ethel Shutta, Will J. White, John Bryant, Charles J. Conrad, Wally Rose.

Born on this day – Gail Sheehy:

Gail Sheehy

Writer

November 27, 1936 – August 24, 2020

Credits:

Books:

Character: America's Search for Leadership (1991); Daring: My Passages: A Memoir (2014); Hillary's Choice (1999); Hustling: Prostitution in Our Wide Open Society (1973); Lovesounds (1970); Middletown, America: One Town's Passage from Trauma to Hope (2003); New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time (1995); Panthermania: The Clash of Black Against Black in One American City (1971); Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence (2010); Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life (1976); Pathfinders: Overcoming the Crises of Adult Life (1983); Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life (2007); Speed is of the Essence (1971); Spirit of Survival (1987); The Man Who Changed the World: The Lives of Mikhail S. Gorbachev (1991); The Silent Passage: Menopause (1993); Understanding Men's Passages: Discovering the New Map of Men's Lives (1998).

Movies and television:

Delorean: Back from the Future (2021); First Ladies (2020); Frontline (2016); Good Morning America (1976–2016); Hustling (1975); IFC News: 2008 Uncut (2008); Myth & Mogul: John DeLorean (2021); New Passages (1996); Radical Wolfe (2023); Slow Burn (2018); Tavis Smiley (2014); The Bob Braun Show (1977); The Factor (2007); The Last Editor (2002); The Mike Douglas Show (1976); Traveling Hopefully (1982).

Born on this day – Les Blank:

Les Blank

Cinematographer

Director

Editor

Documentary filmmaker

November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013

Born on this day – John Alcott:

John Alcott

Cinematographer

November 27, 1930 – July 28, 1986

John Alcott, with Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall, on the set of The Shining (1980).

Credits:

No Way Out (1987); White Water Summer (1987); Miracles (1986); Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985); Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984); Under Fire (1983); Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1983); The Beastmaster (1982); Vice Squad (1982); Fort Apache the Bronx (1981); Terror Train (1980); The Shining (1980); Fangio: Una vita a 300 all'ora (1980); Fiat Strada: Figaro (1979); Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978); The Disappearance (1977); March or Die (1977); Barry Lyndon (1975); Overlord (1975); Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974); A Clockwork Orange (1971); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); Othello (1965); Tamahine (1963); The Main Attraction (1962); Whistle Down the Wind (1961); The Singer Not the Song (1961); An heiligen Wassern (1960); North West Frontier (1959); A Night to Remember (1958); Violent Playground (1958); Checkpoint (1956); Tiger in the Smoke (1956); A Town Like Alice (1956); An Alligator Named Daisy (1955); Value for Money (1955); Simba (1955); Land of Fury (1954); Man with a Million (1954); Desperate Moment (1953); The Long Memory (1953); The Assassin (1952); The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952); Easy Money (1948).

Born on this day – Marshall Thompson:

Marshall Thompson

Actor

Writer

Director

Producer

November 27, 1925 – May 18, 1992

Born on this day – Hall Bartlett:

Hall Bartlett

Director

Producer

Writer

November 27, 1922 – September 8, 1993