Since its release in 1976, Network has come to seem prescient in its depiction of television and the U.S. culture at large, anticipating the blend of newscasting and entertainment, the proliferation of "reality" shows and other exploitive programming, and the dominating influence of global corporations. The film's dim view of television could now also apply to the film industry, where it's difficult to envision a contemporary Hollywood production that would dare take on so controversial a subject in such bold and critical terms.

The public at large, however, has continued to identify with Howard Beale's protest against the status quo; Howard's line "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" has entered the language. It was voted the No. 19 movie quote by the American Film Institute and was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine. According to Aaron Sorkin, if you put Network "in your DVD player today you'll feel like it was written last week. The commoditization of the news and the devaluing of truth are just part of our way of life now. You wish Chayefsky could come back to life long enough to write 'The Internet.'"

The film has remained timely enough that, as recently as 2005, it was announced that George Clooney would star in a CBS-TV adaptation that would be broadcast live (in deference to the roots of Chayefsky and Lumet). Before plans for that project were scrapped, Clooney screened the 1976 film for a group of "young people" and found that none of them recognized it as satire. "I couldn't understand it," Clooney told the Associated Press. Then he "realized that everything Chayefsky wrote about had happened."

By Roger Fristoe