Network is the last film to date to receive five nominations for acting Oscars®.

It is one of only two films in history to win three acting Oscars® (awarded to Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight). The other is A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

Peter Finch was the first person to win an acting Oscar® posthumously, and remains the only one to win in the lead category.

Producers of the Oscar® show had asked Paddy Chayefsky to accept in the event Finch won the award, but he called the actor's wife, Eletha, to the podium. Chayefsky claimed at first that it was an inspiration of the moment, but later acknowledged he had actually written Mrs. Finch's speech and rehearsed her delivery beforehand.

This was the first film since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) to win Oscars® for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

Beatrice Straight's performance holds the record for the briefest ever to win an Oscar®.

Chayefsky became the first screenwriter to win three Oscars® for scripts he wrote by himself, the other two being Marty (1955) and Hospital (1971). (Woody Allen later repeated the feat.)

Sidney Lumet admitted that he was "furious" that Network lost the Best Picture Oscar to Rocky.

The only music heard in the film is that generated in the TV studio for show themes and commercials. (Minimal use of music is a signature Lumet touch.)

In the film, the Holden and Dunaway characters refer to their affair as "a many-splendored thing" - an inside joke, since in 1955 Holden had starred in the movie Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.

Although Dunaway's character is preoccupied with Finch's throughout the film, she never speaks directly to him.

Walter Cronkite's daughter Kathy plays left-wing radical Mary Ann Gifford, a role loosely based on Patricia Hearst.

Laureen Hobbs, the black radical played by Marlene Warfield, was loosely modeled after activist Angela Davis.

It has long been rumored that Tim Robbins made his film debut playing an assassin at the film's end. But Robbins has debunked that rumor, saying he was still in high school at the time.

Quotes from Network:

"This story is about Howard Beale, who was the news anchorman on UBS TV. In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television, the grand old man of news, with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share..." - Narrator

"I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks' time because of poor ratings. Since this show is the only thing I had going for me in my life, I've decided to kill myself. I'm going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. So tune in next Tuesday." -- Howard Beale

"So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell: 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'" -- Howard Beale

"Hi. I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles." - Diana

"Look, all I'm saying is if you're going to hustle, at least do it right." - Diana

"I don't like the way this script of ours has turned out. It's turning into a seedy little drama." - Diana

"You're television incarnate, Diana: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality." -- Max Schumacher

"What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some penitent drunk? I'm your wife, damn it. And, if you can't work up a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance. I hurt. Don't you understand that? I hurt badly." -- Louise Schumacher

"Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business!" -- Howard Beale

"I started as a salesman, Mr. Beale. I sold sewing machines and automobile parts, hair brushes and electronic equipment. They say I can sell anything." -- Arthur Jensen

"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?" -- Arthur Jensen

"Well, the issue is: Shall we kill Howard Beale, or not? I'd like to get some more opinions on that." -- Frank Hackett

Compiled by Roger Fristoe