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Mad as Hell

Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network

In a new book, New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff examines the lasting influence of the wildly popular and incendiary 1976 feature film Network. According to Itzkoff, the film’s legacy is due in large part to the genius of screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, who poured into it all his angst, anxiety and paranoia. The result was a film that used one mass medium to indict another, while also assailing the degradation and emptiness of modern American life. Itzkoff joins us Thursday to talk about it.

Dave Itzkoff is a culture reporter at the New York Times, where he writes regularly about film, TV, music, theater and popular culture. His new book is called Mad As Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies [Amazon|Indiebound]

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.