Fridge / Network

• Fridge Brilliance: Diana Christensen and Howard Beale, two of the three main characters, never share a scene together — perhaps a nod to the cold, distant, and removed nature of television programming?
• Fridge Horror:
  • Howard Beale is clearly undergoing a nervous breakdown throughout the course of the film, and apart from Schumacher, no one ever even considers getting him help; indeed, his breakdown is actually exploited by those around him for the sake of ratings. For that matter, several other characters also appear to have serious psychological issues, most obviously Diana, and no one ever attempts to get any of them the help they need. It is possible that their psychological issues are ignored because they are professionally successful and many criteria require adverse consequences to a person’s professional life for a diagnosis, but it’s clear that most of them aren’t happy, and their actions prove destructive to society and, ultimately, to each other. In context, this was the 1970s, when counseling and psychotherapy were no longer taboo subjects, and it would have been perfectly okay to speak openly about needing them.
  • Pondering the possible aftermath of Howard Beale's assassination, you have the fact that the Feds are already scrutinizing UBS because of The Mao Tse-Tung Hour. You have three distinct, very disturbing possibilities: the government figures out that the UBS brass ordered the killing, which is a scandal that could very well endanger all of network television. Or the Ecumenical Liberation Front arranges to have the UBS execs killed to prevent anyone from talking. Or, scariest of all: Diana is absolutely right and that, by virtue of having a corporation backing them, she and the others will end up as a Karma Houdini.
    • Or a combination of the above: Since the Ecumenical Liberation Front is mostly comprised of people of color, the harsher punishment meted out to the members who shot Howard could easily lead them to point the finger back to Diana and the other (all-white) UBS executives, and with Diana being the sole woman in these positions, the other executives can just as easily throw her under the bus, with their own skins saved through said corporate backing.
    • Moreover, since Howard is shown to have such a large fanatical following (still having a full house at his last show), what’s there to stop one of his fans from violently retaliating?
    • Given he was a fan of Howard’s show, Arthur Jensen could also easily fire Frank in the aftermath, ironically fulfilling Max’s earlier prediction about Howard’s show first going on the air.