The black comedy film Network (1977) explored a brief period of populist indignation presided by President Jimmy Carter during which distrust of big government and multinational corporations pervaded America's post-Watergate consciousness. A crazed television talk show commentator's weekly battle cry that he's "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" captured a crisis of public confidence in American business and political leaders that was fueled by economic recession, Arab oil cartel price-fixing, and poor health and safety standards in industry.

Written by television industry veteran Paddy Chayefskey and directed by socially conscious filmmaker Sidney Lumet, the film also indicted the television news business as a profit-driven enterprise that compromised the public interest by sacrificing prestige-driven, hard news reporting for ratings-driven, lurid tabloid sensationalism. Far ahead of their time, the creators of Network anticipated the negative impact television's role as an entertainment medium had on the quality of...