National Theatre Live: Best of Enemies

'He said, "Why go to all this melodrama,

'"when indeed we were not going to do anything?"

'He liked the melodrama.'

'The reason why, Mr Vidal, is,

'because there is among decent men

'a tradition that dates back to the Declaration of Independence

'in which the people who founded this country say that...'

'I... I think we've run out of time,

'and I thank you very much for the discussion.

'There was a little more heat and a little less light than usual,

'but it was still, um...

'...very worth hearing.

'We'll be right back.'

Did you see that? Were you watching?

Sheehan, is he... Jesus, is he allowed to say that?

I mean, we were live, and he did say it, so...

Ah, shit!

- Was anybody watching? - I was watching.

The whole world was watching.

I was watching from Bill's trailer,

and frankly, I do wish everybody would calm down.

I'm calm. I want to tell you that I am calm.

But I was watching.

Please, can you get this thing off me?

- Please! - What in Jesus goddamn Christ?

- Boss, we know, we know, look... - The phone calls I'm getting...

Yeah, OK, some... some of the sponsors are freaking out a bit, but...

Sponsors? Forget them!

My own mother just called! Furious!

The thing we must remember...

Uh! Oh, uh... do we need to introduce ourselves?

Mr Tariq Ali. Please.

What we must remember

is that such pivotal moments in our history do not occur in a void.

Anger, discord, violence do not just erupt from nowhere,

they emerge slowly.

This was a long time coming.

And its consequences linger.

My mum!

Well, we certainly gave them their money's worth tonight.

I have always said that art is a kind of confession.

- Mr James Baldwin. - I don't mean to imply

that what we witnessed here was art by any means.

Look, I get it. People are upset.

They want to, and believe that they live inside a particular reality.

And then the veil is lifted,

and one is suddenly forced to witness not who we would prefer to be,

but instead, who we really are.

As a country. As people.

That is what we are all here for.

We are here to witness.

It's tempting to overstate the significance...

It's not an overstatement.

Aretha Franklin!

You don't have to announce me, honey, they know who I am.

And I was there. That summer of '68, it was a turning point.

A shift, I saw it.

In our culture. In how we literally talk to one another...

- Bill? - That was a disaster.

Did that really happen? Is this real? Am I dreaming?

- Bill, what on earth...? - Could people hear that, Elmer?

We're editing it out when it airs on the West Coast.

Look, this is my station. When I say...

Yes, yes, but could people hear it over the crosstalk?

- There was a lot shouting. - People... People heard it.

Now, where the hell is Vidal?

I think he's already talking to the press.

- Of course he is! - Bill...

Some of us, I suppose, are spared such trauma.

The trauma of discovering that the world is not so full of kindness and consensus.

Yes, some of us have known that for a very long time.

Mm-hmm!

But I understand why you are shocked to witness it.

Here, tonight, in full colour, for all to see.

It was a foreshadowing, it was, of an unhappy future.

The one you're all living in today.

How in God's name did this happen?

- 'This is NBC News. I'm Chet Huntley.' - 'And I'm David Brinkley.

'This is the Huntley-Brinkley report

'assembled for television every weekday night

'by the world's largest broadcast news organisation, NBC.'

'Direct from our newsroom in New York,

'this is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Good evening.'

'Shouldn't I be in the frame?'

My apologies, one second.

'Take your time.'

Twelve seconds to air.

'Not too much time.

'Oh, good, look at that, I exist.

- 'You can hold that call with my therapist.' - Seven seconds.

'May I ask, was there any news today? And if so, may I see it, please?

'Thank you.

'What do we have? War, famine... plague!

'The whole ball of wax, marvellous.

'Well, seeing as we're all here, we may as well tell people.'

'This is ABC News, welcome.

'I'm Howard K. Smith.'

- Gentlemen, welcome. - Pleasure.

And thank you so much for agreeing to come together for this interview.

- Walter. - Chet.

- David. - Walter, good to see you.

Ah, Howard! How are you?

Doing just fine, thank you, David. Just fine.

Gentlemen, if you please?

So... 1968 is an election year.

All three of your networks will be covering the conventions,

in Miami Beach for the Republicans, in Chicago for the Democrats.

And just as those presidential candidates will be vying for delegates,

aren't you also in a kind of competition with one another? For viewers?

If you want to talk about competition or strategy,

you need to speak to the network presidents or the marketing men,

because the business side is frankly not our business.

We're conduits through which flow

important news and...

'From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official,

'President Kennedy died at 1pm Central Standard Time,

'2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time,

'some 38 minutes ago.'

'Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas,

'but we do not know to where he has proceeded.

'Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly

'and become the 36th President of the United States.'

But feels like a particular moment for America.

Vietnam has split the country, growing racial divisions -

is it your job to make sense of those tensions or...

The role of the Evening News in people's homes,

and of the men who steward it,

is to cement opinion, not to disrupt.

We don't stir the pot, we cool it down.

Right, we simply report, we don't express opinions.

News must always come from the centre.

And we invite an audience of different political stripes to calmly join us there.

Although... yes, the centre.

But that doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility every so often

to call out something corrupt or immoral

when we are uniquely placed to see it.

I'm a Murrow Boy, what can I say.

We took on Hitler and McCarthy.

But I like these young men.

I do. Smooth, professional, with all their sponsors and such.

And so, your respective plans for the 1968 conventions?

At NBC we'll be doing what we always do -

pointing the camera at the stage and broadcasting live

from the first gavel to the last.

And at CBS, we'll be broadcasting in full colour for the first time.

Oh, yes, so will we at NBC.

Golly! Democracy in full colour!

Mr Smith, is that the case also for ABC

with your - if you don't mind my saying - significantly smaller audience share?

No, I don't mind you saying that.

I mind that it's true.

But I don't mind you, uh... saying it.

Wishing you all the best, gentlemen.

Coming from you, Uncle Walter, that means an awful lot.

Howard. Remember, you can always come back.

And be a small fish in your big pond, Walter?

That's... That's very kind, I'm... I'm good.

You hang in there.

"Hang in there"?

So damn humiliating!

Sheehan, you promised me - if I came here, you promised me investment,

a marketing push, that the ratings would change.

Well, to be fair, they have changed, just... in the wrong direction.

"ABC"! You know what they call us behind our back?

"The Almost Broadcasting Company."

It isn't funny! Who is this?

George Merlis from marketing.

This is a guy from marketing, and he's laughing at how much we're tanking.

Third out of three!

If there were four networks, we'd be fifth.

I overheard a guy in Mortimer's the other night,

joking that the way to end the Vietnam War

would be to broadcast it on our channel -

it would be cancelled within the week!

OK, all right.

We need to turn this ship around, Elmer, I'm serious.

OK, well, here's the situation.

It's a big year ahead for news. Haggerty understands that.

But the budget he's allocating our department is $3 million.

Three million? That sounds like a lot.

Is it?

How much do Huntley and Brinkley get?

- Thirty-three. - Goddammit!

Our ad revenues are down.

The main entertainment shows aren't doing as well as...

What about that crass pile of nonsense they screen at eight, the one with the nun?

- "The Flying Nun"? - I've never seen it.

It's exactly what it sounds like.

It's a nun who... who flies around Puerto Rico, you know, solving crimes.

I thought the purpose of such dross

was to draw in viewers and therefore advertisers.

Otherwise, what the hell is it for?

Are we not now going full colour, then?

No, no, we are. Haggerty is insisting.

You know, the show doesn't say she can actually fly.

The nun, well... It's just the winds coming in

off the Atlantic that catch her... her habit.

- The show's about uplift... - Look!

We're just gonna have to innovate.

Come up with an exciting, new way to cover the convention that doesn't cost the earth.