Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
The Original Mad Man
The first, the best, the man who gives this list its name is Howard Beale, the fictional news anchor and mad genius of Network, the vicious 1976 satirical film. Following his dismissal from his longtime network, Beale goes on air, dressed in pajamas and a trench coat, and offers up a rant for the ages. It all comes to a head with the now immortal phrase, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Each in their own way, all of the people on this list have their own little mad-as-hell moment. Beale would chalk it up to the increasing, impending, impinging pressures of modern-day society. That sounds about as right as anything we could come up with.