Outfoxed: Marvin Davis, Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch and the Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network - Hardcover

Block, Alex Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312039042 ISBN 13: 9780312039042

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1990

Synopsis

A behind-the-scenes account of the creation of the Fox Broadcasting Network tells a story of money, power, glitter, and betrayal in modern Hollywood, as the face of television is changed

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Reviews

Though it begins in a tone of breathless awe and sometimes smacks of boosterism, this unauthorized company history of Fox Broadcasting Co. does a creditable job of unraveling the behind-the-scenes wrangling that attended the launching of Fox's national TV network. Editor of Show Biz News , Block highlights the warfare between Marvin Davis, the oil and real estate tycoon who bought Twentieth Century-Fox, and CEO Barry Diller, who outlasted his arch rival. Davis sold his shares to media baron Rupert Murdoch whose News America, as parent of the movie studio, provided funds that made possible the launch of the Fox network. There are juicy details on Joan Rivers's acrimonious backstage battles with Fox executives, on Diller's confrontational management style and on the birth of such shows as America's Most Wanted and Married . . . With Children. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Journalist Block certainly did his homework for this book. He conducted dozens of interviews to produce a detailed and balanced view of the launch of a fourth major television network. He traces how Fox Televison, created in 1987 by a new management team at one-time failing Twentieth Century Fox, got off to a slow start but then gained credibility, viewers, and advertisers with two successful shows, 21 Jump Street and Married . . . With Children . Unfortunately, Block seems to have used every word of every interview in this book and includes bios for each player, making the reading heavy going at times. The story does pick up, however, when Block discusses the 1989 hiring and subsequent firing of Joan Rivers for The Late Show , a factor, Rivers says in this book, in her husband's suicide. For communications and business collections.
-Jennifer Juergens, New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312039042
• ISBN 13: 9780312039042
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304