Chayefsky believed that television news desensitized viewers to violence and murder, and he was shocked one day when a respected news anchorman "rattled off inanities." He asked his friend, the NBC News anchor John Chancellor, if it was possible for an anchorman to go crazy on the air, and Chancellor replied "Every day." Within a week of that conversation, Chayefsky had written the rough draft of a script, centering on an elderly, disillusioned anchor who announces he will commit suicide on the air. In 1974, a local news anchor, Christine Chubbuck, committed suicide during a broadcast.