Chayefsky researched the project by watching hours of television and consulting with NBC executive David Tebet, who allowed Chayefsky to attend programming meetings. He later conducted research at CBS and met with Walter Cronkite. The completed script reflected his research and his personal view, prevalent at the time, that Arabs were "buying up" U.S. corporations. The "mad as hell" speech was a deeply personal statement reflecting the core of Chayefsky's beliefs during the early 1970s. Chayefsky later called it an easy speech to write, reflecting his view that people had a right to get mad.