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

Alex Ben Block (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.

From Library Journal

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (February 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312039042
• ISBN-13: 978-0312039042
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,243,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Look at the Birth of a Network, June 16, 2007

By 

Ben Scripps (Cadillac, MI, USA, Earth, Sol) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outfoxed: Marvin Davis, Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch and the Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network (Hardcover)

First off, one should immediately disregard JHW's review of this book. JHW has apparently confused this book with the documentary film of the same name. (Which is particularly evident in the book's copyright date, 1990, many years before Fox News Channel came to be.) There is absolutely nothing about the Fox News Channel in this book. Absolutely nothing.

Outfoxed (the book) tells the story of the birth of the Fox television network (again, **not** the cable news channel!). The book is divided roughly into equal thirds: the first third deals with the tangled saga of the Twentieth Century-Fox studio, its struggles to remain afloat, and its ownership by Marvin Davis (and later buyout by Rupert Murdoch). The middle third deals with the launch of the Fox Broadcasting Company and focuses primarily on what was intended to be the new network's crown jewel, "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers". Finally, the last spends its time on the growing pains of the new network, trying to find a programming foothold (and ratings success) while pushing the definitions of quality, acceptability and decency to their limits.

Honestly, in reading this book, I could have done without the first third. Lots of history of Twentieth Century-Fox (the film studio), lots of behind-the-scenes stories of the studio's troubles and power struggles. This was supposed to be a book about a television network, and some background on Fox's history is certainly important, but 80 pages? After reading this book, I found myself thinking I could have simply picked it up at page 70 and not really missed out on anything needed to enjoy the rest of the book.

The remainder of the book makes for a somewhat nostalgic look back at Fox; much of the action in the book took place twenty years ago. Some of the shows discussed are still on the air--"America's Most Wanted" and "Cops"; some are gone but remembered--"21 Jump Street", "Married...with Children"; and others are simply forgotten to the mists of time--"Beyond Tomorrow", "Mr. President", "Totally Hidden Videos". Along the way, the careers of Barry Diller, Jamie Kellner, Garth Ancier, Kevin Wendle, Peter Chernin, and many others are detailed.

Overall, it's a good read for anyone interested in television history (particularly as Fox is still around and the current can be readily compared to the past).

And again, this book has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the Fox News Channel. (Indeed, one of the most interesting tidbits in this book: Rupert Murdoch's support for the presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter in 1980...go figure!)

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about fox's purposeful biasing of news!, October 2, 2004

By 

JHW "JHW" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outfoxed: Marvin Davis, Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch and the Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network (Hardcover)

Inside this book you'll find some disturbing and interesting information on how fox has twisted the news to support its owner's politics over fact and truth. This kind of stuff scares me and makes me feel justified in watching the BBC and CBC for internation news over some american owned nation/internation networks.