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

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. (Mar.)