Pitch
Main characters
TV documentary maker Doug Hausse, in his early 40's, is a man entirely driven by the dream of becoming the one-and-only, most famous TV personality and athlete of the 21st century - and beyond.
But there is one flaw. Our “hero” (quotes mandatory) has an ego from here to the outer limits of the galaxy – indeed, and beyond. His hilarious adventure to find his calling goes in one direction only: all the way down.
Besides his own limitations, there is also Linda Faykes. She is also a talk show host, in her mid 30's and Doug’s colleague. She is very cool, calm and collected (and charming and charismatic), and in fact the success story Doug never was, and never will be. The high ratings she receives for her talk shows perfectly match with Doug's in the just a little bit less honorable category "FTS & TPD" - "Failed Talk Shows and Totally Pointless Documentaries."
Doug dreams a lot. Reality and dreams are not complementary in his world: both are nightmares. Especially when Linda's successes loom in the background, let alone in the foreground.
His father Henry Hausse long time ago “prophesied” Doug would be a super athlete and an eternal celebrity in TV history. 'HH' owns KRAP-TV (what's in a name?) and strongly believes that the key to success is outer appearances. So Doug and Linda also “lovingly” share an expensive apartment, and pretend having a very harmonious relation. Obviously, words like "honey" and "sweetheart" don’t exist in their dictionaries.
Enter Joe Brixton, Doug's "lost soul" psychiatrist who idolizes Sigmund Freud. Obviously as the father of psychiatry (Duh!), but also as the master of painting self-portraits. (Huh?)
Doug is secretly in love with Kate, but doesn't really know how to approach her. Brixton, the uncrowned king of the local “never-had-a-date-before” community, will gladly advise him to overcome his insecurities. Success (for fun) guaranteed.
But Doug is a fighter and we love him for that. It’s not that easy as it sounds, because his head is made of reinforced concrete - completely impervious. But eventually our hero meets a line that even he can’t cross. As he can’t take it anymore, the "King of TV personalities" and “world class athlete” goes to the edge of the top of a high cliff. What will happen next? Please remember, it is a comedy....
The type of humor:
"Fly Like An Ego" holds a mixture of absurdity, slapstick, silly famous movie heroes, unexpected movie sequels, twisted thinking, misplaced "historical facts" and so on. It features the use of forward and backward hints and "Oops, I didn't see that one coming!" So, do stay on top of it!
The inspiration for this idea came from the very successful comedies by Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (Airplane, Hot Shots, Naked Gun, etc.), mixed with sketch-driven Monty Python’s fascinating look at life.
Production and audience:
Although primarily written for real actors, it may be considered cartoonesque. There is no (real) violence, sexuality or cursing.
Sydney Pais
(The Netherlands)
