Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Tired of being rejected by the beautiful women he lusts after, Chuck Barris moves to Manhattan to become an NBC page with dreams of becoming famous in television but is eventually fired. He moves back to Philadelphia and becomes Dick Clark's personal assistant on ''American Bandstand'' in 1961. He writes the successful song "Palisades Park (Freddy Cannon song)" and becomes romantically involved with a woman named Penny Pacino. Chuck is given permission to pitch the concept for ''The Dating Game'' at American Broadcasting Company. He is given $7,500 to create a television pilot, but ABC abandons the idea in favor of ''Hootenanny (US TV series)''.