chunk: Tired of being rejected by the beautiful women he lusts after, Chuck Barris (Rockwell) 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" and becomes romantically involved with a woman named Penny Pacino (Barrymore). Chuck is given permission to pitch the concept for The Dating Game at the American Broadcasting Company (ABC); he receives $7,500 to create a television pilot for the studio. However, ABC abandons The Dating Game in favor of Hootenanny.
  One night after Barris is kicked out of a bar for fighting, he is approached by CIA agent Jim Byrd (Clooney), who recruits him as an assassin. Returning from a mission in Mexico, Barris finds that Penny has become a hippie. Meanwhile, ABC decides to greenlight The Dating Game, and by 1967 the TV show is a phenomenon.