"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
-Winston Churchill
A generation of 90s slackers thought they could just max out their credit cards for indie film fame. Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez...they made it. This isn’t their story. This 4-episode docuseries follows wanna-be producer Rob Collins, his lifelong friend the inept director Vincent Ford Doppola and the band of friends who followed them on their 25-year Idi-Odyssey. 15 minutes of 90s fame convinced them that success was inevitable. It wasn’t. With a huge deal to open a restaurant on the table for Collins it’s now or never. The series tells the story of their 25 years of ludicrous missteps. A documentary crew follows them today as they attempt one last project before they are forced to call it quits in this comeback story about two guys who never made it in the first place. A ridiculous, somewhat poignant and very meta look at their lifelong boondoggle and the endurance of film, failure and friendship.
Their ridiculous decades long attempts at a career include; appearances on Letterman and Wheel of Fortune, national press and inclusion in a Ken Burns documentary for invading the field at Shea Stadium in an historic baseball protest, a disastrous 90s attempt to remake Apocalypse Now with the characters from Gilligan's Island, failed auditions to get on Big Brother and Donald Trump's Apprentice and boxing an excon gang leader Golden Gloves champion at 40 years old. Like the Blues Brothers, the series will follow them as they get the band back together one more time to sell their magnum opus or call it quits for good.
Through decades of fighting and failure this band of friends somehow kept a tiny spark alive. It took Covid to turn that spark into a fire. When Collins’ current restaurant was closed by Covid he finally turned away from 30 years of nightlife and spent a year in lockdown to make this docuseries possible and tell their story. Shakespeare wrote some of his most famous plays in quarantine during the Black Plague. James Joyce wrote Ulysses in lockdown during the Spanish Flu. So many people feel the call during quarantine but just like in Close Encounters only a few heed the call enough to get past the mashed potato sculpture phase and make it to the Devils Tower.
Do dreams die? Can they turn their grand delusion into a magnum opus? Would anyone care? We are about to find out. Francis Coppola once said, “Some little fat girl in Ohio is going to be the new Mozart...and make a beautiful film with her father’s camcorder, and for once the so-called professionalism about movies will be destroyed, forever.” The fat girl has aged into a couple of fat guys and they’ve got a song that is both stupid and contagious with a simple refrain...Film, Fail, Repeat.
EPISODES
Stupid and Contagious: A Four Episode Docuseries
The somewhat true-tale of 90s slackers and wannabe filmmakers Robert Collins, Vincent Ford Doppola and the band of friends they dragged along on their 25-year Idi-Odyssey to break into the entertainment business in this comeback story about two guys who never made it in the first place.
Episode I I’m Gonna Be Big!
We open episode one with our producer Robert Collins being screamed at by the cast and director of his disastrous indie film attempt—an adaptation of Apocalypse Now with the characters of Gilligan's Island. How the hell did we get here? We go back to the beginning where we meet wannabe producer/director team Robert Collins and Vincent Ford Doppola who after 15 minutes of 90s fame on Wheel of Fortune, David Letterman, and in the national media for a baseball protest convinces Collins they’re GONNA BE BIG! After a few student films they take their bloated egos and steal $40K to make their “disaterpiece”. We end the episode with them heading to the river and watch as their catastrophic film shoot begins with the film spooling out of the camera.
Episode II Don’t Quit Your Day Job
Episode 2 opens where we left off with Collins and Doppola on the river with their cast and crew as we watch their feeble attempt to make a film without a script in 4 days. Arguments, rain, snow, bad acting, no script, malfunctioning camera...it’s the making of a mess. The river film sinks but with all the behind the scenes footage they’re convinced they came up with a new genre...it’s Reality TV before there was Reality TV. Down but not our two zeros change gears and try to pitch a reality show to a top producer and are told, “Don’t quit your day job, kid.”
Episode III Delusions of Grandeur
With a new goal in sight the boys push on and produce a series of very meta short films while also trying to break into reality TV with predictably bad results. They shoot a biographical short film, “Four Stoned Guys”, another one where they try boxing an excon gang leader and yet another where they try to pitch a film to Harvey Weinstein. Collins tries out for Project Greenlight, The Apprentice and Big Brother and goes 0 for 3. The episode ends with the boys moving on with their lives and taking day jobs the dream appears over.
Episode IV Meta, Meta, Meta
It’s years later and Collins runs the hottest restaurant in NYC. Vin is working for a legendary filmmaker. But their dream is still unfulfilled. Shut down by Covid the 2 guys who never made it in the first place decide to stage a comeback. They gather up 25 years of footage of their Idi-Odyssey and attempt to make a doc series. Now in their 50s we follow them present day as they drag their original cast and crew back together and head to LA to pitch their doc series and start a new genre, Cinéma Réalité and become the next Tiger Kings.
FILM. FAIL. REPEAT.
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DRESS FOR FAILURE
