After Ralph Garcy (Barry Miller) makes his stand-up comedy debut at an "open mike" night, he becomes an instant hit with the audience. In his excitement at this immediate success, he tells Doris (Maureen Teefy) that he wants to marry her right away, and that he's going to get a hit TV series, get his face on the cover of the TV Guide, and become wealthy overnight. He is essentially prescribing for himself the exact same fateful events in the life path of his idol, Freddie Prinze, as two separate identities disturbingly begin to merge. Prinze was an instant hit with the audience when he made his stand-up comedy debut on television, was quickly cast in a hit TV series, got his picture on the cover of the TV Guide, achieved wealth and fame seemingly overnight, and married soon thereafter. There is also a subtle yet extremely significant shift contained within Ralph's sudden flights of Hollywood fantasy: in the earlier parts of the film he had expressed angry indignation at society's emphasis on money and big business overwhelming an individual's sense of personal happiness, and yet at this first quick taste of success he suddenly delegates the more serious pursuit of artistic accomplishment to Doris rather than to himself ("You can win Tony Awards and do Shakespeare-In-The-Park") thereby signaling a foreboding and ominous change of values and direction in terms of his previously expressed ideals.

Film

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