NO HOLDING IT IN AT FOX TV'S 'PITCH-O-RAMA,' THE HOPEFULS ARE AS ANIMATED AS THE IDEAS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

There's a guy sitting in the Fox studio lot commissary wearing a cape, tights and fright wig, all neon yellow. His face, too, is painted yellow; his gloves and bikini bottom are, in stylish contrast, black. His shirt, yellow of course, and padded with fake muscles, reads ``PEE PEE.'' He is a grown man. Security is not hassling him. No one looks particularly uncomfortable to be in his presence. A few, no doubt, are even wishing they had thought of dressing up like him.

We're at the Fox network's first-ever ``Pitch-O-Rama,'' in which 60 individuals or teams from across the country spent a recent Saturday pitching their ideas for animated series to Fox executives. Those on hand were selected from more than 1,000 entries submitted online; most participating have no ties to the entertainment industry. To add nominally to the pressure, the commissary just happened to be decorated in tribute to the recent Fox film, ``Master and Commander'': Hopefuls entered the building passing two cannons trained upon them. One aspirant wearing a Homer Simpson tie posed for a photo with a longing expression before a display case filled with Emmys.

Pitch-O-Rama was the brainchild of Jeremy Gold, Fox senior vice president/comedy development, who says he's looking for a workable idea or two, or even someone with a fresh visual style or comic sensibility. ``In jobs like these, you can get very busy in the day-to-day of working the system the way it's been worked for long time,'' Gold says. ``But we're all about discovering new talent - without new voices, we're nowhere. The tray gets passed around with a lot of the very same names on it that were around years ago - you're conditioned to think, 'My friends did a script with these writers, and that didn't work, but I haven't yet, so I guess it's my turn.' We have to find some new blood.''

Rather than blood, Pitch-O-Rama drew another bodily fluid altogether. M. Frank Emanuel, a Los Angeles art director, is the man in yellow, decked out in the costume of the character he has come to pitch - Pee Pee Man. He's here with Jeff Braunstein, a writers' assistant on the Fox show ``King of the Hill,'' who notes, ``No one knows who he is, but I'm the guy with the guy dressed as Pee Pee Man - it's worse for me.'' Emanuel got to wear the costume, Braunstein explains, because ``I'm 6-foot-5 - my genitals can't fit in women's swim pants.'' Emanuel doesn't like that statement's implications, but keeps his super-powers in check.

Such a concept might seem explanatory, but Emanuel and Braunstein have worked up an elaborate (sort of) mythology for their hero, who was inspired by Emanuel's Halloween costume of a few years back: Pee Pee Man was the result when a homeless man relieved himself on a random pile of biohazardous waste. To ``power up,'' the amber enemy of evil eats asparagus; to ``power down,'' he chokes down urinal cakes. The two have faith in their idea: They've already had T-shirts printed up, and their business cards come in a vial of yellow water.

Also hoping to impress Fox executives but far more conventionally clad is Burbank resident Kristina Schoentag, who has brought her sister along for moral support and is on hand to pitch ``On the Ropes,'' about two retired wrestlers who were avowed enemies in the ring but now grapple with the tedium of suburban living.

``The studios are always trying to keep out the little guys; they're never given opportunities,'' Shoentag says. ``This is nice because it leaves the middleman - agents - out.'' She has brought a series of illustrations, booklets explaining each character's background and even some animation cels from her prospective series.

Inside the pitch rooms, hopefuls are given five minutes to make their case. After hearing a pitch about recent college grads reluctantly coping with the responsibilities of encroaching adulthood, one executive notes (after the wannabe has left the room), ``We get that pitch every week.'' As if on cue, the next team enters and talks up an idea about recent college grads reluctantly coping with the responsibilities of encroaching adulthood.

Some selling their ideas have elaborate presentations - a Kansas City greeting-card illustrator pitching ``Combover Cracker and Gay Tortilla'' even has a DVD with some brief animated scenes. Others have done very little preparation: One guy brings no illustrations or printed material, just a couple of notes scrawled on his hand.

Among the ideas are a cowboy-themed amusement park in Beverly Hills, a dirtbag guy reincarnated as a squirrel, a government program in which trolls and gnomes are assimilated into human society and an Ed Wood-style B-moviemaker who lives with the monsters from his movies. A sheet metal worker from Portland proffers some richly detailed illustrations of his concept, ``an 'Addams Family' in danger of being gentrified.''

And, of course, Pee Pee Man. Braunstein and Emanuel enter the conference room with a boombox blaring Pee Pee Man's theme song, similar enough to the ``Batman'' theme for someone to make the connection but different enough to avoid any litigation. Explaining that Pee Pee Man loves merchandising, they fling their T-shirts to the Fox executives. Their scripted pitch comes in right at five minutes and they exit, exulting, ``We're golden!''

After her pitch, Schoentag is more realistic. ``I do not expect to (hear back from Fox),'' she says. ``It was a very fun experience, and I am content with that.''

``It was exactly what we hoped it would be,'' Gold says afterward. ``We met a great number of people we never would have met otherwise. That sheet-metal worker from Portland - his drawings were so great - how would we ever (have) met him before? I can't say we got our next animated hit, but we got three or four very good ideas and met a half-dozen very talented people.''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Here's the PITCH

You've got 5 minutes to sell a show to Fox TV - GO!

Photo illustration by Roxanne Kotzman/Daily News

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(2) Creative minds (including Pee Pee Man, back) gather on a recent Saturday to pitch their stories to executives at Fox. The 'Pitch-O-Rama' sought ideas for animated shows.

(3) Gil Rief of Sherman Oaks gets five minutes at the all-day meeting to convince Fox executives he's got the next ``Simpsons.''

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer