The Lead
Doug Mercer
A born closer who lost his firm, his house and his name in the crash. He carries his father's frayed Army Ranger patch and wants one thing: back in.
From the Pitch Deck
A look inside
A one-hour drama with a sharp comic streak
When the 2008 crash bankrupts him, a New Jersey super-salesman gets one shot back in the game selling solar for a desperate Taiwanese CEO, unaware the CEO's son plans to move drugs inside the panels.
The World and Premise
September 2008. Three men are on top of the world for about twenty minutes.
Doug Mercer, the swaggering boss of The Mercer Group in Newark, is about to sell his company. In Manhattan, Victor Liao rings the bell on Liao Footwear's $250 million IPO, while back in Newark his son Kevin pulls drugs for a gang called the Red Suns out of the company's sneaker crates. Then Lehman Brothers falls. Doug's deal dies in a boardroom, Victor's Taiwanese backers pull out and order him into solar, and Kevin's pipeline shuts down with a gang still owed.
One year later, Doug is bankrupt, sleeping on a pullout couch with his wife and son and tending bar at Friends of Judy. Working a networking mixer as a waiter, he watches Victor bomb a solar pitch, steps in and turns it around in minutes. Victor gives him three prospects and one week to land a signed Letter of Intent. What Doug doesn't know: Kevin is watching him, and in Kevin's apartment sits a solar panel with its backing pried open and a hollow cavity inside, waiting.
The show runs on sales-floor swagger and real deal talk (PPAs, SRECs, Letters of Intent), and it is funny in a grounded way: pushups on the sales floor, a fake name in the Stop & Shop, ab flashes for tips. Underneath, the stakes are real: foreclosure, a marriage on the edge, gang beatings and a gun in a drawer.
One week and three names: Morris Chen, Rahul "Baba" Reddy and The Grand Seaside. Every signature Doug chases to save his family is the same signature Kevin needs to get the first container shipped and the Red Suns paid, and the Red Suns have just given Kevin 48 hours. Doug finally has something to sell. He may also be exactly what this company needs to hide behind.
Main Characters
The Lead
A born closer who lost his firm, his house and his name in the crash. He carries his father's frayed Army Ranger patch and wants one thing: back in.
The CEO
The Taiwanese founder of Liao Footwear, now CEO of Solar Solutions with Taiwan's government money behind him. He knows the numbers, can't sell in America, and is out of chances.
The Son
Victor's son, an Ivy League MBA who runs the company's shipping and logistics. He secretly ran Red Suns drugs through his father's business and now owes them a shipment.
The Wife
Doug's sharp wife, who has a master's degree and turned down Rutgers because she trusted him. She is running out of ways to keep believing.
The Son at Home
The 10-year-old with a broken backpack zipper, keeping score of every promise Doug hasn't kept.
The Threat
The gang Kevin owes, done with envelopes and out of patience.
Why Now
The industry is in the middle of another boom-and-bust turn, and the federal residential solar tax credit ended after 2025.
The crash is far enough back to play as a period story, and close enough that every adult remembers where they were.
The show comes from inside the business. Its creator runs a New Jersey solar company today.
The Creator
THE SOLAR COMPANY is based in part on the life of its creator, Douglas F. Heck.
Doug brings something most pitches can't: the real thing. He runs Spectacular Solar in New Jersey, the same state where the show is set. The deal talk, the sales-floor energy and the pressure of chasing a signature all come from a world he works in every day. For buyers, that means a creator who can answer the hard questions about how this business really works.
The pilot was written by James Kenna.
Comps
Also in the conversation: Breaking Bad (an ordinary man's slow slide and an uneasy partnership) and The Sopranos (New Jersey texture, family at the center).
From the Pitch Deck
Contact
The pilot script is available on request for managers, producers and contest readers.