It’s been 16 years since a Fort Collins man pranked the nation after claiming his son was trapped in a giant, flying-saucer shaped balloon. That balloon turned out to be empty once it landed, but it hadn’t stopped local law enforcement, the National Guard, Homeland Security, and a phalanx of TV reporters and news media from covering the story’s every twist.
Netflix’s “Trainwreck” anthology series will revive the story that took place on Oct. 15, 2009, as part of its survey of modern tragedies, mishaps and scandals. The Balloon Boy episode is set to premiere Tuesday, July 15, with currently available episodes covering “The Astroworld Tragedy, ” “Poop Cruise” and “The Cult of American Apparel.”
The Balloon Boy hoax would seem to have all the right elements for a revisitation: a hapless, alleged victim (6-year-old Falcon Heene), sky-high danger (the balloon reached about 7,000 feet), daringly duplicitous parents (Richard and Mayumi Heene), and a national profile that gripped audiences.
“What appears to be a tragedy takes a sharp turn into something else,” Netflix wrote in a statement. “Public sympathy quickly turns into righteous outrage, as Balloon Boy quickly becomes one of America’s most infamous and bizarre news stories.”
The fallout has lasted until this decade. After being fined and briefly jailed in 2009, the Heenes were in 2020 pardoned by Gov. Jared Polis, who noted they had “suffered enough.”
