Lottery!

Lottery! is an American drama series that premiered on ABC on September 9, 1983.[1] The series aired for one season of 17 episodes and starred Ben Murphy as Patrick Sean Flaherty, and Marshall Colt as Eric Rush. Lottery! centered on ordinary people who have won the lottery—all of a sudden becoming millionaires—and how it changes their lives.[1]

Lottery!
GenreDrama
Created byRick Rosner[1]
Written byHindi Brooks
Don Bullock
Tony DiMarco
Rudy Dochtermann
David Engelbach
David Gerber
Peggy Goldman
Bruce Kalish
Stephen Kendal
David Ketchum
S.A. Long
Lee Philips
Duane Poole
Ton Swale
Directed byDon Chaffey
Barry Crane
Georg Fenady
Lawrence Levy
Vincent McEveety
Barbara Peters
Lee Philips
James Sheldon
Mike Vejar
Virgil W. Vogel
Don Weis
StarringBen Murphy
Marshall Colt
Theme music composerElizabeth Bradley
James P. Dunne
Opening theme"Turn of the Cards" performed by Alan Graham
ComposersKen Heller
Mark Snow
Michael Melvoin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes17 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerRick Rosner
ProducersRobert Janes
Robert Lovenheim
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time4548 minutes
Production companiesRosner Television
Orion Television
DistributorMGM Television
Release
Original networkABC
Audio formatMonaural
Original releaseSeptember 9, 1983 (1983-09-09) 
June 14, 1984 (1984-06-14)

Synopsis

Each week, several guest stars become instant millionaires (in two or three different stories) when their lottery tickets bring them fame, fortune, and usually trouble. Flaherty worked for the "Intersweep Lottery." His job was to find the winner(s), inform them of their winnings, and give him or her an envelope containing $5,000 in cash, and a check worth millions. In the event of ownership disputes with the winning ticket, Flaherty would also act as an arbitrator responsible for determining the true recipient in what method used to settle the matter.

Rush was Flaherty's partner, an IRS agent who oversaw the accounting of the payouts and the arrangement of the winner's tax obligations. Each episode also took place in a different city around the country.

The opening titles for the show featured large banks of computers and tape drives. Above what appeared to be a trading floor (similar to what one would see at a stock exchange) were large electronic toteboards showing the latest prizes, the winners's names, and the countries in which they lived. At the end of every episode, the show displayed the following disclaimer:
"The Intersweep Lottery is purely fictitious.
Except for states where they are legally authorized, lotteries in this country are illegal."

The Intersweep Lottery itself was actually more akin to the Publishers Clearing House than any of the popular lottery games in the U.S. and around the world, such as the Irish Sweepstakes, which was believed to have given Rosner the idea for the series. Participants in this lottery purchased numbered tickets. Each ticket carried a unique serial number consisting of two letters followed by six numbers. The drawing of winning numbers was also never featured in any of the episodes in this series.

Lottery! is not the first series to deal with the elation and challenges of sudden wealth. The basic premise is loosely similar to an earlier series, The Millionaire with Marvin Miller, except that the money was given out by a mysterious benefactor, John Beresford Tipton, to specific named individuals without the organization of a lottery, and that any taxes on the money had already been paid in advance. In 1979, NBC produced Sweepstakes, an equally short-lived series with a similar premise; it, too, lasted only a single season. In 2006, NBC tried again with Windfall, a series about a group of twenty friends winning a multimillion-dollar lottery prize; that series lasted only three months before cancellation.

US Television Ratings

Season Episodes Start Date End Date Nielsen Rank Nielsen Rating[2] Tied With
1983-84 17 September 9, 1983 June 14, 1984 77 12.5 N/A

Episodes

Episode #Episode titleOriginal airdate
1-1"San Francisco: Being a Winner"September 9, 1983
1-2"Los Angeles: Bigger Volume"September 16, 1983
1-3"Denver: Following Through"September 23, 1983
1-4"Detroit: The Price of Freedom"September 30, 1983
1-5"Phoenix: Blood Brothers"October 7, 1983
1-6"Portland: Treasure Hunt"October 21, 1983
1-7"Kansas City: Protected Winner"October 28, 1983
1-8"Charleston: The Spenders"November 4, 1983
1-9"New York: Winning can be a Murder"November 18, 1983
1-10"Houston: Duffy's Choice"November 25, 1983
1-11"Boston: False Illusion"December 9, 1983
1-12"Chicago: Another Chance"March 1, 1984
1-13"San Diego: Bingo!"March 8, 1984
1-14"Miami: Sharing"March 15, 1984
1-15"St. Louis: Win or Lose"March 22, 1984
1-16"Honolulu: 3-2=1"March 29, 1984
1-17"Minneapolis: Six Months Down"June 14, 1984

Awards and nominations

Year Award Result Category Recipient
1984Young Artist AwardsNominatedBest Young Actor, Guest in a Television SeriesCorey Feldman

References

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