http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...on_windfall_dc

By Andrew Wallenstein
2 hours, 56 minutes ago



LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC has ordered the drama series "Windfall," which follows a group of 19 friends pool their ticket money and win a record $386 million lottery.

The project was originally developed at Fox, which ultimately passed on the pilot.

The ensemble cast originally assembled by producer Regency Television will stay intact, including Luke Perry ("Beverly Hills, 90210"), Jason Gedrick ("Boomtown"), Sarah Wynter ("24") and D.J. Cotrona ("Skin").

"With its dueling themes of dreams coming true and 'be careful what you wish for,' 'Windfall' is both fun and provocative," NBC president of entertainment Kevin Reilly said. "We feel like we found a diamond-in-the-rough when this pilot became available."

"Windfall" won't be NBC's only lottery-inspired program, as fall comedy "My Name Is Earl" centers on a misfit who loses a winning ticket.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter


This sounds like it might be interesting.

Chris

Is this a midseason replacement show?

Read a blurb about this in EW. Sounds promising.

It's an actual drama, and not a reality show? Praise Jebus!

I hope it is based on an actual team of lottery players who actually won it big. It would be interesting to see if their lives were better or worse a couple of years after they won the lottery.

From what I heard, many people that have won the lottery are more unhappy with their lives than before they won the lottery, though I could be wrong about that.

Chris

Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for the longevity of the show. ("EZ Streets", "Boomtown", "Murder One", "The Beast", "Falcone" -- though the first 3 were EXCELLENT shows.)

An oddly high percentage of lottery winners eventually declare bankruptcy. I guess the money burns a hole in your pocket. A lot of folks want to be big shots so they buy a lot of stuff for their friends & family; cars, houses, boats, etc. I would assume some winners also gamble it away, or make poor investment decisions like buying an ostrich farm.

Does anyone besides me remember this show?
Lottery

I really enjoyed it, and always thought Ben Murphy should have become a star.

I had forgotten about it until I read about this new series. Off to www.tvshowsondvd.com to vote for it on DVD.

...oh yeah, like a goose farm would be any better...

I remember an old episode of How'd They Do That (I think when Lucey was hosting) that chronicled how a group of investors waited until the jackpot was significantly larger than the odds (even considering multiple winners) and then bought every ticket combination to guarantee victory (almost all, since some of the machines broke, and they ran out of time). I want to say it was in Virginia. It was a pretty cool story to see how hard it would be to logistically pull something like that off.

das

yup, it was in virginia - i remember that.

i remember they were freaking out because they didnt end up buying every ticket (like you said, ran out of time). but they still won. they had to search rooms of tickets (each room had piles and piles of thousands of tickets).

Yeah, it was cool. They had to deploy all these people to gas stations all over the state, spending hours upon hours doing nothing but buying lottery tickets.

das

Since it was "larger than the odds", how much money did they actually net?