Lottery!

The year was 1983. Sliced bread having been recently invented, the world hungered for the next revolutionary idea. That idea was to create a show about two guys who deliver good news to good people. The good news?...You've won the lottery!
Yes, someone gave this turkey the greenlight, to mix metaphors. The stars were two nobodies, cast as the lottery agent and his tax-man partner. I believe that the opening credits used a give-and-take cliche' to establish their relationship. So someone would win the lottery, but instead of checking the numbers at 7pm before Wheel of Fortune like the rest of the world, the only way you knew you'd won this lottery was when two yahoos showed up at your door. BAM you're rich, after taxes, etc. Who would buy a lottery ticket like that?
Much like the A-Team, the Lottery! guys helped out the little people an awful lot, but instead of using chrome-plated AK-47's that never hit a single person, these heroes delivered cold, hard cash (minus taxes). Recall the episode where a large grocery chain was squeezing out the Mom & Pop market with low prices (gross!). In step the Lottery! guys and after half an hour of searching for the winning ticket, dodging bulldozers or something and other wacky hijinx, the mom & pop folks get their cash, minus taxes, and are able to compete with the chain store. Flush with cash, they can buy new urinal cakes for the employee bathroom and can afford to forego profit in exchange for their continued solvency. Whew! What an emotional rollercoaster.
In summation, Lottery! was a short-lived show that preyed upon the hopes and dreams of math-challenged, lotto-crazy Americans. Each week, viewers were reminded that free money is just a buck away, and that the IRS man is 'just doing his job' by taking ~35% of the winnings each episode.
Author's note: I was 10 years old in 1983. My memory isn't perfect, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why I watched this show. Hopefully the only people watching were 10 year olds, which would ensure that ratings, if not common sense, would bring about the demise of this vapid speedbump in our pop cultural history.

This was a particular favorite of mine. I remember it was one of the few shows of that era (Voyagers!) was another one – funny, they both have exclamation marks – that my brother and I could sit down with my folks and enjoy. After every episode we would all talk about what we would do if we ever got a million dollars. It was great dinnertime conversation, something I believe is missing from today's shows. Perhaps that's just rose-colored glasses, though.
We particularly enjoyed the episode in which one of the characters shared our family's rare surname! It was quite a thrill to hear your name on TV back then.
If there are any shows from that era that deserve updating, this would be one of them. The anthology style of the show, however, was probably something that didn't sit well with audiences used to following season-long character arcs (as in Dallas) or non-stop action (Miami Vice and The A-Team). Still, were this show remade today it would sit nicely in the PAX channel lineup. Other shows from that era we enjoyed were Whiz Kids and Dukes of Hazzard and, yes, Manimal.

This review is written through the eyes of a twelve year old girl, but with the memory of a thirty-five year old woman. I had hoped that this page could provide episode summaries in order to jog my memories of this show, but all I really remember are little snippets of the show and the good feeling it gave me after watching it.

Lottery! was a household favorite. We would pop popcorn in the air popper and my incredibly nuclear family would settle in the beat up couch that sat in front of the rabbit-eared television set. All four of us-- my father, mother, sister and I-- loved this program and we set aside the time to watch it (VCRs insanely expensive those days and TiVOs weren't even conceivable). Four dreamers, us all...

The show, in essence, was a glimpse into the lives of otherwise ordinary folks who come in to a large amount of cash. It was episodic; The only two reoccurring characters were that of the lottery liaison and the IRS man, and it seemed as though they only had cameos in their own show. Once they settled the money issue, the guest stars in each episode took it from there.

Some would squander the money (I remember a child who had filled his room with coin operated video games), some would use it wisely... and after every episode, our family asked ourselves "what would we do?" as if there were even the slightest possibility of it happening to us.

This was a great escapist drama that I would have seen last at least a little longer than it did.