WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 You know that feeling when you're standing in 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.219 line at the convenience store holding that little 00:00:05.219 --> 00:00:07.259 printed slip of paper and you just sort of let 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:09.740 yourself drift? Oh, absolutely. We've all played 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:12.820 that game. Right. It's like the universal daydream 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:14.960 of sudden wealth. You're just standing there 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.780 under those terrible fluorescent lights looking 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:19.859 at the watery numbers you picked. Yeah. And you 00:00:19.859 --> 00:00:22.420 start asking yourself. You know, what would I 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.500 do if I actually won? Exactly, you start imagining 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:27.920 the house you'd buy or like the car you'd drive. 00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:30.239 Or the incredibly dramatic way you'd walk into 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:32.920 your boss's office to quit your job. Oh man, 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:36.539 yeah. It's just a pure unadulterated fantasy 00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:39.200 and it feels so good. Well, it feels great because 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:41.840 it's entirely built on hope. I mean... You know, 00:00:42.100 --> 00:00:44.640 the actual statistical odds, they just don't 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:46.640 matter in that exact moment. Right. Nobody's 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:48.679 doing math in the convenience store line. No, 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:51.039 exactly. What you're buying for a couple of bucks 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:54.039 isn't like a realistic financial plan. It's the 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:57.000 emotional high of the possibility. We just love 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:58.979 the setup of that narrative in our own heads. 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:01.200 Yeah, because the daydream is flawless. You're 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:03.899 the main character and you always win. Always. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:07.349 But. Okay, imagine if a television network took 00:01:07.349 --> 00:01:10.250 that perfect little daydream and built an entire 00:01:10.250 --> 00:01:12.590 show around it. Okay. And not just a regular 00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:15.909 game show, but a scripted drama where they actively 00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:20.510 make you, the viewer, emotionally invest in the 00:01:20.510 --> 00:01:22.170 fictional people holding those tickets. Right, 00:01:22.189 --> 00:01:24.689 so you're really rooting for them. Yeah. But 00:01:24.689 --> 00:01:27.870 then, instead of letting everyone win, the show 00:01:27.870 --> 00:01:31.459 just... ruthlessly crushes that dream for two 00:01:31.459 --> 00:01:33.640 -thirds of its calf every single week. Man, it 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:35.659 sounds almost cruel when you phrase it that way. 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:37.900 It kind of is. I mean, it completely breaks the 00:01:37.900 --> 00:01:39.819 unspoken contract of escapist entertainment, 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:41.719 but, you know, that is exactly what happened 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:44.420 on primetime television. It did. So today, we 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:46.900 are taking a deep dive into a really fascinating 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:49.140 stack of notes we've compiled from Wikipedia 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:54.579 about a largely forgotten, completely obscure... 00:01:55.609 --> 00:01:58.730 1979 NBC series called Sweepstakes. And we should 00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:00.430 mention, just to give you a sense of the vibe 00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:02.390 right up front, they actually stylized the title 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:05.349 with dollar signs. So it's, you know, dollar 00:02:05.349 --> 00:02:09.009 sign, W -E -P -S -T -A -K -E, dollar sign. Which 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:13.169 is just so perfectly 70s. So our mission today 00:02:13.169 --> 00:02:17.409 is to explore this truly bizarre television experiment. 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:19.689 Because it really was an experiment. Definitely. 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:21.789 We want to understand its incredibly innovative 00:02:21.789 --> 00:02:24.870 structure, its frankly unhinged storytelling 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:27.990 choices, and ultimately why it became such a 00:02:27.990 --> 00:02:30.930 spectacular, legendary flop. And I think we really 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:33.330 need to set the stage for why this matters to 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:35.689 you, the listener, because, I mean, this isn't 00:02:35.689 --> 00:02:38.650 just a piece of obscure TV trivia about an old 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:40.550 show your parents might have briefly scrolled 00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:42.310 past on the dial. Right. It's bigger than that. 00:02:42.449 --> 00:02:45.250 It is. It's a genuinely fascinating case study 00:02:45.250 --> 00:02:47.789 in audience psychology. It tests the absolute 00:02:47.789 --> 00:02:49.990 limits of interact— television and it did this 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:51.710 you know decades before the internet existed 00:02:51.710 --> 00:02:54.509 to make interactivity easy yeah it really asked 00:02:54.509 --> 00:02:57.210 a fundamental question about what audiences actually 00:02:57.210 --> 00:02:59.210 want from their TV screens when they sit down 00:02:59.210 --> 00:03:01.870 after a long hard week okay let's unpack this 00:03:01.870 --> 00:03:04.210 because the actual mechanics of how they built 00:03:04.210 --> 00:03:07.370 this show are just wild we need to look at exactly 00:03:07.370 --> 00:03:10.409 how the creators structure this fantasy to manipulate 00:03:10.409 --> 00:03:13.069 the viewer yeah the skeleton of the show is baffling 00:03:13.069 --> 00:03:16.150 right before we even get to the crazy plots the 00:03:16.150 --> 00:03:19.909 creators basically engineered a very rigid, very 00:03:19.909 --> 00:03:23.409 specific, emotional roller coaster. And to understand 00:03:23.409 --> 00:03:25.090 that roller coaster, we really have to understand 00:03:25.090 --> 00:03:29.009 the format first. So NBC ordered this as an anthology 00:03:29.009 --> 00:03:32.590 series. Which, just to clarify, means what exactly 00:03:32.590 --> 00:03:35.719 in the context of 1979 television? Well, for 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:38.539 the listener, an anthology series means the cast 00:03:38.539 --> 00:03:41.580 and the story completely reset every single week. 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:45.099 Think of shows like The Twilight Zone or more 00:03:45.099 --> 00:03:47.419 recently like Black Mirror. You don't have returning 00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:49.740 characters to anchor the audience. So no sitcom 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:52.379 family or like a squad of detectives you tune 00:03:52.379 --> 00:03:54.900 in for. Right. Building weekly viewer loyalty 00:03:54.900 --> 00:03:57.039 is incredibly difficult because you're asking 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:59.080 the audience to fall in love with strangers all 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.840 over again every Friday night. And the only premise 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:03.639 connecting these strangers was a state -owned 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:05.800 lottery. Okay, so here's the formula they lock 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.319 themselves into. There's a strict 60 minute runtime 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:12.020 for almost every episode. Every week, the premise 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:15.080 establishes that there are 12 finalists for the 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:18.560 big state lottery drawing. But the show only 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.019 zooms in on three of them. Just three? Three, 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:24.759 so the entire first half of the hour, like 30 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:27.420 solid minutes of television is dedicated just 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:29.620 to meeting these three hopefuls. You learn about 00:04:29.620 --> 00:04:32.420 their lives. Right. You see their deep personal 00:04:32.420 --> 00:04:35.540 struggles, and you hear exactly what they plan 00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:38.519 to do with the $1 million jackpot. Which basically 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:40.680 means the writers are spending half the show 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:42.779 deliberately making you attach to their hopes 00:04:42.779 --> 00:04:44.959 and dreams. Yes. They're building this psychological 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.959 trap. And then we hit the midpoint twist. Right 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:50.600 in the middle of the episode, a recurring character 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:53.319 known as the Sweepstakes MC, who is played by 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:56.439 Ed Burns, actually conducts the lottery drawing. 00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:58.660 He literally draws the winner right there. Right 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.129 in the middle. Out of the three people you just 00:05:01.129 --> 00:05:03.410 spent half an hour falling in love with, only 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:05.569 one gets the million dollars. And the other two. 00:05:06.029 --> 00:05:09.649 They get a $1 ,000 consolation prize. Oh, man. 00:05:09.910 --> 00:05:12.250 And then the entire second half of the episode 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:15.089 is just the fallout. We see how the winner handles 00:05:15.089 --> 00:05:18.649 their sudden massive wealth. And crucially, we 00:05:18.649 --> 00:05:21.050 see how the losers cope with their dreams just 00:05:21.050 --> 00:05:23.639 being shattered. What's fascinating here is how 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:26.060 this compares to its television predecessors, 00:05:26.660 --> 00:05:28.459 because if you look back at the 1950s, there 00:05:28.459 --> 00:05:31.800 was a really popular CBS anthology series called 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.639 The Millionaire. Oh, I've heard of that. Yeah, 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:37.180 in that show, an anonymous benefactor simply 00:05:37.180 --> 00:05:39.459 handed out a million dollars to someone, and 00:05:39.459 --> 00:05:41.279 the audience just watched the effect of that 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:43.040 sudden wealth. So it's just about the aftermath. 00:05:43.259 --> 00:05:45.819 Entirely. It was all about the aftermath of a 00:05:45.819 --> 00:05:48.339 guaranteed windfall. But sweepstakes took that 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:51.120 premise and gamified the narrative. Ah, I see. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.420 It wasn't just passively observing a lucky break, 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:57.060 you know. It was a competition. But showing you 00:05:57.060 --> 00:05:59.800 three disparate people and their deep needs before 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:02.360 the drawing, the show forced the audience to 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:06.060 pick a favorite. It created real agonizing narrative 00:06:06.060 --> 00:06:08.000 stakes. Wait, hold on, though. I have to push 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.019 back on this from a purely storytelling perspective. 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.360 OK, go for it. Doesn't that inherently create 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.920 terrible pacing? How do you mean? Well, think 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:16.740 about it like a high -stakes sporting event, 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:20.300 or even like a modern reality TV elimination 00:06:20.300 --> 00:06:23.800 show, but applied to a scripted television drama. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.779 Right. You spend 30 minutes falling in love with 00:06:26.779 --> 00:06:29.019 a character's dream. You're rooting for them. 00:06:29.779 --> 00:06:32.519 And then at halftime, you just watch them get 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.579 handed measly thousand bucks yeah and for the 00:06:35.579 --> 00:06:37.860 next half hour you just have to watch them carry 00:06:37.860 --> 00:06:40.740 on with their miserable life it feels like going 00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:43.399 to a magic show where the magician promises an 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:46.220 incredible illusion but the quote -unquote trick 00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:48.860 is just that he steals your watch And then spends 00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:50.920 30 minutes explaining that your watch is gone. 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:54.319 Yes. Exactly. It completely breaks the covenant 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:56.480 of the fantasy. That is a perfect mechanical 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.360 analogy. You are essentially writing disappointment 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.000 into the DNA of every single episode. Right. 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:04.860 In a standard drama, you build tension toward 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:07.199 a climax at the end of the hour. You want the 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:09.579 resolution right before the credits roll. But 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:12.100 here, the climax is shoved right into the middle, 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:15.000 and the entire back half of the episode is just 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.139 denouement. you're dealing with the emotional 00:07:17.139 --> 00:07:20.220 hangover of the drawing for 30 minutes. Exactly. 00:07:20.779 --> 00:07:23.220 And to make it even more complicated, our sources 00:07:23.220 --> 00:07:26.319 explicitly note a crucial detail about the show's 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:29.360 philosophy. The writers actually had a rule that, 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.639 quote, the most deserving finalist does not always 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:37.100 win. Which, oh man. Because if the halfway climax 00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:39.560 structure wasn't inherently problematic enough, 00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:42.060 the writers quickly realized they had a massive 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:45.079 pacing problem. Oh yeah, a huge one. If the audience 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:46.860 knows the most sympathetic person is going to 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:49.540 win every week, there's no suspense. So to keep 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:51.959 audiences from getting bored, they were forced 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:55.319 to escalate the stakes and the contrasts to utterly 00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:57.420 unhinged levels. Unhinged is the right word. 00:07:57.480 --> 00:07:59.519 Let's look at the actual storylines they used 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:02.699 to fill this rigid format. Tonal chaos is probably 00:08:02.699 --> 00:08:04.560 the best way to describe what happened next. 00:08:04.819 --> 00:08:07.379 The sources note that the show swung wildly between 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:09.600 comedy and drama, often within the exact same 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:12.160 episode. Which just sounds exhausting. It creates 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:14.300 massive psychological dissonance for the viewer. 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:16.980 But, you know, to understand why they did this, 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:20.000 we have to look at who is making the show. Sweet 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.439 Stakes was produced by Miller -Milkis Productions 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.220 in association with Paramount Television. And 00:08:25.220 --> 00:08:27.079 what was their track record at the time? I mean, 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:28.660 what else were they making? Well, if you look 00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:31.939 at the industry in the late 1970s, Miller -Milkis 00:08:31.939 --> 00:08:35.919 were the powerhouse behind massive, feel -good, 00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:39.000 warm hug television hits. Like what? They produced 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.679 Happy Days. They produced Laverne and Shirley. 00:08:42.100 --> 00:08:45.820 Wait, really? Yes. These were shows defined by 00:08:45.820 --> 00:08:48.460 their sunny optimism and guaranteed happy endings. 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:51.580 So the people who gave us the funds, literally 00:08:51.580 --> 00:08:54.399 the coolest, most invincible guy on television. 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:58.080 are the ones serving up this show about crushing 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:00.759 disappointment. That seems like a massive leap. 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:02.840 Why would they pivot so hard? It really comes 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:04.659 down to how the entertainment industry works. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:07.419 When producers deliver massive culture -defining 00:09:07.419 --> 00:09:09.960 hits like Happy Days, networks often give them 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:11.759 a blank check. Oh, sure. They get the freedom 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:14.539 to experiment. Exactly. And in the 1970s, cinema 00:09:14.539 --> 00:09:17.480 was going through a very gritty, realistic, new 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:19.799 Hollywood phase. You know, movies like Taxi Driver 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:22.700 or Network. Right. It seems Miller -Milkis wanted 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:25.539 to experiment with that dark, grounded realism, 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.340 but they tried to sneak it onto network television 00:09:28.340 --> 00:09:31.809 under the of a shiny, glitzy game show format. 00:09:32.230 --> 00:09:35.690 Oh, wow. A Trojan horse. Basically. They sell 00:09:35.690 --> 00:09:39.809 NBC a glitzy lottery show. But inside, it's a 00:09:39.809 --> 00:09:43.370 gritty exploration of 1970s socioeconomic depression. 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:45.850 Yeah, but the way they executed it was just wild. 00:09:45.990 --> 00:09:47.870 Let's look at episode one, the series premiere. 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:50.490 If you're listening to this right now, put yourself 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:53.730 in the shoes of a 1979 viewer. OK. Who do we 00:09:53.730 --> 00:09:55.389 have competing for the million dollars? Well, 00:09:55.389 --> 00:09:57.610 we have a wife who's separated from her husband. 00:09:58.319 --> 00:10:01.039 Okay, a domestic drama. Makes sense. Then we 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:03.620 have an ex -con, played by Adam Arkin, who is 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:06.159 out on probation and desperately needs a legitimate 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:08.559 job to get his life back on track. High stakes, 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:11.700 real human struggle. Right. And the third finalist. 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:15.659 Oh boy. A dog. A literal dog. A dog named Grover, 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:18.679 whose greenie relatives, including Abe Vigoda, 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:21.019 are demanding a share of the dog's winnings. 00:10:21.379 --> 00:10:23.799 I just, it's so absurd. So you have an ex -con. 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:26.240 desperate for redemption, whose entire future 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.580 hangs in the balance, pitted against a canine. 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:31.879 The psychological whiplash there is just staggering. 00:10:32.039 --> 00:10:33.879 I mean, how is a viewer supposed to weigh those 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:37.539 needs? You can't. No. You're asking the audience 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:40.659 to simultaneously engage with the painful reality 00:10:40.659 --> 00:10:43.580 of the American penal system and a wacky sitcom 00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:46.620 plot about a wealthy pet. It breaks the reality 00:10:46.620 --> 00:10:49.529 of the universe. Wait, it gets darker. Let's 00:10:49.529 --> 00:10:52.149 look at episode two. Oh, this one is rough. The 00:10:52.149 --> 00:10:55.049 three finalists are an offbeat artist who paints 00:10:55.049 --> 00:10:57.509 on the walls of condemned buildings and wants 00:10:57.509 --> 00:10:59.490 to buy the building before his art is destroyed. 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:02.889 OK, quirky, a little bohemian. Right. Then a 00:11:02.889 --> 00:11:04.850 lonely young woman looking for her long lost 00:11:04.850 --> 00:11:08.230 father. Heartwarming. Very touching. And the 00:11:08.230 --> 00:11:10.730 third is a blind girl who needs expensive eye 00:11:10.730 --> 00:11:13.669 surgery. And, listener, remember the rule we 00:11:13.669 --> 00:11:16.230 discussed earlier. The most deserving finalist 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:18.870 does not always win. Exactly. So there was a 00:11:18.870 --> 00:11:20.549 two out of three chance that audiences tuned 00:11:20.549 --> 00:11:23.529 in, met a blind girl who needed eye surgery to 00:11:23.529 --> 00:11:25.750 see, and then watched Ed Burns announce that 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:28.669 the quirky painter won the million bucks. Leaving 00:11:28.669 --> 00:11:31.029 the blind girl to cope with her thousand dollar 00:11:31.029 --> 00:11:33.570 consolation prize. It's just devastating. It 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:36.370 is deeply cynical for a primetime broadcast. 00:11:36.789 --> 00:11:38.889 You're baiting the audience with a medical tragedy 00:11:38.889 --> 00:11:41.870 and then actively refusing the catharsis. And 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:44.789 it wasn't always depressing in a relatable medical 00:11:44.789 --> 00:11:47.309 debt kind of way. Sometimes it was just utterly 00:11:47.309 --> 00:11:50.529 chaotic. Like episode three. Yes. Episode three 00:11:50.529 --> 00:11:53.610 had a pickpocket and his literal victim competing 00:11:53.610 --> 00:11:55.470 against each other. Which is just weird. And 00:11:55.470 --> 00:11:58.970 then the pilot episode, which was actually... 00:11:58.649 --> 00:12:01.450 Episode 5 in the broadcast order, and is the 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:04.450 only 90 -minute episode, features a destitute 00:12:04.450 --> 00:12:06.570 bookie who is desperate to pay off his debts 00:12:06.570 --> 00:12:09.129 to other criminals. And according to the sources, 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:11.990 how does his story resolve? He loses. Of course 00:12:11.990 --> 00:12:14.570 he does. He wins the consolation prize. And the 00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:17.470 source notes his quote -unquote happy ending 00:12:17.470 --> 00:12:20.250 is that he is last seen fleeing a theater with 00:12:20.250 --> 00:12:22.750 two criminals in hot pursuit. That's the end 00:12:22.750 --> 00:12:25.350 of his arc. Wow. Just thanks for playing. Enjoy 00:12:25.350 --> 00:12:27.620 your thousand dollars. Run for your life. It's 00:12:27.620 --> 00:12:30.559 a remarkably bleak view of the universe to broadcast 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:33.480 to millions of people. It's essentially telling 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:36.580 the audience that the universe is random, uncaring, 00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:39.240 and your struggles do not guarantee a reward. 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:41.399 Here's where it gets really interesting, though. 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.019 Because as the episodes went on, they didn't 00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:46.480 just mess with the tone. They started messing 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:49.419 with the internal logic of the show's universe. 00:12:49.740 --> 00:12:53.340 Oh, yeah. This is wild. Let's talk about episode 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:56.990 six. The finalists are a guy who wants to start 00:12:56.990 --> 00:12:59.750 a business, a 12 -year -old girl who wants to 00:12:59.750 --> 00:13:02.990 help her dad's fast food franchise, and someone 00:13:02.990 --> 00:13:05.830 named Beverly. The sources highlight Beverly 00:13:05.830 --> 00:13:08.950 specifically because of who she is connected 00:13:08.950 --> 00:13:11.950 to. Right. Who is Beverly. Beverly is the girlfriend 00:13:11.950 --> 00:13:15.009 of the sweepstakes emcee himself, Ed Burns' character. 00:13:15.090 --> 00:13:17.509 Oh, unbelievable. He is literally the guy pulling 00:13:17.509 --> 00:13:19.970 the winning ticket, and his own girlfriend is 00:13:19.970 --> 00:13:23.559 a finalist. And her motivation. She wants to 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:26.139 use the winnings to help the emcee get his screenplay 00:13:26.139 --> 00:13:28.620 film so he can fulfill his aspirations of becoming 00:13:28.620 --> 00:13:30.860 an actor. Now that is a structural choice that 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:32.600 completely shatters the illusion of the show. 00:13:32.940 --> 00:13:34.580 Completely. I mean, if the guy pulling the ticket 00:13:34.580 --> 00:13:37.080 has a vested interest in who wins, it turns the 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:39.899 supposedly impartial lottery into a corrupt narrative. 00:13:40.100 --> 00:13:42.200 Yeah, the whole game is rigged. In the industry, 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:44.799 we call that fourth wall breaking, where a show 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:47.419 acknowledges its own artificiality. It really 00:13:47.419 --> 00:13:49.519 suggests the creators were either trying something 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:52.200 incredible avant -garde or they were completely 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:54.559 running out of ideas by weak sites and just started 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:57.220 cannibalizing their own framing device. I'm leaning 00:13:57.220 --> 00:13:59.200 toward avant -garde because it's just so deeply 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:02.480 weird. But unfortunately for Miller Milka's productions, 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:05.179 the avant -garde doesn't always play well to 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:08.139 a mass audience looking to unwind. No, it doesn't. 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:10.299 Which brings us to The Friday Night Massacre. 00:14:10.920 --> 00:14:13.720 Having established how experimental and sometimes 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:16.240 downright depressing this show was, we have to 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:18.860 look at how the 1979 American public reacted 00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:21.340 to this cocktail. To understand the reaction, 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:23.080 we need to look at the data from the premiere. 00:14:23.259 --> 00:14:27.879 Okay. The show debuted on January 26, 1979. It 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:31.039 was given the Friday night slot at 10 0 0 p .m. 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:34.039 Eastern Time. Now, in the television industry, 00:14:34.600 --> 00:14:37.100 January is the season of the mid -season replacement. 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:39.139 Right, which basically means the network is taking 00:14:39.139 --> 00:14:40.960 all the shows that fail in the fall, throwing 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:42.639 them out and just throwing a bunch of new stuff 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:45.419 at the wall in January to see what sticks. Exactly. 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:49.159 NBC was rolling out a massive slate of mid -season 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:52.120 replacements that exact night. They kicked off 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:54.519 the evening with a brand new show called Different 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:57.539 Strokes. Which, obviously, we know became a huge, 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:01.440 enduring success. It did. But NBC paired different 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:03.519 strokes with a string of other news shows hoping 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:06.200 to carry that momentum. Shows like Brothers and 00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:09.460 Sisters, Turnabout, Hello Larry, and finally 00:15:09.460 --> 00:15:12.700 capping off the night at 10 zero p .m., Sweepstakes. 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:15.659 So how did it do? The numbers from that premiere 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:19.500 are brutal. Out of 63 programs broadcast on network 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:22.379 television that entire week, Sweepstakes ranked 00:15:22.379 --> 00:15:25.889 59th. Wow. bottom of the barrel. So the audience 00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:27.830 just actively rejected it on night one. They 00:15:27.830 --> 00:15:29.409 didn't even give it a chance to find its footing. 00:15:29.690 --> 00:15:31.889 The rejection was immediate, and the critics 00:15:31.889 --> 00:15:33.950 were just as merciless. I can imagine. There 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:36.190 is an article published on the exact day of the 00:15:36.190 --> 00:15:38.309 premiere in the record of Hackensack, New Jersey, 00:15:38.590 --> 00:15:40.769 reviewing the upcoming lineup. The critic called 00:15:40.769 --> 00:15:43.450 Sweepstakes an unsophisticated anthology series 00:15:43.450 --> 00:15:46.090 and complained that NBC's string of intelligent 00:15:46.090 --> 00:15:48.769 shows is broken at 10 to 11 because of it. It's 00:15:48.769 --> 00:15:51.610 just a very dry, amusing historical artifact. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.980 I just love picturing a critic in Hackensack, 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:58.659 New Jersey, sitting down in 1979 looking at a 00:15:58.659 --> 00:16:00.919 screener where a dog competes against an ex -con 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:03.799 for a million dollars and just sighing in defeat. 00:16:03.820 --> 00:16:06.899 Right. They preemptively declared the night ruined 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:09.820 by Grover the dog before the public even saw 00:16:09.820 --> 00:16:12.299 it. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:14.919 this critical panning and the abysmal ratings 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:17.480 tell us something vital about the limits of audience 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:20.700 endurance, especially in that era. What do you 00:16:20.700 --> 00:16:23.340 mean by that? Like, why did it fail so spectacularly? 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:26.779 Well, escapism requires an actual escape. When 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:28.860 people tune in to a show about will in the lottery 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:30.940 they're looking for the realization of that daydream 00:16:30.940 --> 00:16:32.799 We discussed at the start of our deep dive. They 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:34.639 want the fantasy They want the catharsis of the 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:37.379 fantasy but sweepstakes insisted on showing the 00:16:37.379 --> 00:16:40.200 depressing reality of losing Yeah, two out of 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:42.259 every three people featured on that show went 00:16:42.259 --> 00:16:44.299 home with a reminder that they were still trapped 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:47.200 in their difficult lives Viewers likely rejected 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.820 the show because real life already provides enough 00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:52.220 disappointment. That makes total sense If you're 00:16:52.220 --> 00:16:54.200 struggling with inflation and a tough job in 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.559 1979, why would you tune in at 10 zero PM on 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.059 a Friday to watch a blind girl not get her surgery 00:17:00.059 --> 00:17:02.779 funded? Right. You go to television to see the 00:17:02.779 --> 00:17:05.460 one in a million shot actually land. Not to be 00:17:05.460 --> 00:17:07.440 reminded that the odds are always against you. 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:10.740 Precisely. And NBC realized this incredibly fast. 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.680 The network yanked it off the air by March 30th, 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:17.259 1979. It lasted just over two months, nine episodes 00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:19.799 in total, and it was gone. completely erased 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.160 from the cultural memory, though our notes do 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:25.400 provide one fantastic, ironic epilogue to this 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:27.700 whole mess regarding the cast. Oh really? The 00:17:27.700 --> 00:17:30.559 very last episode, episode 9, featured an actor 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.299 named Ben Murphy as a guest star. Okay. He played 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:35.359 a parking attendant who needed the money to repay 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:37.539 a loan he took out just to impress a rich woman. 00:17:37.859 --> 00:17:40.599 Standard sweepstakes tragedy. Sure. But apparently 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:42.680 Ben Murphy did not learn his lesson about the 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:45.279 curse of this format. Just four years later, 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:48.559 in 1983, he went on to star in a nearly identical 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.779 show for ABC. Wait, really? It was literally 00:17:50.779 --> 00:17:53.670 called Lottery. That is incredible. The allure 00:17:53.670 --> 00:17:56.089 of the sudden wealth narrative is just too strong. 00:17:56.230 --> 00:17:57.910 Even for the actors who have already watched 00:17:57.910 --> 00:18:00.829 it fail firsthand. They just couldn't resist 00:18:00.829 --> 00:18:02.849 pulling the lever on the slot machine one more 00:18:02.849 --> 00:18:05.630 time. Absolutely. So what does this all mean? 00:18:05.990 --> 00:18:08.529 When we look back at the brief, chaotic life 00:18:08.529 --> 00:18:12.509 of Sweepstakes, we see a show that was wildly 00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:15.029 ambitious. It really was. It was an interactive, 00:18:15.309 --> 00:18:17.809 genre -bending experiment decades before its 00:18:17.809 --> 00:18:20.950 time. It tried to mash up the anthology format, 00:18:21.329 --> 00:18:23.730 the game show, the sitcom, and the gritty drama 00:18:23.730 --> 00:18:27.069 all into one rigid hour of television. A lot 00:18:27.069 --> 00:18:29.470 of plates spinning. But it was ultimately doomed 00:18:29.470 --> 00:18:31.589 by its own commitment to showing the depressing 00:18:31.589 --> 00:18:35.109 reality of losing. It broke the golden rule of 00:18:35.109 --> 00:18:37.950 the fantasy. It reminded us that for every person 00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:40.569 holding the giant novelty check, there is a room 00:18:40.569 --> 00:18:42.609 full of people who are walking away empty -handed. 00:18:42.750 --> 00:18:45.059 Yeah. The next time you're standing in that convenience 00:18:45.059 --> 00:18:47.279 store line, buying a lottery ticket and imagining 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:49.559 the millions. Yeah. Take a second to look at 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:51.220 the two people standing next to you in line, 00:18:51.339 --> 00:18:52.940 because in the sweepstakes universe, you have 00:18:52.940 --> 00:18:55.000 to watch them go home with the consolation prize. 00:18:55.299 --> 00:18:57.559 You know, this raises an important question, 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.380 a final thought to mull over. Yeah. We look at 00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:04.839 sweepstakes as a massive failure of 1970s scripted 00:19:04.839 --> 00:19:08.779 television. But did this forgotten 1979 experiment 00:19:08.779 --> 00:19:11.599 actually serve as the unseen blueprint for modern 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:14.220 reality television? Oh, wow. After all, think 00:19:14.220 --> 00:19:17.259 about massive unscripted hits like Survivor or 00:19:17.259 --> 00:19:19.920 American Idol. They are built on this exact same 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.079 engine. They really are. They introduce us to 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:24.559 a wide group of hopefuls with desperate dreams. 00:19:24.940 --> 00:19:27.299 They ask us, the audience, to pick a favorite 00:19:27.299 --> 00:19:29.849 and emotionally invest in their success. and 00:19:29.849 --> 00:19:32.509 then week after week, they force us to watch 00:19:32.509 --> 00:19:34.869 the emotional devastation as those hopefuls are 00:19:34.869 --> 00:19:38.230 eliminated one by one. That's so true. Sweepstakes 00:19:38.230 --> 00:19:40.349 failed because it applied that cruelty to fictional 00:19:40.349 --> 00:19:43.170 characters. Reality TV succeeded by applying 00:19:43.170 --> 00:19:45.809 it to real people. Man, that is a wild thought 00:19:45.809 --> 00:19:48.130 to leave on. Well, that wraps up our look at 00:19:48.130 --> 00:19:50.289 the incredible baffling world of Sweepstakes. 00:19:50.789 --> 00:19:52.930 Keep digging into your own curiosities and we 00:19:52.930 --> 00:19:54.650 will catch you on the next Deep Dive.