Episode Description:

Johnny is abducted by an outraged guy who claims that Johnny ruined his life when he helped him win the lottery.

Episode Review:

Marsha: "You're not a millionaire, Boyd. You're a mailman with a mental condition."

Cue the "going postal" jokes.

Johnny has been kidnapped before. I don't mind story repetition when it's done well. This wasn't done well.

I mean, here we have this guy, Boyd Lumely, the postal worker. Lumely, quite irrationally, blamed Johnny for poor decisions that Lumely made all on his lonesome. Lumely committed a felony by kidnapping Johnny at gunpoint, and risked Johnny's life in order to fix his own problems. And in the end, the two of them were shooting the breeze together like all of it was a mild fraternity prank. I don't know. I'd be thinking restraining order at the very least, and five to ten in Sing Sing at the most.

With plots like this, it's easy to see what's coming. You know they're going to get caught in difficult situations, but everything will work out in the end. What you need to do is (1) make the characters very likeable, and (2) add in a few surprises. Maybe it would have worked if Lumely had been more likeable, and I had really cared that he was planning to off himself for the insurance. But no. Frankly, I just wanted to smack him. He won the lottery, and just frittered all the money away. And then he blamed everyone else for what he did. Grow up, buddy.

The scenes I liked the most were Johnny's inept attempts to win at poker. I also really liked the early scene where Johnny found out lots of different things about Lumely by touching each of his keys. But that was it.

Bits and pieces:

-- Wow. Sarah exists. At least for a couple of minutes on the phone, anyway.

-- They just happened to end up at Lumely's daughter's school for the midnight whatever. Yes, that's when they usually have grade school events: midnight.

-- Anthony Michael Hall looked fabulous in a black tux.

-- No Bruce in this episode.

I just didn't like it. And I'm getting discouraged about season five. Two stars,

Billie

Bille Doux reviews episodes of 'The Dead Zone' for her website.
She reviews individual episodes of science fiction & cult TV shows
for her website, located at http://www.billiedoux.com/

Behind The Scenes:

 - Dan Truly wrote this script as a freelance effort and we hope you enjoy watching Johnny try to extricate himself out of the uncomfortable situations he now finds himself in.

We're particularly proud of our guest star, Benjamin Ratner, who gives us a real tour de force performance in this episode as Boyd, the erstwhile postal worker bent on regaining his luck.

Of Production note, the casino set in "Lotto Fever" was specifically created in great detail for this episode, right down to the basement's brick walls. Kudos go to production designer Lance King and his colleagues for doing such a terrific job. Ditto for set decorator Erik Gerlund and his crew, too; the card tables in this set are the real deal, on loan from actual gambling establishments. Lloyd Segan's blog (07/16)

 - "Lotto Fever" is one of those classic Dead Zone episodes that balances humor, heart and horror, what we like to call the three H's. It's got this really wonderful character actor, Benjamin Ratner, who starts off in one place and, by the end of the episode, has gone on a journey -- as has Johnny and the audience -- and really ends up in a whole different place.

Really, that's the fun of The Dead Zone: playing with these guest stars, not only for them to learn something, but for Johnny to be a surrogate for them, ultimately reflecting back on his own life and his own choices with his own family. Shawn Piller's blog (07/23)

 - It was terrific gig from start to finish. I had come in to pitch some episode ideas and this one, "Lotto Fever," just seemed to light up the room from the get-go. Basically, I wanted to do two things with it: to create a loveable loser-type character who seemed to be driving the story by kidnapping Johnny (but of course wasn't), and also to do an "After Hours"-like spin through Cleaves Mills, showing us the late-night underbelly of gambling dens, mob thugs, etc., the things that might go on in a little town while all the good citizens were asleep. Dan Truly, Writer (07/23)

Cast & Crew:

Written by: Dan Truly
Directed by: Michael Robison
Guest Starring: Benjamin Ratner (Boyd Lumely), Bill Mondy (Deputy Roscoe)