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Post by marianne48 on Jan 23, 2018 2:52:56 GMT
The premise of this series was that an eccentric multimillionaire's hobby was to give random strangers a check for a million dollars, just to see how the money would change their lives. His trusted employee, Michael Anthony, would present each person with a check, telling them that the benefactor wished to remain anonymous, and that the person was forbidden from ever telling anyone (except his/her spouse) the source of the money. If he/she did, the gift would be automatically considered null and void, and the person would have to return any remaining money. My question is, was there ever an episode in which this actually happened? If so, how would John Beresford Tipton (the millionaire) even get the money back? Would there be some legal recourse, and how could Tipton get the money back without calling media attention to himself?
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Jan 23, 2018 8:15:02 GMT
I've watched a number of episodes and that's never happened so I don't know. Also, I think the title refers to the person getting a million, NOT John Beresford Tipton since he has WELL OVER a million. I think he has somewhere between $500M and $2B.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Jan 23, 2018 20:50:54 GMT
The title definitely refers to the recipient, not Tipton.
I've watched a handful of episodes. One involved Jack Lord as the object of an elaborate murder plot. I can't help but wonder if this script was written for some other show (such as Hitchcock or one of the many other anthologies of the time) since most of it is a standard suspense story, with the Millionaire stuff tacked on at the beginning.
I'm sure this happened to a number of scripts. For example Sam Peckinpah originally wrote "The Rifleman" as an episode of Gunsmoke, but it was rejected. A few years later he sold the script to Zane Grey Theater, and it eventually became a weekly series.
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Post by marianne48 on Jan 25, 2018 0:29:23 GMT
D'OH! Of course, the title refers to the recipient of each check. That never occurred to me. Another question: Anyone know whether this show had viewers writing in to ask for money from the imaginary Mr. Tipton? Maybe that's why they had the guy presumably already deceased by the time the show began to air.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Jan 25, 2018 3:06:34 GMT
D'OH! Of course, the title refers to the recipient of each check. That never occurred to me.
Another question: Anyone know whether this show had viewers writing in to ask for money from the imaginary Mr. Tipton? Maybe that's why they had the guy presumably already deceased by the time the show began to air. Don't know, but probably. Most people are stupid. Lol.
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Post by geode on Feb 15, 2019 10:07:12 GMT
WeA different question. I remember episodes where getting the million bucks had happy and unhappy outcomes. Does anybody know the percentage of each of these?
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Feb 15, 2019 11:44:50 GMT
A different question. I remember episodes where getting the million bucks had happy and unhappy outcomes. Does anybody know the percentage or each of these? No, but being a 50s show I'd think the happy far OUTWEIGHED the unhappy. Today SADLY and UNFORTUNATELY it'd be the REVERSE.
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Post by geode on Feb 15, 2019 13:18:30 GMT
A different question. I remember episodes where getting the million bucks had happy and unhappy outcomes. Does anybody know the percentage or each of these? No, but being a 50s show I'd think the happy far OUTWEIGHED the unhappy. Today SADLY and UNFORTUNATELY it'd be the REVERSE.In my memory the episodes usually attempted to make the point that "money can't buy happiness" and episodes that were to the contrary were rather rare.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Feb 15, 2019 13:21:11 GMT
No, but being a 50s show I'd think the happy far OUTWEIGHED the unhappy. Today SADLY and UNFORTUNATELY it'd be the REVERSE. In my memory the episodes usually attempted to make the point that "money can't buy happiness" and episodes that were to the contrary were rather rare. Okay, I'll need to rewatch them.
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Post by mikef6 on Feb 15, 2019 15:46:04 GMT
According to the reference Total Television, Marvin Miller did indeed get letters requesting the million dollars. Anthony (or, more likely, the TV show staff) would reply with play checks made out for a million dollars of good luck.
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