McMillions - HBO (2 Viewers)

[TheIronSheik]

I've seen the documentary.  Why do we need a movie?

Foxcatcher and Team Foxcatcher are great examples of where the two can coexist with each other.

 

[Nemesis]

And if you're into these real life high profile stories, I'd suggest you check out the SWINDLED Podcast.
They did a whole episode on the McDonalds Monopoly game back in January:    http://swindledpodcast.com/podcasts/bonus/bonus-the-promotion-redux/

Other episodes / topics include:   

• Flint Mich Water Crisis
  
• Political figures (Local Politicians, Judges, or Congress)
  
• High Profile Clergy   (i recall the Bakers have an episode)
  
• Companies Ignoring Safety 
  
• Revenge Porn
  
• THE MADAM - A Washington D.C. escort agency loses everything after becoming the subject of a federal investigation
  
• THE SURVIVOR - A Spanish woman becomes the president of a survivors group in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.
  
• THE FUNDRAISER - A New Jersey couple raises money on GoFundMe to repay a homeless man for his act of kindness
  
• THE CONTESTANT - A British Army major and his wife devise a plan to cheat the popular television game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.  And Michael Larson's record-breaking performance on Press Your Luck.
  
• THE PHARMA BRO - A young pharmaceutical company CEO named Martin Shkreli raises the price of a drug for a rare disease and becomes the "most hated man in America".
  
• THE CONTRACEPTIVE - A pharmaceutical company looks the other way as its promising new birth control product, the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device (IUD), endangers the lives of more than 2 million women around the world.
  
• THE LEAKBhopal - An American company avoids accountability for its role in an accident at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The effects of the tragedy have lasted decades, accounting for over 20,000 deaths and half a million injured.   Prelude: A cloud of gas sweeps over the Chemical Valley region in West Virginia.
  

The author / speaker presents the info in a deliberate monotone voice and I'll admit, he can be sarcastic or "preachy" at times.  I'm sure some will not like that aspect......but I'm also sure it's not easy to discuss some of these topics in a cheery voice that have affected millions of people.  

Most of these stories I didn't pay attention to since i was a kid during the timeline of the stories or  i don't live near Flint Michigan ....... But hearing them with all of the facts in hindsight help you understand what really happened, and how much they impacted the people involved. 

 

[Statorama]

They start off every episode with the question "how did he get the tickets?" And then proceed not to answer the question. 

THIS.  A hundred times this.

 

[TheIronSheik]

THIS.  A hundred times this.

Again, the documentary is following the path of how the FBI investigation went.  We are learning things in the same order the investigation revealed things.  

 

[TheIronSheik]

I only glimpsed above my last post, but you may want to spolier tag that if it has the answer to how he got the tickets.

 

[Nemesis]

Ok....I deleted my post above..........

SPOILER:     but if you really can't wait to know how Uncle Jerry stole the tickets, you can read the original expose article 
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-an-ex-cop-rigged-mcdonalds-monopoly-game-and-stole-millions

It's a very very long article and gives some better info in some places than the HBO series.
And it seems to give a slightly different info in some areas.
And thankfully, it doesn't spend too much time on that dingbat pseudo-mafia wife (HBO spent WAY TOO much airtime on her)

 

[Ghost Rider]

Strong finish last night. I enjoyed this series. 

 

[belljr]

I'm just confused with the time frame of the informant....

I thought they were already under surveillance when they claimed the informant happened

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I'm just confused with the time frame of the informant....

I thought they were already under surveillance when they claimed the informant happened

You thought who were under surveillance?  And the informant was the very first thing that happened.

 

[shadyridr]

You thought who were under surveillance?  And the informant was the very first thing that happened.

So the informant (ma columbo) started the whole thing AFTER her son died? That confused the hell out of me too. 

 

[belljr]

You thought who were under surveillance?  And the informant was the very first thing that happened.

 I thought the FBI was building a case well before the car accident

 

[shadyridr]

 I thought the FBI was building a case well before the car accident

Me too

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Mr R says the sons died in 98.  The Feds weren't investigating until 2000 or 2001.  Hope this helps.

 

[shadyridr]

Mr R says the sons died in 98.  The Feds weren't investigating until 2000 or 2001.  Hope this helps.

I feel like I have to rewatch the whole series now

 

[TheIronSheik]

I feel like I have to rewatch the whole series now

Me too.  Without the podcast, I might have been a little lost.  And honestly, the podcast wasn't that great.  But that's where they revealed that the show was not following a timeline, but instead unfolding as it was discovered by the FBI.  And that was confusing.  

But I thought the series was really good.  I think it did a good job of showing that sometimes good people make bad decisions.  I felt bad for pretty much everyone involved, except for the main guy.  

 

[belljr]

Mr R says the sons died in 98.  The Feds weren't investigating until 2000 or 2001.  Hope this helps.

This is right!!!   They went into back story of the "winners"  but the tip was called in then

 

[Nemesis]

Me too.  Without the podcast, I might have been a little lost.  And honestly, the podcast wasn't that great.  But that's where they revealed that the show was not following a timeline, but instead unfolding as it was discovered by the FBI.  And that was confusing.  

But I thought the series was really good.  I think it did a good job of showing that sometimes good people make bad decisions.  I felt bad for pretty much everyone involved, except for the main guy.  

Read my post with the link above if you want all of the story.  I actually didn't think the HBO docu-drama was put together that well.  It was confusing at times and rambled in the middle episodes and spent way too much time letting Robin Colombo & the son go off in tangents.  It should have spent more time on the FBI & the case at hand as i found those people were far more interesting to listen to.  It was almost as if there were 2 different directors and they couldn't agree on how to tell the story. 

TIMELINE (as much as i can piece together):

• ???              Jerry Colombo moved from NJ to SC
  
• ???               J. Colombo met Uncle Jerry in Atlanta airport......introduced to the scheme
  
• late 95         J.Colombo wins Dodge Viper......he chooses the $$ instead due to his size
  
• June 96       Robin's father William Fisher was given a $1 million token, with her Virginian brother-in-law also winning the top prize
  
• May 7, 98    As Robin and Jerry drove to Georgia to look for a place to build a new house, they were hit by an F-15 truck on the expressway, hitting a concrete wall after being dragged 250 feet. Colombo was able to crawl from the wreckage, but two weeks later he died after being taken off life support.  Robin survived.
  
• ???               Robin sent to prison for check fraud......FBI visits her in prison and shows her a page with the Org Chart (this means that the FBI had already put together most of info except for how Uncle Jerry was getting the game pieces
  

More info on Robin i thought was funny:
was ultimately among the 21 people indicted by the FBI in the Monopoly scheme, which defrauded McDonald's out of over $20 million. She was initially charged with a count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and multiple counts of mail fraud, the Orlando Sentinel reported.  Before her sentence was announced, Robin saw that she would be doing prison time for her role in the crime ring and made an attempt to run out of the court room. She was ultimately sentenced to 18 months in prison.  During her time in the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution, she met and become friends with Mery Valencia, the former Colombian drug trafficker known by the moniker "La Señora."

Robin turned to the Bible while in prison and subsequently published her life story, "From a Mafia Widow to God's Child," in 2006 with Ed Colton. A new edition of the book will more details from Robin's personal life will be available to the public after the "McMillion$ wraps up on March 9.   "She is working on bettering herself," Snead said of his client's current life in Florida. She has also taken to a new role in life: Grandma. Her son Francesco Gennaro has a 2-year-old daughter Lilah, and her daughter from a previous marriage Jennifer Ethridge has a 19-year-old son Tyler, who raps under the name Slugga Tee.

 

[Capella]

I thought this was pretty good but not great. Not as interesting as I thought it would be. Solid B+, glad I watched, and I’ll never think of it again. 

 

[The Noid]

the show was not following a timeline, but instead unfolding as it was discovered by the FBI. 

Yeah, this is what threw me (and others) off about the IRS lady "informant.' The show wasn't clear that when they show the FBI "connecting" Jerry Columbo to the scheme, he was already dead. I assume they wanted to do the whole backstory and lead-up to the car accident cliffhanger. Definitely could have done a better job with that, and probably cut about 2 episodes worth or fat from the series, but the final episode did give everyone the payoff on the two big questions (who was the informant and how did he steal the pieces.) And the Columbo kid that's now working for McDonald's was a gift ending for the producers.  

 

[supermike80]

This was a very poorly done documentary.  Stopped watching.  Took what could have been laid out in an episode of american greed and stretched it out to 6 hour long snooze fests.  Nope.  

 

[TheIronSheik]

This was a very poorly done documentary.  Stopped watching.  Took what could have been laid out in an episode of american greed and stretched it out to 6 hour long snooze fests.  Nope.  

It was all actually tied together nicely.  For the people who were saying there was a lot of fluff, I think the last episode kind of showed why it was actually all necessary.

 

[supermike80]

It was all actually tied together nicely.  For the people who were saying there was a lot of fluff, I think the last episode kind of showed why it was actually all necessary.

I disagree.  Way way way too much time spent on telling us far more about the characters than we needed to know.  That's my opinion.  It was boring.  

Like most say, all people want to do is follow the money.  

 

[TheIronSheik]

I disagree.  Way way way too much time spent on telling us far more about the characters than we needed to know.  That's my opinion.  It was boring.  

Like most say, all people want to do is follow the money.  

You said you stopped watching.  How would you know if the last episode tied it all together?

 

[supermike80]

You said you stopped watching.  How would you know if the last episode tied it all together?

I don't know if they tied it together.  I don't care. I stopped watching and got bored by the whole thing.  

Stopped after ep 4.  At that point, the stuff I mentioned was just too much to bear, for everyone watching.  We just didn't care that much about the players and the deep dives into their lives, childhoods etc etc etc...snooze

 

[TheIronSheik]

I don't know if they tied it together.  I don't care. I stopped watching and got bored by the whole thing.  

Stopped after ep 4.  At that point, the stuff I mentioned was just too much to bear, for everyone watching.  We just didn't care that much about the players and the deep dives into their lives, childhoods etc etc etc...snooze

But that's my point.  In the end, it didn't end up being "deep dives."  It was all relevant to the story.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Me too.  Without the podcast, I might have been a little lost.  And honestly, the podcast wasn't that great.  But that's where they revealed that the show was not following a timeline, but instead unfolding as it was discovered by the FBI.  And that was confusing.  

But I thought the series was really good.  I think it did a good job of showing that sometimes good people make bad decisions.  I felt bad for pretty much everyone involved, except for the main guy.  

I don’t felt bad for the guy with the mustache who said he’d do it all again tomorrow. He seemed like a real piece of work. I’m blanking out on his name. 

 

[BroncoFreak_2K3]

I don’t felt bad for the guy with the mustache who said he’d do it all again tomorrow. He seemed like a real piece of work. I’m blanking out on his name. 

Glomb

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

But that's my point.  In the end, it didn't end up being "deep dives."  It was all relevant to the story.

Yep.  Sometimes you have to trust the process.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Me too.  Without the podcast, I might have been a little lost.  And honestly, the podcast wasn't that great.  But that's where they revealed that the show was not following a timeline, but instead unfolding as it was discovered by the FBI.  And that was confusing.  

But I thought the series was really good.  I think it did a good job of showing that sometimes good people make bad decisions.  I felt bad for pretty much everyone involved, except for the main guy.  

I don’t felt bad for the guy with the mustache who said he’d do it all again tomorrow. He seemed like a real piece of work. I’m blanking out on his name. 

I didn't feel even a bit sorry for the step-son after the last episode.  While I believe he had no idea about the whole scheme, he sure believed he was trying to defraud some woman out of money that was legally hers.  Nice, Christian behavior.  What a tool.

 

[supermike80]

But that's my point.  In the end, it didn't end up being "deep dives."  It was all relevant to the story.

I can't see that being true.  If you got satisfaction from it, awesome. For me, it took way too long to get anywhere and I moved on to more interesting things

Shame too.  Initially I thought the idea was great and an interesting one.  Mark Wahlberg turned that concept into a lesson on how to bore you to death.

 

[The Noid]

While I believe he had no idea about the whole scheme, he sure believed he was trying to defraud some woman out of money that was legally hers. 

Right. Going with the "I'm not guilty of THIS particular fraud because I thought it was a different fraud" defense was interesting. 

 

[Nemesis]

I can't see that being true.  If you got satisfaction from it, awesome. For me, it took way too long to get anywhere and I moved on to more interesting things

Shame too.  Initially I thought the idea was great and an interesting one.  Mark Wahlberg turned that concept into a lesson on how to bore you to death.

This HBO series definitely lacked polish.......leaves the door Wide Open for the McScam movie to present it better

 

[Nemesis]

Very interesting back story.......especially the Doug Matthews info and the Yellow Suit (and Purple shirt) 

Directors of HBO's hit documentary 'McMillions' look back on the wild finale and a hilarious moment that didn't make the episode
https://www.insider.com/mcmillions-directors-recap-show-finale-2020-3

The sixth and final episode of HBO's "McMillions" aired on Monday night and put a bow on the stranger-than-fiction story of how the FBI uncovered a $24 million decade-long fraud surrounding the McDonald's Monopoly game.   Directors James Lee Hernandez — who learned about the scheme after scrolling through Reddit late one night in 2012 — and Brian Lazarte spent years gaining the trust of FBI agents and "winners" who benefited from the scam (until they got busted in 2001) to recount how it all went down.  It resulted in a documentary series for HBO, produced by Mark Wahlberg's production company, that has received high praise for its colorful characters and fascinating revelations. From breakout star FBI agent Doug Mathews to the Mafia's involvement, the docuseries was a wild ride.   In the finale, all questions are answered. We learn how the scheme's mastermind Jerry Jacobson — known as "Uncle Jerry" in the show — was able to obtain the winning pieces and distribute them to his friends. We also finally learn the identity of the informant who notified the FBI.

Insider chatted with Hernandez and Lazarte about what is uncovered in the final episode. They also look back on some of the memorable moments from the series and explain a moment from fan-favorite Mathews that had to be cut from the episode.  Warning: Major spoilers below if you have not watched the final episode of "McMillions."

There could someday be a one-hour special on Uncle Jerry

Jason Guerrasio: You never got Jerry Jacobson on camera for an interview? Did you guys ever get close?

James Lee Hernandez: It was obviously always the goal. It was a weird obsession with this one person to try to get. Actually, the first phone call that I ever made back in 2013 was to Jerry Jacobson. I spoke to his wife and she was not receptive. So that really kicked off going after the FBI.  But it was something that we constantly did and we reached out in many different ways. We ended up getting to people who were absolutely the closest to him. His son, his ex-wives. We did get close to getting Jerry and we do continue to try because to us, this project was never about doing a cool TV show and walking away. It was a passion project for us and we wanted everyone to tell their stories for themselves and not have everyone tell it for them. So hopefully one day there might be a random one-hour special on HBO on Uncle Jerry. 

Guerrasio: Did it ever get to the point where you scheduled a time to sit down with Jerry?

Brian Lazarte: I actually don't know if we're allowed to say, but there were communications in some capacity. Similar to Rick Dent who was the federal agent who we introduced in the first episode who had the Post-It on his computer that said "McDonald's Monopoly Fraud?" He didn't appear on camera but we met Rick over the course of two days. We sat with him for probably a total of six or seven hours over two days. He shared with us a great deal but he's at a different point in his life and he's moved on from the Bureau and he just didn't want to go on camera. And we respected that.   With Jerry, what we learned is he's at a place in his life that this is very much behind him. He doesn't want to revisit it. And for what it's worth, he doesn't want to hurt anyone else. There's a lot of reasons why someone doesn't want to go on camera for a documentary and most of it has to do with fear and this was an embarrassing moment in his life.

Guerrasio: But I would imagine if Jerry called you guys tomorrow and said he wanted to tell his side you would jump on that.

Hernandez: Oh yeah. Definitely.

Lazarte: If he wants to do a special with us, the door is wide open. 

Guerrasio: Has Jerry even seen the show?

Hernandez: From what we've heard, he has not seen it but he has had the content of it explained to him.

Guerrasio: [Laughs.] OK. 

Hernandez: It's so weird. 

Lazarte: He doesn't have HBO, that was the problem. 

Hernandez: I mean, we can get him a subscription. 

How they found out who the FBI's informant was

Guerrasio: The finale also reveals that the FBI informant was XXXXXXXXX [I intentionally removed to avoid spoiling...go read the link if you want that info].      When were you given that information?

Hernandez: It was much later in making this. It was at the end. And it was just thrown out to us. We were looking into this and talked to so many people. From the FBI side, they would never reveal who the informant was. So we figured we would never know. But we decided when we do our interviews we're just going to ask everyone who they think it is. So there were all these rumors of who was the informant and theories. It took us down this rabbit hole. And we felt they were all plausible.    Then all of a sudden, we did our interview with XXXXXXXXXXXX and in the middle of the interview, they just dropped the bomb on us and told us who it was. We were like, "Did that just happen?"

Guerrasio: So no prompting by you guys, they just came out and said it?

Hernandez: No. Totally unprompted. They were telling us a story about XXXXXXXXXX and then it curved into that reveal. Everyone on the crew just stopped and looked at one another. So the way it's cut in the show is how we learned it. We went through all these theories & then finally got the information from XXXXXX.    

On the moment from the docuseries that was cut because of HBO's legal department

Guerrasio: Jerry Jacobson would really show up to the office with the winning tickets wearing a bulletproof vest?

Hernandez: It was really the charade of security. He would make such a big deal out of it that it became the person who makes the most noise gets the least attention. So to show how secure the process was, he would wear a bulletproof vest. 

Guerrasio: That's just one of many really entertaining & sometimes disturbing factoids you give about Jerry throughout the episodes. Is there one that sticks out that didn't make it in the show?

Hernandez: [Laughs.] Yeah, there is. 

Lazarte: Um, I don't think legally we can tell the most interesting one. 

Guerrasio: Oh, we have to get HBO legal on the phone?

Hernandez: Yeah, they actually made us take it out of the show.

Guerrasio: Really?

Lazarte: It was one of those things where they were like, "Is there evidence to support that?"

Hernandez: The thought was one person could make something up just to get somebody else in trouble. 

Lazarte: One of the least harmless things we didn't get in, and we talked about it on the "McMillions" podcast, was the ribs Jerry made. We would hear that he made phenomenal ribs and his son corroborated this. It was known to be a family secret recipe. And many years later, after Jerry got out of prison, Jerry's son is over his house one day and Jerry is making ribs, and he asks his wife, "Where's my sauce?" and his wife goes, "Here it is," and gives him a container of Sweet Baby Ray's.

Hernandez: Just a regular bottle of barbecue sauce. 

Lazarte: So his son goes, "Wait, so you're telling me this whole time your secret sauce recipe was Sweet Baby Ray's?" [Laughs.] It's a harmless little thing.

Guerrasio: But it speaks a lot about the man. He loved to sell the con.

Hernandez: Yes. It's a microcosm of the whole thing.

What it was like filming FBI Agent Doug Mathews and a deleted scene involving the gold suit

Guerrasio: What has the experience been like to promote this show and just talk to people who are fans of it and get their reaction of Agent Doug Mathews? He will go down as one of the most memorable documentary subjects ever.

Hernandez: He literally is famous now. Any time we do press, people ask about him. But the best reaction is just going on Twitter. People are blown away that he's an actual FBI agent. That he was able to pull all this off and he's a nut. But he's also a brilliant agent. And did it all as a rookie. He also has quite the female following. 

Lazarte: [Laughs.]

Hernandez: One of my favorite posts I've ever seen on Twitter was some woman posted, "The biggest crime with 'McMillions' is this," and it's a close-up shot of Mathews wedding ring. 

Lazarte: He has so many fans and the gold suit is the pinnacle. And I'll tell you this, we mention it in the final podcast episode, there was a deleted scene in the final episode where Doug Mathews decided to wear the gold suit to the first day of the trial. 

Guerrasio: No!

Hernandez: [Assistant US Attorney Mark] Devereaeux loses his mind and kicks Mathews out of the courtroom. So Mathews leaves, he's told to go home and change, and he comes back and he has this purple shirt on and gets kicked out again. 

Guerrasio: Grimace-trolling purple? 

Hernandez: Yeah.

Lazarte: We hope to do more with Doug. We're trying to get a few more things moving. Once he retires from the Bureau, he's still an active agent, so there's a process. He has some time to figure out what he wants to do, but we would love to see him doing more than just hanging out behind the desk. 

Guerrasio: So was that all one interview, Mathews behind the desk?

Lazarte: We interviewed him twice, but that was the one main interview. I mean he was with us for an entire day, you can see the sun going down in one of the shots. He did not stop. It was over six and a half hours. He didn't even want to take a lunch. If it wasn't for our crew needing to eat he would have just kept going. 

On their favorite episodes and what's next

Guerrasio: Do you guys have a favorite episode from the show?

Hernandez: I love every second of it, but episode five is so awesome because you see the two worlds collide. The FBI and the "winners."

Lazarte: I feel episode three for me is one where things shift. It's got a great beginning and the strongest cliffhanger of the series. You realize there's so much more. I love that. 

Guerrasio: "McMillions" marked the first time you two worked together. Going forward, do you still want to continue to team up?

Lazarte: It was an incredible opportunity to collaborate and use our strengths as one and we found that it wasn't just fun but incredibly effective. We are actively pitching other projects, have things in the works as a team. We started our own company, Fun Meter, in line with Doug Mathews' way of life. What hits his "fun meter," as he says in the show. 

Guerrasio: James, this all started in 2012 with you being up late reading Reddit, seeing a small blurb about the scheme and then realizing nothing much had been done about what happened. Is it cool to look back and see how things turned out with the show? Can you even imagine doing another project that is this wild and fascinating to do?

Hernandez: I'd be lying to you if I said yes. When I first read it, I was so interested in wanting to know more. And when I got to the point where I realized no one had done anything about it I felt it was just calling me to do it. I always thought in a negative, how sad I would be if somebody started doing a story on this and it wasn't me. So getting this deep and how it all played out — working with Brian and Mark Wahlberg, and HBO supporting us, and seeing the ads — I'm so proud how the show turned out.  This came from nothing. It happened in history, but the show, hey, anyone can achieve anything if you put in the time and work.