Pilot (S01E01)

Years ago, as a student at Detroit's West Lakefield High School, Ray Drecker was athletic, popular, and destined for success. Today, as a West Lakefield teacher and coach of the varsity basketball team (which is on an unprecedented losing streak), he's underpaid, uninsured, and embittered that his wife of 20 years (Anne Heche) has left him for her dermatologist. After a fire damages the rundown lakeside home he inherited from his parents, Ray's sagging fortunes reach an all-time low when his twin children Darby and Damon, who had been living with him, move in with their mom and her smug hubby, Ronnie Haxon (Eddie Jemison). Lonely, run-down and at wit's end, Ray decides to attend a local self-help class whose mantra is to identify a personal "winning tool" to market for financial success. After a not-sofulfilling encounter with a fellow attendee - an ex-flame and would-be poet named Tanya Skagle (Jane Adams) - Ray has a "eureka" moment. With the help of Tanya, Ray resolves to take advantage of his greatest asset, in hopes of changing his fortunes in a big way. (Home Box Office)