The odds of one network picking up a pilot made by another are about equal to the odds of the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl, the Sabres winning the Stanley Cup and County Executive Joel Giambra winning an award as Financial Planner of the Year.

"To actually have a second chance is like winning the lottery, I have to say," said McCarthy in Los Angeles.

How did she react when NBC came to the rescue?

"I think the way I'd probably react is if I actually won the lottery, which is become a little nauseous," said McCarthy, a graduate of Mount St. Mary's in Kenmore.

"You don't just get a show on the air, you actually have to write them, which is the hard part," added McCarthy, who graduated from Boston University in 1984. "I was just thrilled. I couldn't believe it. It was the first time I've written a pilot, it was my first shot at development and to actually get something on the air. The odds are so slim. It's terrific."

"Windfall" stars Luke Perry, Jason Gedrick and several other great-looking young men and women whose lives change for the better or worse after getting rich. It is scheduled to begin airing midseason.

Like several successful Buffalo writers, McCarthy has inserted some area references in her script. "I think you'll hear a number of things," said McCarthy. "There is a back story that talks about one of the characters growing up on an island between Buffalo and Canada."

McCarthy, whose family remains in Western New York, didn't take the typical path to become a television writer for such shows as "Felicity," "CSI: Miami," Beverly Hills 90210," "Cover Me," "The Handler" and the vampire series, "Kindred: The Embraced."

You could say she lucked into television. "It's funny," said McCarthy. "I always say I grew up in Buffalo and it's not like you meet people every day who go into show business and become television writers. Yet there's Tom Fontana, David Milch, Diane English, Tony Yerkovich. But I didn't know any of that until I was at a (Santa Monica) restaurant called the Buffalo Club. There's a map of Grand Island behind the bar. I thought, "what the heck is going on here?' It turned out all these TV writers are from Buffalo."

She always wrote short stories and plays but never thought of herself as a writer. It was just an outlet for her. Television was far from her plans.

"I think I tried to pursue everything but,'' said McCarthy. "I thought of becoming a lawyer, then I thought of working in business and then I went up to Alaska and worked in a cannery. Gravity just sort of pulled me to (TV). I got a job first in public relations, then in advertising. In all of these jobs, I was just writing anyway."

A friend read one of her plays and suggested she try to write for television. While working in advertising in New York City, she walked past the offices of the daytime soap, "All My Children," went in and asked for a writing job.

"I thought, my mom watches "All My Children,' maybe if I did that for a living she would think I had done well,'' said McCarthy, whose parents are now deceased.

She started as an intern at "All My Children" and "pretty soon" became the head writer of the sister show, "Loving."

After meeting Fontana at a Writer's Guild meeting, she was inspired to watch his police series, "Homicide," and write a "Homicide' script as a sample for her agent to send around.

"It was just more as an exercise to see if I could write something like that,'' said McCarthy. Famed producer David E. Kelley read the script and hired her to be on the staff of a show that never aired. She was in Hollywood now and it wasn't long before she landed writing jobs on several of the series mentioned above before writing "Windfall."

Now McCarthy faces more long odds. About 80 to 90 percent of new fall shows fail, a statistic that would make any producer a little nauseous. But at least she has the support of NBC's Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.

"It's very good," said Reilly of "Windfall."

"I thought the premise was one of those sort of obvious ideas that somebody should do. It serves up the drama because on the one hand it is your dreams coming true and the other hand it is be careful what you wish for."

Hmm. That sounds like something McCarthy can relate to now that she is about to get her first series on the air.