Wheel of Fortune (1975 US game show)

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The original daytime version of Merv Griffin's Wheel of Fortune aired on NBC from January 6, 1975 to June 30, 1989. For seven weeks in 1975-76, it aired in a one-hour format, as NBC tried to copy the success of CBS's recently-expanded The Price Is Right. It was then seen on CBS from July 17, 1989, to January 11, 1991, and again on NBC from January 14, 1991, until its final cancellation on September 20, 1991. It always aired in the late morning, between 10:00 a.m. and noon Eastern Time; for most of its run, NBC carried it at 11:00 a.m.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Chuck Woolery emceed the original "Wheel" pilot episode, "Shopper's Bazaar" in late 1973. After some retooling and a title change to the now famous "Wheel of Fortune", Edd "Kookie" Byrnes hosted a second pilot in 1974. The theme song used for these episodes was "Give It One" by jazz trumpter Maynard Ferguson. Griffin ultimately preferred and chose Woolery as the host. Reportedly, Byrnes had to memorize the vowels offstage, which may have prompted Griffin to pick Woolery.

"Wheel" debuted on January 6, 1975, on NBC at 10:30 EST/9:30 CST. NBC daytime programming chief Lin Bolen purchased the show from Griffin as compensation for cancelling the original version of "Jeopardy!," which had one year remaining on its contract, and which left the air the Friday before "Wheel"'s premiere. A new version of Jeopardy! did return to NBC in 1978, but lasted only six months due to low ratings. After another hiatus, Jeopardy! returned in a syndicated version in 1984, and has been on television ever since. The syndicated versions of "Wheel" and "Jeopardy!" are both distributed by King World, and have been packaged together since 1990.

[edit] Changes

After seven years at the helm, Chuck Woolery left Wheel after a salary dispute with Griffin; his last episode aired on December 25 (Christmas Day), 1981. On the following episode, aired December 28, Pat Sajak replaced him as host. Sajak left the daytime show on January 9, 1989, to host an ill-fated (due in part to its direct competition with Johnny Carson) late-night talk show for CBS. He was replaced by former San Diego Chargers place-kicker Rolf Benirschke, who had no previous television hosting experience, and later admitted that he had never seen a complete episode of Wheel before his hiring by Griffin. Benirschke lasted only six months as host, as the show was cancelled by NBC on June 30, 1989. When it was reincarnated on CBS on July 17 of that year, experienced host Bob Goen was brought in and lasted for the rest of its run, including the 1991 move back to NBC.

The original conception of the show did not include a hostess, as a mechanical puzzle board was constructed for the pilot. However, Susan Stafford was brought in because the letter trilons failed to turn automatically, and was hired as hostess for the show's premiere. However, she left the show in 1982 to pursue humanitarian work. Substitute letter turners, including Summer Bartholomew (who would later be seen on Sale Of The Century), filled in, until Vanna White was picked as Stafford's permanent replacement in fall 1982. (Stafford would return to fill in for a week in 1986.) Vanna White remained as hostess for the rest of the daytime show’s run, working with both of its later hosts.

Announcer Charlie O'Donnell has been "the voice of the Wheel" since the first daytime episode, except from 1980-1988, when Jack Clark announced due to O'Donnell's obligations to other shows. After Clark died in 1988, Los Angeles-area disc jockey M.G. Kelly briefly filled in until O'Donnell returned permanently in early 1989.

Alex Trebek, current host of "Wheel"'s sister show, "Jeopardy!," filled in on this version during an episode in 1980, when Woolery took a brief leave of absence. There was also at least one week of shows in 1980 featuring other game show emcees as contestants, where a featured emcee played for a member of the studio audience. The emcee played against two regular studio contestants. At least one episode from that week — one featuring Tom Kennedy — survives on the game show tape trading circuit. Jim Perry, and Wink Martindale also participated.

In 1987, the daytime version's third round introduced a "jackpot" wedge, the value of which started at $1,000 and increased by that amount each day until won. If the wedge was landed on it would go into the bank of the player who landed on the wedge. If the player could avoid "Bankrupt" and solve the puzzle, the jackpot value would be added to that player's total for that round.

The show underwent a number of format changes when it moved to CBS, which remained after the 1991 return to NBC. The concept of shopping for prizes was eliminated in favor of an all-cash format that the nighttime version had been using successfully since 1987. This allowed the show a faster pace, since time was no longer needed between rounds for contestants to "spend" the money they earned. However, to avoid budget difficulties, the dollar amounts on the Wheel were reduced (see below), contributing to the show's ultimate demise. The Bonus Round also changed at that time; once shopping was eliminated, contestants no longer chose any one of the higher-priced "shopping" prizes from the main game as their bonus prize. Instead, they chose from four or five special bonus prizes, which always included a cash prize of $5,000 (analogous to the $25,000 on the nighttime show).

Ultimately, the daytime show had four permanent hosts and two permanent hostesses in 16 1/2 years, while the nighttime show, in contrast, has had the same host and hostess (Sajak and White) in over 23 years since its premiere in 1983.

[edit] Production

Production of the show moved from NBC Studios in Burbank to CBS Television City in Hollywood when the daytime show first changed networks. Production did not return to NBC when the show briefly rejoined that network in 1991, but remained at Television City until final cancellation.

[edit] Returning champions

The final version of the daytime show allowed victorious contestants to return up to three times (originally up to five). However, the winner on the last Benirschke episode, even though he had not yet won three games, apparently was not brought back as returning champion on Goen’s first show.

[edit] Wheel dollar amounts and prize values

The daytime show always had a lower payout than the nighttime version, but this became especially significant after the move to CBS. The vast majority of the spaces on the wheel had their values cut in half from the shopping version, making them an even smaller fraction of the analogous values on the nighttime show. In the first few weeks of the CBS version, dollar amounts as low as $50 and $75 appeared on the wheel. Although two-digit values soon disappeared and slight increases in the smallest-dollar spaces occurred when the show moved back to NBC, the show remained much smaller-budget than the nighttime version.

The bonus prizes offered on the daytime show were considerably smaller as well, with a $5,000 cash prize instead of $25,000, and cars in the $10,000-$15,000 range instead of the upper five-figure Porsches, motorhomes, and annuities frequently offered on the nighttime show.

To compensate for the smaller cash values on the wheel, which made it difficult for contestants to accumulate enough money to buy vowels, the price of vowels on the daytime show was decreased from $250 to $200 before the end of 1989, and again to $100 for the move back to NBC in 1991.

For comparison, here are the Wheel's dollar values on an episode of each version in 1991, with top values in bold:

Daytime
Rounds 1 and 2:
Bankrupt | 500 | 250 | 150 | 100 | 175 | Free Spin/100 | 300 | 150 | 100 | 400 | 250 |
100 | 200 | 300 | Lose A Turn | 100 | 200 | 125 | 400 | 200 | 125 | 100 | 175
Nighttime
Rounds 1 and 2:
Bankrupt | 750 | 800 | 300 | 200 | 1000(R1)/2500(R2) | Free Spin/500 | 400 | 300 | 200 | 500 | 700 |
200 | 500 | 450 | Lose A Turn | 200 | 400 | 250 | Prize/150 | 400 | 900 | 250 | 350
Daytime
Rounds 3 and 4:
300 | Bankrupt | 150 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 100 | Prize/250 | 100 | 150 | 600 | Bankrupt |
100 | 200 | 250 | Lose A Turn | 400 | Prize/100 | 200 | 300 | 100 | 200 | 1000(R3)/1250(R4) | 100
Nighttime
Round 3:
Bankrupt | 500 | 200 | 550 | 400 | 200 | 900 | 250 | 3500 | 900 | Bankrupt | 500 |
400 | 250 | Lose A Turn | 800 | Prize/150 | 450 | 700 | 300 | 600 | 1000 | 200 | 600
Round 4:
Bankrupt | 500 | 200 | 550 | 400 | 200 | 900 | 250 | Prize/300 | 900 | 350 | 1500 |
Bankrupt | 700 | 500 | 800 | 300 | 5000 | 500 | 250 | 350 | Lose A Turn | 200 | 600

While the original NBC version had lower-priced prizes than the nighttime version, the disparity was made up for by the fact that daytime contestants could return for up to three games, while nighttime players were only eligible for one appearance. However, after the move to CBS, the nighttime version adopted a three-day returning champion rule as well. Thus, the total potential payoff for a player on the daytime show was only about 20% or 25% of that available on the nighttime version. (In the 1991 episodes reviewed for this article, a two-day returning champion who appeared on the daytime show had won less than $17,000, while a two-day champion on the nighttime show aired the same week had won over $65,000.)

[edit] Bonus Round

[edit] 1975-76 version

The U.S. version tinkered with a bonus round format for six weeks in December 1975 and January 1976, when the show was one hour long in competition with "The Price is Right". The winner of the show was asked to choose one of four different puzzles: easy, medium, hard, and difficult; shown the chosen puzzle; asked to specify four consonants and a vowel; and given 15 seconds to solve the puzzle. If he or she was successful, the contestant won a prize based on the chosen difficulty. (For example, the prize for an easy puzzle might be a $1,000 television-stereo console, while a difficult puzzle would provide the show's grand prize, such as a $13,000 Cadillac Eldorado.) The prizes varied widely between episodes.

[edit] 1978 "Star Bonus" version

The "Star Bonus" round was played for a time in September 1978, and allowed a second- or third-place contestant to become champion by solving a Bonus Round-type puzzle.

A special "Star Bonus" disc was placed on the wheel. The disc allowed anyone who claimed it to play the Bonus Round if he or she was the second- or third-place contestant that day. The contestant had to play for a prize that was worth more than the lead of the first-place contestant; just like the hour-long Bonus Round, the prize's value corresponded with the puzzle's difficulty. As before, the contestant was asked to pick four consonants and one vowel, then was given 15 seconds to attempt to solve the puzzle.

Critics of this format point to several flaws, most notably that merely landing on the space did not guarantee the Star Bonus would be played. It was possible for the day's eventual first-place contestant to land on the Star Bonus. Also, the Star Bonus prizes were available during shopping rounds, meaning a dominant player could buy the proverbial $13,000 Chevrolet Corvette and thus render an opponent's Star Bonus token useless. Then, there was the possibility that the Star Bonus token would not be landed on at all, causing some haphazard editing that irked viewers.

[edit] 1981-1991

The show adopted a permanent bonus round on Sajak's first episode. Originally, no cash prize was offered, but a player could choose one of the more expensive "shopping" prizes as a bonus prize. The move to CBS and adoption of the cash format led to a bonus round almost identical to that seen on the nighttime version, but with cheaper prizes. The prizes typically included trips, subcompact cars, or rooms of furniture, and always included a cash prize of $5,000. Prizes were not removed from play when won; while a returning champion could not pick the same prize twice, a new champion could pick the same prize as a previous champion. Some of the daytime bonus prizes doubled as main-game wheel prizes for the syndicated version, providing unintended humor for viewers of both versions. The contestant was always allowed to choose the prize; no "blind draw" was employed on the daytime version.

Throughout the history of the daytime version, a tie game meant that there would be no Bonus Round played that day, but all three players would return on the next show, even if one finished behind the other two.

[edit] Introductions

Over the years, the two versions of the show had different introductions. Until the move to CBS, the only difference was that, unlike on the daytime version, the opening announcement on the nighttime version did not include the word “tonight” in the phrase “just waiting to be won today on Wheel of Fortune!” because some markets originally aired the nighttime version in the late afternoon.

CBS daytime: "From Television City in Hollywood..."
Nighttime (syndicated): "From our studios in Hollywood..."
The nighttime show apparently did not want to mention CBS's Television City facility by name, since it aired on affiliates of all three major networks.
CBS daytime: "One of America's most loved shows!"
Nighttime: "It's America's most-watched game show!"
Since the daytime show did not share the nighttime version's Nielsen ratings success, it couldn't make the same claim, and so settled for the less-definitive "one of America's most loved."
CBS daytime: "The famous Wheel is spinning your way with lots of cash and an assortment of sumptuous prizes!"
Nighttime: "The famous Wheel is spinning your way with lots of cash and an assortment of fabulous prizes! Over $1xx,000 [just waiting to be won/given away so far] this week!"
In this case, "sumptuous" is apparently cheaper than "fabulous."
The big-budget nighttime version was specific about how much money could be (or, late in a successful week, had been) won. The NBC daytime show had previously announced the (smaller) dollar amount that was available, but the low-bucks CBS show just kept it at "lots of cash."
CBS daytime: "And now, here's your host, Bob Goen!"
Nighttime:"And now, here are your host and hostess, Pat Sajak and Vanna White!"
Previously, on both versions of the show, the announcer had introduced the host, who made his entrance and then introduced the hostess. Beginning with the nighttime show's fall 1989 season, host Sajak and hostess White were introduced together and entered the studio arm in arm, as they still do today. The daytime show kept the traditional format at this time.

When the daytime show changed networks again, the reference to Television City was dropped here as well, even though the show's production stayed at CBS after its telecast returned to NBC.
NBC daytime, 1991: "From Hollywood, the famous Wheel is spinning, spinning, spinning! And the players will be winning, winning, winning! Because there's lots of cash, and some fabulous prizes, just waiting to be won today on Wheel of Fortune! With our host, Bob Goen!" [pause] "And our hostess, Vanna White!"
At the point indicated by [pause] in the above introduction, Goen would enter from stage left, say a couple of words, usually just “Hi there!” or “How you doing?”, and announcer Charlie O'Donnell would continue, introducing White, who would be standing at stage right on her way to the puzzle board. Unlike Sajak, Goen never entered the studio together with White.

[edit] Ratings and cancellation

The daytime Wheel had respectably strong ratings for most of its run. From 1978 until 1990, it was the second- or third-most-watched network game show, trailing only "The Price is Right" and sometimes "Family Feud." However, the daytime show never reached its nighttime counterpart's stratospheric level of popularity, as evidenced by the fact that it was cancelled three times in two and one-half years (NBC, summer 1989; CBS, winter 1991; NBC, summer 1991). This was, of course, because the daytime audience, composed mainly of housewives, college students, and children, amounted to only a fraction of the viewers tuned in during the "access hour" (usually 7-8 p.m. Eastern and 6:30-7 Central) in the early evening, when local stations usually broadcast the syndicated version.

In its final months, it was the last NBC network show to air in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern time slot; following its ultimate departure, the network gave that hour back to the affiliates for local or syndicated programming (in the Central time zone, the third hour of the "Today Show" airs there presently). There is no indication that packager Sony has considered reviving the daytime version in the immediate future. However, the nighttime version continues to be the most-watched syndicated television show in the United States.

[edit] Episode status

The original pilot made for NBC, with Edd "Kookie" Byrnes as host, still exists from September 1974; a clip of that was shown in the 3000th episode celebration in November 1998. Most of the Woolery/Stafford episodes are believed to have been destroyed by NBC, which still has yet to be proven; however, known surviving examples circulate among game show tape traders; at least three have been comfirmed to be completely intact. All Sajak/White syndicated episodes are intact, however, and have been shown on GSN.

Many Sajak/Benirschke/Goen daytime episodes exist among tape collectors, though the daytime version has never been rerun on GSN. It is likely that all of Vanna White's episodes have been preserved, since a clip of her first show was played during the 1997 April Fool's episode of Wheel, in the 3000th episode celebration. (Although Vanna's first episode indeed exists, some sources say that most of the remaining daytime episodes up until about 1984 have been destroyed. Some episodes from that era still exist and can be seen at this site.)

Clips from early episodes, including several from the Woolery/Stafford era, early Sajak daytime episodes and Vanna's first show surfaced on the recent E! True Hollywood Story episode chronicling the show's history. A short clip of an intro from a Woolery episode, with O'Donnell announcing, surfaced on the 4000th episode.

[edit] Former personnel

Chuck Woolery went on to host several other game shows, including Scrabble, also on NBC; Love Connection and a revival of The Dating Game in syndication; Greed on Fox; and, presently, Lingo on the GSN cable channel.

Susan Stafford, who left the show to do missionary work, is now a clinical psychologist. Her Website is at http://www.susanstafford.org.

Rolf Benirschke is active on behalf of persons with inflammatory bowel disease and similar disorders. His Website is at http://www.greatcomebacks.com.

Bob Goen spent several years as co-host of Entertainment Tonight; he began hosting an original game on GSN, That's the Question, in September 2006.

Pat Sajak and Vanna White continue to host Wheel of Fortune's nighttime edition, which began taping its 24th season in the summer of 2006.

[edit] Sources

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