Wheel of Fortune/Trivia

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General Trivia:

• On March 6, 1986, Wheel of Fortune became the first Game Show to have Closed Captioning.
• The Wheel was designed by Ed Flesh, and was built from cardboard, paint, and light bulbs. The current Wheel weighs 2,400 pounds, is made of stainless steel, and is framed with Plexiglas.
• The puzzle board has 52 touch-activated monitors.

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Trivia Tropes:

• Blooper:
  • At least twice, a puzzle was thrown out, but the original puzzle that was thrown out was visible for a moment before the replacement one was.
  • The prize wedges (including the $10,000/Million-Dollar Wedge) and/or Free Spin have often been in the wrong spots. This is a pretty major mistake to make, particularly with the Million-Dollar Wedge, as it has skinny Bankrupts on it ^[1]. At least twice, one was on the top dollar amount; the Surprise wedge on October 26, 1992, and the Free Spin on May 1, 1995 (which was picked up, but no cash was given with it as per the rules at the time).
  • On January 9, 1997 they had the $10,000 Wedge's reverse used for Round 2.
  • On a May 2011 episode, they somehow forgot to put the Million-Dollar Wedge on the Wheel.
  • On a few occasions, the outer edge of the Wheel went out of alignment, leading to at least one spin that Pat incorrectly identified.
  • At least two Bonus Rounds where a letter was revealed that shouldn't have been. Both were won.
  • The 1996-97 season had many errors in placing the Wheel templates. For the first two weeks, they managed to have an entire round where the only Bankrupts on the Wheel were those on the $10,000 Wedge. (It should be noted that three weeks into the season, they gave up on the extra templates and just used the Round 3 template for the entire game, changing only the top dollar amount and adding a second Bankrupt in Round 2.)
  • After they changed the Wheel templates, the aforementioned second Bankrupt was Off-Model for about a month afterward.
  • Several graphic errors. These include:
    • A Prize Puzzle bug showing up in a round that wasn't a Prize Puzzle.
    • The "fireworks" effect (used for Jackpot wins) being used when the Jackpot wasn't won.
    • Spins from wrong rounds or even different episodes being dubbed in (most likely because the Wheel camera didn't catch the actual spin). In some particularly obvious cases, these dubbed-in spins give the impression of, say, a Prize Wedge suddenly reappearing on the Wheel. On one episode, the post-production "over the Wheel" shot was obviously a different Mystery Wedge than the one the contestant had just landed on.
    • The category name at the bottom of the screen disappearing, or the wrong one being put up.
    • There was a "Get Out of Town" week in October 2010. Except for the title card, it used the same animation as a later "Road Trip" week in April 2011. Two of the "Road Trip" episodes had the "Get Out of Town" title cards left in by mistake.
    • On an April 2011 episode, a puzzle in the main game revealed one letter at a time (which is how unsolved bonus puzzles are revealed after time runs out) instead of all at once like it was supposed to. Conversely, there was an earlier Bonus Round where an unsolved bonus puzzle revealed in the fashion that solved ones do — the whole answer filling in at once and the border flashing.
  • The lights went out after the Bonus Round on April 20, 2012. Surprisingly, this was left in.
  • Several sound effect errors. These include:
    • Sounding the buzzer on a correct letter.
    • Failing to sound the buzzer on an incorrect letter.
    • Sounding both the buzzer and the "correct letter" ding on a correct letter.
    • On October 3, 1988 (the first episode with the current Bonus Round rules), in the Round 3 puzzle, when there were only vowels left, the Bankrupt slide whistle sounded instead of the "only vowels remain" beep.
• Fan Community Nicknames: "Wheel Watchers". The term was coined in 1987 to go along with an ad campaign that Sajak supposedly disliked ("I'm a Wheel watcher!"), and the show created a "Wheel Watchers Club" in 2003 to make prizes and cash available to home viewers.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Most of the hosts were known for something else first, although in most cases Wheel was their first TV gig.
  • Chuck Woolery was one-half of the One-Hit Wonder psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde ("Naturally Stoned"), and was a Country Music singer while hosting Wheel. Later, of course, he'd be famous for hosting Love Connection, Scrabble, Greed and Lingo.
  • Pat Sajak was a disc jockey, and later a weatherman at KNBC in Los Angeles. He had hosted a few unsold game show pilots prior to taking over Wheel, one of which was a "Simon"-like game for Ralph Edwards called Press Your Luck (no relation to the game with the Whammy). Ironically, despite the fact that Pat was already employed by NBC, then NBC president and CEO Fred Silverman actually rejected his hiring for Wheel, claiming that he was too local. Merv Griffin responded by imposing a moratorium on new tapings until Pat was hired. Pat finally began hosting when Silverman was ousted due to repeated programming failures and replaced by MTM Enterprises co-founder and president Grant Tinker, who previously knew Griffin when he worked at NBC as a network assistant during the mid-1960s and, in fact, had convinced Mort Werner, NBC's then senior vice president for programming and talent, to green light Griffin's other most well-known creation, Jeopardy!
  • Rolf Benirschke was a retired place kicker for the San Diego Chargers. Wheel was his only real TV role, and it was rumored for years that he didn't like talking about the whole thing; this was more or less squashed by Rolf himself upon his contributions to the show's E! True Hollywood Story.
  • Bob Goen was the host of Blackout, Born Lucky and a few other short-lived game shows; he would later become an Entertainment Tonight host.
  • David Sidoni was occasionally seen on Roundhouse, and later hosted a short-lived game show adaptation of Mad Libs.
  • Alex Trebek guest-hosted for a week in August 1980, plus April Fool's Day 1997; at the time of his first appearance he was notable for hosting High Rollers, while at the time of his second he was notable for hosting Jeopardy!
  • This also applies to the co-hosts:
    • Susan Stafford had no other on-screen roles except a guest appearance on a week of The Hollywood Squares in 2002. However, she was known at the time for her marriage to Dick Ebersol, then the producer of Saturday Night Live and NBC's vice president of late night programming, and briefly worked as a vice-president at Jack Barry-Dan Enright productions, in addition to becoming Dan Enright's companion for many years later on. She left Wheel voluntarily to do charity work in 1982, but briefly returned as a substitute in 1986.
    • Post-Stafford substitutes included Summer Bartholomew (who had previously substituted for a 1979 taping when Susan was unavailable) and Vicki Iovine. Bartholomew was a former Miss USA who would later co-host Sale of the Century, while Iovine is known as a Playboy playmate.
    • Pretty much the only notability Vanna White had before taking over was as a contestant on The Price Is Right. She also did some low-level acting in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the TV movie Goddess of Love on NBC.
    • Tamika Ray, who did the voice and mo-cap for "Cyber Lucy" on Wheel 2000, is currently the female co-host of Extra.
• Hey, It's That Sound: Any category that came with a bonus question (such as Clue, where the puzzle described an object that the contestant could then identify for a bonus) was accompanied by a set of chimes. This chime was an abridged version of the chimes used on the Wink Martindale version of High Rollers when someone rolled a double.
• Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Charlie O'Donnell was originally a DJ. He announced American Bandstand for many years, and was the announcer on several Jack Barry-Dan Enright game shows (The Joker's Wild, Tic-Tac-Dough, |Bullseye and Hot Potato).
  • Jack Clark announced on Password, The $25,000 Pyramid, Split Second and Eye Guess. He was also the host of The Cross Wits (which, incidentally, like Pat Sajak's unsold Press Your Luck pilot, was also a Ralph Edwards production) and several unsold game show pilots.
  • The same goes for pretty much everyone who's ever filled in: veterans Don Morrow, Don Pardo and Johnny Gilbert; former The Price Is Right announcer Rich Fields; radio hosts M.G. Kelly and Jim Thornton (who, incidentally, spent some time filling in on Price after Rod Roddy's death); Deal or No Deal announcer Joe Cipriano; and John Cramer, who announced several other game shows produced by Sony in the 1990s and 2000s. Averted with sub-announcer Lora Cain, who has practically no credits besides a single character in Fallout: New Vegas.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Almost all daytime episodes through about Spring 1985 were recorded over as per company policy, with GSN holding everything afterward. All three pilots and the premiere exist, as do various episodes in private collections, although Benirschke and Goen haven't been rerun and are very rarely seen otherwise. An extensive, but likely not comprehensive, list of what's known to exist (and what's known to circulate from 1985-91) can be found here.
• Missing Episode: At least three episodes had entire puzzles edited out:
  • On November 2, 1992, they edited out the Round 2 puzzle VANNA'S PREGNANT because she miscarried between taping and airing. Viewers instead saw a three-minute spiel on San Francisco (where they were taping at the time) narrated by Charlie. It ended with a post-production shot of Pat standing at the puzzle board, announcing that a contestant won $1,350 that round.
  • After Hurricane Katrina hit, two episodes that taped in New Orleans and aired in November 2005 each had one puzzle edited out because it was thought that the answers might be insensitive to hurricane victims. In their place were clips of Pat and Vanna asking for Red Cross donations. When the episodes reran the next summer, one puzzle was restored, but the other was replaced with a clip of Pat and Vanna thanking those who donated.
  • Katrina also caused another type of missing episode. They were supposed to tape a family week in New Orleans, but had to cancel it because of the hurricane. The contestants who were supposed to show up on that week ended up appearing on a week of episodes taped in Culver City later in the season.
  • There are possibly other episodes where puzzles were edited out and replaced. These were usually due to technical glitches that happen during gameplay of that particular puzzle or an inadvertently revealed solution (partial or full). The announcer will give a disclaimer at the show's end if said incident occurred.
• Name's the Same:
  • CBS had a game show in 1952-53 also called Wheel of Fortune, but it awarded prizes to people who had done good deeds.
  • They have had two different categories called Fill In the Blank, which even overlapped for about a year. They eventually renamed the older of the two categories Next Line Please.
• Screwed by the Network: Very nearly happened twice during Chuck's era alone, both in 1980.
  • The first ousting nearly came when NBC was trying to figure out what three games would be canned to make way for The David Letterman Show. Mock schedules were drawn up, one of which had Wheel ousted after six and a half years. Slightly smarter heads prevailed, and the victims ended up being Chain Reaction, High Rollers and The Hollywood Squares. Chuck and Susan went so far as to address the rumors on May 7, stating that the show was not canned.
  • The second (according to game show announcer Randy West) was even worse because Fred Silverman had actually issued the order. The intended farewell, featuring an appearance by Chuck's wife Joann, was taped for air on August 1...but smarter heads again prevailed and the victim was the last third of Letterman's 90-minute show. Charlie O'Donnell, by this point committed to the soon-to-debut Toni Tennille Show, was replaced by Don Morrow for the following week and Jack Clark on August 11.
• Throw It In:
  • The mere presence of a letter-turner on the show. While filming the second pilot, they didn't have time to finish building the puzzle board, so Susan was brought in to turn the letters. When the show got picked up, they just went with it.
  • On several occasions, a letter has refused to reveal after being lit up, leading to Vanna repeatedly touching it until it finally lights up. This rarely gets edited out.
  • On January 29, 2007, the paired contestants playing hit Bankrupt with a Wild Card in tow. Hitting Bankrupt means forfeiting the Wild Card, but Pat often forgot this rule for most of the card's first season. Somehow, no one noticed that the contestants still had an undeserved Wild Card, and they even went to the bonus round with it...but then failed to solve the bonus puzzle even with the help of the fifth letter that the Wild Card offered.
• Uncanceled: The daytime version, three times.
• What Could Have Been: Among those who tried out for host after Pat left were tennis player Jimmy Connors and ESPN sports reporter Tim Brando, the latter of whom reportedly did so well that Merv Griffin stated that Btando "could host the show tomorrow". Then-announcer M.G. Kelly's official Web site has a video that looks a whole lot like an audition, although this is uncertain.
• The Wiki Rule: (ding)
• Word of God:
  • Edd Byrnes said he was drunk when he hosted the pilots. It shows.
  • Pat said on a now-defunct corner of Sony's Web site that they eliminated returning champions because they thought it was unfair to contestants who had good puzzle-solving skills but poor luck with the Wheel or vice versa.

1. ↑ (the wedge is normally over $800, but was over $550 by mistake; one contestant hit one of the Bankrupts on its edge, and another hit the edge of the $800, when normally these would've resulted in $550 and Bankrupt respectively)