So... Alright - Wheel of Facts!

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

Geoff dives into the history of the Wheel of Fortune. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We sit down for to watch TV together at night and I. What do you want to watch tonight? And she goes, I don't know. Let's watch some old wheel reruns. It's not like that or anything. It's just that if it's on and she sees that it's on, she'll go like, oh, let's watch that and then we'll watch, you know, the 15 minutes of it left or whatever. And so anyway, I was watching Wheel the other day.

And I got to thinking about how good Ryan Seacrest is at it. Like you think about it, that has got to be a tough role to walk into because Pat Sajak did it for so long. And I'll look up exactly how long he did it here in a minute. Pat Sajak. He was the host of Wheel of Fortune from 1981 to 2024. So that is, I don't know, a lot. 40 something years, 40 issues. Can you imagine replacing somebody who has been doing it for that long?

I mean, look at what happened over at Jeopardy, right? I don't think Trebek had done it quite as long as Sajak when he died. And they had to replace him with two people, split the show into multiple shows to find rooms for the hosts to grow, and then just kind of see which one stuck. And I guess eventually it ended up being Ken Jennings.

I don't know if Mylon is still doing like the celebrity version or not, if it's just whittled down to him, but he seems to be doing the base show. Anyway, Jeopardy has survived and I would even go so far as to say that it's thriving again, but it's taken a long time, taken a long time. Now, Ken Jennings was a contestant

with a lot of personality and you know, the most successful contestant with a lot of personality, and the most successful contestant with a lot of personality, but he wasn't a host. So it takes some time to acclimate to that, right? However, Ryan Seacrest, to be fair, he was the host of American Idol for a million years. He's also had his Ryan Seacrest radio show. He does the Rock in New York, the Dick Clark's Rock in New Year's Eve stuff.

He's probably about as polished as a person could be and about as safe a choice as you can make to go into a role like that. But still, man, there's gotta be a lot of Sajak heads out there that have been watching nothing but wheel their entire life who have no interest in seeing somebody like Seacrest come in. I know that there was a lot of controversy early on.

I remember reading that a lot of people were upset and not happy, but I gotta say, I've watched like four or five episodes and he's fine. Like I don't miss Pat Sajak at all. I have no problem with Pat Sajak other than I think he was a little weird on social media a few times and they had to shut him up. But he's fine.

Like I liked that he was kind of sarcastic. I appreciated that. I always thought that there was a mean streak to him. He kind of reminds me of a Lucille Ball in a sense that like, I think he was very good at what he did and he was reasonably funny. She was brilliant.

But you could tell there wasn't a lot of joy behind the eyes, you know? Like they didn't seem to be enjoying it as they were doing it. Lucille Ball was famously kind of one of the saddest, unhappiest people in show business, yet she was the most beloved and the silliest and funniest. And I kind of get that same vibe from or I always did get that same vibe from Sajak, that there was a there was some sort of darkness locked in there, discontent.

But that's me pushing my Sajak feelings on you. The whole point of this was just to say that I thought. See, I'm not. By the way, I'm not a Seacrest fan. Don't get it wrong. I'm not like I'm not staying in Ryan Seacrest or anything. I could give two shits about the guy one way or the other. He's he's I'm completely and totally Seacrest ambivalent. But I do recognize that that was not an easy situation to walk into.

Probably really lucky the van has stayed to kind of ease the transition. I think she's there till 2026, at least from what I read. And that probably made it a little bit easier. But kudos. Not an easy job to walk into. And I don made it a little bit easier, but kudos. Not an easy job to walk into, and I don't miss Pat Sajak at all. I feel like the show has gone on and is just, if anything, it's a little smoother, a little better. He's a little, he just, he's a little softer, you know?

He's a little, it's weird to say that Pat Sajak was edgy. He wasn't, but like I said, there was just like a, there was the vibe of a dude who'd been doing it for a really long time and who was really good at it and who Probably had a lot of disdain for it and for the contestants was always the impression I got you don't get that from Seacrest But that got me thinking about the Wheel of Fortune in general and how When I was a kid, the Wheel of Fortune has been around my entire life It has been on television my entire life and my entire life. It has been on television my entire life. And my entire life it has been a show for old people.

I feel like everybody watches it. Everybody knows about it. Everybody is familiar. And if it's on, they'll tune in for a puzzle or two. But I feel like it's a show that, at least for me as a kid, that always appealed to old people. And then when I became an adult, it still felt like a show that appealed to old people. And then when I became an adult, it still felt like a show that appealed to old people.

And now that I'm an old person, it feels like a show that appeals to people older than me. I feel like I'm always just a little bit too young to be the Wheel of Fortune Target demo. But I wonder who their Target demo is, right? It's on traditional television. It's on right after the news, the nightly news. So that's their lead in. It's gotta right after the news, the nightly news, so that's their lead in.

It's gotta be old people. But it seems to be thriving. When you tune in, the sets are fancier than ever. They're giving away more money than ever. They still travel all over the US. They do those travel weeks where they explore the outdoors or they explore historical cities or whatever. So it seems to be making money for them.

But who watches it? Do you watch Wheel of Fortune? Do you consider yourself a wheel fan? Like my wife considers herself a fan of Wheel of Fortune. I would never probably say that, but I have no issue with it. I would love to know how people feel about game shows in 2024. Let's look up a little bit about Wheel of Fortune. What do we got here?

Fortune facts. Did you know that Wheel of Fortune ranks as the longest running syndicated game show in the United States, which makes complete and total sense to me and was where I was going with this. Surely it's got to be the longest continually running game show, right? It has been going since January 6th, 1975. So Wheel of Fortune was born six months

and 13 days before I was born. So Wheel of Fortune has literally been around my entire life. Jesus Christ, hold on a second. So it ranks as the longest running syndicated game show in the US with 8,000 episodes taped and aired as of June 7th, 2024. So more than that now.

The original Wheel was a network daytime series. That's right. It used to be on daytime. Are you old enough to remember when Wheel of Fortune was a daytime show? I just realized I am. It was probably the 90s before it became an evening show, right? Let's see. Uh, yeah, it ran on NBC from, didn't it jump networks too?

Why am I getting ahead of myself? That's right in front of me. The original version, daytime series ran on NBC from January 6th, 1975 to June 30th, 1989. So it had a good 14 year run there and then subsequently aired on CBS, ha ha, from June 17th, so they took 17 days off there, to January 11th, 1991. So it was on CBS from July of 89 to January of 91,

so like a year and a half, and then it came back January 14th, 91 to NBC. Huh. And then it was canceled on September 20th, 1991. I didn't know this show got canceled. I remembered it jumping networks briefly, but okay. So it was on, it was canceled on September 20th, 1991. The network daytime and syndicated nighttime versions aired concurrently from 83 until the former's conclusion.

Oh! The fucking show was on twice a day? Was it on daytime and nighttime at the same time? Oh, right. Pat Sajak wasn't the original host, obviously, if he came in in 81. Chuck Woolery, who's like the lab grown game show host and Susan Stafford. Woolery left in 81 and was replaced by Sajak. Sajak left the network version in 89 to host his own late night talk show. I remember that while remaining host of the nighttime version of the wheel.

He was replaced in the daytime by Rolf by Rolf Bineski, who, oh, this guy was a Chargers football player. Rolf Bineski is an American former professional football player who was a place kicker in the NFL. He played from the Chargers from 77 to 86. He's probably most known for missing a 27 yard game winning field goal in overtime playoff game known as the Epic in Miami. Oh man. Oh, but then he got a chance.

He got a second chance and got hit a 29 yard or 14 minutes later to win the game. That's funny. Following his retirement, he was hired by Merv Griffin to replace Pat Sajak. No shit. Wonder what he did. Oh, he lives with ulcerative colitis. Oh, poor dude. Uh, life after football. Yeah, he was the host from January to June 89 after Sajak left the daytime version. He continued to host the nighttime version when the daytime version. He continued to host the nighttime version. When the daytime version moved to CBS. Ah, so as the daytime version moved to CBS, but the nighttime version stayed at NBC. This is bizarre. Bob Goen succeeded him as the host. Who's Bob Goen? Bob Goen is an American game show

NC and television personality best known for his work on entertainment tonight between 93 and 2004 and his two years hosting the daytime Wheel of Fortune this dude Okay, well he's I don't recognize him. I must have seen him at some point in my life, but let's see He hosted perfect match the home shopping Shopping Game, Blackout, The Hollywood Game, Born Lucky, that's the question. God, these are a lot of shows I don't know that I've heard of. He served as the host for the Name That Tune video game released for the Phillips CD-i

in 1993. Let's see, what else did he do? He hosted the traveling versions of Family Feud and the Price is Right. Okay, so he's like the, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but like in case of emergency break host class kind of guy. That makes sense. That's cool.

And he was anchor ET for a very long time, apparently. But that's not what we're talking about. So Vanna White has worn, if there've been more than 8,000 shows, and here about. So Vanna White has worn, if there've been more than 8,000 shows, and here it is, Vanna White, 67, has worn more than 8,000 different outfits while at the puzzle board. The dresses are all returned to the designers

after being worn, but the shoes and the jewelry she sports are from her own closet. So she wears her own shoes and jewelry. She gets a new outfit every night, but then it's returned to the designer. Pat Sajak is a world record holder, is the longest serving host of a national non-sports program. Good for him.

He's in the Guinness World Records. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. How about that? OK, here we go. This is interesting. Since its syndication debut in 1983, the Wheel has awarded more than $250 million in cash and prizes to its contestants. The million dollar wedge was introduced in 2008.

And since then, there have been three contestants who have each won a million dollars. So it's been around since 2008. It's 2024. That's 16 years. Please don't check that math. 16 years. And in 16 years, three people have won a million dollars. So it was smart of them to put that in there because it doesn't happen often. The spinning wheel sound is legit. There are 73 stainless steel pins in the wheel that fly past the three hard rubber flippers that give it that unmistakable sound.

In 1997, the puzzle board went from analog to digital. So now Vanna just touches the monitor instead of spinning the letter. That's fine, I guess. Back in the old days, they used to shop for prizes, kind of like Price is Right. But I guess they stopped that in 1987. And here's an interesting one, maybe the most interesting of it all. I'll I'll present it to you as a question and let you try to answer it yourself. What was Vanna White's first letter turn?

What letter did she turn first? I have your answer. The first letter Vanna White ever turned was the letter T in the puzzle General Hospital. There you go. Speaking of Vanna White, she was chosen from 200 applicants to cohost the show with Sajak and replace Susan Stafford in 1982. I don't know who Susan Stafford is, do I? You ever do a thing where you're like, I don't know who that is.

And then you look up and you're like, I absolutely do know who that is. Why is my command button not working? Oh, there we go. Oh, I say, oh, like I recognize her. Let's look up, do you know who Susan Stafford is? She was born in 1944. She's an American former model, actress, and television host. She was married to Dick Embersol.

Career, after leaving Wheel of Fortune, she earned a BA in nutrition and an MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University and a PhD in clinical psychology from the unaccredited Pacific Western University. During this time, Stafford returned to television in 88 as host of a live which aired on the Christian Broadcasting Network and in syndication. In 2003, she made her first game show appearance since Wheel of Fortune appearing on Hollywood Squares. That's cool. Man, she had she clearly had larger ambitions than television and academia and seemed to thrive there.

Good for her. In 2011, she published her first book, Stop the Wheel. I want to get off. That's funny That's funny. I wonder if it's any good. I should read that Do you guys want to know how much the wheel weighs cuz I do and now I know the wheel weighs 2400 pounds so over a ton jeez Louise The current puzzle board is made up of 52 touchscreen television monitors turned on their sides. The price of a vowel has not been adjusted for inflation.

It was $250 in 1983 and it is $250 in 2024. There are 24 prize envelopes on the bonus wheel. I like the bonus wheel. I liked when they added that. Oh, that's interesting. There's a screen off camera that shows the host how many times a chosen letter appears in the puzzle. Well, there would have to be, right?

The theme song, Big Wheels, was created by Alan Thicke. No shit. But Merv Griffin wrote his own theme. No shit. When the show travels, they travel with more than one million pounds of equipment. Good Lord. When was the last time you watched Wheel of Fortune?

Have you ever watched Wheel of Fortune? If you're not in the US, are you familiar with Wheel of Fortune? Does your country have a version of Wheel of Fortune? Do your grandparents watch Wheel of Fortune? I'd love to know. Email me at ericatjeffsboss.com. Song of the episode is gonna be

Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson. One of my first favorite songs when I got into music, I remember, I wanna say I was in the fifth or sixth grade, I got this tape called Party Time 50s. And on it was the Wanda Jackson song, Let's Have a Party. And I've loved that song since the fifth grade. I still love that song. Recently, I was going through a catalog and I stumbled on Funnel of Love,

which to my knowledge, I had never heard until maybe a year ago. And it is such a good fucking song. And it's actually, I think, better than Let's Have a Party. So there you go. Wanda Jackson. Enjoy that one. and I'll see you next week. All right.