Throwing in the Vowel
When I was a kid, we had very few hardfast rules in my house. One of them was no TV during dinner. That rule was obliterated when the syndicated evening version of Wheel of Fortune entered our kitchen on a nightly basis in the eighties. In the early days, contestants would use their puzzle winnings to buy prizes that were featured on the stage. Eventually, that aside was dropped so the show could squeeze in more of what viewers really wanted: the hangman-like puzzles. My main memory from my early Wheel years was my dad getting irritated by contestants who would say, “I’d like to buy a vowel,” when they already knew the solution to the puzze. Looking back, I learned everything I know about business from these nightly commentaries about unnecessary vowel purchases. The vowels were at least inflation-proof. They cost $250 then and they cost $250 now. About six years ago, Pat Sajak, the longtime host of Wheel, passed Bob Barker of The Price is Right as the longest running host of any gameshow. I watched Sajak host the show with my parents when I was in high school and I could still watch him hosting episodes when my own kids were in high school. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning and Vanna keeps on turning letters (at least until 1997 when she started just touching them instead). And Pat Sajak has hosted for 41 seasons, 8,010 episodes, and about 50,000 puzzles. That’s a lot of blanking puzzles. Today, that run comes to an end. Sajak will step down and Ryan Seacrest will take over. Sajak was originally selected as host by the show’s creator, Merv Griffin (who also created Jeopardy). In addition to hosting Wheel, Sajak had a brief stint as a late night talkshow host and now that he’s retired, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more of his political views which many of us won’t like much. But that’s not a puzzle I care to solve today. Pat Sajak let me watch TV during dinner and, for that alone, I salute him. Here are few articles to fill in the blanks on a long career. NYT (Gift Article): En_ of an E_a: As Pat Sajak Signs Off, a Look Back at Wheel of Fortune.
+ NPR: Pat Sajak departs ‘Wheel of Fortune’ as TV’s last old-school game show host.
+ “In voice as in other ways, Mr. Sajak seemed to have been born for the role. For a start, there are his generically agreeable features: a symmetrical face with apple cheeks, a wide brow, deep-set eyes and starkly white teeth displayed in a smile that resembles a quarter moon hung sideways. Throughout his tenure, serving as host of the Emmy Award-winning show for 41 seasons, he and Ms. White stood as two of the longest-serving faces of any television program in game show history (and somehow he kept his modified feathered ’80s hairstyle throughout).” NYT (Gift Article): Pat Sajak, the Cool, Unflappable, Reliable Host, Signs Off.
+ Next for Sajak, a regional play.
+ Maybe the bigger goodbye will happen when Vanna White leaves the show. After all, it didn’t really take off until she joined. When Sajak first took over the hosting gig from Chuck Woolery, he “did not have big expectations for the low-rated show, expecting his stint to last maybe two years. But ‘Wheel’ started gaining momentum. White replaced Stafford in 1982, and the next year, the show began its evening syndicated run on local stations.” Pat Sajak set for final ‘Wheel of Fortune’ episode after more than four decades.
