Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Amid cultural twists and turns, ‘Wheel of Fortune’ plays on in 27th season

Wheel of Fortune

Vanna White and Pat Sajak.

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Vanna and Pat.

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Hey! It's V_nn_ Wh_t_.

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Pat Sajak with Las Vegas contestants (from left), Davina Albanese, Michelle Allen and Todd Knight.

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Pat Sajak and contestant Michelle Allen.

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Todd Knight, awash in cash.

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Davina Albanese, clinging to Grand Cayman dreams.

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The "Wheel's" Vegas-ized stage.

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"Wheel" fans (from left) Matt Safran, Elizabeth Schaller, VIrginia Lanier and Helen Shelton.

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Virginia Lanier, Helen Shelton, Elizabeth Schaller and Matt Safran, livin' the dream on the "Wheel" stage.

The “toss up” puzzle is unveiled, and immediately you shout the answer -- but only in your head, because you are not at home watching “Wheel of Fortune,” where you can scream at the screen with impunity. This is a live taping of “Wheel,” in a ballroom at the Sands Expo Center, and to actually shout the answer will lead to the automatic removal of the puzzle from the game. Those seated around you, who might be from North Las Vegas or North Dakota, might glare and hiss, and maybe you will feel shame.

But it’s SO easy, this one. Three words with four letters lit. A, S, V, G.

Vanna White strides to the puzzle, and the woman who knows all the letters is still a hot number. The 52-year-old tile-turner is glittering in a gold Camille Flawless gown overlain with dark-green sequined flowers. The longtime hostess is smoothed out, shimmering in a formal dress aptly given a bedazzled Liberace treatment for the Vegas adventure.

Amid banks of “Wheel” slot machines assembled across the set, Vanna saunters purposefully to the board (she walks nowhere onstage without a clear objective) and flips the glowing letters so the puzzle reads: _ _ _A L _ _ V_ _ _ S. The clue is, “Title.” Because this show won’t air until the week of Sept. 14-18, those reporting on the two weeks of taping in Las Vegas (which began Friday and conclude Tuesday at the Sands Expo Center, down the long walkway from the Blue Man Group and Wayne Brady theaters at The Venetian), have agreed not to reveal any of the game show’s results. But for a moment there is a pause. The contestants, all of them from Las Vegas, gaze blankly at the puzzle board. You’re thinking, come on, because the game is always easier for those watching than those competing. One contestant, suddenly and certainly, calls the answer, and a sense of relief washes over the crowd of about 2,500. We applaud, and a few of us call out, “Yeah!”

Why? Because this is the “Wheel.” You can’t help but be drawn into the action. Only a live betting line could make this show more appealing.

The trip to Vegas, the show’s second in five years and fourth overall, is to crack the “Wheel’s” 27th season. That benchmark discounts the show’s first incarnation, from 1975-1983, when it aired during the day. It is an amazing run for a show that some claim is no more difficult to master than learning the alphabet (those detractors did not see the show from about 20 years ago when a contestant guessed "Philharmonic Orchestra" with only the "P" displayed). Over the past couple of days, I’ve twice visited the “Wheel” set to figure out its long-lasting appeal. I think it can be explained by a few long-lasting characteristics:

Familiarity: As it happened, I talked with Vanna and 62-year-old host Pat Sajak -- who supplanted Chuck Woolery in 1983, when the show went to the p.m. -- yesterday, the day after Walter Cronkite died. What would Sajak have in common with Walter Cronkite? “I have his phone number on my list of contacts,” Sajak said, grinning while seated at a round table in the Sands temporary press area. “That impress you? Actually, I did not know him very well, but he was definitely synonymous with the big events of our lives, the walk on the moon, Kennedy’s assassination.” I offer that maybe there is a connection in that Cronkite was a reassuring figure in news media, where Sajak, White and the “Wheel” are similarly familiar in the entertainment media. “I think there is something to that, knowing what you’re going to get when you tune in. Let’s face it, we’re not the highest-tech show out there. We could change things up, get rid of the ‘clunk-clunk-clunk’ of the wheel. We don’t actually need Vanna to turn the letters, you know? You do walk a tightrope in trying to be contemporary but keep the things that have worked over the years. Anecdotally, I’ve heard that a lot of the appeal is personal.”

As White said during an interview a few minutes later, “People just like knowing we’re there at the same time every night. It’s something you can plan for. Even if you’re not watching every single night, it’s reassuring we’re there … it’s reassuring to me, at least, after all these years (laughs).”

Universal appeal: Consider the first four fans to arrive on Friday’s opening day of taping, two couples who had been following “Wheel” since it began. The first two in line were Matt Safran and Elizabeth Schaller of Chicago. Behind them in line, and next to them in the front row of the first afternoon of taping, were Helen Shelton and Virginia Lanier of Hurt, Va. One set flew out from one of the country’s largest and most cosmopolitan cities. The other represented a town of 3,500. They had waited in line from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. “As you get older, you can watch it with your grandkids, who get a kick out of it.” Schaller said from her seat as she awaited the show to start. “It’s funny. It’s like playing a regular game with your family.” As Shelton said, “I like puzzles. Everyone likes puzzles, I think.” Anyone who has an interest in words, anyone who has played Scrabble or Boggle, can easily be drawn to the game.

Accessibility: “Wheel” has been in syndication since its inception and is offered on basic cable across the country. As Vanna says, “We’re free.” But there is also an accessible quality to the people onstage. It helps that White and Sajak come across as open, appealing personalities. There is a reason why Martin Short, as Ed Grimley, insisted that Sajak seems like, “a decent sort, I must say.” Years after Short immortalized Sajak in with his famously erratic, eccentric “Saturday Night Live” character, the two met about five years ago, backstage after a performance of “The Producers” in L.A. starring Short and Jason Alexander. “We talked about this thing that happened a while before, where Marty was at an L.A. Kings game and the sideline interviewer, or the side-ice interviewer, found Marty and said, ‘Hey, Pat Sajak has seats just over there? What do you think Ed Grimley would say to him?” They guy was obviously trying to get Marty to do the character, but he just rolled his eyes, like, we’re all grown up, now.” But Sajak is fine with answering all the questions, even the trite ones, and is still approachable to fans and the press, as is White. “I think we’re given our space,” White says. “I don’t feel pursued like a movie star would, like a Lindsay Lohan does.”

Sense of community: The core of the “Wheel” staff has been together for several years and has a familial feel about it, which transfers to the comfortable air Sajak and White carry to the stage. Show announcer Charlie O’Donnell, who has announced events ranging from the visit of Pope John Paul II in Los Angeles in 1987 to The Beatles’ shows at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965 and Dodger Stadium in 1966, has served two stints totaling 26 years. He’s also been the voice of “American Bandstand” and dozens of game shows.

The prim, silver-haired O’Donnell has a great-uncle air about him. He tells a great story about announcing the arrival of the Pope at the Papal Teleconference at Universal Amphitheatre in L.A. O’Donnell knew he would be volunteering his time, but jokingly bargained with event organizers for payment. “I asked, ‘How much am I going to be paid for this?’ and they were telling me everyone was going to be working as volunteers, so I said, ‘OK, in lieu of payment, I want to meet the Pope.’ ”It nearly worked, except that O’Donnell’s post was three floors below the landing where Pope John Paul II would be arriving and departing. After the event, he sprinted up three flights of stairs, only to have the Pope give him a papal wave goodbye. “That was it,” O’Donnell says, laughing and waving his right hand in a Pope-like manner. Everyone on set says of O’Donnell, “He has some stories.”

The show’s director, Mark Corwin, has been with the “Wheel” since the outset. He met his wife, Robin, on the set of the show when it was still a daytime production in the late-’70s. “I see every show three or four times, top to bottom, from editing to post-production,” Corwin says, “and my wife still beats me.”

Simple drama: It can be argued that game shows like “Wheel” helped lead to today’s primetime reality show and contest-show trend. I’ll argue that, anyway. You sort of get caught up in the revolving cast of characters. On the first show taped Friday, the contestants were Las Vegans Todd Knight, Davina Albanese and Michelle Allen. Knight is a former construction worker who is no longer working and is attempting to land a position as a Metro officer. Albanese is a server at Toby Keith I Love This Bar & Grill at Harrah’s. And Johnson, she’s just remarkably friendly. I say this because she is a customer service rep for NV Energy. “I hear it all,” she says, smiling anyway. “I am the first line for complaints.” All earned their way on the show through a battery of auditions in Las Vegas, and each is worth rooting for. Again, not to give away too much of the plot, one of these people does win in the end, and it’s pretty danged exciting.

From this little exercise in alphabet soup, that’s about all you can ask for.

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