Here is some behind the scenes stuff to talk about from todays Wheel tapings. If you would rather not know anything at all, then turn back now!
I attended the first three programs taped for the second week of New York shows. A very special event took place today. It was Wheel Of Fortunes 4000th Show! They even handed out specially made PLAYBILLS to the audience to mark the occasion. The entire cast and crew of the program also gathered on stage after the show to take some publicity pictures. This was definately a Big Deal for them today and you could tell. The program will air on November 10th and is totally different than anything the show has ever done before.
***** There will be absolutely No Game Play on this program! *****
It's an entire retrospective \"Clips Show\". It was a lot of fun to watch this. They picked out awsome clips from the very beginning of Wheel in 1974 all the way to today 2003. There were people laughing so hard at some of these clips that they were crying. I was one of them. It was an incredibly entertaining program and one that you won't want to miss. I was very happy to be part of this special taping.
Just a few glitches to mention.
Glitch Number 1: was the simple introduction of Pat and Vanna. When Pat and Vanna came out they almost immediately stopped tape. Pat then joked that they had to do it over because Vanna's underwear was showing. I don't know the real reason for taping the intro over but obviously something went wrong.
Glitch Number 2: The crew forgot to activate the lock out mechanism during a toss up Puzzle. So these two best friends buzzed in with the wrong answer and then later buzzed in again even though they were technically not supposed to. So that screwed up the whole toss up Round. I guess you could blame both the show and the the two best friends on that count. They knew they wern't supposed to buzz in again, but did anyway (and) the show didn't lock their buzzers out like they were supposed to. So two screw ups caused that puzzle to be thrown out. The Puzzle that was thrown out was \"PURRING KITTENS.\" To bad no one will ever see it. It was replaced and the program edited. I bet the puzzle still shows up on some future show though.
Glitch Number 3: They just couldn't get the Mic levels for the 3rd set of Players to work properly today during their introductions. Both shows had the same exact problem. So they had to stop tape and fix the Mic issue.
Besides those issues things went pretty smooth on the set. They really wanted a lot of audience shots today, during the close of one of the programs the entire room was applauding wildly as they cycled through the entire theme during credits, then looped it and started it again! We must of been giving a standing ovation for 5 straight minutes. It was so long that after we were done, Pat joked and said........\"Hello, We're still here. You would of thought that Vanna and I had passed away.\"
Here is one thing that may border on a spoiler but It's to good not to mention....... STOP NOW IF YOU WOULD RATHER NOT KNOW AND JUST SKIP THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.
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One team had almost no money when they decided to solve the puzzle. Pat kind of unintentionally persuaded them to spin again since they had so little to lose. So they did spin again and guess what happens............. They hit BANKRUPT. You could literally hear the gasps in the audience when that happened as everyone collectively thought....... THAT WAS YOUR FAULT PAT!!!!! So at the next commercial break Pat sprints backstage as a joke because he realizes he may have done wrong. Then he comes back and strolls over to the producers table. I'm not sure if he did this on his own free will (or) if he was called over like a bad child being scolded by the principal. Watch on November 11 or 12th. (I forgot on which show this happened) and then decide for yourself if Pat went a little to far in the persuasion department.
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What a Day! This was a lot of fun.
John
