[quote name=\'bclark71\' post=\'161102\' date=\'Aug 18 2007, 11:36 AM\']
I'll second what your lunchtime sample says. Right now, what looks to be a 1988-ish show is on, where Vanna comes out to the strains of "I'm a Wheel Watcher." This is the point where the show lost it for me. It's way too over-produced, over-tweaked and too gimmicky.
I enjoyed the first three shows of the marathon, though. Nice to see "Wheel" when it was good![/quote]
I thought it was the first (if not one of the first) all-cash shows from 1987. Given that Jack Clark is still announcing in this episode, it'd have to be in the 1987-88 timeframe before his death.
[quote name=\'bwood\' post=\'161099\' date=\'Aug 18 2007, 11:30 AM\']
We have the news on at work at lunchtime, and they were talking about Merv. Most of the people (heck, all of them, approx 40) at lunch said that they don't watch Wheel anymore because it's "just not the same as it used to be". I agreed. I mentioned about today's marathon and just about everyone said they would have to watch it because "that was when Wheel Of Fortune was good". Mind you, that most of these people are about 18-30 years old. It's pretty bad when the producers say they want to keep the show "fresh and new" when a good sampling of their target demo doesn't even like the new episodes. I thought it was funny.
Anyway, thanks GSN for this great marathon so far.....and maybe if it does well, Wheel will show back up on the schedule?
[/quote]
I fall right in the middle of the 18-30 age bracket and I couldn't agree myself! Wheel lost its interest for me by the mid-90's when the show became so overwrought with gimmicks that it became merely unwatchable. It doesn't help that the competition nowadays (game show and non-game show) and in the recent past helped keep me away.