[quote name=\'Jamey Greek\' post=\'246088\' date=\'Aug 18 2010, 04:09 PM\']I was wondering if MG Kelly ever tried out for the Daytime Wheel job in 1989 when Pat Sajak was getting ready to host his late-night talk show for CBS. I saw on his website that he had some face time and there was a preview of his audition tape (I think) and I know he was interim announcer until Charlie O fulfilled his commitments with Chuck Barris.[/quote]
Here's the page, for reference. Now, as for my thoughts...
Wow. This...is definitely unique. If I ever had a "Game Show Moments I Never Knew Existed" list, this would be right up there alongside Mark Richards hosting the
Jeopardy! rehearsal games. Interestingly, Kelly's "audition" (if it was that) appears to have been done right after a daytime taping -- the $2,000 space is on the wheel, along with the second Bankrupt.
How different the game-show landscape would have been had we come to take MG Kelly and Mark Richards as household names...
what if he actually got the job? ... I think MG Kelly would have done good. Either him, Jimmy Connors, or Tim Brando would have done good.
I remember something about Tim Brando's audition, that Merv Griffin remarked "he could host the show tomorrow" (anybody know what I'm talking about? No jokes, now). MG looked pretty comfortable up there to me, and I'd love to see whatever else there may be of that "tape".
Better than Rolf did.
I respectfully disagree. Merv obviously saw something in him that he liked. Sure, Rolf was stiff early on, but you could tell he was a nice guy who was a little nervous, it being his first time on television and all. From what I've seen (including his last show), he definitely seemed to make the show his own and
definitely looked to be having fun. Considering that, I think Rolf did pretty well.
do you think Wheel still would have moved to CBS and they would have kept Tim Brando or MG Kelly as host?
Personally, I'm more interested in why Benirschke didn't follow the show to CBS. Granted, I don't know whether the show's
True Hollywood Story explained that because I've never been able to find the full thing (and the one time somebody tried to put it on YouTube, it got yanked down by Comcast).