The Wheel's never spun in primetime...

[TLEberle]

I'd be cool with the two front game winners playing a best of 3/5 series of speed up round puzzles.

I like that less than what I came up with, but I really like this a whole lot. The speed round takes away the luck of the wheel and if you're playing for a massive prize, I like the idea that the player who is best able to call the right letters and solve the puzzles moves forward. Gold star.

[clemon79]

I like that less than what I came up with, but I really like this a whole lot. The speed round takes away the luck of the wheel and if you're playing for a massive prize, I like the idea that the player who is best able to call the right letters and solve the puzzles moves forward. Gold star.

Just lobbing a grenade because I think an hour-long-drawn-out-Wheel is a bad idea full stop, but: you guys are proposing deciding a game of Wheel of Fortune with a series of rounds that involve neither a wheel nor a fortune?

[TimK2003]

Thirty years ago the show was lauded for extravagant and lavish prizes, with $50,000 hand-made Italian sports cars, $90,000 Oriental rugs, jewels as big as my little cousin's fist, boats and motorhomes and all sorts of stuff, and yet in that one week they don't offer anything out of the ordinary. Why not offer a first class trip to the location, or a longer trip to do something different instead of aggressively doing the same thing every day for thirty-nine weeks? J.R. linked to us an episode from 1987 where there was a three-week cruise of the Orient in the bonus round. The cars are now run-of-the-mill sedans and no longer even kick in the five-grand to cover the taxes on it. If the syndicated show can't put their back into offering things that are interesting and water-cooler-worthy, then why would we assume that a nighttime version would do the same? Put a Corvette, Mercedes or Jaguar out on the wheel to get some eyeballs--TPIR did that for the first couple of years after Drew Carey took over.

Back in the shopping days, they had such a variety of trip locales, with many trips being secondary cities.  (Scottsdale, AZ, Ojai, CA, Black Hills, SD...)  One trip I clearly remember was for Asheville, NC -- where the hotel accommodations were for a so-so "Motor Inn" that I stayed at about a year prior. 

TPIR does a way better job in mixing up their travel destinations and adding some unusual activities in their itineraries.

[calliaume]

Back in the shopping days, they had such a variety of trip locales, with many trips being secondary cities.  (Scottsdale, AZ, Ojai, CA, Black Hills, SD...)  One trip I clearly remember was for Asheville, NC -- where the hotel accommodations were for a so-so "Motor Inn" that I stayed at about a year prior. 

Which was one of the reasons they got rid of the shopping - prize descriptions were taking up too much time.  No shopping meant more game play.

One of the people I worked with was one of the first contestants in 1987 when shopping was eliminated.  He didn't tell us how he did, but he was able to say there was no shopping, which fascinated me more than what happened.  (He won about $7500 in cash and a $55,000 car, sold the car to his father at cost, and then quit because he wasn't making enough money.  We weren't very sympathetic.)

[BrandonFG]

For a hypothetical hour-long show, I tossed around the idea of bringing back a shopping round to fill time. Make it a space on the wheel valued at $2,500, and if someone lands and solves, then he or she can "buy" a few items from the "Sony Store" (a bunch of tech gizmos at center stage, think Brookstone-style setup). Maybe put a small trip up there and a few quirky household items; the $2,500 goes to the total, prizes purchased follow the old "once you buy a prize......" rule.

Then again, it's been almost 30 years since they offered shopping (not counting the gimmick in the late-90s), so it's prolly a faint memory to most people. Plus, even with additional puzzles -- Toss Ups included -- they prolly don't want prize copy eating up game time.

[TLEberle]

Just lobbing a grenade because I think an hour-long-drawn-out-Wheel is a bad idea full stop,

I don't think it's a particularly great idea myself, but I want to play along and not be accused of hating fun or being the "no fun police," and there's not much harm in the creative exercise.

but: you guys are proposing deciding a game of Wheel of Fortune with a series of rounds that involve neither a wheel nor a fortune?

Jeopardy '78 was going to have each player tackle a portion of the board against the clock, something that had not been done before nor after. Plus the speed-up puzzles are generally done with a final spin to establish the value of consonants, and I'm assuming that (again, for the sake of the exercise) that the values on the wheel increase commensurately with the budget so that there's a substantial amount of money to play for with each puzzle.)

 I've been an advocate for moving the Toss-ups to the last act of the show and doing a Countdown Round to mitigate the things that should be mitigated, but it got no response. Just because they don't do it that way now doesn't mean that couldn't or shouldn't.

[Jeremy Nelson]

I like that less than what I came up with, but I really like this a whole lot. The speed round takes away the luck of the wheel and if you're playing for a massive prize, I like the idea that the player who is best able to call the right letters and solve the puzzles moves forward. Gold star.

Just lobbing a grenade because I think an hour-long-drawn-out-Wheel is a bad idea full stop, but: you guys are proposing deciding a game of Wheel of Fortune with a series of rounds that involve neither a wheel nor a fortune?

By the time you get to the playoff, both players have already won a nice chunk of change, so I'd be okay with a round that decides the day's champion by who the better puzzle solver is.

[jjman920]

My thing is that Celebrity Family Feud didn't even draw anything out really. They had two games using the extra time to really play the game and goof around. I think the same really could be done for a primetime Wheel. I wouldn't even worry about having the same group of celebs play one long game over the hour. 6-12 celebs play in two games with a different set of celebs each game. Have some fun, throw in a nicer, longer Round 4 or 5 and relax.

Perhaps, if there is too much time left over at the end have the winner(s) of the first game team up with the winner(s) of the second game and go for one last Bonus Round for more money to the charities.

I'd raise the Wheel values, placing some regular 4 digit wedges on there. Put a nice Prize wedge on the wheel that isn't a trip.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Perhaps, if there is too much time left over at the end have the winner(s) of the first game team up with the winner(s) of the second game and go for one last Bonus Round for more money to the charities.

Therein lies the difference between Wheel and Feud. With timed games, you have the added bonus of being able to sound the Time's Up Bell whenever things need to cease, whether it's in Round 3 or Round 6. A show with a four round structure like Feud has to have a contingency plan in place for an hour show, and we saw that with Feud- they really taped 12 half hour episodes and paired them together for each hour block.