In Development: Possible New Kids Version Of Wheel Of Fortune

[DoItRockapella]

Buried in the linked article about Sony Pictures TV's plans for the future is the below paragraph:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bewitched-animated-show-sony-1235509925/

On the unscripted side, Sony is in early talks about kid-focused iterations of Wheel of Fortune and Shark Tank. The former would likely incorporate some twists into the gameplay, including physical and comedic challenges to earn letters or buy vowels.

Didn't we try this once before?

Full disclosure: I was eight years old in 1997 and loved Wheel 2000 at the time.

[nowhammies10]

They tried opening CyberLucy.exe again and, well...

[JasonA1]

Full disclosure: I was eight years old in 1997 and loved Wheel 2000 at the time.

One thing I loved about the first decade or so of Nickelodeon game shows is it didn't feel like they had the pander knob turned to 11. More often, they happened to be shows kids would enjoy. By contrast, Slime Time and Treasure Mall were every bit a sitcom's interpretation of what a kids game show should be.

I was in the prime demo for Wheel 2000 at the time as well, but it didn't hit the mark for me. With short puzzles and microstakes, I wasn't getting anything I liked about the adult version. (Something tells me, based on my time in TV development, that somebody thought short puzzles were "easier," or would allow them more time for the educational bits.) I liked stunt shows, obviously, but the ones on Wheel were clunky...not as fun as Double Dare, not as slick as Fun House, etc. And of course, many resulted in players getting 3 useless letters to try in the puzzle.

I can't speak beyond myself and my classmates at the time, but every assembly we had in those days that took on the David Sidoni/Cyber Lucy tone was flatly rejected.

It's a long of way of saying that, if they're after using the name, perhaps it's best to do as much of the new stuff as they can organically. See what tone today's kids actually respond to (vis a vis TikTok, et al) rather than using all the slang you can Google. I don't hold anything sacred, so change away...but I'm just hoping it's not another run at "regular Wheel of Fortune, but we completely stop the train to do things we think kids will like."

-Jason

[MSTieScott]

but I'm just hoping it's not another run at "regular Wheel of Fortune, but we completely stop the train to do things we think kids will like."

"Aiden, you were the first to complete the Monowheel Challenge, so you get to dance for vowels!"

[rebelwrest]

Remember when the recent revival of Double Dare went to cash in the obstacle course because that's what the kids wanted.  What would be the proper stakes on the wheel if it went all cash? 500/1000/1500? 750/1000/2000? Smallish prizes are not going to cut it.

[TLEberle]

Remember when the recent revival of Double Dare went to cash in the obstacle course because that's what the kids wanted.  What would be the proper stakes on the wheel if it went all cash? 500/1000/1500? 750/1000/2000? Smallish prizes are not going to cut it.

define smallish. The problem with cash is that too much becomes a bad look or overkill. The problem with points is that they were pointless and didn’t convert to anything.

[chrisholland03]

Remember when the recent revival of Double Dare went to cash in the obstacle course because that's what the kids wanted.  What would be the proper stakes on the wheel if it went all cash? 500/1000/1500? 750/1000/2000? Smallish prizes are not going to cut it.

define smallish. The problem with cash is that too much becomes a bad look or overkill. The problem with points is that they were pointless and didn’t convert to anything.

This gave me a pleasant chuckle

[nowhammies10]

Try what the Aussies did later in the run of the adult version, play for points but give a bonus prize (that doesn't count towards the players' scores) to whomever solves the puzzle. Give them a choice of two or three prizes for each solve, so the contestants aren't stuck with a video game console if they're really not that into video games.

/"Pick Geoffrey up off the wheel, that represents a $500 Toys "Я" Us gift card. Only redeemable in Canada where they still exist."

[Dbacksfan12]

Remember when the recent revival of Double Dare went to cash in the obstacle course because that's what the kids wanted.  What would be the proper stakes on the wheel if it went all cash? 500/1000/1500? 750/1000/2000? Smallish prizes are not going to cut it.

define smallish. The problem with cash is that too much becomes a bad look or overkill. The problem with points is that they were pointless and didn’t convert to anything.

Quite honestly, I think the wheels from the end of the daytime run would be suitable.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Something tells me, based on my time in TV development, that somebody thought short puzzles were "easier," or would allow them more time for the educational bits.

Often times, when I'm watching YouTubers play the various video game iterations of Wheel, there's a geenral consensus that long puzzles are harder. In fact, the long puzzles are easier in that there's a larger spread of good letters and thus the game keeps moving in a positive direction. Those shorter puzzles are how the game moved at a snail's pace and often resulted in the "time's up" bell going off in the third round.

[Joe Mello]

I'm guessing that the ease of finding letters is balance by the difficulty of trying to work through a lot of puzzle while also trying call letters and avoid penalty spaces. It's not quite analysis paralysis but there is a point where you try to process too many things and your brain just goes "Nope!"

I'm also guessing talks of this dry up once all the guilds get their new deals.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

I can't speak beyond myself and my classmates at the time, but every assembly we had in those days that took on the David Sidoni/Cyber Lucy tone was flatly rejected.

I recently binged about a season's worth of mid 90s episodes of the grownup show. During one week, a teen week, Pat starts making fun of the rather garish and nightmarish decorations they'd used for the set that week, before saying to the camera something like "It's...interesting...when adults decorate something or do something that they think teens or kids will do, and it never works out right"

Wheel 2000 felt like that. I was eleven when that show went on. I love Wheel, I love goofy stuff, I love schmaltz.  The end product was just...none of that. It was all the worst parts of the adult version with a bunch of weird plastic that felt like it was A/B tested between an even worse idea.

It DID do a couple of interesting things I liked and wish the adult show had revisted more often: Occasionally playing with the width of wedges to make different amounts wider or smaller, and I actually liked the prize box physically having an item inside it; A contestant physically opening the box to find whatever (I distinctly remember a game boy being in one) was a neat bit (and way more interesting than staring at the camera shaking cardboard IMO)

[Adam Nedeff]

What bugged me about Wheel 2000 and Jep! was the smallness of both. And I don't mean in terms of stakes. I'm not arguing that kids' game shows should have comparable prize budgets, I mean just the smallness in what I was seeing. Wheel 2000 wanted to have Cyber Lucy and the trade-off for that is there's no puzzle board in that studio. I was watching a version of Wheel of Fortune that was missing half the set and looked like the rest was crammed into a corner. Jep! was the same way. You couldn't help noticing the set was physically smaller. Both of them had utterly unhummable themes that could have easily been recorded by one guy playing all the instruments necessary.

And then you look at the adult versions, which had enormous game boards in lavishly-decorated studios. Do you know what a kid immediately picks up on when watching Wheel 2000? "Your version is less important. Our version is the one that matters."

Kids will sense that. Kids will see right through it. If you're going to do a kids' version of Wheel, you owe it to your audience to actually spend money on it, and invest in it, and make it look like something that's just as good and just as valid and legitimate as the version that's not intended for them.

[nowhammies10]

Both of them had utterly unhummable themes that could have been easily been recorded by one guy playing all the instruments necessary.

The Jep! think music was still pretty good though. It sounds like another cut from the Rock & Roll J! sessions and wouldn't be out of place in, say, a Teen Tournament on the mother show.

[Dbacksfan12]

Both of them had utterly unhummable themes that could have been easily been recorded by one guy playing all the instruments necessary.

The Jep! think music was still pretty good though. It sounds like another cut from the Rock & Roll J! sessions and wouldn't be out of place in, say, a Teen Tournament on the mother show.

IMO, this is another patronizing move by the producers.  Sounds like a cut of music they thought would be "cool'.

Fred Rogers once said "Kids can spot a phony a mile away".  I believe a similar train of thought applies with both Wheel 2000 as well as Jep!.