GS WAREHOUSE wrote this way back in 2004 with respect to the distribution of Jokers to categories on the reels as well as the bonus round reels:
Anyway, my question: Does anyone happen to know the general distribution of slides in the reels on TJW? Meaning, how many of each category/joker slide were in the reels in the main game, and how many of each of the dollar amounts and devils were in each reel in the bonus game?
As much as I hate to contradict one of our executive producers, I have [Gene Rayburn]the definitive answer[/GR]: there were 13 slides per reel. I have a VCR with a slow-motion function, so I actually did study the wheels on a couple of episodes. Most of my front game checking came from 1972-73 since in those days, the category slides were all different colors, and the later ones were too...shall we say, busy. I dug out my notes from one game where there were two green categories, one yellow, one off-white, and one somewhat tannish. Here is what I came up with:
Reel 1: G T J Y W J G G J T Y J W
Reel 2: J T Y J W G J T Y W J G G
Reel 3: J W Y T J G G W J Y T G G
(G = green; Y = yellow; White = off-white; T = tan; J = Joker)
Summary:
[font=\"Courier\"]R - G Y W T J
1 - 3 2 2 2 4
2 - 3 2 2 2 4
3 - 4 2 2 2 3
T -10 6 6 6 11[/font]
Bearing in mind there were two green categories, the distribution looks mostly even, but another episode whose notes I couldn't find offhand had a game with a much less even distribution. There was a red slide that appeared only once in reel 1.
As for the bonus game, we've long established that only one wheel has Devils, so that only one Jack Barry caricature can come up at a time. In the Jokers and Devils game, there were two Devils in that reel, with two Jokers separating them. In the bonus game we know best, I took down one 1979 episode and came up with this:
Reel 1: 100 25 50 150 Devil 75 100 25 200 50 Devil 25 75
Reel 2: 75 100 50 200 50 75 50 100 25 25 150 100 25
Reel 3: 150 50 150 75 50 200 25 100 75 25 150 100 75
Summary:
[font=\"Courier\"]R - 25 50 75 100 150 200 Devil
1 - 3 2 2 2 1 1 2
2 - 3 3 2 3 1 1 0
3 - 2 2 3 2 3 1 0
T - 8 7 7 7 5 3 2[/font]
IMO, the total lines better represent how the slides are distributed in general. Some games spread the slides more differently than others.
It seems some of the info is incomplete with respect to the main game.
I am wondering if there may be more specific data.
Also I'm wondering what the disributions were for the Audience Game with respect to the $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 and $100 amounts. I imagine, assuming that those drums also housed 13 slides that there were 2 each of the smaller amounts and just 1 $100 slot. Just wondering if anybody might know.
