Wheel of Fortune

[bellbm]

Well, after looking at the wonderful shots on GS Central, I see the Free Spin space on the wheel for the debut of the Bob Goen era of the show.  Since that was the summer of 1989, I am assuming that it did not leave by the end of the 1989 season.  

Which leads me to a couple of more questions, on the Bob Goen version, when did they get rid of the $50 and $75 spaces?  IIR, when it went "home" to NBC, they started having a prize on the wheel for each round.  My guess is that NBC gave it a little more of a budget.  If they did, why didn't they increase the dollar values on the wheel?  I'm pretty sure the $50 and $75 were gone while it was still on CBS.

Does anyone think if Pat would have stayed with the daytime version, that network game shows wouldn't have gone down the toilet?

[sshuffield70]

ISTR, the $50s and $75 were dumped after a couple months.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'bellbm\' date=\'Jul 7 2004, 10:37 AM\']Does anyone think if Pat would have stayed with the daytime version, that network game shows wouldn't have gone down the toilet?[/quote]
"Wheel" never was that big a hit on network daytime--even though it was NBC's top-rated daytime show, it was still second to "TPIR" in its time slot (which tells you the state of NBC daytime back then).  It became the American institution that it is today when it began the syndicated version--and after Vanna arrived on the show.

And the winds of change were already in the air in daytime TV, as syndication became more prevalent and everyone discovered that the single-issue relationship talk show was cheaper than game shows and delivered more desirable audiences.  Those factors alone led to the disappearance of game shows from network daytime more than Pat Sajak cutting back on his "Wheel" workload to devote time to his late-night show on CBS.

[Craig Karlberg]

[quote name=\'sshuffield70\' date=\'Jul 7 2004, 01:42 PM\'] ISTR, the $50s and $75 were dumped after a couple months. [/quote]
Yeah, I personally didn't like those spaces especially where there's a diamond at the bottom of those spaces.  YUCK!

[Steve Gavazzi]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Jul 8 2004, 05:09 AM\'] Yeah, I personally didn't like those spaces especially where there's a diamond at the bottom of those spaces. [/quote]
 And ya know, I'll bet that's even why they dropped 'em.

(Hmmm...I need a "rolls eyes" emoticon.)

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Jul 8 2004, 04:09 AM\'] [quote name=\'sshuffield70\' date=\'Jul 7 2004, 01:42 PM\'] ISTR, the $50s and $75 were dumped after a couple months. [/quote]
Yeah, I personally didn't like those spaces especially where there's a diamond at the bottom of those spaces.  YUCK! [/quote]
 Perhaps they should have had a ruby, then.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg spouted thusly:\']Yeah, I personally didn't like those spaces especially where there's a diamond at the bottom of those spaces. YUCK![/quote]

Well, they were sans diamond for one day.  If it's that big a deal, feel free to throw your TV out the window.

Am I the only person who thought that the Goen wheel values are actually on-par with how easy a game it is?  I know the $5,000 space is neat, but for crying out loud...$10,000 for solving some word puzzles....

(Wait for it...)

GEEZ!

-Travis