wheel of fortune article

[adamjk]

This season it did.

[JayC]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 03:25 PM\'] I thought the Mystery Wedge [That is brought to you by Hot Pockets] was always played for a car; if it was; when did that change? [/quote]
 I can only remember a few times during the beginning of the season where they played for a car in the mystery round.  Otherwise, it's just about always been a $10,000 gift card or shopping spree (mostly for Sony products, IIRC) this season.

[HairMetalLives]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 01:25 PM\'] I thought the Mystery Wedge [That is brought to you by Hot Pockets] was always played for a car; if it was; when did that change? [/quote]
 Whenever I watched "Wheel" this season, the Mystery Round was hardly ever for a car, it seemed to me. It was always a Bloomingdale's, Macy's.com, or Sony.com gift certicifate worth $10,000. And when it WAS a car, it was something cheap like a Kia. I'd just take the cash.

[adamjk]

It was played for a car throughout last season

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'dscungio\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 03:09 PM\'] I read "full of itself" as "bloated."  The show is getting carried away with such things: More and more commercial plugs...new category names ("Not just TITLE, but BEST SELLING TITLE!")...throwing insane amounts of money at players...a video wall that renders Vanna's job worthless...
 [/quote]
 Wheel of Fortune is turning into the game show equivalent of SportsCenter: way too many unnecessary product placement. At least with the 50s panel shows, the entire show had just the ONE sponsor. Like either Wheel or ESPN really needs the money...

[Steve Gavazzi]

[quote name=\'adamjk\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 05:00 PM\'] It was played for a car throughout last season [/quote]
 I'd stake money that it wasn't.  I seem to remember around...oh, maybe last March seeing it be for a gift certificate half the time.

[adamjk]

Well in the episodes I've seen, they did.

[Robair]

[quote name=\'dscungio\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 03:09 PM\'] ...new category names ("Not just TITLE, but BEST SELLING TITLE!")... [/quote]
 When I see that category for the first time I'm gonna mute the sound on the TV and hear how many people are gonna see
-- ---- -- ---- -------
and scream at the top of their lungs
MY LIFE BY BILL CLINTON

...yeah, that's a gimme. The one book to read if you're reading only one...

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'HairMetalLives\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 03:36 PM\']
Whenever I watched "Wheel" this season, the Mystery Round was hardly ever for a car, it seemed to me. It was always a Bloomingdale's, Macy's.com, or Sony.com gift certicifate worth $10,000. And when it WAS a car, it was something cheap like a Kia. I'd just take the cash. [/quote]
 Hell, if they're going for high ticket items/gift certificates, then lets bring back the Gucci & Georgio's gift certificates from the swank stores in Beverly Hills...

...Or is that idea too Merv-ish (the days when he called the shots) for Sony?

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'dscungio\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 03:09 PM\']P.S. I'm glad the Mystery Wedge is up to $1,000.  It should have been that amount from the beginning.  Now we'll get more risks to flip it over.[/quote]
How does that follow? More money in the bank for the letters = less willing to risk it on a 50/50 gamble, no?

[Steve Gavazzi]

[quote name=\'adamjk\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 07:44 PM\'] Well in the episodes I've seen, they did. [/quote]
 Which, unless you saw all of them, doesn't really prove anything.

[adamjk]

True

[gameshowguy2000]

I also see that they're adding more Gift Tags to the wheel.

I liked their creativity during the first week of this past season, when they decided to give away $1,000 of the new $20 bills as Gift Tags.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 07:20 PM\'][quote name=\'HairMetalLives\' date=\'Jul 19 2004, 03:36 PM\']
Whenever I watched "Wheel" this season, the Mystery Round was hardly ever for a car, it seemed to me. It was always a Bloomingdale's, Macy's.com, or Sony.com gift certicifate worth $10,000. And when it WAS a car, it was something cheap like a Kia. I'd just take the cash. [/quote]
Hell, if they're going for high ticket items/gift certificates, then lets bring back the Gucci & Georgio's gift certificates from the swank stores in Beverly Hills...

...Or is that idea too Merv-ish (the days when he called the shots) for Sony?[/quote]
Actually, it's more Lin Bolen-ish--she's the one who exclaimed when Merv originally pitched the show to her "And we'll set it on Rodeo Drive and have the contestants shop for fabulous prizes!"  Merv was just thinking in terms of giving out money, so it seems.

And as I've said before, Merv should consider himself lucky he came in on a day before she became obsessed with putting pinball machines on game shows.

[Michael Brandenburg]

In response to "gameshowguy2000's" post in this thread:

I liked [WOF's] creativity during the first week of this past season, when they decided to give away $1,000 of the new $20 bills as Gift Tags.

So did I -- in fact, it inspired me to create a new bonus prize for the "Showcase Showdown" round on The Price is Right.

Contestant getting $1.00 on the Big Wheel in either one spin or a combination of two spins gets $1,000 and a bonus spin.  If the wheel stops on the "$1.00" space in the bonus spin, the contestant gets a bonus of $10,000 (daytime) or $1 million (prime-time special).

If, on the bonus spin, the wheel stops on the "15 cent" space that is just past the "$1.00" space on the wheel, the contestant gets a bonus of $5,000 as before(daytime and prime-time).  However, if the wheel stops on the "5 cent" space that is just before the "$1.00" space on the wheel, the contestant receives…

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND -- NICKELS!


Michael Brandenburg
(And they'd be the new nickels from the U.S. Mint that have the images of Lewis and Clark on the back, which should satisfy that letter-writer in USA Today from a while ago that wanted those two significant Louisiana Purchase explorers honored on U.S. currency.)