The Wheel E! True Hollywood Story

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' date=\'Jan 26 2005, 01:44 PM\'] Need I remind you what happened on Sale Of The Century? Once the WBMG came in, the prize budget seemed to go down.

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So true. In the fifteen months that bonus round was played, they gave away how many cars? Two? Three?

[ChuckNet]

So true. In the fifteen months that bonus round was played, they gave away how many cars? Two? Three?

Prolly right...only 2 come to mind for me, Rani White (who, on the next show, became the only player in the WBMG's history to win the $50K) and Phil Cambry.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[davidhammett]

A couple of random notes about the special and comments made here:

First, perhaps I misheard the documentary, but I believe they said that the Bob Goen version was cancelled by CBS in September, 1991.  It is true that Wheel was cancelled then, but by then it had made it back to NBC; it switched back to its original network back in January, 1991.

Also, there was some discussion here about whether or not Chuck could do the job today.  Who knows for sure, but a related anecdote:  One day at Greed, during a commercial break, Chuck was talking about his time on Wheel (I don't remember if the discussion was related to the couple of times on the show when his Wheel hosting became the subject of discussion), and all of a sudden he broke into his old routine: "$500 is the top value on the wheel; watch out for that black space, Bankrupt, because if you hit it, you lose all your cash, but not your prizes, because once you buy a prize, it's yours to keep."  Didn't miss a beat.  He followed that up by remarking, "I don't remember any of that Scrabble %$#@!"

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'davidhammett\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 12:47 AM\']A couple of random notes about the special and comments made here:

First, perhaps I misheard the documentary, but I believe they said that the Bob Goen version was cancelled by CBS in September, 1991.  It is true that Wheel was cancelled then, but by then it had made it back to NBC; it switched back to its original network back in January, 1991.

Also, there was some discussion here about whether or not Chuck could do the job today.  Who knows for sure

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It wasn't mentioned about the Goen version moving back to NBC in 1991(of course it still taped at CBS when it switched to NBC), but it was mentioned the daytime version was cancelled in September 1991(they were off by a month or so on that, as the last three weeks of the run were reruns)

If CHuck could handle Scrabble and Greed as well as he did, he could handle the modern era of WOF. Scrabble and Greed were probably more complex rule-wise than WOF was/is.

[Ian Wallis]

It wasn't mentioned about the Goen version moving back to NBC in 1991(of course it still taped at CBS when it switched to NBC), but it was mentioned the daytime version was cancelled in September 1991(they were off by a month or so on that, as the last three weeks of the run were reruns)

I never saw the final show before they went to reruns (although I've been on the hunt for it).  Did they ever do a "goodbye" on the last show, or was it just a regular "see you next time"?

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 09:19 AM\']I never saw the final show before they went to reruns (although I've been on the hunt for it).  Did they ever do a "goodbye" on the last show, or was it just a regular "see you next time"?

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IIRC, the last show goes into the books with PYL, MG '79, and Combs FF. IOW, no goodbyes. Were these shows put out of production before the next taping? You would think that the network would at least give these shows one last taping to say a formal goodbye.......

Tyshaun

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 09:19 AM\']

It wasn't mentioned about the Goen version moving back to NBC in 1991(of course it still taped at CBS when it switched to NBC), but it was mentioned the daytime version was cancelled in September 1991(they were off by a month or so on that, as the last three weeks of the run were reruns)

I never saw the final show before they went to reruns (although I've been on the hunt for it).  Did they ever do a "goodbye" on the last show, or was it just a regular "see you next time"?

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I remember seeing the final first-run Goen WOF on 8/30/91, which I didn't know until finding out on ATGS a few years later was the last first-run episode. There was no goodbye, just like on the Rolf finale.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 10:05 AM\']
IIRC, the last show goes into the books with PYL, MG '79, and Combs FF. IOW, no goodbyes. Were these shows put out of production before the next taping? You would think that the network would at least give these shows one last taping to say a formal goodbye.......

Tyshaun

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CBS MG7x never got a goodbye, as the show was pulled by CBS with episodes still unaired. The unaired episodes didn't air until GSN aired them in SUmmer 2001, at least on a national level. The final aired CBS MG7x on 4/20/79 had a blank screen during the part where Johnny O. would announce the celebs that would be on the next five shows.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 09:18 AM\']There was no goodbye, just like on the Rolf finale.

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There may not have been an official goodbye on the Rolf finale, but sharp-eyed viewers might've noticed a longer than usual credit roll (including camera operators, which NBC almost never credited on its daytime games).  From 1984 (GO!) to 1990 (SCRABBLE), most NBC daytime game exits included extra credits.

Doug -- and the countdown to 1000 continues

[Ian Wallis]

There may not have been an official goodbye on the Rolf finale, but sharp-eyed viewers might've noticed a longer than usual credit roll (including camera operators, which NBC almost never credited on its daytime games). From 1984 (GO!) to 1990 (SCRABBLE), most NBC daytime game exits included extra credits.

What surprises me is that there are some shows where they didn't do a full credit roll on the final show - "Family Feud" is one that comes to mind - and I know I've seen others.  Maybe they figured Richard's goodbye speech would take too much time and decided to run the credits on an earlier show that week(?)

Oh...and for what it's worth, add "Caesar's Challenge" to the list of shows where there was no formal "goodbye".

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 10:21 AM\']CBS MG7x never got a goodbye, as the show was pulled by CBS with episodes still unaired. The unaired episodes didn't air until GSN aired them in SUmmer 2001, at least on a national level. The final aired CBS MG7x on 4/20/79 had a blank screen during the part where Johnny O. would announce the celebs that would be on the next five shows.

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Thank you, Zach, for paraphrasing what I just said to make it sound like an answer. It must be wonderful to love hearing yourself talk. My question was why these shows didn't get the chance to say goodbye?
My theory on PYL was that CBS decided to air reruns on the show during the summer of '86 with (at least) one month of shows in the can so they could figure out what to do with the slot. When they decided to cancel it and end programming the 4pm time period altogether, they decided to air the last month of shows, but the set was probably already struck by then, so no "official" last show.

Tyshaun

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 11:09 AM\']

Oh...and for what it's worth, add "Caesar's Challenge" to the list of shows where there was no formal "goodbye".

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MGHS hour, Classic Concentration, and All-Star Blitz are also among the network shows that didn't have a goodbye. SYndicated game shows virtually never do a goodbye, usually due to shows getting cancelled after the last episodes are taped. The Davidson and Bergeron HS(albeit Bergeron HS's on-air goodbye was edited from what people who were in attendance for the tapind saw) are the only syndicated shows I can recall getting a goodbye.

[Ian Wallis]

My theory on PYL was that CBS decided to air reruns on the show during the summer of '86 with (at least) one month of shows in the can so they could figure out what to do with the slot. When they decided to cancel it and end programming the 4pm time period altogether, they decided to air the last month of shows, but the set was probably already struck by then, so no "official" last show.

You're probably right on the time slot theory, but it's surprising that they'd air reruns for a month and then revert to new shows.  You'd figure they'd air all the new shows and THEN reruns while they figured out what to do.  From what I heard, many of the stations that were still airing PYL dropped it by Labor Day 1986 anyway, so the final few new shows weren't seen in very many places.

From what I read, one likely reason that there was no goodbye is that Bill Carruthers wanted to bring the show back in syndication almost immediately.  They had a proposal for a 26-week run, comprising 18 weeks of new shows and 8 weeks of reruns.  They probably didn't know the status of that when they taped their final show, so that's why there was no goodbye.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 31 2005, 11:26 AM\']


From what I read, one likely reason that there was no goodbye is that Bill Carruthers wanted to bring the show back in syndication almost immediately.  They had a proposal for a 26-week run, comprising 18 weeks of new shows and 8 weeks of reruns.  They probably didn't know the status of that when they taped their final show, so that's why there was no goodbye.

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Recall that while the first-run syndication deal didn't materialize, Republic Pictures did syndicate a 130-episode rerun package, which aired in syndication in some cities including Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, between December 1986-September 1987. The first batch of shows USA rerun came from the Republic Picutres package, including promos for upcoming PYL shows and new Whammy cartoons which were seen in place of the ticket or contestant plug.

[Ian Wallis]

The Davidson and Bergeron HS(albeit Bergeron HS's on-air goodbye was edited from what people who were in attendance for the tapind saw) are the only syndicated shows I can recall getting a goodbye.

Didn't Bill Rafferty's "Card Sharks" have a goodbye?  (I've never seen it, but online trade lists indicate that they knew it was the last show).  In the "old days" when shows were bicycled, it's understandable why most shows wouldn't get a goodbye.  Since shows have been fed via satellite for almost two decades now, it's much more common on syndicated shows.