Question on this Wheel of Fortune Video

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'May 24 2005, 09:15 PM\']I watched in horror, like I'm sure the rest of you did.[/quote]
What was sad was that I knew she was going to miss it, yet it still hurt.

How on earth did she get up to $62,400?  Was she 'gaming' the wheel to hit $5k every time?

As nervous as she looked? No chance. She was probably one of those "naturals" who spun the wheel about 70 odd pegs every time.

(On another note, did Wheel have several 'large' prizes that were never revealed, but available, in case somebody went completely apeshit and won a bundle of money?)

Somewhere, there's a clip of an announcer rattling off prize copy for about three minutes. I wish I could remember where it was.

[Kevin Prather]

[quote name=\'CarShark\' date=\'May 24 2005, 10:17 PM\']

How on earth did she get up to $62,400?  Was she 'gaming' the wheel to hit $5k every time?

As nervous as she looked? No chance. She was probably one of those "naturals" who spun the wheel about 70 odd pegs every time.
[/quote]

Isn't there a rule against "gaming" the wheel? If so, where does that leave the so-called "naturals"?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'CarShark\' date=\'May 25 2005, 12:17 AM\'][quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'May 24 2005, 09:15 PM\']I watched in horror, like I'm sure the rest of you did.[/quote]
What was sad was that I knew she was going to miss it, yet it still hurt.

How on earth did she get up to $62,400?  Was she 'gaming' the wheel to hit $5k every time?

As nervous as she looked? No chance. She was probably one of those "naturals" who spun the wheel about 70 odd pegs every time.

(On another note, did Wheel have several 'large' prizes that were never revealed, but available, in case somebody went completely apeshit and won a bundle of money?)

Somewhere, there's a clip of an announcer rattling off prize copy for about three minutes. I wish I could remember where it was.

[snapback]86437[/snapback]

[/quote]

When one of those kinds of wins happened, they went to a commercial before the shopping and then after the break, Pat would then throw it right to Jack for a long reading.  So long, in fact, that at least once the whole "J!" '78 theme was heard and started up again.  Jack used to intersperse this with, "halfway through" and "we're almost there, Pat."  And at least once, it seems that Pat followed it up with an "...and that's our show, GOOD NIGHT EVERYBODY!--oh, we have to announce a winner, as if there was any doubt..."

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'May 25 2005, 10:56 AM\']Isn't there a rule against "gaming" the wheel? If so, where does that leave the so-called "naturals"?[/quote]

If you can prove that someone is gaming the wheel, when they're spinning it one complete revolution every time, you should have your own game show.

[wschmrdr]

I think gaming the wheel is like throwing the dice perfectly to get a neat roll on the craps table. It takes a heck of a lot of skill. There isn't much you can do once the person is cleared to play the game, because they follow all of the rules. It's just like those contestants on The Price is Right that try to hit the $1.00 using skill. I don't think that you can legally put in a rule against paying attention or spinning at a certain strength. Granted it is a question as to how people know how hard to spin, but IIRC the contestants are allowed to take a practice spin during rehearsal in order to get a feel for the wheel. Any mathematical genius could easily figure out by that spin how hard to spin the wheel.

[Sonic Whammy]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'May 24 2005, 09:15 PM\']I watched in horror, like I'm sure the rest of you did.

How on earth did she get up to $62,400?  Was she 'gaming' the wheel to hit $5k every time?

[snapback]86420[/snapback]

[/quote]
To Travis, and to everyone else that's asking about exactly how Terry racked up $62,400, I recall the episode vividly as I saw it with extraordinary pain when I was 7 in December '85. (I also have it on tape now to relive the pain again and again.)

I WOULD spoil it here, but I'm sure more people want to comment on the episode, so I'll just give the basics. If you want a spin-for-spin writeup, e-mail me.

> Terry hit the $5,000 on 4 different occasions, tagging a total of 12 letters in those shots. That totals $60,000 in those letters alone. All her others shots were $500 and $300 up until that last miss on the $800 spin. So overall, she was just able to judge her strength well enough to land on the big money.

> It was clear throughout the whole thing that she had never watched ABC's Wide World of Sports, or else she would have solved it an eon before. She sighed every time she declared she was spinning or buying a vowel. Even midway through, she said "I have to spin," to which Pat replied, "If you have to, you have to." The audience was going quietly insane the whole time, too.

Plain and simple, a moment I'll never forget.