User:Daniel Benfield



Daniel Benfield (that would be me :) is a Co-Administrator and semi-frequent contributor of the Wheel of Fortune History Wiki (behind Wiki creator TenPoundHammer) who was born on August 23, 1988 and lives in Deerfield Beach, Florida – hometown of October 1994 contestant Scot, winner of at least $47,385; no, I don't know him. :)

I had thrown around the idea of a Wheel timeline in July 2009 and got support from the WOFL board, but a lack of familiarity with Wiki software and general confusion on my part led to only a portion of Season 26 and a bit of daytime being done (now redundant) before I gave up.

Around March 2011, when TPH posted on the Sony Boards about his timeline on Angelfire, I quickly realized that such a page would be an absolute pain to edit and sent him a PM suggesting he put it on Wikia.

And so here we are with probably the #1 source of Wheel info on the internet. :)

What I'm Looking For

 * The two 1975 shows held by Archival Television Audio, Inc. and the Celebrity Sweepstakes episode with Chuck Woolery that they also hold. $150 (for the Wheel episodes) is more than my current funds, really...
 * Full-color PDF of the Second Edition instruction booklet (1975).
 * The A&E Biography episodes on TV Game Shows, Vanna White, and Merv Griffin.
 * A copy of the show's E! True Hollywood Story (although I've been promised one by a user on the WOFL board).

Created Pages

 * Awards
 * Board games
 * CBS
 * Daytime episodes known to exist
 * GSN
 * International versions
 * Misconceptions and Myths
 * NBC
 * Parodies and Appearances (which I blame on being up at 3:00 AM)
 * Video games
 * Wheel of Fortune - Live!
 * Wheel of Fortune timeline (network)

People

 * Alan Thicke
 * Arte Johnson
 * Cyber Lucy
 * David Sidoni
 * Don Morrow
 * Don Pardo
 * Edd Byrnes
 * Ed Flesh
 * Fred Silverman
 * Harry Friedman
 * Jo Ann Pflug (since deleted; that was before we knew she was on twice)
 * Katie Cantrell
 * Mike Lawrence (for his distinction and importance; doesn't really matter that nobody knows exactly who he is)
 * Nancy Jones
 * Summer Bartholomew
 * Tanika Ray
 * Vicki McCarty

Other Notes
Kingskip's daytime episode collection is "missing" several episodes: 10/31/1983, 6/20/1986, 3/30/1987, 4/1/1987, and 5/24/1991 don't have a "daytime" tag.

I received the First Edition board game from 1975 on Christmas Day 2011. :)

On January 6, 2011, during the Vanna for a "Day" contest, I recommended the only qualified candidate I could think of: Susan Stafford.

As a personal rule, I follow every article, picture, and user page on this Wiki to stay up-to-date on any changes. I began following whatever IP-address editors I could find on November 26, 2011.

I've used several signatures on the WOFL board:
 * Over one hundred thousand words just waiting to be read on the Wheel Of Fortune History Wiki!
 * (Gift certificates do not include sales tax.)
 * Over five hundred thousand words just waiting to be read on the Wheel Of Fortune History Wiki!
 * (Signing-up isn't required, but encouraged.)
 * Over seven hundred thousand words just waiting to be read on the Wheel Of Fortune History Wiki!
 * (Signing-up isn't required, but encouraged.)
 * Over one million words just waiting to be read on the Wheel Of Fortune History Wiki!
 * (Signing-up isn't required, but encouraged.)
 * The famous Wheel is spinning, spinning, spinning! And our users are winning, winning, winning! Because there's lots of facts and some fabulous articles just waiting to be read on The Wheeeeeel Of Fortune History Wiki!
 * "...you know, we're not above spreading misinformation." -Pat Sajak admits what we all knew, 12/15/95.

Memories (not mine)
Stuff I've found in various places (ATGS for 1994-2002, the Game Show Forum for 2004 onward). They may not be completely accurate (especially on older events), and I'm not sure whether the 7/30/01 thing is even true (considering ATGS was full of immaturity and only got worse after the sane people left). Anything in [brackets] is my own personal comments or changes to clarify, partly so I don't have to quote a whole long post.

1994

 * davemackey on BIX, 5/12/94: Incidentally, as far as announcer fill ins were concerned. I think they've used Johnny Gilbert, Don Morrow, and even John Harlan.

1997

 * (unknown), around 1/10/97: Did ya'll notice Wheel of Fortune messed up today? They placed the "$10,000" space the wrong way, which ment no bankrupts on either side. The man in the middle landed on it, but did not pick it up. But instead, the $10,000 was added to his bank! Another time was when they kept messing up on the puzzle board, causing all the lights on the board to turn off.
 * calliaume, 1/10/97: (in response to above) Pat mocked this throughout. By the way, with all the balloon stars on stage -- is this a tribute to Merv's much-hated set from "Reach for the Stars," which debuted 30 years ago around this time? First thing I thought of.
 * Zach Horan, 1/15/97: The lowest winning total that got a player to the bonus round I have seen was $575(daytime)and $600(nighttime). The highest daytime winning total was about $26K or so(including a $22K cash jackpot in 1987), the highest nighttime winning total was $59,013 in 1987.
 * Randy Amasia, 3/18/97: They played two, 3-round games with two different sets of contestants (the returning champ played in the first set.) The winners of the two halves competed in a "head-to-head all-cash showdown," where the top dollar value on the wheel was $2,500 (or was it $2,000?).
 * David Hammett, 6/26/97: I just recently saw an audition tape of John Gabriel trying to host the show... let's just say that Gabriel made Rolf look like Bill Cullen. :)
 * Chris Holland, 6/27/97: Rolf's arrival was not (wholly) to blame for Wheel's departure from NBC. From January 3rd, 1983 until July 8, 1988, Wheel and TPiR's first half hour were dead even (on the average). Many weeks, Wheel overcame Price Power by a nice margin. Even after Sajak's departure, Wheel retained its audience and was doing significantly better than ABC's Home. Even though its audience stayed, Price's audience grew tremendously from that time until 1993. It should be noted that reruns of Golden Girls (which replaced Wheel) never did better than Wheel, nor did To Tell the Truth. And Wheel's audience dropped more sharply from the day it reappeared on CBS than any point on NBC.

1998

 * Adam Seigel, 10/9/98: From what I have heard, they have the NBC and CBS daytime WoF's from 1985 on.

2000

 * Foster-Gray, 8/3/00: Not to argue or anything, but the wagon shown in that [Woolery] clip [in the 3,000th nighttime show] looked like a Ford Fairmont/LTD wagon. I didn't think those were made till the late 70s. Were they made in the mid-70s or was that a totally different station wagon? [Wikipedia says the Fairmont was introduced for the 1978 model year, while the LTD debuted in 1965 and had a station-wagon style for its third and fourth iterations {1973-82}. I asked at Yahoo Answers, and the basic response was "mid-1970s Fairmont". Based on all this, I'd say it's the January 18, 1978 show held by Paley Center.]
 * Card Shark, 11/26/00: Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how far in advance Wheel taped when it moved to CBS in 1989. I was in the audience for the first of about 5 shows that taped on July 17, 1989. They made a big deal out of things because the show was slated to premiere on CBS that day. But, I was just curious as to how far in advance they taped so I can figure out about when the show I attended actually aired.
 * Mark J., 11/30/00: Actually, it was five days when the show started. A few years into the run, when they actually got letters saying that the champs were winning *too much,* they shortened it to three days.
 * torcanada28, 11/30/00: There was a time during the NBC run of daytime "Wheel" where contestants could stay up to 5 days. When it first started the limit was 3, then after a couple of years they raised it to 5. A few years after that it was back down to 3 again.
 * Zach Horan, 12/1/00: I think [the record for Goen era] was in the $40K-$50K range. The 1975-89 record on NBC was $65,271, set in Rolf's tenure. [He also stated the Benirschke record on 8/20/00.]

2001

 * Christopher Bogart, 4/29/01: I see on GSN's webpage that Rolf Benirschke also hosted wheel.
 * John Holder, 4/29/01: I remember watching an interview with Goen at the time in which he said he'd taped his first show on a Friday three days before it aired.
 * Also, I think the show left NBC for the last time on Sept. 13, 1991, not the 20th, because I have (and recently watched) a tape of a Goen ep. from early Sept., with a commercial plugging the show that would replace WoF on the local station as of Monday the 16th. (WoF was the last show to air on the network at 10 AM Eastern; NBC gave the 10-11 time slot back to its affiliates thereafter.)
 * When the show moved to CBS, it was known that [Rolf] would *not* be hosting it well before it was known who *would* be. (The TV Guide ad for the CBS debut didn't give Bob Goen's name -- it just said "New Host" -- because it apparently went to press before Goen was hired.)
 * Brian M. Bell, 5/6/01: I think it finally left NBC on 9/20/91, but some affiliates cancelled it earlier.
 * Don Del Grande, 6/19/01: I remember that the earliest episodes had maximum values of 250-500-750; the second round added a Bankrupt (replacing Buy A Vowel, I think), and the third added a Lose A Turn (replacing Free Spin). There might have been a 250-500-1000; there was definitely a 500-750-1000, then a 500-1000-1000, and the hour-long version was 500-1000-1500 (with the final puzzle having a 2000 space). I can't remember how long the "Buy A Vowel" space lasted (it was gone by the time they had the hour-long version).
 * Dan Berger, 6/30/01: Their was one time during the post game segment in '99 when Pat looked into a knight's suit on the set [dunno the name of the theme week off-hand] and jokingly asked if Chuck Woolery was in it.
 * Mark J., 7/6/01: The winner [of the playoff round in the hour-long shows] was declared the day's champion and returned to play in the first half of the next day's show. And despite what's described elsewhere, the puzzle choices before the playoff round (done in front of the puzzle board set to read WHEEL OF FORTUNE) weren't by difficulty, but by category (there were three bowls marked, say, PERSON, THING and PHRASE).
 * Streaming Wizard, 7/30/01: "On one of the Halloween episodes (1998, if I recall correctly), Pat and Vanna entered the stage from a "dungeon" and Pat said, "It was nice visiting with Chuck and Susan, wasn't it?"
 * John Holder, 11/27/01: But as far as the ratings go, the daytime show was on the verge of cancellation when the syndicated version launched in 1983 -- King World saw the evening version as a way to keep the show alive after they expected NBC to drop it. It was only because the nighttime show did so well that NBC kept its version on for a few more years. While Rolf Benirschke didn't help the ratings, the decline began well before Rolf got there. [...] I've read that the main reason the show left NBC in 1989 was that the network and Griffin couldn't agree on license fee payments. (The network wasn't willing to pay that much for a show that was doing relatively poorly in the ratings -- the daytime WoF was the second-highest-rated network game show on the air at the time, but that was a very distant second behind TPiR.)
 * Zach Horan, 11/27/01: According to the 1987 paperback book called Wheel of Fortune, a lady on the show in 1976 won over $64K in prizes, for a time when players were allowed to appear on five shows.
 * Yes it was flagging ratings-wise in 1982 and early 1983, but after that, the show was still the number three game show in daytime for a large chunk of the 80s(behind both half hours of TPIR).
 * Zach Horan, 12/28/01: During special weeks of shows on the NBC Daytime run when there were ties, they played a speed up round to determine the winner. That was also the case for the 1989-91 CBS and back to NBC Daytime version.

2002

 * Zach Horan, 2/14/02: Alex also filled in for one daytime episode in August 1985 for Pat.
 * Card Shark, 2/17/02: I attended a [Goen] taping, that just happened to be on the [CBS] premiere date. They were making a very big deal about it. I being only 12 at the time was very confused as to how WOF suddenly jumped to CBS and how many different networks aired it (being confused on syndication, etc). I hadn't watched the daytime version in years by that point, since it aired during school hours, but I knew that I had never seen $50 spaces on the wheel. Of the many things that happened prior to the tape rolling, (including Vanna White "yelling" at me for wearing a Price Is Right shirt in the audience), they were testing out the sound effects for the buzzer, bell, etc. I remember thinking how weak the buzzer sounded at this new location. But, what can you do? But, it was an enjoyable experience to finally attend the taping of a game show.

2004

 * Zach Horan, 7/4/04: It was reported in ATGS that a contestant in the Woolery era managed to win every round, put his money on account before he picked any prizes, and bought the car in the last round.
 * Michael Brandenburg, 7/5/04: The official rule on the show was that you could put any amount of your winnings from a round "On Account" at any time while you were "shopping" -- in fact, I recall one episode in which a contestant put part of her winnings "On Account" before buying anything else during her "shopping spree."
 * sshuffield70, 7/5/04: [T]hey couldn't put it on a gift certificate until after the dog, since "on account" could be used at any time.
 * ChuckNet, 7/5/04: [D]uring the early yrs, Chuck would always precede each shopping spree w/the question "Do you want to put your $$$ on account or go shopping?" (Except during the final round, where both he and the rule said "It's the final round, so you have to go shopping").
 * Ian Wallis, 7/6/04: I remember watching some early shows during the spring break from school that year, and contestants always had odd amounts that they won. I think it was sometime during that summer that contestants were given the option. Once that option was introduced, putting money "on account" was rare.
 * clemon79, 7/7/04: [T]he option was either to put the whole schmiel On Account, or shop until you could shop no mo', and then put the remainder On Account or on a gift certificate.
 * uncamark, 7/7/04: [S]ometim[e] during the first six months, they were allowed to pick whatever platforms they wanted to shop at first (I assume they had everyone rate the platforms 1-2-3). This was when the curtain replaced the doors behind Woolery. By the time we got to Sajak and the turntable, they may've lost the choice completely, or the first round winner's first choice was first and they then went in the order the turntable spun (although if there was a fourth round, they went back to the platform that was the least bought during the game).
 * Steve McClellan, 7/7/04: I distinctly remember seeing an episode on GSN where a guy was down to his last $300 or so. Pat started to tell him to take the Dalmation (or an equally undesirable small prize), but the contestant cut him off and said he wanted to put the rest on account, which was done.

2007

 * Ian Wallis, 7/8/07: The very first time I watched the show - which was probably spring break in 1975 - players were forced to put any unused money On Account after every round. Some of the early winners had odd dollar totals. Shortly after that (can't remember exactly when) they offered the choice of the gift certificate. That rule seemed to come into effect pretty quickly. As we know, just about everyone took the certificate.
 * I remember one time in the '70s, a male player in the third position won something like $700 in the first round and elected to put it all On Account. Chuck was surprised and almost tried to talk him out of it in case he hit a bankrupt. He ended up winning the next round too, and was able to buy a much nicer prize.
 * Don Howard, 7/9/07: I personally will award a Todd Russell Jackpot of a two-dollar bill if one of you invokes Todd's name during a WOF appearance.

2008

 * Randy West, 2/26/08: I had the pleasure of sitting with Jack during one tape day. He was in a little utility room just off the studio floor with a 3x5 card for each of the prizes spread out in front of him. As the players bought prizes he grabbed the correct cards, and read the copy from that deck of cards. Nice, nice guy.
 * davemackey, 2/26/08: Jack was eventually moved to an area just in front of the audience seating area to get him out in the open. It was interesting to watch him work the cards the day I saw Wheel tape at NBC.

2011

 * Ian Wallis, 5/27/11: In the earliest episodes, you had to put any remaining money on account. It wasn't until a few months into the run they gave the option of that or a gift certificate for the rest. After that option became available, it was rare to see anyone put anything on account.

Links

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