Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune has been on the air in some form since 1975. The current nighttime version, which began in 1983, has accounted for 29 seasons in its own right. Merv Griffin first conceived Wheel in 1973 while his other major creation, Jeopardy!, was in its tenth year on NBC. He decided to create a game show based on Hangman, and added a wheel to it as a "hook".

For more details, see Wheel of Fortune timeline.

1973: Shopper's Bazaar
The first pilot, Shopper's Bazaar, taped in September 1973 and put more emphasis on shopping for prizes at the behest of NBC boss Lin Bolen, who had commissioned the pilot to boost network daytime ratings among women 18-34. Hosted by Chuck Woolery with Mike Lawrence as announcer, the contestants (all female) solved puzzles as is still the case today but their winnings were determined by a vertical mechanical Wheel spun by Woolery.

At the end of each round, the contestants spent their winnings on prizes. The top winner played a bonus round which involved identifying the name of the prize; the contestant was shown all vowels in the puzzle, then given 30 seconds to rattle off consonants to fill in the solution and win.

The puzzle board and Wheel were very different: the former used pull cards, while the latter stood in the center of the stage and had no Bankrupts, four Lose A Turn wedges, and one each of Buy A Vowel and Free Spin. It also had $0 spaces plus one each of Free Vowel and Your Own Clue, the latter of which gave clues via an on-set telephone to the players.

Neither Bolen or Merv liked the pilot, even during the taping: Lin felt there was no real excitement between the players and gameplay, while Griffin knew that "Everything about it was wrong." Test audiences were also unenthusiastic, as they could not understand the gameplay (including why players had to buy vowels) and were unable to see the puzzle board.

1974: Wheel of Fortune
After a format overhaul, Merv did the second and third pilots under the title Wheel of Fortune on August 28, 1974. Hosted by Edd Byrnes with Charlie O'Donnell announcing, these pilots featured a larger puzzle board and simplified the gameplay: there was now a much larger (horizontal) Wheel spun by the contestants, complete with a Bankrupt wedge that eliminated a contestant's winnings within that round. Puzzles now came with categories attached, and whoever solved the puzzle got to spend his or her money buying prizes.

The board was meant to be automatic, but the mechanism was not completed before taping started and Susan Stafford was hired to turn the letters (albeit opposite to how they were turned in the series). Rumors have circulated for years that Byrnes, who admitted in his memoir Kookie No More that he was intoxicated during these pilots, was caught reciting his vowels backstage by Merv.

Test audiences were against these pilots as well, but in the opposite manner: the set was too busy, the sound effects too noisy, and Byrnes simply did not fit. Having gone this far, Bolen convinced her bosses to take a leap of faith and put the show on the air by voluntarily putting her job on the line: if Wheel tanked, fire her; if it succeeds, give her a raise. By November 18, they agreed with Chuck as emcee.

The Jeopardy! contract, subject to end in January 1976, was terminated. The remainder was given to Wheel, which began taping in December.

1975-91: Daytime
Wheel debuted on January 6, 1975 with Chuck, Susan, and Charlie, replacing Jeopardy! as per contract but taking the 10:30 AM slot of Winning Streak (which had also ended the previous Friday, as did Name That Tune). Chuck plugged the show in a voiceover during the credits of that day's Celebrity Sweepstakes, which aired at 10:00.

"Hello, this is Chuck Woolery. Wheel of Fortune is an exciting new game show where three contestants have a chance to spin the Wheel and win valuable prizes! So join hostess Susan Stafford and me for our new daytime program, Wheel of Fortune – premiering next on NBC."

The show drew a 35 share on its first day and an average of 20 million viewers every day of the first week, quickly making Wheel the biggest series in all of daytime and earning Bolen a raise. When The Price Is Right expanded to an hour on November 3, NBC expanded Wheel for that week as part of a Daytime Gigantic Game Gala; on December 1, the expansion became permanent for six weeks, through January 16, 1976.

While the show remained successful even during the near-fatal 1978-81 reign of Fred Silverman, he made two attempts to cancel it in 1980:
 * The first was part of a plan to introduce a 90-minute talk show hosted by David Letterman on June 23, cutting out three games to do so. Among the mock schedules drafted was at least one which removed Wheel, although this was vetoed by May (Chuck and Susan addressed this on May 7, stating that the show had not been cancelled but NBC's schedule would be undergoing changes). The three games which got the axe were Chain Reaction, High Rollers, and The Hollywood Squares.
 * The second was carried through to the point of a series finale being taped for August 1 while Charlie and several other staffers left for other programs. Sometime after the taping, Silverman reversed the decision and opted to cut Letterman's program to 60 minutes; amusingly, the episode aired with cancellation announcement and goodbyes intact, followed by Chuck joking about it the following Monday. Don Morrow filled in as announcer for that week, with Jack Clark taking the reins on the 11th.

Chuck left on Christmas Day 1981 over a salary dispute with Merv, and was replaced by local weatherman Pat Sajak the next Monday; Silverman originally vetoed the decision, claiming Sajak was "too local", to which Merv threatened to cease production. He eventually got his wish after Silverman left, replaced by Grant Tinker (who had previously convinced Mort Werner to pick up Jeopardy! 17 years earlier).

Susan was originally abrasive to the emcee change, but soon warmed up to Pat. Following a trip to India, she began reconsidering her career, and left Wheel on October 22, 1982 to pursue charity work. Three substitutes (Summer Bartholomew, Vicki McCarty, and Vanna White) filled in through December 10; Vanna officially got the role on the 13th.

The show's next big change was on August 8, 1983: the music package used on Wheel for the past eight and a half years, composed by Alan Thicke, was replaced by a new set of cues by Merv; "Big Wheels" was replaced by "Changing Keys".

Wheel continued through the 1980s at a reasonable clip until late February 1988, when Pat announced that he was stepping down from daytime to host The Pat Sajak Show, a talk show on CBS. Clark left in early May, likely due to declining health and bone cancer, and died on July 21; Charlie returned temporarily, and Johnny Gilbert also filled in, but by mid-August the show's new announcer was M.G. Kelly.

Over 30 candidates had been suggested or tested to replace Pat: Vanna was offered the position by producer Nancy Jones, but turned it down; Kelly did an audition, as did Jimmy Connors. The most promising candidate was Tim Brando, who reportedly did so well that Merv said he "could host the show tomorrow", but this was not to be: while watching KABC's morning show A.M. Los Angeles, Griffin noticed guest Rolf Benirschke, a former San Diego Chargers place kicker, discussing healthy habits; Merv quickly sensed that Rolf was a genuine, sincere person who loved people, and selected him.

January 9, 1989 was Pat's last episode, and Rolf replaced him the next day. After six months of The Price Is Right continuing to build its lead while Wheel retained what it had already, NBC ended the show on June 30...only for it to return to CBS on July 17. Now hosted by Bob Goen and using a scaled-down version of the nighttime format, almost everything was overhauled.

The move to CBS was the show's downfall: ratings fell, and continued even after returning to NBC on January 14, 1991; the daytime Wheel of Fortune ended on August 30 of that year after 4,215 episodes, although repeats aired through September 20.

1983-: Nighttime
The syndicated Wheel had a larger prize budget, but identical gameplay. Although it was not an out-of-the-box success, it took off by 1985 and turned Vanna into a household name. The iconic shopping rounds were removed on October 5, 1987 for an experimental month of episodes, although it became permanent. Clark left in May 1988 and died two months later, and was replaced by M. G. Kelly for most of Season 6 before O'Donnell returned in February 1989.

The nighttime version continues today, still with Pat and Vanna at the helm. In 1990, at the insistence of PETA, furs were banned from both versions. Starting in the early 1990s, the game began gradually adding (and sometimes removing) various puzzle categories, set pieces, game rounds and structures. Nancy Jones was dismissed in June 1995 and was quickly replaced by Harry Friedman, who became the sole executive producer after Merv retired in 2000.

February 24, 1997 saw the replacement of the trilon-based puzzle board by one consisting of monitors. In late 2001, the W-H-E-E-L envelopes used since 1989 were replaced by the 24-envelope Bonus Wheel.

Charlie died on November 1, 2010, with the remainder of Season 28 rotating announcing duties among several guests; 40 of these episodes were originally announced by Charlie, but to the detriment of fans Wheel opted to dub them over. Jim Thornton got the nod on June 13, 2011.

Since 2000, the show has honored 14 wishes made by terminally-ill people through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, most recently around December 16, 2011.

Links

 * Official website
 * Official Facebook page
 * Official Twitter account