Nancy Jones

Nancy Jones was a Wheel of Fortune staff member who was present from the 1974 pilots as an assistant to producer John Rhinehart. When the show debuted, she was promoted to co-producer until Rhinehart left on April 29, 1976, at which point she became the sole producer until Spring 1995.

One particularly strange note about Nancy's tenure was the appearance of a contestant named Nancy Jones in the late 1980s. According to said contestant (who also appeared on Let's Make A Deal, The Price Is Right, High Rollers, and Match Game '74), having the same name as the producer nearly kept her from playing on the show.

From her promotion in 1976 through January 4, 1990, Jones was listed first on full credit rolls. On January 10, her credit was moved down slightly to fit Merv Griffin's executive-producer one.

Cameos[]

Jones' first confirmed on-air appearance was on October 22, 1982 (Susan Stafford's last show), where she presented Susan with a bouquet of flowers during the final segment.

According to personal recollections, Nancy was heard during Pat Sajak's debut week in December 1981 after he told a player to spin again after buying an incorrect vowel.

During her tenure, Jones appeared in several behind-the-scenes reports on Wheel along with a game show episode of Woman to Woman (April 12, 1984) and the 1989 documentary American Beauty Ltd. One behind-the-scenes report for the nighttime show (on November 28, 1986 by 20/20) included Nancy mentioning that she tried Vanna White's job for a day and found it difficult, while one the previous month for KSDK about the daytime show included her describing the basic format of the 1973 Shopper's Bazaar pilot:

"Our three contestants sat on a couch, and there was a coffee table in front of them and there was an upright Wheel, and then the phone would ring on the coffee table and give them clues, and then they would kind of get up from the couch and walk around this very luxurious store and pick their merchandise (laughs)...so it's changed a lot."

While this would suggest Nancy was present for Bazaar, she was not listed in the credits.

Judge[]

"If she really feels that way!"

Nancy was also the offstage judge from at least the beginning of Season 7, being consulted by Pat from time to time. This included the nebulous "judging" of Megaword sentences, which led to an incident on March 1, 1995 where she accepted a contestant's sentence for BOMBASTIC ("Being on Wheel of Fortune is a bombastic experience.") with the above quote. It is also her last known on-air appearance.

Not Entirely Nice[]

A 1980 TV Guide article on the show documents a taping the author sat in on, which had the control booth express open disdain for a female contestant that Nancy calls "icky" (and other staff "yelling horrible insults") - seemingly the "middle-aged, female, persnickety, finicky, bossy, pluperfect" type of person Nancy cites as being the type of winner her audiences are "unhappiest" about, who had evidently fooled the contestant coordinators - who has apparently "been talking too much while winning" and "passing up all lavish offerings" in favor of "a time-consuming string of small, mundane choices", "turning an expectant moment of hedonism into an exercise undertaken with the care of a trigonometry lesson", a series of events that leaves Nancy desperately wanting someone else to win the next round because "This is the kind of contestant, if she's on three days, we won't have a viewer left." The contestant in question ends up winning the next round, resulting in boos from the control booth and Nancy saying "On a one-to-five rating, this show isn't a zero, but it's close."

The 2019 autobiography The Gun Behind the Camera by Al Miller, a long-time security director at Wheel and Jeopardy! who had retired in 2016, recounts that Jones would spite other staff members for petty reasons (not singing karaoke or dancing with her at staff parties, among other things) and enact disproportionate retribution (such as taking Miller off the flight list for the Orlando tapings in early 1995 for refusing to dance with her or forcing CBS stage manager Randy Berke to walk nearly two miles back to the hotel during the Orlando tapings in early 1995 for refusing to sing). Further, she had refused to attend meetings discussing the show's then-upcoming move to Sony's Culver City studios, opting to send other staff members in her place, having "simply refused to acknowledge their ownership and control of the property or participate in any way with the Sony Studio or related business of creating a sound stage".

Firing[]

Jones was dismissed around early- or mid-March 1995, with the official explanation being that it was felt that Wheel was becoming tired and dated under her watch and Sony wished to take the show in a different direction. Harry Friedman replaced her immediately afterward, having been contacted for the job by old friend Alan Levine, then-CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

According to Miller in his book, by late February 1995 Sony had had enough of Jones' behavior (whether towards Sony alone or in general is unclear). Merv told him that Sony was planning to fire Jones and he (Merv) was "going to see if I can save her job", as the company had planned to replace her with "A nice enough little guy who has been producer of two failed television shows and now Sony wants to let him [...] up the Wheel of Fortune." According to Miller, Jones' last taping as producer came a few days later, with Pat relaying the news to the entire staff in his dressing room and Harry becoming producer starting with the next day's tapings.

Other Work[]

Nancy was married to comedian Joe Piscopo from 1973-88, having one child (Joey) in 1979 and being executive producer of Joe's 1984 TV movie The Joe Piscopo Special. Following Wheel, she worked on the 1997-98 version of Pictionary (hosted by Alan Thicke).

During her career, Jones was nominated for 13 Daytime Emmys (all Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show): 1982 and 1984-89 for daytime Wheel, 1990-91 and 1993-95 for the nighttime show, and 1998 for Pictionary.

Nancy also produced the Hawaii Horse Expo, proceeds from which benefited the Humane Society's Horse Rescue Fund, which helps abused and abandoned horses on the Big Island. She had also created the Circle J Sanctuary Foundation in Waimea, a sanctuary for rescued horses.

Nancy was among the many Wheel alumni who contributed to the show's E! True Hollywood Story in 2005.

Death[]

Nancy passed away on June 30, 2018.