The Retro Bonus Round was one of the gameplay elements on Wheel of Fortune.
History[]
From Seasons 30-38, Wheel began airing a clip from a previous episode's Bonus Round after Round 2, presented in a way very similar to the Preview Puzzle: while the contestant's choices are revealed, there was a voiceover of Vanna saying "Can you solve this puzzle from [year]? The category is [category]. We'll give you the answer when we come back, right after this." A short promo was then shown, after which the answer was revealed with a voiceover. The voiceover during the reveal was originally "Here's the correct puzzle solution. Did you solve it?"; partway through the season, "Did you solve it?" was changed to "Watch tomorrow night for another classic puzzle" for Monday-Thursday episodes. If the puzzle was solved quickly in its original airing, the footage was typically slowed down or paused to allow viewers more time.
Several clips have been from 1983, 1984 (twice), 1988 (three times), and 1989 (one from Season 6, the other from Season 7 after the contestant's letter choices became black). One particularly notable instance of this was on February 20, 2013, where the early-1989 puzzle THE HIMALAYAS was quickly discovered to be from Rolf Benirschke's debut.
These were not used on sponsored weeks or road shows. Starting in Season 31, they were reduced to Tuesdays and Thursdays only. The only exception was during November 4 and 5, 2019, where the episodes' airing order being swapped at the last second resulted in the Retro Bonus Round being done on Monday instead. In addition, Vanna's voiceover for the reveal changed again to "Keep watching Wheel for more classic puzzles." In October 2020, it was changed to Mondays and Thursdays, due to the T-Mobile Sweepstakes on most Tuesdays in Season 38.
The Retro Bonus Round was also shown in-studio to the audience in exactly the same manner as it appeared in the finished episode. Some episodes edited it out due to time constraints, as multiple recollections exist of one being shown in studio but not on air. It was also not used during the weeks of April 20 and 27, 2020, due to taping and production restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Game Show Network airings of episodes from Seasons 30 and 31, most episodes had this feature edited out. Some episodes would leave the partial puzzle intact, but omit the solution. This is also the case for most episodes on Netflix with the feature, except for episodes #6937 and 6939 (February 12 and 14, 2019), in which the solution is intact. Due to its retirement in Season 39, it is sometimes (but not always) edited out of weekend repeats of Season 38 episodes that featured it.