Month: August 2022

Bad News for August 23, 2022

~ gomezvintagereviews ~ 1 Comment

On Thursday, Jeopardy will re-air our seventh regular-playing daily double skunking of the season. Then, on Friday, they will re-air our only returning champion skunking of the season. Finally, on September 10, Wheel will re-air the $100,000 loss from the February 17, 2021 episode.

Wheel of Fortune Top 25 Moments of the 40 Year History

~ ant0824 ~ Leave a comment

We are counting Down to the Big Milestone on Wheel. We are entering Season 40 in September.  Before the New Season Begins, Let’s Look back at the Top 25 Moments from the 40 year History.

25. The Shopping Format appeared in Nighttime Wheel of Fortune, Contestants that Solved the Puzzle can Spend on Prizes until they can put it in Account or on Gift Certificate (1983-1988)

24. The Old Puzzleboard where Vanna White reveal the Lettters by turning the Tritons that was in use until 1997. It was Retired for the New Puzzleboard that is Currently in use where Vanna Touches the Tritons when it lit up Blue

23. The Bonus Wheel debuted in 2001 along w/ the $100K envelope replacing the five W-H-E-E-L envelope system.

22. LCD score displays replaced the eggcrate displays in 2002.

21. The Million Dollar Bonus Round made its debut in 2008 where the $100K envelope gets replaced w/ a $1M envelope should a contestant successfully hang on to the Million Dollar Wedge and win the game.

20. The $25,000 Envelopes were in Used until 2010.  The $25K Envelopes made their return for Celebrity Wheel

19. Infamous Missolves such as: A GROUP OF PILL-PUSHERS From 1999 causing Pat to yell “THIS IS WHEEL OF FORTUNE, JOE!” which resulted in going Viral like Julian Batts Infamous Missolve from 2014. And don’t even get us started on the likes of the Not Safe For Wheel BRIDAL & GOLD SHOWER and ELECTRIC COFFEE DRINKER.

18. San Francisco Episode from 1992 where in Round 2 when Vanna had a Miscarriage.  That resulted in Showing how they Getting Prepare for the Show.

17. Pat gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with Vanna receiving hers 12 years later. In a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce blunder, however, Pat’s plaque originally had a film camera instead of a TV set.

16. As an April Fool’s Day prank in 1997, Sajak and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek swap places for the night. On the Wheel episode, Sajak and White play as contestants, while Sajak’s wife, Lesly Brown, works the puzzle board.

15. Wheel 2000, a short-lived kid-centric Wheel of Fortune spinoff with a CGI co-host, premiered on CBS on 9/13/1997.

14. Guinness World Records hails Sajak as the new record-holder for the longest career as a game show host for the same show, besting Bob Barker’s reign on The Price is Right.

13. The 7,000th episode of Wheel of Fortune airs. “It’s our 7,000th show,” Sajak told the audience at the start of that episode. “Could someone get me a chair?” We were unfortunately SKUNKED for the second of four consecutive weeks that day.

12. Vanna started a three-week stint as temporary Wheel of Fortune host on 12/9/2019 while Pat was recovering from emergency intestinal surgery, with the first two taking place during the Disney Secret Santa Sweepstakes w/ Mickey & Minnie Mouse taking turns at the puzzle board, and the third week featuring Maggie Sajak over there (and past highlights of Maggie from childhood shown during the closing segments of those episodes). A week of reruns was also shown during that time.

11. Celebrity Wheel of Fortune debuts on ABC in primetime, with Leslie Jones, Chandra Wilson, and Tony Hawk spinning the wheel for charity in that inaugural episode.

10. Aurora DeLucia (aurora on BaV) from the 4/21/2020 episode has a meltdown after her BR loss and said that she’s a big loser and she hopes no one was watching this, and she “gave birth” to “twins”.

9. There were instances after 2001 of $100K+ being won the hard way w/out the help of that coveted envelope, including Chad Ruter ($100,623) in 2015, Sheri Blank ($110,100) in 2015, Dave Andrade ($113,055) in 2020 and more. There were also several instances of that amount being won before 2001.

8. Scott Kolbrenner on 3/18/2021 became the biggest male winner in show history w/ $145K! He donated all of his $138K in cash winnings (remember, he won a $7K trip to Costa Rica) to charity.

7. Laura Trammell became the first contestant to EVER WIN A HOME IN THE BONUS ROUND (choice of a house in Watersound, FL; Daytona Beach, FL; or Hilton Head, SC) worth a staggering $375,000! That makes Laura the biggest known non-million winner EVER w/ $398,690 CASH AND PRIZES!!!

6. Sarah Manchester took home $1M from the Bonus Round to take her grand total to $1,017,490!!!

5. Michelle Loewenstein was the FIRST-EVER $1M winner on the show and her grand total of $1,026,080 was the all-time highest until…

4. …Autumn Ernhard became the second contestant to ever win the $1M grand prize to make her the ALL-TIME BIGGEST WINNER IN THE SYNDICATED VERSION OF THE SHOW w/ $1,030,340!!

3. We had a record six grand prize wins during Season 30 (incl. Autumn’s $1M win), and then that mark was tied in Season 38 (incl. the first-ever house win) and then broken in Season 39 w/ a lucky seven (all were $100K which also sets the record for most wins for that amount)!

2. During the week of 2/7/2022, we had the first-ever instance of not two but THREE CONSECTIVE $100K WINS as well as the first-ever instance that it was won that many times in a single week! This caused Pat to jokingly storm off and say “Who’s gonna book my trip to Vegas?!” — LOL 🤣

Now before we complete the countdown, here are a few honorable mentions:

-Guinness World Records honors Vanna White with the “most recent clapper” record, estimating that she has clapped at least 3.48 million times across the 30 seasons the show had aired.

-Wheel of Fortune ties with Jeopardy! for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show at the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, with then-executive producer Harry Friedman becoming the first producer to tie with themselves in an Emmy category.

-The dominating maingame performances from contestants like Robert Santioli, Amber Kain and Amy Smith.

-Three famous celebrities were in costume and played for charity (there weren’t any prizes involved) in the special 11/2/2000 episode of Halloween. Celebrities in disguise: Shakespeare: fitness guru Richard Simmons; The genie: former figure skater Tara Lipinski; Osment: “JEOPARDY!” host Alex Trebek. Too bad the episode itself was underwhelming gameplay-wise, but still, it was fun to watch, and the gameplay was mostly for laughs similar to Celebrity Wheel.

-LaToya William’s tiebreaker win late in S33 resulted in a $100K win.

And now here’s the #1 greatest moment of the 40 year history of Wheel of Fortune…

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Melissa Joan Hart on the 10/17/2021 episode of Celeb Wheel BECAME THE FIRST-EVER CELEBRITY MILLIONAIRE GIVING HER A TOTAL FOR THE FIRST HALF OF THE EPISODE OF A STAGGERING $1,027,800 ($1,039,800 grand total after the second half)!!!!!!!!!!!!