The very first Wheel of Fortune was not what we are accustomed to viewing today. In October of 1952 Wheel of Fortune appeared for the first time on TV. To be eligible for the show you had to have done a good deed; the good-deed doers and the people they had helped appeared on the show. A wheel was spun with cash amounts of between $30 an $1,000 on it. Whatever the wheel landed on was the amount to be played for during that show. There was also a number on the wheel telling how many questions had to be answered correctly for the money. The beneficiary received a gold watch for their appearance. Didn't last long since it was too hard to understand. Then in 1975 a show called "Shopper's Bazaar" began. The object was to spin a wheel to win money to spend on great prizes. Then another version of Wheel of Fortune began with Chuck Woolery as host and Susan Stafford as the letter turner. After a contract dispute, Chuck Woolery left and Pat Sajak was hired to replace him. In December of 1982, Susan Stafford departed and a few interim letter changers followed, until Vanna White eventually took over. Pat has always hosted the syndicated version of the show which started in 1983, and hosted the network daytime version until January 17, 1989 when he turned the NBC daytime version of the show over to Rolf Bernirschke. Are you lost yet? On July 17, 1989, the daytime version moved to CBS with Bob Goen hosting. Charlie O'Donnell was the announcer until 1982. After that, Jack Clark became the announcer until he died in 1982. Charlie O'Donnell returned and has been the announcer ever since. Current show host, Pat Sajak was a DJ for the Armed Forces from 1968 to 1972, during the Vietnam War. He was also a weatherman during the 1970s and 1980s. Then in 1981 he became host of Wheel of fortune.
Pat Sajak, host of "Wheel of Fortune." |
Vanna White, letter toucher extraordinaire. |
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