Good shot of the Round 2 wheel here.
"Cheers" Premieres...John Belushi Dies...E.T. Phones Home...
April 26, 1982...Wheel Moves Back to 10:30 A.M.
To make way for the ill-fated move of Texas to 11 a.m., Wheel moved to 10:30 a.m. on this date and stayed there until the end of the year.
Spring/Summer, 1982...The Heyday of Pat and Susan
Pat and Susan only spent 10 months working together, but they had a certain camaraderie that definitely worked. Pat was still growing in his host qualities, and his work in 1982 definitely is fun to look back at. Sajak would often be seen tossing free spins at the wheel as it spun during closing. In one episode, as he explained that the contestants drew numbers prior to the start of the game, he held up a number on a cue card that he'd "drawn" prior to the start of the game.
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| Pat and Susan looking dapper back in '82. |
Good shot of the Round 2 wheel here. |
A few episodes from this period exist on tape and show a unique period in Wheel's history. It appeared that contestants may have been encouraged not to pick the best prizes for the show's new bonus round, as the episodes show contestants playing for such hot items as washing machines and bunk beds in the final round. Susan looks a little more distracted than usual in these episodes, which may reflect her growing desire to leave the show, which she did later in the year.
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| Someone played the bonus round for these hideous bunk beds?? |
Susan gets up close and personal with an Izuzu. |
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| This puzzle took advantage of the larger puzzle board. | By this point, bonus rounds were played from the studio floor. |
October 22, 1982...End of the Susan Era
Susan Stafford had been with Wheel since the Edd Byrnes pilot from 1974, but in late 1982 she decided to leave the show to do humanitarian work. On the Vicki! talk show in 1994, Susan explained that, even though Merv Griffin had told her that the show would be syndicated the next year and that her chance for fame would grow exponentially, she wanted to do something else.
With Susan's departure, three new hostesses were tested over the next six weeks of the show: Vanna White, Playboy model Vicky McCarty, and future $ale of the Century hostess and former Miss USA Summer Bartholomew. Unfortunately, none of these episodes exist among video traders.
Susan resurfaced for a week in 1986 as a guest hostess on the daytime version of the show when Vanna White took a week off. She also modeled prizes during Game Show Week Part 2 on Hollywood Squares in 2003.
December 13, 1982...Here Comes Vanna!
Perhaps the most famous female in the history of game shows made her debut on the show on December 13, 1982. Vanna had moved out from South Carolina to Los Angeles a few years earlier in an attempt to find fame, but before this point, the closest she'd ever gotten was Contestant's Row on The Price is Right (she never got on stage!)
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| Here a pic from Vanna's off-air audition with Pat... | ...and her first episode from December, 1982 |
Vanna's fame skyrocketed with the advent of the nighttime version of the show, leading to TV movie roles and a best-selling autobiography. Her first episode on NBC is known to exist because clips of it have been shown a few times on the nighttime version. And her first puzzle? A title: GENERAL HOSPITAL.
