Is it low budget week? No, that's just the Jackpot's current value.
Here's the ORIGINAL Jackpot space. Shouldn't have let those Kindergarten students design it.
The goose that laid the golden...cash.
Iran-Contra Affair...Jim Bakker's Slip Up...Married With Children Premieres...
Spring, 1987...Stand Up and Yell...JACKPOT!
The Mike Darrow version of Jackpot! was alive and well in 1987, and so was a Jackpot space on the daytime version of Wheel of Fortune. Unlike the current, more complex Jackpot concept on the syndicated show, the Jackpot space in 1987 was a simple wheel prize that was earned if a contestant landed on it. The jackpot increased $1000 every day it wasn't won. If the contestant with the wedge solved the puzzle at the time s/he had it in his/her bank, the cash was added to their total and available for shopping.
|
|
|
|
Is it low budget week? No, that's just the Jackpot's current value. |
Here's the ORIGINAL Jackpot space. Shouldn't have let those Kindergarten students design it. |
|
|
|
|
The goose that laid the golden...cash. |
September, 1987...The Big Month of Cash
If it a'int broke don't fix it right? Wheel may have been getting 30 million plus viewers at night, but the producers thought the show could move a bit faster and started the 5th syndicated season with "The Big Month of Cash", a trial in which shopping was dropped and contestants played for cash in the main game. The removal of shopping sped the main game up considerably, and instead of the normal 3 puzzle rounds, 5 or even 6 puzzle rounds became the norm.
To add building interest throughout the faster-paced main game, new dollar amounts were added to the wheel. $2500 came in for round two, $3500 for round three, and the traditional $5000 space was on the wheel for the 4th round forward. An additional wheel prize was also added in round four.
|
|
|
|
That's a ton of money right there. |
The original $2500 space... |
The value of the bonus prizes also increased dramatically during The Big Month of Cash, with $60,000+ prizes becoming normal fixtures on the show. With shopping gone, 5 bonus prizes now adorned the stage, one of which was always $25,000, displayed as a gigantic neon sign hanging from the rafters. The other four prizes usually consisted of a car, a trip, a boat or trailer, and "other", with "other" being something undesirable like sports tickets, a log cabin, or an annuity. Contestants could pick whatever prize they wanted, and that ended up being the cash 99 times out of 100.
The Big Month of Cash was a huge hit and as such seamlessly became The Big Always of Cash, as shopping never returned to the syndicated version. As the show continued into the 90s, various required advertisements, toss up puzzles, etc. reduced the average round length back to four rounds, but the end result was still more game play than the shopping format ever allowed.
|
|
|
| ...and it's big brother, $3500 | A close up of the bonus prize "browsing" the winner gets to take part in. |
The 5th syndicated season was also the start of the show's dreaded "I'm a Wheel Watcher" ad campaign, which involved commercials and the playing of said song during Vanna's entrance. Pat categorically hated it.
Also in 1987...VANNA MANIA!
Wheel of Fortune's popularity was at an all-time high in 1987, and Vanna was a big reason for that. She appeared on the cover of Newsweek, wrote her own best-selling autobiography, commanded tens of thousands of fans at personal appearances, and even starred in an NBC TV Movie.
|
|
|
| USA Today featured Vanna in a cover story... | ...as did a little magazine called Newsweek. |
