Heck, I remember when there wasn’t a “final” puzzle. The winner was whoever’d racked up the most winnings (sometimes a mind-blowing $3500!) and I think they got to come back as returning champion. It was well into Sajak’s tenure that the final puzzle came into play, and since everyone just picked R,S,T,L, N and E (reasonably enough), they eventually just gave these letters away. My dad suggested a contestant should pick as his four A,B,C and D, since when you start running through the alphabet for possible solutions, you can start at F and save time.
Anyway, that you misremember this suggest you are going senile at 42. I’m 40 and this fills me with dread, let me say.
I’ve only ever seen one assistant on Lingo, and she’s quite attractive, and certainly gives an impression of intelligence. Was there another one, very early on?
And last I saw, Vanna White was still “turning” the letters (which now just involves touching the screens), and she’s looking pretty good for being in her fifties.
The most frustrating performance I ever saw on Wheel was around 1997 or 1998: There was a fellow who had the wheel itself down-pat. Every single spin, he hit the $10,000 space (the skinny 1/3 width one, sandwiched between two “Bankrupt” slivers), but he never actually got a letter right to claim it. I can’t help but wonder, first, how in the world could someone develop skill with the wheel without having already been on the show, and second, how one could not learn that you guess “T” first.
You know how people sometimes cook food on a hot car engine (at least sometimes in movies)? “Alfacore tuna” sounds like the sci-fi equivalent of that. Like a guy takes long journeys in his small starship, and since it doesn’t have a proper kitchen, he cooks food on the alfacore that powers the thrusters.
The one I remember best was CAPTAIN IR OF THE ENTERPRISE. The woman spun and guessed “P.” Not only was she clueless about an American TV show classic, “P” was already up there!
I’m guessing the player guessed H and the “correct” response was J, although Merriam-Webster says both are acceptable. Although Mojave Desert is the more common spelling, I don’t know why everyone would be expected to know that, especially if someone were familiar with the Mohave tribe, Mohave County, and Fort Mohave in Arizona.
I remember a couple years ago, they had all the letters on the board, and all the woman had to do was say it. Instead of saying, “WHITE SANDY BEACH,” she said, “WHITE SANDY BEACHES” and they didn’t give it to her. Which is fine, I guess. However, a few weeks later, during a college week of WoF, another girl had all the letters (“EAT FRESH”) and instead of saying it, she said, “SUBWAY,” and they still gave it to her. I didn’t think that was right.
