My wife and I were watcing Wheel of Fortune the other night. A huge puzzle came on and the first contestant ordered an ‘S’. Pat said, “Sorry, no S’s”.
But, Vanna walked across the stage and flipped on over an S anyway. So, how does Pat know how many of which letters are on the puzzle? Is he just given the puzzle ahead of time and figures it out as he goes? Does he have a spreadsheet or something in front of him?
I’m thinking it’s the former. My wife disagrees. She doesn’t think that he’d be able to figure it out as quickly as he does, but that’s all he’s been doing for the last 25 yrs - I think it could be done with that much practice.
My grandpa believed to his dying day that Pat has a pedal for his foot, and when a contestant gets too cocky he hits the pedal and they come up bankrupt. When it happened he’d go “See? He did it to 'em! Serves 'em right for being greedy!”
My friend’s Dad was on the show back in 1986. Back then, if I remember correctly, Pat had a card that told him how many of each letter were in the puzzle. Now, I have no idea.
By the way, back then, they had the contestants turn around while they changed the puzzle. They wouldn’t have seen anything spoilerish if they’d looked, but it was an extra security feature. I assume they don’t dot his anymore, considering it’s computerized now.
I rarely watch the show, but I’ve read an interview or two with Sajak and he seems like a pretty cool guy with no illusions about his day job. He once said, “Sometimes, if the studio is really quiet and you listen very closely, you can actually hear my brain cells dying…”
Sajak narrates and appears in the new welcoming/orientation film at George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon.
He used to be the weather man here in Nashville. We never had it so good! He side-lined as the unseen announcer for the late Saturday night classic movie broadcast. His name? “Your Announcer.”
When he did the weather forecast, the anchor for the news was Dan Miller. Miller was later his sidekick when Pat had a talk show. Now Dan Miller is back at his anchor desk. Just wish Pat would show up to do the weather some night.
