S41 Taping Reports: March 21st & 22nd, 2024

Grand Getaways. Grandparents playing with their grandkids. They did this theme around the same (airing) time last year. I thought it was good. Unfortunately, this time around the gameplay wasn't as good. I don't know what the audition process was like, but I have a feeling some of these people weren't actually auditioned and instead brought on because their grandparent/grandkid was chosen.

I have to wonder if this was originally scheduled to be a Rail Tour week of some kind. I know that wasn't on the original plans, but every prize puzzle trip this week was a rail tour of some location. Sponsored by Railbookers.com! There was no car on the set for this week. Some of the grandkids were teens, so that might have played a part in it, the other part was it being a team week with teams that don't necessarily live together. During one of the commercial breaks, I asked Lee why didn't they put two cars out, like how they've done twin Camaros in the past. His response? "There's this thing called a budget, sir."

Back to the gameplay, it was a mess. I get that it can be a little nerve-wracking up there with the lights on you, but some of these people were acting like they've never even seen Wheel of Fortune before. There were multiple instances of contestants spinning the wheel and trying to call a vowel, or solve, even more instances of contestants during the final spin round trying to call a second letter, and somehow even more instances of contestants during the toss-up round failing to buzz in before shouting out the answer, leading to another team ringing in and getting the money. It was rough.

They also tossed two rounds, for two different reasons. R2 of Game 1 was thrown because the board operator accidentally revealed the puzzle after an incorrect solve. TU1 of Game 2 was thrown because it was not properly pluralized by the contestant solving. Sajak accepted it and began the interviews, but was stopped by Bellamie midway through it.  They ended up shooting everything from Pat's walk up over again, which is gonna be fun to try and notice the edit. I'm guessing we won't be able to because the camera will be on Vanna the whole time.

Overall, it was a cute theme, but the gameplay was rough to watch. Sajak was pretty checked out. He was cracking jokes about his impending departure, and the 6th show closing started with a video montage of his one-liners, this time focused on his wardrobe. And that's right, we actually did tape 6 with a team week! It's not the first time they've done it this season, but it still feels weird enough for me to note.

During the break between Game 2 and Game 3, I continued a new tradition. I gave Jim a tie. I gave him one last time I was out in July, and by pure chance he actually had the one I gave him in his dressing room upstairs! He actually ran upstairs and quickly changed ties to the one I gave him last time, before having me sign the new one and having him add it to his collection. It won't be visible on air at all, as unfortunately they no longer show him during the episodes, unless he gets referenced somehow. Which is a shame! Jim's a great guy and I'd love to see him in the opening pan again. Him and his fabulous ties!

Fan Favorites. They did this last year! This was originally going to be the theme for Sajak's last week, but they pushed it back a few weeks to make room for something a little more "special."

Like what 9821 did last time, here's a list of all the Fan Favorites and their original airdates.You know the drill by now, see if you can figure out why these people are back. Although it's trickier than it looks!
So... There's 18 contestants there. And we *did* tape a sixth episode... But we only had 5 fan favorite matchups! You'll notice that there's 2 pairs of people with the same last time, that's because they're related! There's a third set of players who were also related. Those three pairs competed on Friday's episode for a special theme. But more about that later. As for the sixth episode, they just had three regular players come in and since Fan Favorites used the generic set, they just swapped out the graphics and we'll have a "Wheel of Fortune" themed episode airing on Friday the 17th ahead of the rest of the week.

I don't want to go into too much detail about the week. But I'll say that Thursday and Friday were themed. Thursday was themed to "Quick Solvers" which is players who were good at solving puzzles quickly. Self explanatory. Friday was the previously mentioned "family pairs" theme, in which two members of the same family who competed on different episodes of the show were brought back to work together as a team. I'm suspecting this was how they were going to get away with inviting back Liz and KC but I fear that something happened with one or possibly both of them that prevented their return this time around. Hopefully they'll be invited back next year!

There was one small goof I noticed them make, unintentionally. They were moving Sheldon around the set to various positions across the week as they had done last year. For the sixth show, they didn't move him fully off the set but in to a position that wouldn't be visible during normal gameplay. I won't say what happened, but I have a feeling he'll be extremely visible on the broadcast during certain points.

I really don't want to give away too too much, but this is a really really fun set of shows to watch! Everybody was having so much fun, I'll probably have pages of notes for each recap thread when the time comes.