April 30, 2013 recap

Both male contestants made this episode fun towards the end.

The only way Brandon would've had a shot at that bonus puzzle was to have called at least the B; BGHO would've put him in much better shape. If he had lost the $100K after those hilarious guesses of his, I might've begged them to give him the money anyway just for the humor!

And get better soon, TPH.

Score: 7

MARIOGS' WHEEL DEAL: PART II

One down, two to go. I stay in my seat the whole time as most of the audience walks around and uses the restrooms. I check Wheel's social media pages for the picture of my sign, and it's up on the Instagram already! I proudly showed it to my friends and the family in front of me (the three African Americans you can see in front of us during the intro of tonight). As the press finishes up what they need to do, Jim comes out for some more chat with the crowd, but not as long as before. Someone asks if there is a car available in the Bonus Round, and Jim says that there is not due to room issues, just the 1/2 Car. Then he asks for a round of applause for the set and tells a little New York history he learned, particularly about the Brooklyn Bridge. Another question: how does one become a contestant on Wheel? "You pay someone off", he jokes, followed by plugging wheeloffortune.com and the Wheelmobile (which is pretty much banned from the NY area due to being such a large market, according to Marty Lublin). Then he talks a bit with Joe from April 29 and praises him for his excitement. It's already time for Jim to get back to the booth and we soon start filming the Tuesday episode. This time, the opening montage is exactly as I remember it. However, look very closely at the second "zoom in towards the stage" shot just before Pat and Vanna enter. You can see that the shot was recycled from yesterday. One can clearly make out a white woman (Laura) in blue and Joe's greenish suit.

During the interviews, Pat made a certain comment to Brandon that I thought was a tad too much and figured it would be edited out, and it was. Specifically, right after he names some shows he worked with, Pat says, "Now, if anyone were going to ask you a question, I know which question they'd ask you, but I'm not going to do that." Brandon just laughed it off and said something like "I get it all the time." Brandon played R1 really well. Right after R1, I see myself and my mother, meaning that shot was taken from the later taping session and added in. During that break, Pat came up into the audience with his 32 oz. cup. He says that he actually bought the cup from a 7-Eleven before he left for New York and printed a piece of paper with "32 oz." on his home printer to cover up the store's logo. He offers it to an audience member and we all go nuts. He gives it to someone near the front and signs it for him, straw, germs, and all. In R3, I was thinking the same as Juanita likely was and had "HARD" instead of "WARM". Some audience members around me were angry that she kept spinning and that she didn't know it when calling the H. Brandon eagerly asked "Where am I going?" before Pat could say anything, but that was cut.

R4 comes along and we get another double knockout with two duds of T and R. I wonder, "Will I finally get to see a null cycle?", and then Juanita hits Lose a Turn. Of course, I felt bad for her, but I was smiling on the inside. It was a good thing, too, because looking at the broadcast, it was very well-hidden for once. Pat didn't make any kind of comment about it, calling G (first call after the edit) was logical at that point, plus they even edited the two camera angles of the spin together to make it look seamless, which was easy to do since Brandon's aired spin landed just one wedge next to his unaired one. If you look closely on the front angle, you can see that the initial spin looks a little strong to land only on the $500. Both Brandon and Sam landed on $350. "The people at home won't know there's no T or R, so you were lucky to see that," I tell my friend. I was glad we managed to make it to a fifth round, and we were in for quite some entertainment from there with Sam and Brandon's guesses in R5 and the BR. I actually had a feeling he might say "MAKING WHOOPIE". I was stuck on HAVING and MAKING for the puzzle.

R1: That was a pretty quick round, but I knew the answer early on, too. A good round for Brandon.

R2: Another quick round! At this rate, we could see a Round 6 tonight. Anyways, nice to see that Juanita's on the board now!

R3: Aww, Juanita could've taken the lead with this round; she was doing well until that H call. I can't be too upset over her calling the H, though, since the first word could've been HARD.

R5: I thought Sam's Nonsense Answer was pretty funny. Unfortunately, Juanita's solve wouldn't have been enough for her to take the win, but she does finish with a nice second-place total!

BR: Whoa, what are the odds of 2 "WAYD?" BR puzzles in a row? As for the puzzle, I was stumped too. I had MAKING or BAKING for the first word. Brandon's guesses did make me laugh, though. Unfortunately, he won't get to add the $30K, but he does get to enjoy that NY shopping spree and that Puerto Rico trip!

An okay episode overall. Brandon seemed like a nice guy, and quite a character too.

Flour ones usually are (when they are authentic), but corn ones (which I usually find hard) usually are not. I felt it was putting a stupid adjective in for nothing, but even still, Jaunita should've called what she knew was in the puzzle while trying to figure out that first word. Or maybe she thought they were "HORN" tortillas.

Brandon was fun. Quite the character he was. Even for being an actor, he didn't come off as obnoxious, which I was afraid of after the top of the show.

Fail of a missolve from Sam. If you can get Phone and Char- then you should be able to correct yourself to Cell Phone Charger before time runs out. Ah well.

So nice to see Wheel on the road again. I think that they overdid it at one point, but twice or three times a year wouldn't be bad.

The Round 1 puzzle did not have to be that long -- what's wrong with THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING?

Trip Puzzle: *throws tomato at Friedman*

Hur hur, all the Bonus Round guesses were slang terms for sex. ...But more seriously, there was no chance he was getting that with those picks -- way too many variables.

Only $18,150 cash was taken from Friedman's wallet tonight ($23,150 if the shopping spree was cash rather than a trip). Gotta do better, New York!

Your optimal Bonus Round strategies for April 30, 2013:
* Modern (2013): Not too sure about this one -- I'll go with WGBO(V)
* Classic (N/A): No such puzzles this week, ergo nothing here

In the battle of CDMA versus BGHO (modern only), tonight's winner is BGHO with five letters versus CDMA's two and the "take a third option" FGHI's three.

R1: Good round for Brandon.

R3: What was Juanita thinking w/ the H? HARD CORN? Some kind of HORN for food? Just doesn't sound right.

R5: Unlike the audience, I did not think Sam's guess was that funny.

Bonus Round: But here, I found Brandon's guesses were very funny. There was no chance in heck he and I were gonna get that puzzle.

MY EP. RATING: 6 out of 10