May 1, 2013 recap

I feel like I should've gotten that, but I just couldn't think of any adjectives for COMPLEXION. I kept thinking the top word was going to be a compound word with the syllable break falling on the T, and the -FUL suffix never came to me either.

Sandy's T repeat moment during the MR was controversial, IMO. Karl made a careless mistake by saying a solution that didn't have enough letters to fit the JR puzzle, but luckily got control back & won the trip.

I knew he was in trouble the moment I figured out the first word of the bonus puzzle w/ RSTLNE; he probably still would've lost even if he had called the hot vowel of O because he couldn't even solve the second word.

Score: 6

In the Prize Puzzle round, yet another contestant cracks under pressure and calls a dud letter. In R2, it was an interesting situation I have never seen before. Horrid BR, even though I figured out the bottom word, COMPLEXION.

5/10

Well, that was an interesting thing in R2. And Laura had many chances to get more than $1,000, but unfortunately couldn't figure out the puzzles before dud M's stopped her runs.

That was a pretty tough BR. I did get YOUTHFUL right from RSTLNE (the BR puzzle writers sure like using words relating to their younger days; they must be going through a midlife crisis ), so once Karl filled in some consonants for the bottom word, I got that easily enough. Still, a tough puzzle.

It was kind of all right episode tonight. I thought DELICIOUS answer was better than DELIGHTFUL one, although I don’t know how to spell delicious, which is why I didn’t pay much attention on the T. And Sandy could’ve practice lot more on the wheel spinning, I could even see her hand letting go on the overview shot. If she was on the Price is Right, expect some lot of boos on SCSD. But hey, at least she not worse than Alex Trebek’s final spin on April Fools episode.

MARIOGS' WHEEL DEAL: PART III

So Jim tells us to get ready for the third and final show, and then a familiar voice calls Jim's name. It's Vanna! She managed to get a handheld microphone and then takes the warmups from there. She shares an interesting piece of information that not even I knew. The dressing rooms are far from the stage, so when Vanna has to go down there, she swaps her heels for a pair of sneakers to save her feet, then puts the heels back on when she comes back. She then starts a Q&A with the audience. Some questions included "Can I get a kiss?" from an elderly man, and "Can I go on stage and touch a letter?", to which Vanna got all sassy and said only she could touch the letters, jokingly of course. "But you can scream 'Wheel of Fortune' into my microphone", said Jim, and the young woman did. Then she is asked to sign Pat's 7-Eleven cup. "Just this once I'll sign your cup", she said. That lucky little...

Near the end of her Q&A, I hear my name called. Lee (again, I think that's his name) comes up the aisle and asks us to come down. Three seats opened up in the VIP section in the second row! (No, I didn't get brought down solely because of my sign. It's a pretty long story...) We were now seated near the Wheel. We could see the board just as great as the contestants without looking at the monitors, plus a good view of the offscreen scoreboard and used letter board. One woman tells me "I love you for making this sign." There was another very nice lady next to me who I talked to at various points. We also have John Lauderdale right in front of our section, and he's doing a lot. For one, he controls the overhead Wheel camera, plus he holds up signs to notify Pat of something. There's "REMOVE CARD" for when a player loses cardboard to Bankrupt, "WILD CARD" when a good opportunity to use that comes up, "TIME'S UP" for when the Final Spin bells go off, and "SPIN OR SOLVE" for NMV. I think there may have been another sign, but I don't remember. I know that Alex the contestant coordinator holds up a sign reading 1, 2, or 3 when that round begins.

I was rooting for Sandy the most because I'm from Brooklyn and she reminded me of my late grandmother. Here's something interesting she said about herself that was cut for time: she's a frequent contest winner. Over the past 20 years, she's won 10 major trips and a big-screen TV! In R1, I was glad to see Karl get a second chance even though he should have known better that there's no T in DELICIOUS. During that break, Pat came up into the audience and chose an adorable young girl names Susie to meet Vanna on stage, then got a WOF goodie bag afterwards. As for R2, some of you know that at least in Culver City, audience members are encouraged to shout "Go for it!" on Mystery gambles regardless of what's on the line. Well, since I think it was a little too late in the round to flip it, and putting the 1/2 Car at risk, I shout "TAKE THE MONEY!", which you can just barely hear in the broadcast. And no, I was not kicked out for saying something other than "go for it". I didn't even get any weird looks from staff, though some people in our row laughed. BTW, when people call a letter on a Mystery Wedge, the $1,000 per letter IS added to their score on the offscreen scoreboard before the gamble, just not on the main scoreboards. When Sandy blurted out T, she actually went "OK, um....'T'", not just calling it outright like in the broadcast. I wondered how they would handle that. Last time that happened, they let the player choose another letter if they wanted to, but other times, they were held on the one they called. The lady said "Yep, that was the right call." I felt so bad for Sandy, though. Later, when Karl called the obvious U on Free Play, I whisper, "Why call a vowel if you know it?" The woman next to me didn't know you could use Free Play for consonants, not just free vowels. Fortunately, it worked out well for him, and I shout "All right!" when he hits the Spain wedge, but that was drowned out. And I did hear OF when watching on TV, but not in the studio since we had that rush of excitement, I guess...

During the next break, Phillip Phillips' "Home" plays and the entire audience claps to the beat, including Vanna. Afterwards, Vanna tells Pat to ask the audience who got kicked off American Idol the night before because she wanted to know. Note that Listen closely right as Sandy leans down to spin at the beginning of R3. You can very faintly hear me shout "GO, SANDY!" When Laura kept spinning, some people around me would gasp, and even moreso at the M call. Everything's been in the bag for Karl tonight. "The military people always win", the lady says. In the BR, I believe I had COMPLEXION but not YOUTHFUL. They really haven't been nice in the BR's after Monday...And then it's all over for most of the audience and my friends...but not me. I went back for more!