May 6, 2013 recap

I was hoping Andrea would make it to the BR, because I think I would've had a field day over her two Bobbys.

I knew the bonus puzzle shortly after Alex's choices came up- those H's won it for her.

Score: 7

Although not getting the Jackpot was disappointing, have all three of them fan on the speed-up felt more incompetent to me (and Alex missing getting a serious chunk of change twice). Fortunately, the BR was very doable with H, and we managed to get it.

Was it just me or did Alex have an attitude problem whenever things went sour for her and everyone else did well? She seemed to looked quite mad at times...even my mom and sister noticed it.

MARIOGS' WHEEL DEAL: PART VI

So this day was not only another taping day for Wheel; it was also the day of the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade. Tons of high schoolers and college students were crowding the streets all dressed in green. At one point, John Lauderdale even asked who went to the parade and thanked us for coming to Wheel instead. Most of the warmup stuff was the same as before.

Going back, I witness the entire rehearsal game, which started off with Gary and Shannon entering just like Pat and Vanna do. Something on stage that I thought was a real treat: they actually kept the S30 logo on the video wall for at least the Toss-Ups! I managed to sneak a pic of it. The show really doesn't know how good that image looks behind the players: i.imgur.com/FQqXicZ.png

Today, I'm seated in the fifth row, right on the edge, one aisle separating me and the contestants. I think Jackie from the contestant team gave me a look as if to say, "Oh, is that the guy who auditioned in Pennsylvania, possibly from the forum? :eyebrow:" I also submitted a Face of the Fan video with no success, and I happened to be wearing the same sweatshirt that I wore in the video, unintentionally, of course. There were some good shots of me here and there. The cameraman who did the shots from the aisle was next to me many times (no, I didn't bring back the "NY Wheel" sign). Shannon, also from the contestant team, came up to our row because she is friends with the people I was sitting next to. I (and they) just acted like I wasn't there. I was pretty quiet this session because A: I now know what to expect, B: I had nobody with me this time, and C: My hands were still sore from the previous day. I barely did any hooting and hollering except for notable spins.

Before taping started, I saw another really cool thing. Two stagehands went up to Pat's podium and one of them actually ripped up part of the layout. Because of the design of the Free Play wedge, the layout is no longer two halves. Instead, Bankrupt and $650 are one piece, blue $700 to top dollar is another, and the WC green $500 to the pink $900 (counting the blank red wedge with the Jackpot plug holes) is still one half. The Bankrupt/$650 piece is torn up and the man actually goes inside the Wheel! People in the crowd gasped as he was swallowed up completely. It was so weird. It appeared they were inspecting Free Play for some reason.

We finally start, and things stay a bit bizarre. Pat mentioned Chrissy was from Newtown, CT, and they went along with it, but people in the audience were murmuring. You really wonder if those kids went to the school, which they probably did. That kind of made everyone uncomfortable for a minute. When Round 1 starts, I noticed that the scoreboards were occasionally shutting off for a split-second. It can actually be seen when Andrea lands on the 1/2 Car tag, but you really have to look closely. Then, Alex's Bankrupt is followed by the obligatory "zoom out and show the BANKRUPT graphic" shot, and the flickerng is really noticeable there. Right after Chrissy asks to buy the A, John Lauderdale interrupts Pat and yells "Stop! Stop!" Pat tells the players to turn their backs, and the stopdown begins for almost 20 whole minutes. During this time, I am able to figure out the puzzle after studying its current state, and Vanna takes this time to do her audience Q&A. She said that she was having a great time in NY and couldn't wait to see "Book of Mormon" (I doubt she liked it, given her wholesome nature and how inappropriate that show is...). Someone even asked "Why did we stop?", which Vanna answered with "There was a glitch in the lights or something." Eventually, Pat tells us that a dirty fiber optic cable was causing the "readouts" to flash. As they get thigns back together, there's more waiting. Pat pretends to sleep on the railing, a sight so hilarious that they put it on the monitors and even put a pic of it on the official site!



I tried to get a picture myself, but then he got up. Couldn't he have waited 10 more seconds? The camera focus then moves to the three players, or their backs, rather, and they were quietly moving their hips to Pitbull's "Don't Stop The Party", probably not realizing we could all see them. The focus moves to just Chrissy, and her mic transmitter falls off and a stagehand has to clip it back to her behind so the cameras promptly cut off. Everything's finally sorted out and Pat and Chrissy's voices from earlier are replayed as sort of a backing track so Chrissy can once again ask for the A so it appears seamless. Once again, I'm blabbing against Pat's advice. After Round 1 finished, they put the appropriate scores back on the scoreboards and re-shot Alex's Bankrupt reaction/graphic shot.

I really thought the Jackpot would be had. Then in Round 2, Chrissy isn't prompted by Pat or John to use the Wild Card on $3500, whose spin, by the way, had a pathetic reaction in broadcast. My section was really the only one to care. I was glad to finally see another Bonus Round win, and the round was pretty suspenseful in-studio given that she didn't answer right away. It was a decent show to start things off, including getting to see a regular $5000 hit.

Can't be. An image of the show setting up showed that FP is its own wedge. It was sittng alone on the Wheel before any other wedges were put on. It's just sandwiched between the $650 and $700, though I believe there are small parts jutting out on the templates that stick to each other (and possibly FP) so that they don't move when the Wheel spins.

Another interesting thing I saw: the electronics that control the lights on Jackpot and FP are controlled by a switch underneath the Wheel rim between the yellow and blue podiums.

You can see the scoreboards flashing at 5:46 here...



Pat said, "You're here on an historic night, because we've been on for 30 years and that's the first time we've ever had a technical issue on the show." After the audience applauded, he snarked, "Tell me they didn't believe that." I know I didn't, seeing that we've seen multiple reports of problems here and on the Wiki.

I don't know if any other contestants or audience members here ever saw this, but I did notice at certain points, not when the cameras were rolling, that Pat's monitor turned into a black screen with a Wheel layout quadrant on the right side. That layout was interesting in that it was the current one, but the wedges were in reverse order, and I believe the red $700 and blue $300's values were swapped. I've never seen anything like that before. Wonder why that was there...

Win! I apparently thought that Pat's gun-to-the-head gesture I witnessed was his best potshot at the production crew, but this takes the cake!