MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Aug 26, 2017 11:00:52 GMT -5
As has already been brought up in the main Season 35 tapings thread, this picture, uploaded on Instagram back on August 18 by @mark_kapu, shows the scoreboards with a retro eggcrate style.  Despite this, it is already known that there are no aesthetic changes anywhere for Season 35 (yet). Thanks to Hirsk26 for bringing this to my attention, this collage was posted on Instagram earlier today by @cdtechnocrane, mentioning that they were "shooting TV shows on the Wheel of Fortune set".  Here, the Wheel has been stripped of all non-cash add-ons and Free Play. It has been replaced with the yellow $400 that used to go in that spot. The blue $600 on the other side has also been replaced with its former value of $300. The most surprising thing about the Wheel here is that Free Spin has been taken out of storage and placed on the blue $550, though it covers the first digit instead of the dollar sign like in its final two seasons on the show. If you look very closely, on the bottom-left picture, you can see that the eggcrate scores are being used and there are two men at the blue podium. The puzzle board in the bottom-right picture displays the puzzle "FORTUNE FAVORS THE [BOLD]". This is very likely for another show or a promo since, again, we know nothing has changed on the Wheel or scoreboards for the show proper. A couple of other oddities: there are two men at blue, but it looks like there isn't anyone standing at Pat's podium or at yellow. In addition, if you look very closely at the scoreboards, you can see that the blue one is showing "$0". Never in the history of Wheel have the scoreboards ever displayed $0 when someone had no money; it has always remained blank. Hopefully, we will know what this is all for soon. |
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Aug 26, 2017 11:07:07 GMT -5
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Post by tlc38tlc38 on Aug 26, 2017 11:21:45 GMT -5
I love seeing the Free Spin on the wheel and Free Play gone.
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germanname1990
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Post by germanname1990 on Aug 26, 2017 22:56:09 GMT -5
I wasn't expecting them to be this nostalgic, but since they are doing so by bringing back $300, $400, Free Spin, and even the eggcreate display in some sense, why not bring back the Jackpot (perhaps even the daytime version while they're at it) and Surprise? :lol:
But yeah, I had a gut feeling they were doing that for appearances on other TV shows. The $1800, $3600, and $7200 layout used on Amazon Prime's Transparent is still fresh on my mind. Still, I can't help but wonder if they eggcreate displays will stay for future Season 35 episodes of Wheel just for the sake of nostalgia. I doubt it, but who knows?
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Aug 27, 2017 19:09:55 GMT -5
Just want to clear things up further since the pictures are spreading and people think it's for the show proper...
The eggcrate scores and Free Spin are not returning to the show. Several people who went to tapings have already confirmed that the Wheel and score displays are the same as last season. This is either for a promo or another show.
My theory is that this is for a flashback sequence for another series, set up with something like, "Remember when you guys were on Wheel of Fortune like 20 years ago?". Obviously, they weren't going to go through the trouble of recreating the old set, so they just put a retro score display on the current podiums and kept the Wheel simplistic with only Bankrupt, Lose a Turn and Free Spin. The general public knows things like the Million Dollar Wedge and Free Play are fairly new, so they would have tried to keep things as nostalgic as possible without having to go to extremes like build a new board, change the Wheel base, or do what Transparent did and create a whole new layout just for this purpose. Also, Vanna's hair and dress in the other pictures look pretty retro to me...
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tvdave
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Post by tvdave on Aug 27, 2017 23:53:35 GMT -5
Totally concur MarioGS, you can see in the Instagram photo that this extra crew has brought in their own gear (Chapman dolly and technocrane) and are not using WOF video cameras. It's probably a flashback sequence like you said.
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WarioSajak
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Post by WarioSajak on Aug 28, 2017 2:00:37 GMT -5
I think it's important to note that Wheel's got a long precedent of changing stuff midseason, both small (the animated logo in Season 2, the music overhaul back in January) and large (the Big Month of Cash in S5, the electronic puzzle board in S14, and the Bonus Wheel in S19). Given that, I wouldn't rule out the Eggcrate displays appearing on the actual show just yet.
If they are just there for a gag/reference/etc. in promos or another show, it seems like a lot of work for something that most people probably won't see.
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Aug 28, 2017 7:54:55 GMT -5
Again, look closely here:  The blue "team" has $0 showing on their scoreboard. Wheel's scoreboards have never shown "$0" for no score, even as far back as the pilots. They just stay blank. Also, the overhead camera is shooting at about 24 frames per second. Wheel proper tapes in 60 frames per second. This is 99.999% not for Wheel proper, and even if so, this is obviously something rehearsed. The contestants are surely actors. |
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Post by tlc38tlc38 on Aug 28, 2017 7:55:04 GMT -5
Is it possible they could be filming a "throwback" theme week in honor of their anniversary? Maybe.
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Aug 28, 2017 8:07:56 GMT -5
No. We already know what themes have been taped so far. And again, if this were for the actual show, the scoreboards wouldn't say "$0".
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Aug 29, 2017 18:01:09 GMT -5
The eggcrate scores and Free Spin are not returning to the show. Several people who went to tapings have already confirmed that the Wheel and score displays are the same as last season. This is either for a promo or another show.My theory is that this is for a flashback sequence for another series, set up with something like, "Remember when you guys were on Wheel of Fortune like 20 years ago?". Obviously, they weren't going to go through the trouble of recreating the old set, so they just put a retro score display on the current podiums and kept the Wheel simplistic with only Bankrupt, Lose a Turn and Free Spin. The general public knows things like the Million Dollar Wedge and Free Play are fairly new, so they would have tried to keep things as nostalgic as possible without having to go to extremes like build a new board, change the Wheel base, or do what Transparent did and create a whole new layout just for this purpose. Also, Vanna's hair and dress in the other pictures look pretty retro to me... It turns out this is all for an episode of ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat", which will feature Wheel in its upcoming season. This show takes place in the mid-to-late 90's, so they were intentionally trying to make the set look as close to ~1997 as possible by using faux eggcrates and putting $300, $400 and Free Spin back. |
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Sept 18, 2017 13:16:34 GMT -5
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Post by Bryce L. on Sept 18, 2017 13:38:16 GMT -5
One thing I've never understood, is when a real game show is featured in fiction, why it always gets details "wrong" as compared to how the real show works... for example, the "$0" thing with the scoreboards. Another detail I'd not seen pointed out here, but is wrong all the same, is the scores being centered on the displays (Wheel, back when it used eggcrates, always had the digits right-aligned, and the dollar sign either left-aligned (from 1974 to 1990), or directly pushed up against the leftmost digit (from 1990 to 2002 when the eggcrates were removed altogether)) Apologies for the nitpicking, but it just sticks out like a sore thumb to my eyes.
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Post by smashwhammy on Sept 18, 2017 13:50:30 GMT -5
they don't want the average viewer to confuse that scene with the game show in question?
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Sept 18, 2017 13:51:37 GMT -5
Or like how when "The King of Queens" featured Wheel, Jerry Stiller's character was not penalized for calling a letter already on the board.
Don't worry, the "$0" thing bothers me too, especially because I always thought that would look better on the real show, especially when displaying total scores. But I always found it interesting that $0 translating to blank started way back with the 1974 pilots and carried over in the transition to digital scoreboards. I don't mind the centering too much, though the illusion won't work as well if scores with an odd number of characters are centered differently than ones with an even number. No doubt there will be more nitpicks when we actually see the show, but it's not like anybody will care.
I just feel bad for everyone who saw the pictures of the eggcrate scoreboards being tested and getting all hyped thinking it was for some special Retro Week for Season 35. Kind of shame that every time something different happens on the Wheel set, it turns out not to be for the actual show, but for promos, lottery stuff, or other TV shows entirely.
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Post by shootingdio on Sept 19, 2017 1:44:19 GMT -5
MarioGSIn the form of your avatar, pretty much how I felt. Image posted for emphasis
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Sept 19, 2017 9:38:45 GMT -5
Press photos from the episode have been published. Seems the 1992 Tyco board game makes an appearance.  And here is B-Roll footage of some of the Wheel scenes being filmed. www.disneyabcpress.com/abc/video/3A487816-0747-2B57-BDB3-13336CF41B0B/embed#They're using the multicolor 80s logo. They're also using the Used Letter Board as if it were an actual game. At one point, the yellow team calls the three N's but only gains $600 despite no $200 wedges on the layout. Also, no part of the scoreboards flash; it doesn't even look like the yellow wedge ledge is flashing. I do like that they're using a total of four women and two men like how most Best Friends episodes are, and how they're using a scenic background image like the actual show instead of just the logo like in every other show or promo that uses the Wheel set. Funny how they re-styled Vanna's hair (but did not cut it short like she had it back then) but didn't dye Pat's hair brown.  The puzzles are likely:
DENZEL WASHINGTON D.C.
(Before & After)
OO OO OO I WANNA BE LIKE YOU OO OO
(will it be Song Lyrics or Quotation like it would have been in 1997?;
Also, this ties the real show's record for most instances of one letter in a puzzle with 11 O's)
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WarioSajak
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Post by WarioSajak on Sept 19, 2017 13:29:23 GMT -5
I just feel bad for everyone who saw the pictures of the eggcrate scoreboards being tested and getting all hyped thinking it was for some special Retro Week for Season 35. I'd thought the Eggcrate displays were something they changed partway through tapings and would retain through the end of Season 35, if not beyond (see Price's Squeeze Play going back to its original blue/white color scheme at the start of S44). Kind of shame that every time something different happens on the Wheel set, it turns out not to be for the actual show, but for promos, lottery stuff, or other TV shows entirely. And I think that's a big problem with Wheel: the only times they really go outside the box are for things that don't actually affect the show. (It's like the game show equivalent of how Star Trek: Voyager treated character development.) |
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MarioGS
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Post by MarioGS on Sept 19, 2017 13:57:39 GMT -5
And I think that's a big problem with Wheel: the only times they really go outside the box are for things that don't actually affect the show. (It's like the game show equivalent of how Star Trek: Voyager treated character development.) Yep... Try this one on for size: according to someone who competed on one, the 2017 version of the unaired Lottery Experience games had no Prize Puzzle. I would have liked to see someone complete an Express run under those circumstances, though I'm curious as to how the final scores turned out. |
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Post by tlc38tlc38 on Sept 19, 2017 14:31:34 GMT -5
^I agree. I hate that the express round is the PP.
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