Wheel of Fortune Recap: 10/17/1989

Another October 1989 episode of Wheel of Fortune is here for me to recap and I have a strong hunch that Donna is back.

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Money, money, money is all over this studio! Prizes, prizes, prizes are all over this set! Contestants, contestants, contestants are all at the podiums! Over $212,000 is just waiting to be taken, on... Wheel of Fortune!

Donna Hennings: I'm sure you remember Donna from my last recap. She's the returning champion with $18,300 all cash!
Bruce Brown: He works for a major utility company, the name of it you will never find out.
Mark Brooks: Mark's a contract administrator for some kind of company, I can't understand Pat... and coincidentally, neither can Pat.

So... will Mark pwn Bruce? Will Donna win yet again? Will Bruce pwn Mark? Let's find out!



There's one thousand dollars on the wheel as always and the Bankrupt, who would want that? The first puzzle of the night is... a Phrase.



Donna starts with a T on the orange $200... to find none. Bruce then puts up some Ss before bankrupting to give up the money from that. Two spins later, Mark LATs. After a bit of spinning and buying, Donna calls a bad I. And right after that, Bruce got what Mark got, Lose a Turn. Mark then spins and calls another dud, K. After that Donna lands on the orange $200 and calls an H... that isn't there! Next, Bruce lights up a Y, but lands on the yellow (Clarendon-type font) $300 and misses with an L. Back to Mark, who buys an O and then lands on the $1,000! Unfortunately, he couldn't find a C in the puzzle. After buying an E, Donna lands on the orange $200 and calls her fourth dud. Bruce controls the rest of this Round of Duds...



Bruce wants to solve, but despite saying DESSE DEM AND DOSE GUYS, Pat accepts it, he wants to move on.

Donna:
Bruce: $600
Mark:

Bankrupts: 1 (Bruce - $600)
Lose a Turns: 2 (Bruce - $0), (Mark - $400)
Duds: 7 (Donna (4) - T, I, H, P - $0, $550, $300, $50), (Bruce - L $200), (Mark (2) - K, C - $400, $150)
Missolves: 0



After the Round of Duds strikes again, $2,500 is put on the wheel and there's also a Basset Entertainment Center out there worth $2,105. Hopefully there's a better Round 2 puzzle, let's find out, it's Before & After.



Bruce starts this round and immediately ends his turn with a dud S on $150. Play goes to Mark, who fills up some letters in the puzzle, before calling a bad C on $900. After putting up a few more consonants, Donna calls her fifth dud tonight, a P. And Bruce takes his next spin, which is a Bankrupt. Mark controls the rest of the round, and picks up the Free Spin along the way...



And he reads what's on the puzzleboard - BRIGHAM YOUNG AT HEART for $3,250!

Donna:
Bruce: $600
Mark: $3,250 (Free Spin)

Bankrupts: 1 (Bruce - $0)
Lose a Turns: 0
Duds: 3 (Donna - P - $1,300), (Bruce - S - $0), (Mark - C - $1,100)
Missolves: 0



Round 3 is now here and $3,500 is now on the wheel for these players to try and land on, but they also have to try and solve a Phrase.



Mark gets to do a little spinning before bankrupting away $800. Then Donna does some spinning and buying before hitting Lose a Turn. Bruce lights up an R before landing on Bankrupt. And then Mark does a little more spinning before Lose a Turn stops his turn. But he wants his turn to keep on going, so he hands Pat the Free Spin. And it turns out to be a good move, as he lights up a $3,500 M on the next spin! But then he calls a bad B after buying the U and E. Donna then fills up all the letters...



And reads COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS for $1,750 and everyone has some cash now!

Donna: #1,750
Bruce: $600
Mark: $3,250

Bankrupts: 2 (Bruce - $250), (Mark - $800)
Lose a Turns: 2 (Donna - $1,100), (Mark - $1,100)
Duds: 1 (Mark - B - $4,100)
Missolves: 0



Quite a low scoring game so far and also a time consuming one, so Pat gives the wheel a final spin. His spin is a little too fast for $5,000, but he still lands on $800, so it's anybody's game. The category for this puzzle is a Place, a three liner Place too.



The first part of Round 4 started out with no duds, but the second part was cut-off, so I don't know where the puzzle was at that point, but Bruce solved for $3,200 and won the game!



Donna: #1,750 (2-day winnings: $20,050)
Bruce: $3,800
Mark: $3,250

Bankrupts: 0
Lose a Turns: 0
Duds: 0 (may have been duds, so not a Perfection round)
Missolves: 0



Bruce has defeated the champon and now gets to play the Bonus Round for doing so. All five prizes are still available in Bonus Land, the convertible worth over $51,000, the $36,000 Orient Cruise, the sedan worth over $32,000, the necklace valued at over $58,000, and the cash, $25K. All five cards are available too, so Bruce takes the second E card. The category for tonight's Bonus Round puzzle is a Thing.



RSTLNE, how many of those letters are up there?



A quarter of the puzzle is revealed, but I think Bruce wants some more help, so he chooses the usual CDMA.



And it does not help him much. Can he get it?










...we won't know because the rest of the episode was CUT-OFF. But, well, I'm posting the recap anyway since it shows that Donna's run ended this episode and it was still an okay episode... (please don't rage)

And feel free to comment and discuss this episode!