April 18, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion

The first U call in the BR this season was a pretty poor one - you don't go all-in on UP like that, that's just too risky. That said, I dunno if she gets it even with the O.

R1: The first MDW hit in a while (was half expecting silence on it, too. Glad there wasn't). I was skeptical about her keeping it, though.

R2: And the Same Letter goes for a grand total of...zero. -_- Wonder what Heidi thought the first word was with that O, which they dubbed in the fake audience groan after its buzz.

R3: Very good round for Heidi. Was glad she was able to finally get the other half Kia tag after just missing it twice. Was even more glad to finally hear a good reaction to a second 1/2 Kia hit again, but MAN is this puzzle overused...This is the 5th time since 2004 that this was used in some form (others did not use the "I'M" or replaced "MY" with "YOUR").

R4: As soon as Pat's spin started slowing down before 5K, I said "game over". Hello, MDBR #9! ;D Is this a record for most in a season?

MDBR: Seemed like she was onto something with the super-rare U call. Tough luck. I fell for the first-letter-is-a-vowel trap myself despite being well-aware of it being a common trap. The I in AMERICA'S happens to be my lucky Bonus Wheel spot. That's where I first won the $1M in both the Wii AND DS games, and I think the iOS version as well.

Poor Donna. She seemed like a fun player.

Finally, a good show, despite the lackluster R2 and BR loss.

TU1&2: Standard opening toss-up followed by an easy second one.

R1: I wouldn't really call that a Title, more of a Thing instead, but whatever. $3,550 isn't a massive score, but we also got a Kia half and the MDW! I bet neither lasts past the third round.

R2: The Same Letter curse strikes as usual... the four B's got gift-tagged. Buying a vowel was a good idea late in the round, but a wrong choice leads to Steve getting the California trip off the wheel! That endangers our chances of a million-dollar bonus round.

R3: Heidi just can't get that second Kia half, but I got this puzzle with just the N and T's. Finally she gets the flipper to flop, and that Kia is hers, as is a commanding lead!

TU3: Not a bad bonus puzzle - CDMA would actually win it though.

R4: Got it as the R came up. I liked this puzzle, and Steve liked the $3,900, but it's not enough to even match Heidi's Kia. Donna collects her Pity Thousand as we take Heidi's green glitter in search of the gold!

Bonus: I was able to RSTLNE this, and either FGHO or FGHI runs this right over. At least Heidi was about as far from the big one as she could be.

Overall: Better than usual, but the Bonus Round loss mutes it a bit - still a solid 7/10.

The first Toss-Up would've fit better as On The Map.

BIG was unnecessary for the Round 2 puzzle -- Same Letter can work with just two words.

The Trip Puzzle actually made sense!

TPH already said what I wanted to about the Bonus Round.

recycled puzzle
T2:october 19, 2009(T3)
R2:september 8,2008(last two words-T1)
T3:march 26, 2009(T2)

epsoide rate:7/10
:)very good epsoide!

EDIT: I agree with MarioGS, that prize puzzle is way over used in some form. I do like the fact that the PP is restricted to round 3 now but they really do need to come up with something new.

I too was stumped by the BR. For some reason I kept wanting to say "PUT", "CUT", or "BUT" and the C & P were already guessed. I couldn't get that outta my head and I usually do good on the BR.

Merged consecutive posts.

Steve Brenner here. 2nd place guy in the April 18th episode. I just found this board today. I probably would have done better if I knew about it before 30 minutes ago! I was asked to post a bit about my experience here so here it is . there's a lot of detail and some funny stories that go along with the experience but I'll do the highlights for now. and yes, I would have gotten 'Interstate Highway' within 3 seconds at home!

I signed up to audition early last year and received an email around September timeframe inviting me to audition in Boston (30 minutes from my house). During the audition the contestant coordinators were shot out of a cannon for a few hours and my strategy was to act like a slightly exaggerated version of myself which would either get me arrested or put on the show or both. a few hours later I'm one of the last ones standing and 2 weeks later got the letter in the mail that I was on the show.

Fast forward to early January and get the call that my taping will be January 26th. I can't do January 26th because I was going to be in management meetings in Texas. They were able to change it to the 27th so after flying out to Dallas mon-thurs I fly to LA thurs night and roll into the studio Friday morning. I'll tell one funny story with this: Just as I'm getting on the plane in DFW and being told to shut my phone off a colleague of mine sends me an email with a link to a news story and the headline something like "Pat Sajak Caught Drinking During The Show". So the whole time I'm in the air I'm thinking that after decades of smooth sailing there's going to be a big scandal, the taping is going to be canceled and Pat is going to end up in rehab. only when I landed did I find out the Margarita-gate was nothing!

Friday morning myself and 17 other contestants (and a couple standbys) go into the green room and spend the morning filling out paperwork and reviewing the rules, etc. during that morning Vanna comes in and says hi to everyone. We get a chance to go to the stage, tape local promos, and spin the wheel a couple times. we are grouped into threes and one from each group is chosen to pick a number representing which show we'll tape. Heidi is the one that picked our number and we got show 4 which was great. All the shows this week plus one more was taped that day

We sat in the audience for the first three, took a lunch break and then onto the stage for our show. It tapes in realtime so the only thing you didn't see is us taking sips of water and getting makeup touched up during the breaks. Otherwise you all know what happened. besides the letter S failing me I knew the puzzles pretty early on but when Heidi rocked the Kia round I knew I was playing for 2nd. I knew that puzzle quickly but it only counts if you have the wheel in your hand!

There are other cool stories with this but my one regret besides not making through to the bonus round is not going with my first instinct to congratulate Pat on Jimmy Buffett making him honorary Mayor of Margaritaville. in hindsight perhaps keeping that one to myself was a good idea!

Mario, I'll need to rewatch but I don't think at the time I called the 'B' I knew the puzzle yet, otherwise I certainly would have refrained! Morning was a blur but if I recall one of the contestant coordinators asked each group to separately raise our hands and then they randomly chose one of each group to represent us in selecting the show ball.

Yes, America's game was taped first. I was unaware that this is not normal so didn't pay attention to the reasoning but I don't believe they ever gave a reason.

I've got the date of that show written down somewhere. I do believe you are correct that it will be in June.

There were no reshoots in my game. I did try to get them to photoshop the extra 20lbs and extra chin that the HD cameras apparently put on me but was shot down! or maybe I just need to drop the 20lbs that I put on over the past 8 months There was one reshoot that I remember where one of the other contestants needed to respin the wheel, and there was a couple minute delay when Pat noticed something up with the wheel on another show and they had to fix something. not sure what it was though. I was back up in the audience at that point fighting off the Wheel groupies

Credit to FantasyFreak-FanGirl from DeviantArt.