April 29, 2013 recap

Toss-Ups: Hey look, it's Mario! Hey look, it's an extremely predictable Landmark!

R1: Joe is one of the most energetic players that I've seen in a long time, but it doesn't stop an early run of penalty spins by everyone on the panel. The trip gets picked up, but it will be retired as Joe solves for $1,750 (unfortunately, his energy leads him to abandon three pairs).

R2: Again, Joe is the only not not troubled by Bankrupt and Lose a Turn. Again, he leaves multiple consonants on the board, solving for $1,950 this time and extending his lead a bit, though it's a small one considering the Trip Round is coming.

R3: Joe's not the only one leaving multiples, as Laura does it now too. But she can't be blamed too much, having horrible wheel luck up till now. She finishes what Joe started and claims some cash and the Maui trip.

R4: Erin's finally on the board, but she'll have no time to spin. At least it's a $1,900 spin, which could be a critical number. Laura shuts the door though, better than doubling her score to close out a win.

Bonus: First word was kind of tricky, but Laura solves it for $30,000 to put her over the 50 mark. Not bad.

Overall: Decent show, but too penalty-filed for my liking, a 6/10.

MARIOGS' WHEEL DEAL: PART I

I had been looking forward to the tapings since they were announced. I had plenty of tickets, so I was able to go with my friend and her mother. Neither of them are really fans of Wheel, but they thought it would be fun. We agreed to meet at the theatre at 2:00, over an hour before the tapings officially started. That morning, I went to a relative's apartment in the city and stayed there for a while until I was ready to take the subway downtown. I brought my sign with me and a custom T-shirt I wore to a Wheelmobile event last May. At about 1:40, I leave, making sure I have my sign with me. I carried it inside a garbage bag so people wouldn't give me weird looks, and I wore a light jacket over my shirt. I get to MSG and my friends say they're almost there. I start to walk in, and then it came to me...I FORGOT THE TICKETS! (My friends already had theirs) I call the apartment and I go back to the subway where I meet my mother (who was at the apartment and would be meeting me for the later tapings) at a station at a midpoint between MSG and the apartment.

I rush back to MSG where I am stopped by security because of my sign. He had to make sure there was nothing inappropriate or scandalous on it. The lines to get into the theatre are packed. My friends wave me down and one of the ushers said she's glad I made it (they told her about the situation). We wait quite a while before we're finally filed in. We get our first glimpse of the amazing set, and our seats are great! Not too high up, and right in the middle. They're playing rehearsal games with all of the week's contestants. They're directed almost exactly like actual episodes, but contestant coordinators Gary and Shannon act in place of Pat and Vanna. One thing I thought was interesting was that in the rehearsal Bonus Round, they use plain cardboard rectangles in place of the Bonus Round envelopes. The rehearsals end and there is a lot of waiting. Lots of people were on their smartphones. Thankfully, I found Wi-Fi there to help keep me occupied, occasionally browsing and posting on BAV.   Ushers constantly had to remind Instagrammers that no photos were allowed. Later, a young lady comes up to me and asks to take a picture of my sign for Wheel's social media sites. Since I knew everyone here would see it, I asked not to show my face.  I eventually took off my jacket and was asked by the people behind me where I got my shirt (customink.com).

Eventually, Jim comes out and greets us, complete with a made-up song about Wheel in NY in his surprisingly great singing voice. He walks around the theatre warming us up, chatting with a few audience members along the way, including a man named Michael Shane who was on Teen Week with Bob Goen in 1990! (Goen was not mentioned, just that it was the daytime version 23 years ago) He said he won a car that still runs to this day, and that he misses Charlie O'Donnell. Jim followed up with some kind words about Charlie and how he had big shoes to fill after watching him while growing up. Jim also introduced us to the cast of "Jersey Boys", who filmed some outros while sitting in the audience, but left before the first show started taping. Also there were the members of FDNY, which Jim also introduced. After that, he reads my sign and acknowledges it to the crowd. We hadn't even started the shows yet and my day has already been made times ten! He tells us when our shows would air, and probably just to rile us up, he oddly said that they normally tape only one show for an audience, but we're getting "three for the price of one." As we get closer to the first show, we are introduced to stage manager John Lauderdale and another staffer named Lee Valentine. They point out the cameras and we film some audience shots, which were mainly filmed with two jib cameras. We were told not to look or wave at the cameras because we had to act like we were seeing Pat and Vanna for the first time.

Soon, the slate comes up on the monitors with the WOF NYC motif and Jim reads it aloud, just like Charlie and other past announcers would do. The opening montage starts (which I believe was a tad shorter than what we saw in the broadcast) and Pat and Vanna enter, and we're off. Pat says the category for the first Toss-Up is Landmark, and I had a gut feeling what the puzzle was already. The blanks come up and I think, "Yep...", so it was no surprise to me that Joe rang in within milliseconds. What a great start to this locale! When a player rings in on a Toss-Up, their name is highlighted on the offscreen scoreboard in red, and green during their turns in normal play. Joe quickly becomes a hit with the crowd, despite being loud. I figure out the second Toss-Up several seconds before Laura. Then comes the Jackpot and Prize plugs which are identical to the broadcast. The only difference is that during the transition between the two (with the Jackpot graphic), there is no applause, so that's added in, regardless of where the show is taping. During this part, Carol, the show's photographer, rushes on stage to take a picture of Vanna for the Vanna Style website. Who would have thought that those pictures are taken during actual filming? And then seeing Pat with the Big Gulp cup was hilarious, even though I didn't realize until today that it was supposed to be a slam at NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The actual Wheel spinning starts, and one of my Wheel questions is answered: "How come often when a good wedge is hit to start off, the audience reaction is always lower than usual, if anything?" (This happened many times with the MDW in S29) Turns out that they don't show the Wheel or board on the center-stage monitor until about two or three turns in, only showing them on the audience monitors on the sides. To the crowd's disappointment, R1 is already off to a lackluster start, though I was secretly hoping for a null cycle. None tonight, though as you can see, we were close to one multiple times, and there were three of them in this week alone (all during regular gameplay, none in Speed-Up), with two in the same episode. I'll provide more detail on those when the time comes, so you guys will actually get to know what the unaired lost turns were!  With all the lost turns, my friend said "They should call the vowels." "You have to buy the vowels!", I tell her. She didn't question me when people called vowels on Free Play, though. Looking at the broadcast, there were quite a bit of snips of "dead air", or small remarks that weren't too relevant. I know there was a very minor reaction to the first Jackpot hit that was skipped straight to the R call, and Joe had to call T twice, hence why people laughed at him saying "T as in Tom", and Pat did verbally remind players that there were no more vowels left (signified on the used letter board with "VOWELS GONE"). There was also a bit of banter between Pat and Joe and I think another shoutout from him, and that was all cut and masked with the audience shot, going straight to Pat recapping his total, overall, I'd say about 30 seconds total was cut from each regular round. After R1, Pat and Vanna greeted the audience and did the typical "Vanna speaks into Pat's chest" bit, and reminded us not to whisper letters or answers so that the puzzle doesn't have to get thrown out.

The crew comes in and unplugs the Jackpot wedge and sticks on the red $700. One person brings out both Mystery Wedges which are sandwiched with another wedge Oreo style. In between the two Mysteries is a blank blue wedge used to hide their reverses to everyone in the studio. The crew member carefully maneuvered the wedges so that nobody got a glimpse of either reverse, even while taking them off afterwards. Out of all the times I watched them take them off, I could only make out a reverse once. R2 took longer than needed IMO (regarding play). Pat did call out $550 when that was hit, but was cut. R3 was better, though Laura wasn't as determined to solve as it seemed. Pat actually reminded her of the three options and there was a slight pause before she asked to solve. Shortly after that round finished filming, we were asked to applaud because they had to reshoot the first spin of the round. The crew had already stripped the Wheel of most of the remaining cardboard before they did it, so only the MDW was still on for that shot. The Wild Card that Joe would hit was missing. Pat explained that they sometimes "miss the shot" and they edit it together, and "nobody at home will know we screwed up unless you go home and blab." This is me, Pat, blabbing. I goof on the third Toss-Up with NEWSPAPER JOURNALIST. R4, though a full Speed-Up, goes pretty well. To my surprise, the audience doesn't applaud during the actual Final Spin, which explains why the contestants don't always do so, either.

During the next break, the timer and puzzle board are tested with a fake bonus puzzle and the Bonus Wheel is put on stage along with some plastic tiles to cover the cables and Laura gets a practice spin. John Lauderdale stops it mid-spin and presets it to what appears to be the first A in AMERICA'S. Just like with the Final Spin, most people don't actually applaud when the Bonus Wheel spins. When the category was revealed to be WAYD? and that the puzzle had an obvious WITH, I was scared that she would waste and go GWHI, but even so, it's an easy puzzle and we're thrilled to start off NYC with a Bonus Round win, despite being the minimum (GWHI would be "H_WLING WITH L__GHTER"). At some point between shows, Jim explicitly said that there is no car offered in the Bonus Round here because of room issues, "But we do have the 1/2 Car.", which got some laughs from people because of how lame that sounds in that context. After each Bonus Round, an announcement would come on telling people not to leave because they still have to film the closing segment. During all breaks, they played music over the speakers. Surprisingly, almost all of the songs were current pop hits. The first song to come on was Taylor Swift's "We are Never Getting Back Together". Some people groaned as soon as it came on, but a good fraction of the crowd was quietly singing along. Before the closing, they played Psy's "Gangnam Style", and Pat even did the famous dance for a couple of seconds. I unfortunately had my head turned. As soon as Pat and Vanna bid goodbye, the music starts and different sections of the audience are put on the monitors, with that section usually going crazy and waving and stuff, like the TPIR credits. This goes on until the sax solo in the closing theme, after which the cameras and music abruptly cut and the show is done. There are no promotional plugs or credit overlays. My sign made it really easy for people around us to see themselves. A woman near me couldn't stop laughing because of this, and the family sitting in front of us thanked me. They had an adorable young girl who really seemed to like the cameras. As soon as it's over, people get up to use the restroom or stretch or whatever and get back to their cell phones. The staff doesn't mind people using cell phones when we're not filming. Press would storm the stage between every episode for quite a while. This time was taken for people to film the set for local news shows and the like, and most outlets had their titles flashed on the puzzle board.

All in all, watching Wheel live is way more entertaining than watching it only on TV, and you really gain a new respect for the staff for how hard everyone works. I wish I could have seen all twenty shows.


If anyone has any more questions regarding the taping experience, please ask.


*Note: These will eventually be moved to Spinning Stories

Easy opening Toss-Up is pathetically easy.

Round 1 is only the second half of that Quotation: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Round 4 is proof that they can do two-word Same Letter puzzles, but they'd rather stuff in needless adjectives and fluff.

In total, $52,350 cash ($53,350 if the Rock of Ages Gift Tag was cash) was swiped from Harry's wallet tonight. Good going!


The followup should've been "Then why did you dub over four weeks Charlie did before he died?" Sure, it's possible that Jim doesn't know what happened, but I'd think he would've gotten just a bit suspicious at being asked to read a lot of prize copy...unless Wheel decided to take the announcing scripts of Charlie's unaired shows and call them "announcer's tests" for the tryouts, not telling them that "Oh by the way what you're doing here will be used by us to dub over our longtime announcer because shut up and read."


Yeah, they probably had something far better to do than actually watch some tapings of a show that's likely older than them.

Your optimal Bonus Round strategies for April 29, 2013:
* Modern (2013): HWGI([any])
* Classic (N/A): No such puzzles this week, ergo nothing here

In the battle of CDMA versus BGHO (modern only), tonight's winner is the "take a third option" FGHI with six letters versus BGHO's five and CDMA's one.

All righty, time for my commentary for this road trip...

Tossup #1: I no lettered that one and Joe really made short work of that one.

R1 and R2: Joe may be enthusiastic but he was too conservative. There were doubles remaining in those puzzles, sir.

R3: Great, now Laura leaves out multiples, but at least she got the mandatory trip.

Bonus Round: That was an easy one as I got it w/ the RSTLNE. Good thing those H's were enough for Laura to win.

MY EP. RATING: 6 out of 10 thanks to the consonativity by Joe and Laura

Your summary of our show is excellent! I might have played too conservatively considering there were doubles; however, I did not want to chance landing on Lose A Turn or Bankrupt while spinning. Just getting on my favorite game show was a win! I was happy that Laura, Erin, and I won more than the $1,000 consolation amount. My fabulous first graders learned having fun and being a good sport while playing a game from my once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am looking forward to seeing the show again tonight.





Merged post with photo