Pat: A Tribute to Wheel's Contestants (Article)

This, this, a thousand times this. As I'm sure this board's contestants can relate, I can personally vouch for the fact that there's something in the studio air that messes with your mind. It's no exaggeration when some people say they might forget their own name up there!

This actually jogged my memory about a point I've wanted to make here for a long time--if you ask contestants questions like, "Do you remember whether the gift tag was over the purple $500?" "Do you remember what the 1/2 Car for the week was?" "What was the bonus envelope distribution, if it was revealed?" "What color was Vanna's dress the week you were on?"...etc. and so forth, chances are, you're going to get an "I don't remember." While I don't doubt that a lot of former contestants that have spoken up here have excellent memories (and have shown so on these here boards), I'd wager that the vast majority of contestants are too concerned with not looking like an idiot on national television to care about such minutiae. I'm not calling anyone here out specifically. But it's something to remember going forward, especially now that we're about halfway through the season and we'll start thinking about S32.

And if you think playing Wheel under the lights is hard...try Jeopardy!. As a kid.