Former Wheel Stafffer Doing an AMA on Reddit Today

In my case, it was a lot like a telemarketer, except I worked for "Wheel of Fortune." I cold-called hotels and airlines to hit them up for free stays and free airfare for the trips that we gave away as prizes. Usually, it was an easy sell, although I had a list of talking points, and if need be, a powerpoint presentation that could be e-mailed to whoever I was talking to.

I was basically in charge of finding new clients. My co-workers, who had all done this for DECADES, pretty much had their own rolodexes of companies they had worked with for years and could pretty much call at the snap of somebody's fingers and grab some new prizes, no questions asked.

I didn't deal with contestants on "Wheel." At "The Price is Right," I was a page and the one I remember most was Dorothy, who was a contestant on the second episode of the series in 1972. (This was shortly after the show changed its eligibility rules.) She had never seen the episode she was on in 1972, so after the taping, I held onto her contact information and mailed her a DVD copy of her history-making appearance as the first Grocery Game player ever.

I didn't deal with contestants on "Wheel." At "The Price is Right," I was a page and the one I remember most was Dorothy, who was a contestant on the second episode of the series in 1972. (This was shortly after the show changed its eligibility rules.) She had never seen the episode she was on in 1972, so after the taping, I held onto her contact information and mailed her a DVD copy of her history-making appearance as the first Grocery Game player ever.

Manufacturer's suggested retail price, meaning that when we obtain a prize, we have the supplier tell us in the contract what the price of the prize is, and we are committed to use the price in that contract.

Cars work a LITTLE differently. It's a list of the price for a base model and the individual prices for every option available for the car. When a game is played for a car, depending on the needs of the game, the options are mixed and matched until it settles on a price that suits the game, and we make it a point to note in the announcer's copy what options are included with the car that the contestant is playing for.

That's the preference of executive producer Harry Friedman, who just personally prefers cars and trips above all else. I'm not sure what their minimum is NOW, but when I worked there, it was a range: The price had to fall between $4,000-$9,000. Under $4,000 didn't "feel" impressive, over $9,000 carried the risk of the game turning into a runaway.

...

Wanna feel like a savvy game show insider? Here's some terminology for you. The "featured prize/prize wedge" is actually called a Goody. And again, it's been years since I've been there so I don't know if it's different now, but here's where THOSE trips come from. Every time we signed a client, we contracted them for two trips, specifically to be offered in the Prize Puzzle, so, one trip for the contestant, one trip for the home viewer.

The VAST majority of the home viewer prizes are never claimed, so the Goody is actually a Prize Puzzle trip that the home viewer never replied for.

No range for the cars. I do remember that we had a LOT of super-expensive luxury cars during the year that I was there because one of my co-workers hit it off extraordinarily well with a car dealer who LOVED "Wheel of Fortune," so we got pretty much any car we wanted.

Not a lot of insider knowledge because I was relatively far away from the inside. I worked in an office, not a studio, and believe it or not, to this day, I've never met Pat or Vanna. (But funnily enough, Alex Trebek came to the staff Christmas party.)

There was a single, perfectly CRAZY episode that got totally edited when it got to air, and if I could keep one souvenir from my time there, it would be this one episode...

First item up for bids was, as I recall, a sauna. First contestant places a bid. "$2,000!" Second contestant, a college girl, shouts "What?" Drew says "What's your bid?" Contestant yells "Twelve!" Drew says "$1200?" Contestant says "I dunno, higher?" Drew says, "What?" Contestant says "What am I supposed to be doing?" Drew says "Give me your bid on the price of the sauna." Contestant: "What sauna?"

Audience erupts with laughter and just instantly takes a disliking to this contestant. Drew stops everything and has the stagehands push the sauna back onstage, and Rich reads the copy again. Contestant places her bid. Doesn't get onstage.

Next item up for bids is some kind of jewelry. She bids $12,000. Doesn't make it onstage. And Drew calmly walks over to her and says, "You know, the fact that there are only four digits on that read-out is...like...a hint."

One of the pricing games that day is Check-Out. Drew explains the rules and tells the contestant to guess the price of the first grocery item. Somebody off-stage tells him to stop and says he forgot to throw it to Rich. Drew apologizes and they restart, and Drew says "Rich, tell us about these grocery items."

Rich reads his copy, and the thing is, all of the items used that day were unsponsored items, which means Rich is reading VERY generic copy ("This can of soup is a flavorful side dish.") Rich throws it back to Drew, who has a smirk on his face and Drew says "You know, it's on me for forgetting, I get that, buuuuut I didn't exactly hear Rich say anything that this woman needed to hear. 'Well, I was going to guess $1.39, but now that I know that frozen carrots are a wonderful addition to any meal, I'll say $1.99.'" Audience found that hysterical and so did I.

None of it aired.

There was also another day where they got the bids for the first item up for bids, and Drew reaches into his pocket and says "The actual retail price is...is...the actual retail price is...oh god...hey Kathy?" And Kathy Greco screams "WOAH!" and sprints offstage to find the envelope. Audience laughs and chants "Kathy! Kathy!" until she returns with the actual retail price.

I thought of another one, since you mentioned off-camera.

I was backstage for a "Price" taping once. In the Green Room was a professional drummer. One of the new ideas that the show was trying that season was having a live musician in the studio for a demonstration any time that a musical instrument is on the show as a prize. The drum set wasn't being offered until about halfway through the show, so the drummer and I just sit in the back and watch the show on the monitor together.

During the opening minutes of the show, the drummer watches the models walk onto stage and falls completely in love with Tamiko, demanding to be introduced to her.

"We'll see if we can arrange that for you then," I lied, and he sat back down.

A few minutes later, Robin the wardrobe lady walks in and walks up to the drummer. She asks, "Are you the drummer?"

He waves the drumsticks in his hands and snaps back, "Shit yeah, I'm the drummer! Who the fuck else would I be?"

Robin just says, "You're on in the next act, that's all." She skulks out.

A few minutes later, during a break in taping, Tamiko happens to walk by the Green Room. He leaps out of his seat, walks right up to her, and says, "Are you Tamiko?"

Tamiko answers, "Yeah, are you the guy that mouthed off to Robin when all she was trying to do was help you?!"

Tamiko then grabs him by the wrist, yanks him into the hallway, walks him over to wardrobe, then stands there and MAKES HIM APOLOGIZE TO ROBIN. TWICE. I turned to my co-worker Liz and she says, with her jaw hanging, "That...was...awesome."

"The Price is Right" survives because it found a good, organic way to inject variety into a format. Every day is a little bit different, so it's hard for the show to fall into a rut. Beyond that, a number of people who worked on the show over the years seem to agree on another reason: the show is built around a universal field of expertise. Everybody in the country deals with prices. It's hard to think of one day in your life when you didn't encounter them. So there you go: variety surrounding universal knowledge.

"Jeopardy!" lasts because it reaches people who aren't game show fans. I'd love to see a survey taken of regular viewers of the show because through its entire 50 year history, J! has always looked, sounded, and felt like a totally different animal from any other game show. So it attracts people who do like game shows, and people who don't like game shows, which, by my math, is 100% of people. And it respects the audience. The material is difficult and the show works diligently at being bullshit-resistant.

"Wheel" is a littler harder to figure out because it really is a very typical game show. Flashing set pieces, a colorful wheel, and the same game, night in and night out. I think it's just a good FAMILY show, in an era where shows that families can watch together are dwindling, and it's on between 7 and 8 pm in most of the eastern and Pacific markets, which means an entire family can watch it and enjoy it together.

And there's one other reason that it lasts and it's a reason that most game show fans don't like, but it IS the fact that they tinker with little parts of the game so often. One of the people I've interviewed for my books was Dan Fox, who was an executive at NBC in 1974, when "Wheel" was first pitched, and he LOUDLY voted against it. He did not want the network to pick it up. And he said that seeing it now, one of the most brilliant things about it is that every season, there's a rule change, but not a drastic rule change. So every year when you watch the show, there's this new element that means the game is being played differently than before, and the game is somehow going to be different one year from now. And yet, for all the changes made to it, it's STILL "Wheel of Fortune." They really do a tremendous job of sprucing it up without killing it.