Long before the show was named Wheel of Fortune, it was originally called Shopper’s Bazaar. After guessing puzzles, contestants would win fake money and use it to buy items on set.
The show only has one of the famous wheels, even though it travels the country. The 2,400lbs wheel is assembled and disassembled at each location.
Whenever asked about her favorite Wheel of Fortune fail, Vanna White has always had the same answer.
“My favorite was ‘Gone With The Wind.,” she said. “Most of the letters were filled in, but not quite all, and a man guessed, Done With One Hand.’ How can you not crack up? You’re on live TV, and you just crack up.”
When Pat Sajak says the quantity of a certain letter in a puzzle, he’s not doing that on the fly. Behind the camera, there’s a worker that hold up fingers to indicate the number of letters. These workers are called “finger boys.”
After more than 6,000 shows, Vanna White has never worn the same dress twice. Sajak also coordinates his tie to match White for every episode.
Starting in 1989, Sajak took two years off from the show to start his own show. During his time off, Bob Goen took over the hosting duties.
Some extremely dedicated fans have kept track of the longest puzzles to date.
Most characters (including spaces):
SHE JUST WON A SEVENTH U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIP
It took up 47 of the 52 monitors on the board.
Most characters (only letters):
HERSHEY BAR GRAHAM CRACKER GOOEY ROASTED MARSHMALLOW
It took up 46 of the 52 monitors on the board.
Autumn Erhard won the largest prize in Wheel of Fortune history in May of 2013. Erhard won $1,030,340 by guessing the phrase “tough workout” with only four letters showing.
Vanna White holds the Guinness World Record for “Television’s Most Frequent Clapper.” During each show, she averages about 600 claps. After 34 seasons, White has clapped over 4 million times.
Wheel of Fortune has had its fair share of spelling mistakes.
– BLUE BIRD OF HAPPINESS (should be “Bluebird”)
– BACHELOR’S-BUTTON (should not be hyphenated)
– SWEAT SHIRT (should be one word)
– FOG HORN (should be one word)
– JINGLE-BELL ROCK (should not be hyphenated)
– AMUSEMENT-PARK FUN HOUSE (should not be hyphenated)
– CANDLEWICK (should be two words)
– BABY’S HIGHCHAIR (should be “high chair”)
– WAIT A WHILE (should be “awhile”)
– COFFEE-TABLE BOOK (should not be hyphenated)
– BABYPROOFING (should be hyphenated)
– WIND-CHILL FACTOR (should not be hyphenated)
– SALTED PUMPKINSEEDS (should be “pumpkin seeds”)
– COLLECTING PINECONES (should be “pine cones”)
During the early episodes of the show, White and Sajak would get a little tipsy for filming.
“When I first started and was much younger and could tolerate those things,” Pat said. “We had a different show then. Vanna and I would … have two or three or six and then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet. I had a great time. I have no idea if the shows were any good, but no one said anything, so I guess I did okay.”
